A text by Joslan F. Keller
It was in 1969 when a group of Inuit off the north-west coast of Alaska spotted a steam freighter stuck in the pack ice of the Beaufort Sea between Point Barrow and Icy Cape in the Chukchi Sea. The authorities were notified and quickly concluded that it might be the SS ‘Baychimo’, a ship that had been abandoned in 1931 – 38 years earlier – and had been drifting aimlessly through Arctic waters ever since. What the observers did not know at the time was that this would be the last time anyone would ever see the ship with their own eyes.
Let us look back to gain a better understanding of the fate of this ghost ship. The SS ‘Baychimo’ was built in Gothenburg, Sweden, in 1914 and was originally named ‘Angermanelfven’. The 70-metre-long, 1,322-tonne steel-hulled steam cargo ship sailed under the German flag for Baltische Reederei GmbH on the trade routes between Hamburg and Sweden. After the First World War, it was ceded to the United Kingdom as part of the reparations imposed on Germany for losses in maritime transport. In 1921, it passed into the ownership of the Hudson’s Bay Company and was renamed the SS ‘Baychimo’.
The dramatic turn of events
Although its new home port was officially Ardrossan in Scotland, from then on it was used to transport food and fuel and to trade furs with the Inuit along the coast of Victoria Island in Canada’s Northwest Territories, beyond the Arctic Circle. The ‘Baychimo’ undertook nine successful voyages along the north coast of Canada until its career took a dramatic turn in 1931.
On 1 October of that year, the steamship was on a trading voyage, its holds packed with dozens of bales of purchased furs. But suddenly a storm broke out and the ship became trapped in the ice. The crew decided to temporarily abandon the ship and sought refuge for two days in the nearby town of Barrow. When the sailors returned, the ice had indeed receded and the voyage continued. However, not for long. As early as 8 October, off the coast of Wainwright, it became trapped in the ice once more, this time even deeper.
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The Hudson’s Bay Company rescued more than half the crew, whilst Captain Sydney Cornwell and 14 sailors remained behind to wait, if necessary, throughout the winter until the cargo ship could be freed. To this end, they erected a wooden shed on the pack ice, not far from the stranded ship.
However, the bad weather persisted, and over the course of several weeks the makeshift hut became a permanent refuge. Then disaster struck: on 24 November, a terrible snowstorm swept across the region, trapping the remaining men inside their hut. When the wind finally died down, Captain Cornwell and his crew were horrified to discover that the ‘Baychimo’ had vanished.
In search of the ‘Baychimo’
It was assumed that she had been crushed by the ice in the raging elements and had sunk. Dejected, the sailors had to resign themselves to returning to inhabited areas.
Then came the surprise: a few days later, an Inupiaq seal hunter told Captain Cornwell that he had seen the ‘Baychimo’ adrift in the icy waters near Skull Cliff, south of Barrow, some 45 nautical miles from their position. Cornwell, hoping to recover the valuable cargo, mobilised his crew, returned to the pack ice and set out in search of his ship.
And indeed, the men discovered it very close to the spot indicated by the hunter. The ship appeared to have sustained considerable damage. As it was feared that it would not remain afloat for much longer, the cargo of furs and various goods was taken from on board and stored on the ice. Once that was done, the SS ‘Baychi’mo’ was finally abandoned.
Is that the end of the story? Not quite! The steam freighter was apparently more resilient than expected and did not sink in Arctic waters. On the contrary, without a captain or crew, it continued on its way. It drifted off the coasts of Alaska and Canada for at least 38 years.
The Myth: The Ghost Ship
A few months after the crew had abandoned the ship, it was sighted 300 miles east of its last known position. Over the years, local residents and passing sailors alike would occasionally spot it gliding silently through the icy waters. The legend of the ghost ship was born.
