{{Short description|20th century ghost ship}} {{More citations needed|date=December 2025}} {{Use Canadian English|date=May 2026}} {{Use mdy dates|date=May 2026}} {{Infobox ship |section1={{Infobox ship/image | image=Baychimo.jpg | image_caption=''Baychimo'', 1931 }}
|section2={{Infobox ship/career | hide_header= | country= Germany | flag={{Shipboxflag|German Empire|civil}} | name=''Ångermanelfven'' | namesake= | owner=Baltische Reederei GmbH, Hamburg | operator= | registry= | route= | ordered= | awarded= | builder=Lindholmens Mekaniska Verkstad A/B, Gothenburg, Sweden | original_cost= | yard_number=420 | way_number= | laid_down= | launched=1914 | sponsor= | christened= | completed= | acquired= | in_service= | out_of_service= | renamed= | reclassified= | refit= | struck= | reinstated= | homeport= | identification= | motto= | nickname= | fate=To the UK as war reparations | notes= | badge= }}
|section3={{Infobox ship/career | hide_header= | country=United Kingdom | flag= {{Shipboxflag|United Kingdom|civil}} | name=''Baychimo'' | namesake= | owner=Hudson's Bay Company | operator= | registry= | route= | ordered= | awarded= | acquired=1921 | in_service= | out_of_service= | renamed= | reclassified= | refit= | struck= | reinstated= | homeport=Ardrossan, Scotland | identification= | motto= | nickname= | fate=Abandoned and lost at sea, 1931; Last seen, 1969, ultimate fate unknown | notes= | badge= }}
|section4={{Infobox ship/characteristics | hide_header= | header_caption= | class= | type= Cargo ship | tonnage=1,322 tons | displacement= | length= {{cvt|230|ft}} | beam= | height= | draught= | depth= | hold_depth= | decks= | deck_clearance= | ramps= | ice_class= | power= | propulsion=Triple expansion steam engine | speed= {{cvt|10|kn|lk=in}} | range= | endurance= | capacity= | crew= | notes= }} }} '''SS ''Baychimo''''' was a steel-hulled 1,322 ton cargo steamer built in 1914 in Sweden and owned by the Hudson's Bay Company, used to trade provisions for pelts in Inuit settlements along the Victoria Island coast of the Northwest Territories of Canada. She became a notable ghost ship along the Alaska coast, being abandoned in 1931 and seen numerous times since then until her last sighting in 1969.
==Early history== ''Baychimo'' was launched in 1914 as ''Ångermanelfven'' by the Lindholmens shipyard (''Lindholmens Mekaniska Verkstad A/B'') in Gothenburg, Sweden,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://manitobamuseum.ca/baychimo-the-adventures-of-the-ghost-ship-of-the-arctic/ |title=Baychimo: The Adventures of the Ghost Ship of the Arctic|publisher=Manitoba Museum|date=May 12, 2020|access-date=May 10, 2023}}</ref> for the Baltische Reederei GmbH of Hamburg. She was {{cvt|230|ft}} long, powered by a triple expansion steam engine and had a speed of {{cvt|10|kn}}. ''Ångermanelfven'' was used on trade routes between Hamburg and Sweden until the First World War. After the First World War she was passed to the United Kingdom as part of the First World War reparations by Germany for shipping losses and acquired by the Hudson's Bay Company in 1921. Renamed ''Baychimo'' and based in Ardrossan, 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. The crew briefly abandoned the ship, travelling over a half-mile of ice to the town of Barrow, Alaska (now Utqiagvik) 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. There were 15 of the crew that remained behind, intending to wait out the winter if necessary, and constructed a wooden shelter some distance away. On November 24, a powerful blizzard struck, and after it abated there was no sign of ''Baychimo''; the skipper concluded that she must have broken up and sunk in the storm. A few days later, however, an Inuk seal hunter informed them that he had seen ''Baychimo'' about {{cvt|45|mi}} 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<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,882116,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071224201640/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,882116,00.html |archive-date=December 24, 2007 |title=Aeronautics: Flights & Flyers |author= |date=February 29, 1932 |work=Time Magazine |publisher=Time Inc. |accessdate=January 4, 2011}}</ref> to transport by air. ''Baychimo'' was then abandoned.
