This is a list of Great Lakes museum and historic ships, including surviving hulls, museum or historic ships at risk, other surviving historic hulls and notable partial ships.
Museum ships and boats, surviving hulls
Lakers: bulk carriers
Lake freighters, or lakers, are bulk carrier vessels which ply the Great Lakes. The best-known variety is the oreboat, depicted in songs from Gordon Lightfoot, Stan Rogers and others. Some classic-design lakers still operate, including a few with steam engines.
SS Col. James M Schoonmaker (Toledo, Ohio) Col. James M. Schoonmaker sailed from 1911 to 1980. She was first owned by the Shenango Furnace Company under her present name and was sold to the Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Company, which renamed her Willis B Boyer. Col. James M. Schoonmaker was the largest bulk freighter in the world when commissioned. In an ambitious restoration, Col James M. Schoonmaker was re-christened with its original name July 1, 2011, on the 100th anniversary of the ship's launching in Toledo, Ohio. In October 2012, she was moved with great fanfare from her longtime berth at International Park in Toledo downriver to a site next to the new home of the National Museum of the Great Lakes. Ship and museum which opened to the public in Spring 2014.
SS William G Mather (Cleveland, Ohio) William G. Mather was a laker built in 1925 and a former flagship for the Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Company. It is now a maritime museum, open to the public, in Cleveland's North Coast Harbor.
SS William A Irvin (Duluth, Minnesota)
was named for the president of U.S. Steel at the time of its launching. It was the first laker with a welded design, and served as the flagship of US Steel's Great Lakes fleet from her launch in 1938 until 1975. It is open for tours at the Great Lakes Floating Maritime Museum in Duluth.
SS Meteor (1896—Superior, Wisconsin) is the last surviving ship using whaleback design; she is a museum in Superior, home of the American Steel Barge Company (where 33 out of the 44 total whalebacks were built starting in 1891).
SS Valley Camp (Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan) was a typical oreboat, who served the National Steel Corporation, Republic Steel Corporation and Wilson Transit Co. during her 1917–1966 working life. In 1968, she became a museum ship on the waterfront of Sault Ste. Marie, downstream of the Soo Locks. She holds many relics from (including two of Edmund Fitzgeralds mauled lifeboats).
Passenger-freight steamers
SS Keewatin (Port McNicoll, Ontario) is a former Canadian Pacific passenger liner. Built in Scotland in 1907, the boat steamed between Fort William and Port McNicoll for over 50 years until she was sold for scrap in 1967. Saved from the wrecker's torch, Keewatin was towed to Saugatuck, Michigan for use as a museum in 1968. She is the last unmodified Great Lakes passenger liner in existence, and an example of Edwardian luxury. Keewatin is one of the world's last coal-fired steamships. A June 24, 2007 Toronto Star article documented a Canadian effort to see the steamer returned to Dominion waters as a museum ship at Port McNicoll. The effort to repatriate "The Kee" bore fruit on June 23, 2012 (100 years to the day after she first entered Port McNicoll), when the ship returned to her former berth before a crowd of thousands.
SS Milwaukee Clipper (Muskegon, Michigan) , another passenger steamer. The Clipper is the last Great Lakes American Passenger Ship of her kind. The SD Milwaukee Clipper was built in 1904 as the SS Juniata, She carried 350 passengers and cargo between Buffalo, NY, and Duluth, MN from 1905 through 1936, when she was tied up with an uncertain future. In 1940, the SS Juniata was purchased and was sent to Manitowoc Shipbuilding Co, to be rebuilt with an all-steel superstructure. She was christened as the SS Milwaukee Clipper in 1941, and carried 900 passengers and 120 automobiles between Muskegon, MI, and Milwaukee, WI. The run lasted until 1970 when she was pulled out of service. After 1970 the ship was saved as an attraction in Chicago. Later, she was moved to Hammond, IN, where the ship was going to be used as a casino. The Clipper was named a National Historic Landmark in 1989. The Clipper was brought back to Muskegon MI, in 1997 to be used as a museum and banquet/convention center where she sits today. The Clipper retains the last American-Built Quadruple Expansion Steam Engine.