The SS Baychimo was a steel-hulled cargo ship that weighed 1,322 tons. It was built in 1914 in Sweden and owned by the Hudson's Bay Company. The ship was used to trade supplies for animal fur in Inuit communities along the coast of Victoria Island in the Northwest Territories of Canada. It became a famous ghost ship along the Alaska coast after being abandoned in 1931. The ship was seen many times after that, with its last reported sighting in 1969.

Early history

Baychimo was launched in 1914 as Ångermanelfven by the Lindholmens shipyard (Lindholmens Mekaniska Verkstad A/B) in Gothenburg, Sweden, for the Baltische Reederei GmbH of Hamburg. The ship was 230 feet (70.1 meters) long and powered by a triple expansion steam engine. It had a speed of 10 knots (19 kilometers per hour; 12 miles per hour). Ångermanelfven was used on trading routes between Hamburg and Sweden until the First World War. After World War I, the ship was transferred to the United Kingdom as part of Germany’s reparations for shipping losses. In 1921, it was acquired by the Hudson’s Bay Company. The ship was renamed Baychimo and based in Ardrossan, Scotland. It completed nine successful voyages along the north coast of Canada, visiting trading posts and collecting pelts.

Abandonment

On October 1, 1931, after completing a journey and carrying a load of fur, the ship Baychimo became stuck in pack ice. The crew temporarily left the ship, walking over half a mile of ice to the town of Barrow to stay safe for two days. When they returned, the ship had already freed itself from the ice. On October 8, the ship became trapped again, this time more deeply. On October 15, the Hudson's Bay Company sent planes to rescue 22 of the crew. Fifteen crew members stayed on the ship, planning to wait through the winter if needed, and built a wooden shelter nearby. On November 24, a strong blizzard hit. After the storm ended, there was no sign of Baychimo, and the captain believed the ship had broken apart and sunk during the storm. A few days later, an Inuk seal hunter told the crew he had seen Baychimo about 45 miles (72 kilometers) away from their location. The 15 men followed the ship’s trail and, believing the ship could not survive the winter, took the most valuable furs from the ship’s hold to transport by air. After this, Baychimo was left behind.

Ghost ship

Baychimo did not sink, and over the next many years, people saw the ship several times. Each time, people tried to board the ship, but they either did not have the right tools to save it or had to leave because of bad weather. The last time Baychimo was seen was in 1969, 38 years after it was left behind. At that time, a group of Inuit saw the ship trapped in thick ice in the Beaufort Sea, located between Point Barrow and Icy Cape in the Chukchi Sea near the northwestern coast of Alaska. Baychimo’s final fate is unknown. However, because no one has seen it since 1969 and the metal of the ship would be affected by changing temperatures each year, it is believed that the ship sank.

In education

The article "Alaska's Phantom Ship" appeared in the textbook Galaxies, published by Houghton Mifflin in Boston in 1971 and 1974, on page 180.