STRANGE HISTORY: Ghost Ship of S.S. Baychimo

 

Baychimo crew bringing supplies to the shore. 

In 1914 the cargo ship SS Ångermanelfven was built in Sweden. It was initially used on trading routes between Hamburg and Sweden until August of 1914 when WWI started. After WWI the boat was transferred to the U.K. as a part of Germany's reparations. In 1921 The Hudson's Bay Company bought the ship and renamed it the S.S. Baychimo. It was used it to trade pelts in Inuit settlements along the Victoria Island coast of Canada Northwest Territories and back to Scotland.

On October 1, 1931, the cargo vessel S.S. Baychimo was heading to Vancouver but became icebound in the waters near Barrow, Alaska. It was towards the end of a trade run, but the crew couldn't do anything about it. They tried their best to dig the ship out, but it was no use they weren't able to do it.

They decided that the best thing to do was to wait out the winter so that the ship would be free. They hiked over to the closest Alaskan City. They waited a few days and it did break free, but then got stuck again a week later. 

The Hudson Company decided to airlift 22 or 19 of the crew member and 14 or 17 of them stayed to keep an eye on the ship. They made a small camp on the shore near the ship. They anticipated they'd stay until the end of winter. 

On November 24th there was a massive blizzard that blew in. The blizzard caused the men to stay inside. When the storm was over they came out and found that the ship was gone. The crew initially believed that the ship just collapsed and sank due to the storm. 

A few days later an Inuit seal hunter had told the group that they saw the S.S. Baychimo around 45 miles off-shore. This was the beginning of the S.S. Baychimo becoming a ghost ship. The ship was reported missing spanning over 3 decades. The last sighting of the ship was in 1969. 

SOURCES.

The Vintage News

Canadas History

Travel Channel