Local Men & Ghost Ship "Baychimo"

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Hughie
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Local Men & Ghost Ship "Baychimo"

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Kilmarnock Herald and Ayrshire Gazette
November 1, 1946

Waterfront At Ardrossan

Abandoned In Ice
For several evenings recently I have been studying an album, the photographs in which caused shivers even with a roaring fire adjacent. The accompanying (not added - very poor image) photograph is taken from that album and gives some clue to the reason for the shivers. depicted scenes in which ice abounded, and as I turned the pages there was unfolded the story of the Baychimo, the ghost ship of the Arctic in which five men from Ardrossan sailed.
The story has been told before, but a new generation is growing up to whom the name, means nothing: others are still with us to whom the adventure of fifteen years ago this December remains fresh and vivid. It remains a story worth recalling.

Racing The Ice Pack
The 'Bay' boats were at one time well known in Ardrossan, but in 1931 the Baychimo was trading on the Alaskan Coast for the Hudson Bay Company. In July of that year she sailed from Vancouver with two months in which to complete the round of the Western Canadian Alaskan posts before the ice pack closed in for the winter.

To accomplish the round inside the two months meant that the crew had often to work 24 hours at a stretch unloading stores at the Hudson Bay posts and loading furs in bales. On the 1st September she sailed from Herschel island with a million dollars worth of furs in her holds and the great race to the outside world against the approaching ice pack was on!

All through September she sailed southwards towards Vancouver and then on 1st October, visibility worsened. A blizzard of snow swept down on the vessel and those on board could only see a few feet ahead.

A Wall Of Ice
Suddenly, a wall of ice was before them. The engines were reversed. The stout little ship shuddered. The ice was upon her and she was a prisoner of war.

????? Sydney A. Cornwall decided, in view of the Ganger of the ship being crushed by the ice which nei? tas?, to the to the ice with his crew, and they made camp a quarter of a mile from the ship. Shelters were rigged and the men settled down to await the coming of summer. With a ninety gallon drum they made a stove and their meat was supplied by an Eskimo village nearby, or else was provided by the polar bears which were too inquisitive, came near the camp and were shot Polar bear meat is on the tough side, but edible!

It was in late November that the Baychimo began her career as a 'ghost ship' floating unmanned in the ice packs of the northern waters. A sudden blizzard sprang up, as blizzards do at that season and when it had blown itself out and the crew left their shelter, the ship had gone.

Million Dollars Disappear
Search parties went out, but without avail. The ship and its million dollar cargo had disappeared in the waste of ice and snow as surely as a needle in the proverbial haystack. The search parties, under different leadership, went out in every direction for 50 miles, but not until weeks later was the ship sighted by a party of Eskimos out hunting. She was still held in the Ice pack. The point of the discovery was 22 mile south of Point Barrow on the mainland and the crew went to the ship with all dispatch. Arrived there, it was de- cided to unload the furs and get them o safety before any further catastrophe occurred. This proved a wise decision for on 19th December, when all but 30,000 dollars worth of furs had been removed, another blizzard descended upon the out casts and they were forced to shelter until it passed over.

Becomes A "Ghost"
And when the calm came after the storm, the Baychimo had again disappeared into the waste. From that point on she was officially abandoned and she then became a "ghost."
The rescued furs had been taken to the post at Point Barrow and from there the last of the survivors were taken back by air to civilisation. 22 passengers and crew had been taken Seattle. 17 officers and men remained with the ship in the ice.

The story of their ordeal can well be imagined in that bitter cold. Bitter cold, yes. Yet in the album was the photograph of one of the ship's officers lying on the ice and looking quite happy about it.

Always Ready
But although they made the best of it, it was not a happy time. Ice had to be dragged three miles to provide dinking water. Wood had to be found to provide heating and cooking facilities. While the ship was there she had her bunkers full of coal, but this was not used as it would have been required to raise steam for the ship's boilers had she sailed out of the ice prison when the thaw came. Similarly the propellor had to be kept free of ice so that it would not be damaged and parties were kept busy chopping the ice away everyday. Everything was done so that the ship would be ready and seaworthy to complete her voyage to Vancouver when the summer came.

But instead of sailing to Vancouver, , the Baychimo became a phantom. Unmanned, always in the grip of the ice an in which she had been trapped, the Ship floated upon the northern seas, being seen occasionally but never being brought into any harbour.

Skin Ripped Off
A Canadian writer called her "a dot of man's creating floating alone, aloof in a wilderness." She was first seen again ice-bound in August 1932 and again twelve months later off Wainwright on the Artic coast. She was boarded once by Eskimos but they could rescue nothing. As soon as they touched the frozen metal of her structure the skin was ripped from their hands and arms. Officially given up for lost, she was sighted in all seven times - the last time by a hunting party of Eskimos in 1936.

And then the "ghost ship" faded from the minds of men. She was forgotten and never seen again in the bleak wilderness of the Arctic. During the late war, however, her name cropped up again when the Germans were reported to have claimed that she had sighted and sunk on the Atlantic side of the Canadian coast. I have ascertained, however, that this report is not correct. To have been in such a position would have meant that the ship had drifted through the North-West Passage herself.

Missing
"The vessel was abandoned in, ice on December 19, 1931, twenty-two miles south of Point Barrow while on a voyage from Herschel Island for Vancouver with a cargo of furs. On August 21, 1932, she was sighted in an icebound position and she was reported sighted again in August, 1933, off Wainwright. She was posted at Lloyd's as a missing vessel on December 30, 1932.

"The report that the Germans had claimed to have sunk the vessel during the late war after she had come through the North-West Passage is quite inaccurate. The vessel was never anywhere near the North West Passage."

