WW1 Arctic Ghost Ship

in 1914 just before the outbreak of the first world war the ship was launched in Gothenburg Sweden a quite ordinary steel-hulled cargo steamer that was destined for an extraordinary career name the SS angam an elfin after a Swedish River she was owned by the german company bal tisha reader i of hamburg the ship was 230 feet or 70.1 metres long weighed 1322 tonnes and her triple-expansion steam engine could power her along had just 10 knots drill world war 1 the ship was used to bring Swedish goods to Germany to help with the war effort and she was transferred to Great Britain as part of war reparations in 1921 and renamed the SS baychimo her new owner was the Hudson's Bay Company the famous Anglo Canadian concern and the beige emo was based at our drawsome in Scotland sailing to the northern Arctic coast of Canada and Alaska to collect animal pelts from the many trading outposts the daughter the inhospitable region nine times the baychimo ventured into the far north until on the 21st of July 1928 she ran aground off pole island in Camden Bay off Alaska refloated the next day she returned to service but the waters are treacherous and ice posed as much a threat to coal-powered steel ships as their wooden predecessors on the 1st of October 1931 with a full cargo of furs aboard the baychimo was beset by ice and trapped the drama had began a few days earlier sea ice conditions in the summer of 1931 were difficult baychimo traveling east rounded Point Barrow on the 22nd of August the latest she had ever entered the Beaufort Sea on her annual run to coronation Gulf she arrived at Fort Hearn on the 5th of September and unloaded supplies and took on her cargo outward-bound baychimo past Point Barrow traveling southeast on the 18th of September half a difficult navigation through thick ice in the Beaufort Sea conditions in the Chukchi Sea got worse and by the 25th of September baychimo was locked in ice in Pearl Bay near Franklin Point because of the danger the ship being crushed in the ice and sinking her 37 man crew left the ship and struggled half a mile over the moving sea ice to the town of Barrow but the ship broke free two days later and her crew returned the crew camped on the ice to keep an eye on the vessel and monitor the weather not daring to go back aboard but by the 8th of October the baychimo was once again stuck fast in the ice this was much more serious the Hudson Bay companies had aircraft that retrieved 22 crewmen on the 15th of October the captain and 14 men refused to leave the vessel the Hudson Bay Company provided them with supplies to wait out the winter or until the ship became free of the ice the men built a crude wooden shelter nearby but this plan was abandoned on the 24th of November when a terrible blizzard howled around the hut deafening winds and thick Snopes curing all vision outside when the blizzard abated the captain and his remaining crew were astonished the baychimo was gone she must have sunk in the storm but just a few days later in early December 1931 the baychimo was spotted by Inuit hunters near skull Cliff south of Barrow they went aboard and salvaged several bales of valuable furs then reported the fine to the authorities Hudson Bay Company aircraft arrived to take off her remaining cargo and then the beige mo was abandoned to her fate but the vessel did not sink in March 1932 she was reported 300 miles or 480 kilometers to the east floating free of ice close to the shore the sightings continued in August 1932 20 Americans boarded the baychimo of Wainwright Alaska in March 1933 a party of Inuit sheltered aboard the icebound ship for ten days when they were caught in a terrible storm on the 11th of August 1933 the Bay Comeau was visited by the small wooden ship ms trader they tied up two baychimo and attempted to salvage her where the bachelor was too large and the attempt was abandoned in july 1934 she was spotted again and another adventurous group boarded from a sailing schooner in November 1939 just after world war two had started an attempt was made again to salvage the baychimo but ice intervened and the attempt was called off over the years somewhat inevitably the baychimo acquired a reputation as a cursed vessel freak storms often blew up when people went aboard her or tried to salvage her and many times vessels stayed away from the derelict ship on spotting her during and after the Second World War the old beige mo was seen occasionally in the far north floating free or trapped in the ice her profile famous amongst the locals but no one managed to get aboard her anymore she was slowly forgotten assumed to have finally founded out of sight and gone to the bottom but then in 1969 the SS baychimo appeared once again reported frozen in pack ice drifting along 38 years after she had been abandoned a 55 year old genuine ghost ship back from the dead a salvage party arrived where the baychimo had been last reported but the old ship was long gone and has never been seen again this year is the 50th anniversary the last recorded sighting of the SS baychimo a real Arctic ghost ship whether the SS baychimo is still drifting around the Arctic in the 21st century is an interesting notion in 2006 Alaska began a project to find out so far they have found nothing thanks for watching please subscribe and share and also support my channel at PayPal and patreon details in the description box below

Channel: Mark Felton Productions

Views: 449,787

Rating: 4.961978 out of 5

Keywords: WW1 Arctic Ghost Ship, Baychimo, Hudson's Bay Company, History of Canada, Alaska, Mark Felton Productions

Id: PbzEnPiVpNg

Length: 6min 50sec (410 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 30 2019