Real and Mythical Ghost Ships, Part 1: The Baychimo

About Ghost Ships

There is no area on land which can compare to the desolation and loneliness of the high seas. This desolation, combined with the stories of sailors from centuries past, has created maritime legends of great monsters, of horrible sights which mean doom for any vessels unlucky enough to behold them, of places where ships vanish with no trace, and of mythical ghost ships… ragged sailing vessels and rusting hulks manned by the dead.

Even without such legends, the sea is a dangerous place. Storms, mutinies, disease, and piracy have caused the deaths of countless sea travelers over the years, and such events can easily wipe out the entire population of a vessel. With these dangers, not only have the seas been home to mythical ghost ships, but there have been many cases of real ghost ships – vessels which journey the oceans with dogged determination, even when everyone aboard them is missing or dead.

This series will cover all of the famous ghost ships throughout history, both mythical and real, and this weeks article will focus on the very real Ghost Ship of the Arctic – the Baychimo.

The Baychimo

The Baychimo was built in Sweden in 1914 and originally named the Angermanelfven, after a Swedish river. She was a state of the art, all steel steamship of 1322 tons, built to survive the icy and treacherous waters of the far north. After construction, the ship was sold to a German company and began what looked like an unremarkable career, working the common trade routes between Germany and Sweden. In 1918, she was awarded to Great Britain as part of German reparations after World War I, and renamed the Baychimo after being bought by the Hudson Bay Company.

The Hudson Bay Company used the Baychimo for grueling, 2000 mile long trading runs around Northern Canada, where she would carry furs over a route from Vancouver from Victoria Island. This proved to be a wise decision, as the powerful construction of the ship allowed her to thrive in this role. The Baychimo completed 9 such voyages over the following decade, becoming instrumental in the expansion of trade in these inhospitable areas.

However, on October 1st, 1931, the Baychimo’s luck ran out when she became trapped by unseasonably thick pack ice near Barrow, Alaska. This type of ice can form around unlucky or unwary ships and is capable of either crushing a ship’s hull outright with immense pressure or carrying helpless vessels into dangerous areas. The crew fought these conditions valiantly for a week, at one point even freeing their ship and sailing her through the mass of ice for about 3 hours. However, nature proved to be too strong of an opponent, and as the ice pushed the Baychimo towards the rocky Alaskan shore and possible doom, the decision was made to abandon the vessel. Most of the crew were airlifted away, but the captain, along with 14 remaining crew members, stayed behind with the intention of recovering the ship if and when the ice allowed her to go free.