San Miguel Island hosts the greatest density of shipwrecks in the park due to its challenging conditions. San Miguel Island is the farthest west of the Channel Islands and experiences the harshest seas, wind and fog. The island and Point Conception provided landmarks to mariners traveling south marking the entrance to the Santa Barbara Channel. George Davidson wrote that San Miguel "receives the full force of the northwest winds and swell, and in summer, fogs envelop it more than half the time." He wrote, "There are more dangers around San Miguel than around any of the islands of the Santa Barbara group," because of its numerous offshore rocks and shoals. For instance, Don Morris and James Lima wrote of Simonton Cove as "a gigantic catcher's mitt for those who misnavigate" as they attempt to use it as a lee shore. Other hazards include Westcott Shoal, Castle Rock, Wilson Rock and the ever-changing shoal and sand spit at Cardwell Point at the eastern end of the island. Only Cuyler Harbor has provided a suitable anchorage although even it has hidden dangers in the form of submerged rocks.

Morris and Lima detailed the following shipwrecks around San Miguel Island in their report Submerged Cultural Resources Assessment: Channel Islands National Park and Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary :

Manila Galleon (rumored, no date). Tales of the remains of a Manila galleon off San Miguel Island spurred a failed attempt by a salvage company to investigate and recover any artifacts in 1974. Reportedly located in approximately 50 feet of water off the northwest side of San Miguel Island, no physical or documentary evidence has been uncovered to substantiate the rumors.

Leader (1876). The Leader was a small (36 feet) sealing schooner which, when at anchor on the northwest side of the island on June 17, 1876, was pushed ashore by a heavy swell. The crew, under Captain Charles Lutgens, recovered about half of the empty casks and continued their sealing operations for about a month until rowing for help at Santa Rosa Island. Wreckage has not been found and is probably scattered over a wide portion of the coast.

G W Prescott (1879). The five-year-old coastal lumber schooner, loaded with railroad ties evidently destined for the Southern Pacific Railroad at Los Angeles, stranded at an unknown location at the west end of San Miguel Island on August 15, 1879. Little else is known of the incident. Island residents apparently made use of any salvaged lumber, as accounts note the use of railroad ties in island construction projects following that date.

Surprise (1881). The small sealing schooner, owned by the Rogers Brothers of Santa Barbara, wrecked on March 13, 1881, when winds parted the anchor cables. Captain Charles Brown, crew John Haskell and Ramon Mesa, and a Mr. Muller who had chartered the vessel, were unhurt. She was reported to be high and dry and possibly a total loss, but in May the schooner Conway towed her to Santa Barbara for repairs that would "place the Surprise in as fine trim as ever."

Isabella (1885). This 35.4-foot sealing and fishing sloop lost anchor in a storm and wrecked at Cuyler Harbor in December of 1885. Her remains have not been located.

Liberty (1895). The Liberty supplied William Waters' sheep operation on San Miguel Island and transported sheep and wool to Santa Barbara. Built in 1876, she was a small (34.6 feet) sloop of less than 14 tons burden. On March 28 or 29, 1895 the Liberty sank in Cuyler Harbor, at the time reported to be the result of a wave generated by a massive landslide which pulled the sloop from its anchor. The crew, under Captain Dally, located the wreck some three-quarters of a mile from its anchorage. The Los Angeles Times reported that "A careful inspection revealed the curious fact that her bow had been stove in as if the boat had received a sharp blow from beneath the water and her mainmast lay amidships among her deck pointing sternwards. The anchor chains were wound around her keel as if the sloop had been rolled over and over and the anchors were but fifteen feet away, half buried in sand."

Morris and Lima speculated that the landslide story "may have been concocted to cover a bad job of anchoring" and they appear to be correct: while a massive landslide was documented in the harbor that year, it occurred almost three weeks previous to the wreck, and Waters himself had written that the Liberty had been elsewhere during the event.

N B (1897). This small schooner, built in 1853 in San Francisco, had been a Rogers Brothers vessel engaged in sealing, otter hunting and fishing. She had recently been sold to Ledbetter and Jackman when a storm forced her ashore, possibly on the northeast side of the island and likely at Cuyler Harbor. Little else is known and wreckage has not been located.

Santa Rosa (1899). The 61-foot schooner Santa Rosa belonged to the owners of Santa Rosa Island, being their island transport for the sheep operation there. The boat may have been in Cuyler Harbor to load sheep or bring supplies as the San Miguel boat had wrecked four years before. The Santa Rosa stranded in Cuyler Harbor after encountering high seas, despite the crew's efforts to lay anchor.