==Ghost ship== ''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 ''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 and Icy Cape in the Chukchi Sea off the northwestern Alaskan coast.{{Citation needed|date=March 2012}} ''Baychimo'''s ultimate fate is unknown, but due to the lack of sighting since 1969 and the fact that the ship's metal would be subjected to temperature cycling every year, it is presumed sunk.{{cn|date=September 2023}}
==Sightings== thumb|''Baychimo'' in 1933, two years after being abandoned * A few days after ''Baychimo'' disappeared, the ship was found {{cvt|45|mi}} south of where she was lost, but was again ice-packed. * After several months, she was spotted again about {{cvt|300|mi}} to the east. * In January of the following year, she was seen floating peacefully near the shore by Leslie Melvin, a man travelling to Nome with his dog sled team. * A few months after that, she was seen by a company of prospectors. * In March 1933, she was found by a group of Iñupiat who boarded her and were trapped aboard for 10 days by a freak storm. * On August 11, 1933, she was sighted {{cvt|12|mi}} off the settlement of Wainwright, Alaska. She was boarded by local inhabitants, as well as by the crew of the ''M.S. Trader'' and their passenger, the author and botanist Isobel Wylie Hutchison. A whale-boat, some furniture, and several other items were salvaged.<ref>{{cite book |title=North to the Rime-Ringed Sun |last=Hutchison |first=Isobel W. |authorlink= |year=1934 |publisher=Blackie & Son, Ltd. |location= |isbn= |page=109 |url= |accessdate=}}</ref> * In August 1933, the Hudson's Bay Company heard she was still afloat but too far asea to salvage.<ref>{{cite book |title=Baychimo: Arctic Ghost Ship |last=Dalton |first=Anthony |authorlink= |author2=James Delgado |year=2006 |publisher=Heritage House Publishing Co |location= |isbn=978-1-894974-14-1 |page=26 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=G1Q2TXMQqXYC&pg=PA26 |accessdate=January 4, 2011}}</ref> * In July 1934, she was boarded by a group of explorers on a schooner. * In September 1935, she was spotted off the Alaskan coast. * In November 1939, she was boarded by Captain Hugh Polson in an attempt to salvage her, but the creeping ice floes intervened and Polson was forced to abandon her. * She was spotted numerous times over the following years, but always eluded capture. * In March 1962, she was seen drifting 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 ''Baychimo''. * In 2006, the Alaskan government began work on a project to solve the mystery of "the Ghost Ship of the Arctic" and locate ''Baychimo'', whether still afloat or on the ocean floor. She has not yet been found.
==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== ;Notes {{Reflist}} ;Bibliography * Gunston, David, [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1310/is_1991_August-Sept/ai_11323072 UNESCO Courier], Aug–Sept 1991 * {{cite web |url=http://www.aboltonswebsite.co.uk/hbc_main.html#baychimo |title=My Grandfather's Life: S.S. Bayeskimo & S.S. Baychimo |first=Alan |last=Bolton }} * {{cite web |url=http://www.nunatsiaqonline.ca/archives/61124/opinionEditorial/columns.html |title=Ghost Ship: The Disappearance of the ''Baychimo'' |first=Kenn |last=Harper |work=Nunatsiaq News |date=November 24, 2006 |access-date=November 3, 2012 |archive-date=October 14, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121014233809/http://www.nunatsiaqonline.ca/archives/61124/opinionEditorial/columns.html}}
==Further reading== * Dalton, Anthony, ''Baychimo: Arctic Ghost Ship'', Heritage House, 2006, {{ISBN|1-894974-14-X}} * Gillingham, Donald W., ''Umiak!'', Museum Press, 1955
{{Hudson's Bay Company}}
{{coord missing|Arctic Ocean}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Baychimo, SS}} Category:World War I merchant ships of Canada Category:Ships built in Gothenburg Category:Shipwrecks in the Arctic Ocean Category:Ghost ships Category:Maritime incidents in 1931 Category:1914 ships Category:Missing ships Category:Hudson's Bay Company ships