Wreck of Pretoria
United States
- Position
- About 47.1° N, 90.4° W (within about 10 km)
- Sank
- —
- Cause
- —
- Depth
- —
Protection status
Location generalised to protect a protected site
The position shown is generalised to within about 10 km. The exact position is not published.
Officially designated: National Register of Historic Places listed place.
Legal basis: National Register of Historic Places listed place.
How this was decided: Voydar's protection rules, from the sources we hold, confidence 90%. When in doubt, Voydar generalises the position.
Pretoria, an American schooner barge, was one of the largest wooden ships ever constructed. She was 103 meters (338 ft) long, had a beam of 13.4 meters (44 ft), and 7 meters (23 ft) in depth. She was built by James Davidson in West Bay City, Michigan, for use on the Great Lakes. To strengthen her wooden frame and hull, Pretoria was constructed using steel keelson plates, steel chords, and steel arches. She also was strapped diagonally with steel. She needed a donkey engine to run a pump to keep her interior dry. The Saginaw, Michigan newspaper "The Courier-Herald" described "Pretoria"'s launch on July 26, 1900, in the following way: The schooner "Pretoria, the largest wooden boat ever built, was launched at Davidson's shipyard this afternoon, in the presence of a vast multitude. The "Pretoria" will carry 5,000 tons of iron ore, 175,000 bushels of wheat, or 300,000 bushels of oats...
History from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA.
About this wreck
Pretoria is a recorded shipwreck site. Voydar shows wreck locations alongside live ship traffic, free, from Wikidata and public hydrographic records.
Other wrecks named Pretoria
These wreck sites share the name Pretoria. Until September 2026 they shared one web address; each now has its own page.
| Wreck | Location | Lost | Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pretoria | United Kingdom | — | 57.4° N, 1.8° W |
Use this data
This page is also available as JSON, free, with the source and licence of every section. Sections whose sources do not permit redistribution are listed as withheld.
GET /api/v1/wrecks/30106Using this data in code?
Every account gets a personal API allowance: 2,500 credits a month free, 25,000 with Pro. Pro adds internal business use; API plans add building the data into your own products.