SS ''Baychimo'' was a steel-hulled 1,322 ton cargo steamer built in 1914 in Sweden and owned by the

Hudson's Bay Company The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC; french: Compagnie de la Baie d'Hudson) is a Canadian retail business group. A fur trading business for much of its existence, HBC now owns and operates retail stores in Canada. The company's namesake business di ...

, used to trade provisions for pelts in

Inuit Inuit (; iu, ᐃᓄᐃᑦ 'the people', singular: Inuk, , dual: Inuuk, ) are a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic and subarctic regions of Greenland, Labrador, Quebec, Nunavut, the Northwest Territories ...

settlements along the

Victoria Island Victoria Island ( ikt, Kitlineq, italic=yes) is a large island in the Arctic Archipelago that straddles the boundary between Nunavut and the Northwest Territories of Canada. It is the List of islands by area, eighth-largest island in the world, ...

coast of the Northwest Territories of Canada. She became a notable

ghost ship A ghost ship, also known as a phantom ship, is a ship, vessel with no living crew aboard; it may be a fictional ghostly vessel, such as the ''Flying Dutchman'', or a physical Flotsam, jetsam, lagan and derelict, derelict found adrift with its cre ...

along the Alaska coast, being abandoned in 1931 and seen numerous times since then until her last sighting in 1969.

Early history

The ''Baychimo'' was launched in 1914 as the ''Ångermanelfven'' (Yard No 420) by the Lindholmens shipyard (''Lindholmens Mekaniska Verkstad A/B'') in Gothenburg, Sweden, for the Baltische Reederei GmbH of

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

. She was long, powered by a triple expansion steam engine and had a speed of . The ''Ångermanelfven'' was used on trading routes between Hamburg and Sweden until the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. After World War I she was passed to the United Kingdom as part of the

reparations Reparation(s) may refer to: Christianity * Restitution (theology), the Christian doctrine calling for reparation * Acts of reparation, prayers for repairing the damages of sin History *War reparations **World War I reparations, made from G ...

by Germany for shipping losses and acquired by the

in 1921. Renamed ''Baychimo'' and based in

Ardrossan Ardrossan (; ) is a town on the North Ayrshire coast in southwestern Scotland. The town has a population of 10,670 and forms part of a conurbation with Saltcoats and Stevenston known as the ' Three Towns'. Ardrossan is located on the east shore ...

, Scotland, she completed nine successful voyages along the north coast of Canada, visiting trading posts and collecting pelts.

Abandonment

On October 1, 1931, at the end of a trading run and loaded with a cargo of fur, ''Baychimo'' became trapped in

pack ice Drift ice, also called brash ice, is sea ice that is not attached to the shoreline or any other fixed object (shoals, grounded icebergs, etc.).Leppäranta, M. 2011. The Drift of Sea Ice. Berlin: Springer-Verlag. Unlike fast ice, which is "fasten ...

. The crew briefly abandoned the ship, traveling over a half-mile of ice to the town of Barrow to take shelter for two days, but the ship had broken free of the ice by the time the crew returned. The ship became mired again on October 8, more thoroughly this time, and on October 15 the Hudson's Bay Company sent aircraft to retrieve 22 of the crew. 15 crew remained behind, intending to wait out the winter if necessary, and they constructed a wooden shelter some distance away. On November 24 a powerful blizzard struck, and after it abated there was no sign of the ''Baychimo''; the skipper concluded that she must have broken up and sunk in the storm. A few days later, however, an Inuit seal hunter informed them that he had seen the ''Baychimo'' about away from their position. The 15 men proceeded to track the ship down and, deciding that the ship was unlikely to survive the winter, retrieved the most valuable furs from the hold to transport by air. The ''Baychimo'' was abandoned.

Ghost ship

The ''Baychimo'' did not sink, and over the next several decades there were numerous sightings of the ship. People managed to board her several times, but each time they were either unequipped to salvage the ship or driven away by bad weather. The last recorded sighting of the ''Baychimo'' was by a group of Inuit in 1969, 38 years after she was abandoned. She was stuck fast in the pack ice of the Beaufort Sea between

Point Barrow Point Barrow or Nuvuk is a headland on the Arctic coast in the U.S. state of Alaska, northeast of Utqiaġvik (formerly Barrow). It is the northernmost point of all the territory of the United States, at , south of the North Pole. (The nor ...

and Icy Cape in the Chukchi Sea off the northwestern Alaskan coast. ''Baychimo's'' ultimate fate is unknown and is presumed sunk.

Sightings

* A few days after the ''Baychimo'' had disappeared on 24 November 1931, the ship was found south of where she was lost, but was again ice-packed. * After several months, she was spotted again but about to the east. * In March of the following year, she was seen floating peacefully near the shore by Leslie Melvin, a man traveling to Nome with his dog sled team. * A few months after that, she was seen by a company of

prospector Prospector may refer to: Space exploration * Prospector (spacecraft), a planned lunar probe, canceled in 1962 * '' Lunar Prospector'', a NASA spacecraft Trains * Prospector (train), a passenger train operated by the Denver & Rio Grande Western ...

s. * March 1933, she was found by a group of

Iñupiat The Iñupiat (or Inupiat, Iñupiaq or Inupiaq;) are a group of Alaska Natives, whose traditional territory roughly spans northeast from Norton Sound on the Bering Sea to the northernmost part of the Canada–United States border. Their current ...

who boarded her and were trapped aboard for 10 days by a freak storm. * August 1933, the Hudson's Bay Company heard she was still afloat, but was too far asea to salvage. * July 1934, she was boarded by a group of explorers on a schooner. * September 1935, she was seen off the Alaskan coast. * November 1939, she was boarded by Captain Hugh Polson, wishing to salvage her, but the creeping ice floes intervened and the captain had to abandon her. * After 1939, she was seen floating alone and without crew numerous times, but had always eluded capture. * March 1962, she was seen sailing along the Beaufort Sea coast by a group of Inuit. * She was found frozen in an ice pack in 1969, 38 years after she was abandoned. This is the last recorded sighting of the ''Baychimo''. * In 2006, the Alaskan government began work on a project to solve the mystery of "the Ghost Ship of the Arctic" and locate the ''Baychimo'', whether still afloat or on the ocean floor. She has not been found yet.

In education

"Alaska's Phantom Ship", an article about the vessel, was printed in the textbook ''Galaxies'' (Houghton Mifflin: Boston, 1971, 1974 p. 180.)

References