Welcome everyone to a brand-new three-part blog post on Famous Ghost Ships. This part will go over the SS Baychimo which haunted the artic unmanned for 38 years after her abandonment. Part 2 will go over the Carroll A Deering, a five-masted schooner who had a mysterious abandonment shortly after setting sail. Finally, part three will go over the famous Mary Celeste found in nearly perfect condition but with no crew to speak of. Now without further ado, let’s get right into the first post!

The SS Baychimo began life in 1914 in Sweden under a different name as a trading vessel to service the route between Hamburg and Sweden. However, she was surrendered to the British as a war reparation at the end of WW1 and was subsequently sold to the Hudson Bay Company and renamed SS Baychimo. Under her new owners, the Baychimo would serve routes in Siberia and eventually the Northwest Territories of Canada and Alaska into the artic.

The Baychimo continued voyages in the dangerous waters of the artic for several years until 1931. The winter season of 1931 saw intense weather, often leaving the Baychimo to deal with thick fog and heavy ice flows during her voyages. Unfortunately, this weather would spell trouble for the Baychimo when in September she was caught in a blizzard off of the Sea Horse Islands in Alaska. The crew attempted to wait out the storm but as September gave way to October the weather only worsened. When the storm eventually lulled, the Baychimo was trapped in thick pack ice. Unable to free her or move in the thick ice, the crew hiked across the frozen ocean to the town of Barrow roughly half a mile away.

To make a long story short, the crew would make repeated attempts to maintain the Baychimo through the winter until she could be sailed to a safe port. However, another blizzard came and pushed the Baychimo 45 miles away from the town of Barrow. The crew, after finding the ship, deemed she was too damaged to survive the winter, so they unloaded her cargo and officially abandoned the vessel assuming she would sink within a few weeks.

However, the ship would somehow remain afloat for far longer than anyone could have guessed. She would continue to be sighted through 1931 and into 1932, but this was not uncommon for the area at the time. Ships in the artic would sometimes be abandoned by their crews and drift for months or maybe a year before sinking. However, as time went on and sightings continued, the Baychimo would begin to build a reputation as a ghost ship. Some would even say it was as if a phantom crew was guiding the ship to avoid natural hazards and destruction.

The Baychimo would be boarded and documented many times throughout the 1930s. Even a failed salvage attempt was made in 1939 but to no success. The ship seemed unwilling to be recaptured by anyone but the Arctic. Sightings would continue into the 1940s but eventually it was deemed that the ship had finally sunk after years of no sightings. That was until 1962 when the Baychimo was sighted yet again! She would be sighted a handful more times until 1969 when she would be seen for the last time, 38 years after her abandonment.

The Baychimo has not been seen again since 1969. It is likely she sunk sometime after her last sighting. However, with no wreck sight, the possibility remains that she still patrols the perilous waters off the Alaskan coast. Either way, the Baychimo remains a fascinating case in history. How could a damaged ship with no crew drift in some of the most dangerous waters in the world for over 38 years without sinking? I guess until she’s spotted again we’ll never know, but I’d like to believe she’s still somewhere in the ice waiting to be found again.

Thanks for reading and if you enjoy this post please feel free to leave a comment. A big thanks to Ocean Liner Designs and Big Old Boats for the information and inspiration needed to create these posts, definitely check out their YouTube channels if you like this type of content. Look forward to part 2 on the Carroll A Deering soon!