Kate and Anna (1902). Another small sealing schooner met its doom while at anchor in Cuyler Harbor as a northwester parted the anchor chain and drove her ashore. All was lost but the crew of six escaped through the breakers. Captain Charles Lutgens may have been the same as the captain of the Leader, which wrecked on the island in 1876.

J M Colman (1905). This 105-foot coastal lumber schooner was en route to San Pedro from Washington State with up to 800,000 board feet of lumber when, after 36 hours of dead reckoning in a dense fog, she went ashore on the northwest part of Point Bennett on September 4, 1905. The Captain and half the crew waited on the island as Mate Patterson and four sailors rowed for help. The men in the rowboat had a hard struggle until they reached a point about 16 miles off the coast where they were picked up by the Mandalay. The schooner Chehalis hurried to the rescue bringing officers of the J. A. Hooper Company, owners of the J M Colman, to the scene. On September 10, the fog was still so thick that other vessels were also endangered. The Comet narrowly missed drifting up onto the rocks next to the J M Colman as she was already inside Richardson Reef. The large square-rigged vessel, loaded with lumber herself, was saved when a timely breeze cleared the fog. On the 14th, the J M Colman's hull was wedged between the two rocks with the prow to the sea. The bottom was gone; other vessels could not come near to help save the rigging or transfer the lumber. Finally, on September 26, crews transferred 60,000 feet of lumber. Seamen remained with the wreck for three weeks longer hoping to tow her out, but she lay deep in the ocean filled with water.

The ship was a total loss and salvagers worked for over a year removing the load of lumber in the hold. Some of this lumber reportedly provided William Waters and John Russell with the materials to build their large ranch house on the island. National Park Service and other archeologists have surveyed wreck scatter, presumed to be that of the J M Colman.

Anubis (1908). The German steel-hulled cargo steamer stranded at a kelp-laced location between Castle Rock and the island on July 20, 1908, reportedly due to a defective compass. The 382-foot Anubis carried a cargo of lumber, tallow, and wheat as well as 67 passengers and crew. After it struck, Anubis settled on the rocks when in-rushing water extinguished the fires under the boilers and caused the vessel to list. The crew set to work heaving part of the deck load overboard. Captain Von Salzen sent his First and Third Mates and seven seamen in a lifeboat to Point Conception where the lighthouse keeper telegraphed for aid.

The vessel had gone through a half mile of densely woven kelp before she struck, so she lay surrounded by kelp and deep water. On the 23rd, nine persons went to the mainland in a lifeboat. Meanwhile all abandoned ship for Flea Island except for the captain and crew. Captain Frank Nidever and a group of seal hunters arrived at the wreck on the power schooner Ynez. They had been camped on San Miguel Island when the Anubis struck the ledge, but the fog was so heavy that, even though they sailed out within 200 yards of the ship, they missed her. When the fog cleared, they saw her and Nidever took his schooner out to be of aid. Rescuers jettisoned more of the cargo in an attempt to refloat the ship. The Santa Barbara Morning Press headline on July 23 read: "Swelling Grain May Burst Ship Asunder." Wide cracks had appeared in the decks, and the ship was considered lost. The ship laid easily, crew on board, since rocks protected it from the heavy seas. On the 27th, divers went down and reported a number of small holes and a good many sheared rivets in the bottom, but prospects were good for floating the ship and replacing the broken steel plates. The steamer Fulton took 450 tons of cargo and the steamer Dee Westport also took cargo to San Francisco. Part of the cargo, sacks of flour, was salvaged by those on the island and others, including Ira Eaton who reportedly removed 1,800 tons of cargo over a period of three weeks. On July 30, the crew pumped out the forward and after holds, lifted out the freight, and hauled her off the sunken ledge with anchor cables attached to the tug Goliath. The ship still had ten watertight compartments fore and aft, the water being mostly amidships. In Cuyler Harbor, she was patched up and then towed to San Francisco. The Anubis was the first ship to have been pulled off the islands and also the largest to be wrecked there.

Comet (1911). A wood-hulled coastal lumber schooner of 429 tons burden, the Comet was built in 1886 by the Hall Brothers of Washington, builders of the J M Colman. The ship was carrying 500,000 feet of lumber from Aberdeen, Washington to San Pedro when, on the foggy evening of August 30, 1911, she struck Wilson Rock and then stranded at Simonton Cove. Later inquiry blamed a faulty chronometer. While the captain, his wife and crew boarded a lifeboat for Santa Rosa Island (where they were transported to Santa Barbara to report the wreck), one man was left behind and drowned as he tried to swim to the wreck. Severe conditions hindered salvage and the schooner broke up on the beach. The owners of Santa Rosa Island contracted for the salvage, but were succeeded by San Miguel Island resident William Waters who paid $1,000 for the rights. Various parts of the ship are exposed when the beach sand has been depleted by storms, for instance in 1977, 1984 and 1999, when archeologists made a concerted effort to document parts of the schooner.

