<P> The large size of the Great Lakes increases the risk of water travel; storms and reefs are common threats . The lakes are prone to sudden and severe storms, in particular in the autumn, from late October until early December . Hundreds of ships have met their end on the lakes . The greatest concentration of shipwrecks lies near Thunder Bay (Michigan), beneath Lake Huron, near the point where eastbound and westbound shipping lanes converge . </P> <P> The Lake Superior shipwreck coast from Grand Marais, Michigan, to Whitefish Point became known as the "Graveyard of the Great Lakes". More vessels have been lost in the Whitefish Point area than any other part of Lake Superior . The Whitefish Point Underwater Preserve serves as an underwater museum to protect the many shipwrecks in this area . </P> <P> The first ship to sink in Lake Michigan was Le Griffon, also the first ship to sail the Great Lakes . Caught in a 1679 storm while trading furs between Green Bay and Michilimacinac, she was lost with all hands aboard . Its wreck may have been found in 2004, but a wreck subsequently discovered in a different location was also claimed in 2014 to be Le Griffon . </P> <P> The largest and last major freighter wrecked on the lakes was the SS Edmund Fitzgerald, which sank on November 10, 1975, just over 17 miles (30 km) offshore from Whitefish Point on Lake Superior . The largest loss of life in a shipwreck out on the lakes may have been that of Lady Elgin, wrecked in 1860 with the loss of around 400 lives on Lake Michigan . In an incident at a Chicago dock in 1915, the SS Eastland rolled over while loading passengers, killing 841 . </P>

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