SS Clifton, Shipwreck in Lake Huron, United States

SS Clifton is the wreck of a whaleback lake freighter built in 1892 by the American Steel Barge Company in West Superior, Wisconsin. The 308-foot vessel has a rounded hull that curved like a whale's back when loaded, and it lies on the bed of Lake Huron off Saginaw Bay, beyond recreational diving depth.

SS Clifton was launched in 1892 at West Superior, Wisconsin, as the whaleback Samuel Mather, built by the American Steel Barge Company to carry iron ore for Pickands Mather and Company. After 31 years of ore service she was refitted in 1923–1924 with topside self-unloading gear and became a carrier of crushed stone. On the night of September 21–22, 1924, bound from Sturgeon Bay for Detroit, she sank in a storm off Saginaw Bay with her captain and entire crew.

Before 1932, an Irish-American neighbour of the lost captain wrote a folk ballad that described the ship's foundering with relative accuracy, a detail confirmed when the wreck was found in 2016. The wreck's discovery also revealed that the self-unloading gear was still in position, contradicting earlier theories that it had broken free.

The wreck lies in Lake Huron's Saginaw Bay, roughly 100 miles (160 km) from Mackinaw City, where Clifton made her last position report at 10:20 a.m. on September 21, 1924. Technical divers located the site in September 2016, with the find confirmed by further dives and research in 2017. Access is by boat with technical diving certification and deep-water equipment; recreational divers cannot visit.

The wreck was found in September 2016 by technical divers, confirmed in 2017. Its first 40 feet (12 m) of bow are gone, evidence of the blunt force that drove the ship under. A ballad written before 1932 by an Irish-American neighbour of the lost captain described the foundering fairly accurately.