SS Chester A. Congdon Wreck

Every diver must register at Rock Harbor, Windigo, or Houghton Visitor Center before diving and return the permit afterward. A diver-down flag is required, and surfaced divers must stay within 100 feet of it. There are no dive-cylinder fills on Isle Royale, so bring the gas and equipment the trip needs.

The bow stands upright with the pilot house still recognizable; the stern lies across the reef, with scattered wreckage between the two sections. For an underwater photo, frame the cabin opening with some of the corroded hull around it so the ship's structure stays legible in the dark water.

Built in Chicago in 1907 as Salt Lake City, the freighter was renamed for Duluth lawyer and financier Chester A. Congdon in 1912. It carried wheat through the Great Lakes; its 532-foot steel hull and triple-expansion engine made it a working cargo ship, not a passenger vessel.

On November 7, 1918, fog and a gale complicated the ship's passage near Isle Royale, and it struck Canoe Rocks. The freighter broke in two aft of a cargo hatch. All 36 crew members survived, though the vessel was declared a total loss. The two wreck sections make the site a striking piece of Great Lakes shipping history, but its depth and cold water put it firmly in specialist-diver territory.