For a time in 1887, Vernon was engaged in the iron ore trade, towing schooner barges between Lake Superior ports and Cleveland, Ohio.

[5] Vernon was built to carry passengers and freight from Chicago to Manistique, Michigan/Northern Lake Michigan in as little time as possible.

[2] Equipped with extensive brass fittings, eighteen state rooms and one very large cabin lounge, she cost $78,000 (equivalent to $2.34 million in 2023[7]) to build.

[2][6] At the time of her construction, sailors criticized Vernon's builders for sacrificing her buoyancy and stability in return for speed, predicting that she would "sooner or later meet with disaster".

Great Lakes shipping expert Steve Harold wrote that:"From the start, the Vernon was known to have an unusual, perhaps defective, hull design.

[1][2][4] That same year, she replaced the package freighter A. Booth (which sank on August 29, 1886, near Duluth, Minnesota,[10]) in the Duluth–Port Arthur, Ontario, run on Lake Superior.

[1][11] For a time in 1887, Vernon was engaged in the iron ore trade, towing schooner barges between Lake Superior ports and Cleveland, Ohio.

[5][12] On her return trip, Vernon was bound from Cheboygan for Chicago, and was once again scheduled to make stops at Mackinac Island and several other northern Lake Michigan ports.

[12] The two ships proceeded to Beaver Island, where Vernon boarded passengers and loaded freight, while Joseph L. Hurd headed for Chicago.

[14] Eventually, the large waves that made headway increasingly difficult, swamped Vernon, extinguishing her boilers.

[14] When Vernon sank, she was carrying a cargo of 400 boxes of fish, 90 tons of pig iron, apples, 2,000 bushels of potatoes, 90,000 barrel staves and other general merchandise.

[9][14] Late at night, the same day Vernon sank, the schooner Joseph Page arrived in Milwaukee, Wisconsin; she reported encountering copious amounts of wreckage from a "large, white propeller", with several people clinging to it.

[14] The steam barge Superior reported encountering several life rafts and a yawl, which contained survivors who were signalling for assistance.

The schooners Blazing Star, Horace A. Badger, William Home and the tug Anderson passed through a wreckage field, encountering several corpses.

Pomeroy which was bound from Chicago, Illinois for Green Bay, Wisconsin discovered a life raft with two men on board.

An inquest held on November 7, 1887, stated that:The storm of October 29th was not so fierce nor the lake so rough as to prevent the rescue of these bodies.

[2][3][8][29] A monument commemorating eight of the people who died onboard Vernon stands in the Pioneer Rest Calvary Cemetery in Two Rivers.