on a cold night in 1933 a group of inuit people came upon a derelict cargo ship
drifting in the icy waters off the coast of northern alaska they decided to explore the
abandoned ship to see if they could find anything of value but almost as soon as they boarded the
winds shifted and a violent storm blew in seemingly from nowhere trapping them inside
as the arctic winds raged outside the small group had nothing to do but listen to the ghostly groans
of the ship as she ground against the shifting ice when the storm finally cleared 10 days later
they fled never to look back the phantom ship would soon vanish she would mysteriously reappear
numerous times all over the beaufort sea for the next three and a half decades
the ss bachmo was originally launched in sweden in 1914
her original name was angkorman elephant after the swedish river her original owners were german
and she was used as a trading vessel between hamburg and sweden through the first world war
she was relatively modest in size weighing in at 1 322 tons with a length of 230 feet
she was powered by a triple expansion engine and could achieve a cruising speed of 10 knots
after the war she was handed over to the british as a war reparation in 1920. she
left the baltic sea for the last time and was purchased in london by the hudson bay company
for fifteen thousand pounds she was renamed the bachmo her first voyage with the company
took place in 1921 in the eastern arctic the next year she was sent to siberia with her new captain
sydney cornwell he would remain her captain for the rest of her career the beijima would spend
the next two years trading furs in siberia but political tensions in russia soon led the hudson
bay company to withdraw from the area after 1924 she would begin operating in the western arctic
traveling between vancouver and hudson bay company posts along the yukon and northwest
territories she would complete nine difficult voyages in the area carrying cargo and furs
she was typically manned by around 32 crew members and would occasionally carry passengers
every winter she would travel back to her home port in a drawston scotland she would return
to canada through the panama canal and in 1924 she would also travel through the suez canal
successfully circumnavigating the globe but her luck on these dangerous voyages would soon run out
the beijimo experienced particularly treacherous weather conditions in her 1931 season
she would frequently find herself mired in fog and heavy ice throughout the summer
by late september as she passed the seahorse islands near point barrow alaska the beijimo
experienced an unexpected blizzard her crew was forced to drop anchor and weather the storm
but by october 1st conditions continued to deteriorate and the steamship was soon trapped
in heavy pack ice recognizing the dire situation the crew abandoned the vessel and traveled half
a mile through the snow to the town of barrow where they would shelter for the next two days
when they returned the stricken vessel had broken free from the ice the ship had sustained heavy
damage in the storm and it was clear that it would be impossible to safely sail her further southwest
her crew decided that they would have to remain in the area to watch over her through the winter
but on october 8th the situation grew even worse when the ship once again became mired in the ice
this time much more thoroughly than before on the 15th the hudson bay company sent an aircraft to
retrieve the crew but captain cornwell and 14 of his men refused to leave their ship behind
the company provided them with provisions to last the winter and they constructed a crude temporary
shelter nearby they wouldn't dare live on board the ship it was impossible to keep the large
vessel heated and the shifting ice threatened to sink her at any moment over the next few days they
performed daily maintenance on the ship mainly clearing ice from a rudder to prevent damage but
their routine was cut short when on november 24th a blinding storm struck the area when it finally
cleared the bachemo was nowhere to be seen captain cornwell and his crew assumed that the powerful
storm had sunk the damaged ship they headed back to barrow to await transport to vancouver
but to their surprise an inuit seal hunter spotted the derelict vessel a few days later
trapped in ice near skull cliff some 45 miles away captain cornwell and his crew tracked her
down and concluded that the ship was far too heavily damaged to safely survive the winter
they removed her remaining cargo and abandoned their ship for the last time
knowing that she would probably break up in the brutal icy waters of the beaufort sea
captain cornwell and his remaining crew were flown back to vancouver soon after
the ss bachmo was officially deemed a loss and the men went on with their lives
but later that winter to everyone's surprise the beijimo was spotted some 300 miles east of
where she was originally abandoned this would be the first of many mysterious appearances
she was next spotted by a man named leslie melvin he was traveling to gnome with his
dog sled team when he came across the ship floating peacefully near the shore
a few months later she was discovered by a group of prospectors
at first the sightings were an odd surprise but nothing too extraordinary the area was and still
is extremely treacherous it was not uncommon for ships to be overtaken by the ice and abandoned
by their crews usually once a ship was abandoned she would succumb to the elements in a few days
or weeks but occasionally one of these ships would survive a season or two before finally foundering
so when the beijimo appeared in the distance again and again over the next several months
locals didn't think much of it but as time went on and the derelict ship kept appearing stories began
to circulate that something supernatural was guiding the phantom ship those who spotted her
would claim that it appeared that she was piloted by some unseen crew
as she drifted away from rocky shoals and other hazards that would challenge even manned vessels
in 1933 her legend grew when a group of inuit people were forced to shelter
on the ghost ship when a freak storm trapped them in her hole for 10 days
these strange events helped earn the beijimo a reputation as a cursed ship later that summer
she was boarded by the crew and passengers of the trader a small schooner that was on a
research expedition to collect alaskan and arctic wildflowers so charming after they
finished exploring the ship she disappeared in the night but throughout the remainder of their voyage
the beijimo would appear several more times just on the horizon as if she was following them
in november 1939 there is an attempt to salvage her by captain hugh paulsen but his vessel was too
small to safely take control of the much larger beijimo this was the last recorded boarding of
the ship she was spotted several more times throughout 1939 but she always eluded capture
recorded sightings slowed considerably during world war ii and in the years after it was
assumed that she finally succumbed to her long overdue fate and she was more or less forgotten
but then out of nowhere she was spotted by a group of inuit people in march 1962 floating
near the shore of the beaufort sea her last recorded sighting took place in 1969 when she
was seen drifting in heavy pack ice 38 years after she was originally left for dead though she hasn't
been sighted in decades her mystery continues her unnatural ability to remain afloat unmanned
in one of the most treacherous bodies of water continues to baffle investigators in 2006 the
alaskan government commissioned a project to solve her mystery but to date nothing has been found
the sightings we know about are only those that were recorded to history
how many others managed to explore the phantom vessel what did they find when they explored
her empty cabins or ventured deep into her cargo holds was she supernatural how did she
survive so long in the icy waters and did she finally sink or is she still out there
drifting in some far-off forgotten stretch of the arctic waiting to be found once again
you