Pectan (1914). A 471-foot Union Oil Company oil tanker heading north under in ballast to Port San Luis, Pectan ran ashore on the sandy beach at Adams Cove near Point Bennett on the evening of January 21, 1914. With no apparent damage to her hull, she rested on the beach with her crew of 49 aboard, while several vessels attempted to pull her off; a tug brought fresh food and water for the crew. The captain decided to wait for a high tide on February 10, and on that date the ship could be freed without assistance.

Watson A West (1923). This sleek, four-masted coastal lumber schooner was built in 1901 and delivered lumber to California and ports around the world. Laden with 800,000 board feet of lumber she wrecked on February 24, 1923 near Point Bennett and immediately broke apart: "She struck so hard the men in their berths were thrown out and instantly she broke and began to fill with water," reported a Santa Barbara newspaper. The crew rowed to Santa Barbara, a journey of 18 hours, without food or water. They arrived at the foot of State Street in Santa Barbara exhausted, hungry and half-clad. Captain Sorenson had been with the ship since its launching 22 years before. The owners failed to salvage the lumber aboard, and at least some of it contributed to the fencing and outbuildings of the ranch on San Miguel Island. Remains of the Watson A West have not been located.

Cuba (1923). This 307-foot cargo-passenger liner, built by Blohm and Voss in Germany in 1897, was seized by the United States during World War I. The Pacific Mail Steamship Company purchased the steel-hulled ship from the government in 1920 and christened her the Cuba. Equipped with the latest electrical and radio equipment, the Cuba steamed between South America and San Francisco with ports in between. On her ill-fated last voyage she carried about 40 passengers, a cargo of coffee and a valuable load of silver bullion. Practically lost in the fog for three days and with an inoperative radio, the Cuba struck rocks near Point Bennett in the early hours of September 8, 1923. The Second Officer had failed to follow orders of Captain J. C. Holland, who had requested that he be awakened at 3:00 a.m. or earlier if visibility decreased. Finally awoken in distress at 4:00 a.m., the Captain was too late to avoid the disaster. Lifeboats removed all passengers, most to the beach at Point Bennett, except for one which voyaged along the south shore and eventually encountered a ship, and two others which mistakenly headed west only to sight a Navy destroyer in the thick fog. The destroyer rescued the passengers from the beach; it has been alleged that the busy wireless traffic surrounding the Cuba wreck may have contributed to the disastrous wreck of a flotilla of Navy destroyers at Point Arguello shortly after the Cuba went aground.

The Captain and six crewmembers stayed with the ship for about a week, camping in a fisherman's hut at Point Bennett. Two guards were posted after the officers left, but their effectiveness was questionable. Numerous parties, including Ira Eaton of Santa Cruz Island, plundered the ship. At one point an armed showdown occurred between two rival salvage bands. One group, probably Eaton's, removed a reported $400,000 worth of items from the ship, including furniture, a piano, nautical instruments, radio equipment, fine doors and wood panels, glassware, linen and cargo. The ranch house at San Miguel Island received at least a number of corner sinks and the safe from the ship.

The Cuba's wreckage has been considered the most compact and organized of all the major wrecks in the park. Park marine archeologists surveyed her in October of 1989 and found the wreckage to be somewhat vandalized by brass salvagers but intact. As Morris and Lima wrote, "Its historical and archeological potential is far greater than the brass artifacts that have lured vandals here in the past."

W. T. Co. No. 3 (1935). A movie company hired a barge to assist in filming parts of Mutiny on the Bounty off Point Bennett. After finishing work for the day, the barge was being towed to its anchorage at Adams Cove with about 75 people aboard when a "blast of wind" caused the barge to founder. All aboard were swept into the seas and one man, assistant cameraman Glenn Strong, drowned while attempting to rescue a camera.

Ruth K (1960), Josie Lena (1962), Warrior and Legend (1967), Frederick Q (1974). The small fishing boat Ruth K parted anchor and stranded in Cuyler Harbor on the night of December 13, 1960. Almost two years later, on August 5, 1962, the 47-foot fishing boat Josie Lena met the same fate in the same location. Two boats wrecked in 1967. The Warrior struck a reef at an unidentified location off the island and sank on October 13, and the TransPac-winning racing yacht Legend stranded on the island after several days lost in the fog. The 46-foot fishing vessel Frederick Q from San Francisco foundered at an unidentified location off the island on November 29, 1974.