So there you have it all. The last rumour of the "ghost ship" is scotched. She has been "Missing at Lloyd's" since 1932 and from that date she is no more.

A colourful Legend
But, although she is officially lost, I have a feeling that the "Baychimo" will be a Marie Celeste of the Polar Seas, always sailing in legend, a colourful legend, a colourful story of the sea with a background of real hardship and endurance. Great courage was called for on that October night when the ice pack closed about the Baychimo.
Resource and guts were needed to last out those days in the ice, when the sailors built themselves igloos and worked about the ship or hunted for foods and waited for the coming of summer to freeze them. It was a grim ordeal with no guarantee that they would come out of it all in the end.

On board the Baychimo when she was caught in the Polar Pack, were five men from Ardrossan: Chief Engineer H. L. Bolton, 3rd Engineer Finlay Murchie, M Barr, donkeyman, James McEwan and P. McGreer.

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Kilmarnock Herald and Ayrshire Gazette
November 15, 1946

"Waterfront" Correction

Dear Sir,-In the 1st November issue of the "Gazette" in the "Waterfront" article it was stated that five Ardrossan men were on board the "Baychimo" when she was ice-bound and I would draw your attention to the fact that neither P. McGreer nor J. MacEwan were not on board at that time as they were in Vancouver years before though they were on her in early trips to Vancouver.
Two names you omitted who were on board on that occasion were Boatswain Oliverson, who was one of the best seamen in the town, and Fire- man D. Walker.

Being a regular reader of your paper and also a seafarer having served in the Hudson Bay boats and took the Bay Nuin on her maiden voyage. I was also on board the Nascopia when she first come to Ardrossan from Cardiff to run for the Hudson Bay company.
As most of the crew of the Baychimo came from Ardrossan and Ayr I would be much obliged if will print this Correction-

Yours etc.,
HIGHLANDER.

========================

Kilmarnock Herald and Ayrshire Gazette
November 29, 1946

Waterfront At Ardrossan - Again The 'Baychimo'

The past week has produced two more letters about the Baychimo and who was and who was not on board when she was lost in the ice of the Alaskan coast in 1931. My first note comes from an ex- member of the crew who signs himself 'Creel' and he writes:-

"Highlander is quite definitely wrong when he says that J. McEwan and P. McGreer were not on board the Baychimo when she was lost off the Alaskan Coast.

"Both these men joined the ship in Vancouver prior to the last trip and I have at home a photograph taken on our return to Fairbanks, of the Ardrossan men on the Baychimo the five originally mentioned in the "Waterfront."

"I was on board the Baychimo from the time she left Ardrossan until she was eventually lost."

Signed On In Vancouver
The second letter was signed "Lord ???son" and was in much the same strain. This writer said: "When the ship sailed from Ardrossan most of her crew were local men, but they made the one trip and signed off in Vancouver. McEwan and McGreer were in this company but on the trip before the ship was lost we picked them up in Vancouver and knowing that they were a couple of good seamen we signed them on. They were there when we were in the ice."

From this evidence, and the fact that one of the men concerned has written to say that he was there (last week's 'Gazette'), it seems definite that the 1st I gave in the original article on the loss of the Baychimo is the authentic one. Here then, to clear every- thing up, is the complete list of Ardrossan men who were with the ship when she was lost:-
H. C. Bolton, Chief Engineer; Finlay Murchie, 3rd Engineer; M. Barr, donkey man; James McEwan and P. McGreer, Able Seamen.
All the others had left before the trip and that was the last which the Baychimo ever made with a crew on board.

--------------------
Using the search word "Baychimo" here on our board you should find a few other related posts - and the following site has been well researched: http://www.aboltonswebsite.co.uk/hbc_ma ... #ghostship
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Hughie
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Re: Local Men & Ghost Ship "Baychimo"

Post by Hughie »

Kilmarnock Herald and Ayrshire Gazette
December 6, 1946

S.S. Killocka

Dear Sir, - Many thanks for printing my letter regarding the Baychimo. Another Hudson Bay ship the Bay Nain which was called the s.s. Killocka and before the Bay Nain she belonged to the Limrick Steam Ship Company. On her maiden voyage from Ardrossan the crew on board was mainly composed of local seamen and are as follows:-
Deck Officer Captain Jackson of the Missionary Ship on the Hudson Bay: Chief Officers Bob Murchie. Ardrossan. and McLeod, Saltcoats. Chief Engineer J. MacHattin, Saltcoats; 2nd Engineer Kerr, Ardrossan; 3rd Engineer J. Moor, Saltcoats. Firemen R. McKechan, Ardrossan; W Tait, Ardrossan; W. Brown, Ardrossan; M. Lennon, Saltcoats; M. Fimm, Donkeyman.

Seamen:
Anderson, Irvine; Wallace, Ardrossan; Bokelbank, Troon; Dickie, Ayr; Morton. Kilsyth. Chief Steward Limrick; 2nd Steward J. Muir, Patrick: Steward W. Brodrick. Chief Cook Ross, Glasgow: 2nd Cook J. McFarlane, Ardrossan. The Wireless Operator came from Ireland but I can't remember his name.
McFarlane was promoted to Chief Cook after twelve days at sea as Ross took ill and was put ashore at St Johns Newfoundland
I think I have given you the ship's company as correctly as possible from memory as I have been with so many ship-mates in my sea-going career since 1916 its difficult to recall all the names. HIGHLANDER
Fimac
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Re: Local Men & Ghost Ship "Baychimo"

Post by Fimac »

I love a story - this is a good one. COULD the germans have sunk it ??
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