Some came across him purely by chance. This was the case, for example, with Leslie Melvin, a trapper who undertook an epic dog-sledge journey from Herschel Island to Nome in March 1932. When he saw the ‘Baychimo’, which was once again trapped in the ice in the Beaufort Sea, he went on board to seek refuge there before continuing his journey. A year later, in March 1933, Inuit who had fallen victim to an extraordinary storm waited on the ‘Baychimo’ for ten days for the weather to improve.
On 11 August 1933, the ship was sighted twelve miles off the coast of Wainwright in Alaska. Local residents managed to approach it and recover a number of items. The same was true of the crew of the MS ‘Trader’, which carried the Scottish writer, botanist and filmmaker Isobel Wylie Hutchison (1889–1982), a specialist in the Arctic. The following year, she became the first woman to be awarded the Mungo Park Medal by the Royal Scottish Geographical Society.
According to all accounts, the ‘Baychimo’ was still seaworthy, but, according to its owner, the Hudson’s Bay Company, it was too far out at sea to be salvaged.
In the two years that followed, it was sighted in July 1934 by a group of researchers aboard a schooner and in September 1935 off the coast of Alaska. In November 1939, another ship managed to get close enough to it for crew members to board. However, it proved impossible for them to take control of the ship, and Captain Hugh Polson had to content himself with reporting its position. After that, the freighter was sighted repeatedly in Arctic waters. But on each occasion, the eyewitnesses were unable to board the ship, or were prevented from doing so by bad weather.
A group of Inuit discovered it in 1962, when it was drifting in the Beaufort Sea. In 1969, other Inuit spotted it again in the Chukchi Sea between Icy Cape and Barrow. Once again, the ship was trapped in the pack ice. Officially, this was the last time the ‘Baychimo’ was sighted. It therefore continued to drift at sea for at least 38 years after it had been abandoned.
What is the current situation with the ‘Baychimo’?
Whilst most experts assume that the increasingly dilapidated cargo ship has long since sunk into the depths of the sea north-west of Alaska, some continue to believe – despite the lack of evidence – that it is still floating somewhere in the world’s northernmost waters. In 2006, the Government of Alaska even launched a project to unravel the mystery of the ‘Arctic ghost ship’ and locate it on or beneath the water’s surface. However, these efforts have remained unsuccessful to this day.
However, in the autumn of 2015, whilst browsing through the collections of the University of Alaska’s Museum of the North in Fairbanks, archaeologist Josh Reuther chanced upon Indigenous artefacts, including knives, scrapers and chisels. They were labelled: ‘from the Baychimo’. How did these Inuit artefacts end up on the ghost ship and subsequently in the museum?
Reuther carried out some research and learnt that the Canadian filmmaker Richard Finnie had spent a year in the western Canadian Arctic in 1930, making a film about the lives of the copper-working Inuit. He had left crates of equipment and ethnological specimens on the ‘Baychimo’ before the ship became trapped in the ice.
In 1933, the crew of the MS ‘Trader’ salvaged whatever they could, including Richard Finnie’s artefacts. After a series of twists and turns, they eventually made their way to Fairbanks. And so, for decades, without anyone realising it, little treasures from the ‘ghost ship of the Arctic’ lay in a museum drawer, gathering dust. Who knows, perhaps this isn’t the last fantastic story the ‘Baychimo’ has in store for us!
The author & the book
This text is taken from the Book: ‘Myths of the Sea’ Taken from Joslan F. Keller. The Frenchman is a so-called ‘mystery historian’ who is passionate about enigmatic and unexplained cases. He has contributed to several television programmes on paranormal phenomena and has been a regular guest on BTLV since 2015, France’s leading web TV channel for mysteries and the inexplicable.
In *Maritime Myths*, Joslan F. Keller invites readers on a gripping journey of discovery through the mysteries of the seas. The fascination with unmanned ships and missing crews comes to life in 30 gripping tales that appeal to both history and the imagination. Keller skilfully blends facts with mysticism, creating an unparalleled reading experience. 224 pages, 30 illustrations, 26.90 euros.