The SS Florida sits in 206 feet of water and is almost entirely intact. Florida is a fantastic dive site.
SS Florida was one of the largest wooden ships ever built. Her beam was 40.2 feet (12.3 m) wide, and her hull was 15.4 feet (4.7 m) deep.
The SS Florida had a large steam engine and sails and was fully rigged with three masts.
The enormous freighter George W. Roby rammed into Florida in a dense fog off Presque Isle, Michigan coast, on May 20, 1897, at about 9:00 a.m. The impact cut a gaping hole in Florida. The George W. Roby took aboard all the Florida crew.
Captain Henry Murphy was her captain at the time of the sinking. He said that “the ship collapsed like a jackknife when the stern hit bottom in over 200 feet (61 m) of water”.
The obliterated stern allows divers access to explore the decks of the wreck.
Air trapped in the bow forced the pilot house to erupt off the ship, and debris floated on the surface for several days.