Ghost Map

EN PL

Apparitions · Ghost ships

SS Baychimo – the Ghost Ship of the Arctic

When
November 1931–1969 date from records made at the time
Where
Chukchi Sea off the coast of Alaska, near Wainwright and Point Barrow, United States
Verdict
Explained

Abandoned in the ice in 1931, the cargo steamer drifted around the Arctic for 38 years – sighted by Inuit hunters, explorers and the crews of other ships.

Show on the timeline

70.65°, -160.10°

What happened

Baychimo, a steamer built in Sweden in 1914 for a German owner, passed to the Hudson's Bay Company after the First World War and carried goods to trading posts in the Canadian Arctic, returning with furs. On 1 October 1931, on her way back, she became trapped in ice off the northern coast of Alaska. Part of the crew was evacuated by air, while fifteen men built a hut on shore to wait for better weather. On 24 November a blizzard struck; when it died down, the ship was gone. She was assumed sunk, but a few days later an Inuit hunter spotted her some tens of kilometers away. The crew removed the most valuable furs and finally abandoned the vessel. In the following years Baychimo was sighted and occasionally boarded: in 1932, 1933, 1934, 1935 and 1939, then in 1962. She was last seen in 1969, frozen into the ice between Point Barrow and Icy Cape.

Witnesses

The ship's crew, Inuit hunters, prospectors, explorers and the masters of other vessels, including Hugh Polson, who boarded her in 1939.

Explanations and hypotheses

Baychimo is not a supernatural mystery: a sturdy hull, an empty hold and the currents of the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas let the derelict drift with the ice for decades without sinking. Every attempt to tow her failed because of ice and weather. She most likely sank or was crushed by ice in the end; in the 21st century the Alaskan authorities have searched for her wreck, so far without a definite result. Even so, she has become one of the most famous real-life “ghost ships.”

Explained The phenomenon has a widely accepted, down-to-earth explanation.

Sources

  1. Hudson's Bay Company Archives (Archives of Manitoba) – Ships Histories
  2. Explorersweb – Exploration Mysteries: The SS Baychimo, 38 Years as a Ghost Ship

More: Wikipedia (pl) Wikipedia (en)