SS G. P. Griffith was a passenger steamer that burned and sank on Lake Erie on 17 June 1850, resulting in the loss of between 241 and 289 lives.

[1]: 54  The destruction of the G. P. Griffith was the greatest loss of life on the Great Lakes up to that point, and remains the third-greatest today, after the Eastland in 1915 and the Lady Elgin in 1860.

[6] The Griffith's speed fanned the flames, consuming the aft of the ship and forcing the passengers forward.

The crew abandoned their posts, causing the Griffith's engines to run out of steam and the paddle wheels to slow and stop.

However, the ship's momentum carried it forward until it hit a sandbar in water eight feet deep less than half a mile from the beach.

One estimate is that there were 326 persons on board of whom about 30 survived[10] and that 154 remains were recovered-all but four on the beach; a listing of those killed numbered 48 of whom 25 were identified by name.

[11] A committee of local citizens was formed to deal with the large number of bodies that washed ashore.