Queen of the Lakes

Queen of the Lakes is the unofficial but widely recognized title given to the longest vessel active on the Great Lakes of the United States and Canada. It is also the name of an annual festival in Ballinrobe, County Mayo, Ireland, and the winner (Eimear Gorman) of a scholarship competition held in connection with the Minneapolis Aquatennial, of Minneapolis, Minnesota. Lake George in New York is called by some "The Queen of the Lakes". The Brazilian city Capitólio has also been given this title. This article features the use of the title on the Great Lakes, usually for lake freighters.

Queen of the Lakes has been used as the name of three vessels that sailed on the Great Lakes, but none was the longest on the lakes at the time. The first was a three-masted Canadian schooner built in 1853 as the Robert Taylor, measuring 133 feet. It was renamed Queen of the Lakes sometime before 1864. She sank nine miles off Sodus Point, New York on November 28, 1906. The second was a propeller driven vessel launched in Cleveland, Ohio, on May 12, 1853, measuring 196 feet. She was lost to fire in port on June 17, 1869. The third was a small side-wheel steamer built in Wyandotte, Michigan in 1872, measuring 108 feet. While anchored near South Manitou Island she caught fire and burned in 1898. The iron hull was later scrapped.

The title has been bestowed upon vessels that were especially liked or those considered to be especially beautiful or richly appointed. Such was the case as late as 1949, at which time the Noronic was so honored. It has been applied to the United States Coast Guard Cutter Mackinaw for its long and significant role in facilitating Great Lakes shipping and safety. The most common use of the title, however, at least since the early 1940s, is to honor the largest vessel on the lakes. On April 20, 1841, the Detroit Free Press referred to the steamer Illinois as "Queen of the Waters", but given that three vessels in that century were named Queen of the Lakes, its use as a title for the longest ship was not then common. The title is applied retroactively to vessels launched before this use of the title became popular. While some use gross tonnage, capacity, or length between perpendiculars as the criterion, the most commonly accepted standard is length overall (LOA). This article uses LOA as the standard.

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