The main purpose of the Kamloops was to carry manufactured goods from Montreal over to Thunder Bay, Ontario. Workshops, Charity & Fundraisers Beargrease It was thought that there were no survivors, but six months later bodies were found on a nearby island. The body had no lifebelt, although one was found in the vicinity. Engelbreht, along with dive partner Randy Saulter of Mounds View, was carrying out a systematic search for the Kamloops in the area known as Twelve O'Clock Point. By rejecting non-essential cookies, Reddit may still use certain cookies to ensure the proper functionality of our platform. The Siren Call of Hungry Ghosts: Are Spirits Always Who they Claim to Be? Image Source: National Park Service. I know that below 40m, divers have to use a different gas mix and I know that the record for a scuba dive was 270m, but apart from that, we need someone with some diving credentials (and probably some familarity with that area of the Lakes) to tell us how bunk recreationally diving the wreck would be. She hit Isle Royale broadside, smashing her starboard bow. Lloyd W. Krohn, 55, of Wyoming, Minnesota, was diving in a party of three on a charter SCUBA trip to the park operated by Isle Royale Charters, Inc. LOL, the temperature part I might buy, might, but the no fish part at that depth is so wrong. Old Mitsubishi "Zeros" stored in the cargo hold of one of the ships. 800 East Lakeshore Drive It seems Old Whitey is happy to make friends with any visitors to his watery grave. SS Henry B. Smith. In the middle of a particularly nasty gale, the captain of the Quedocspotted a dark mass rise up out of the waters, and quickly turned course, warning theKamloops, which was shrouded in the thick fog. Temporarily, she remained fixed on the reef, quickly taking on water she rapidly sank bow first to rest at the foot of the reef. The wreck occurred off the coast of Isle Royale, Michigan's National Park, and while most of the crew's bodies were found because they froze trying . The storm became a major blizzard. Marie, Capt. Within days, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau decreed, partly at the request of tribal leaders, thatall flags on federal buildings fly at half-mast. Researchers discovered the ship at the bottom of Michigan's Lake Superior last summer. My findings confirmed what Elders had shared, Beaulieu said after she presented a report about her work in July 2021 that did not include specific evidence. 'http':'https';if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+"://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs"); Content copyright 2016 Planet Weird unless otherwise noted. Halloween Squishmallows: The Best Spooky and Paranormal Squishmallows. chief duty was carrying manufactured goods from Montreal up the lakes to Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada. Fader, began searching the north shore (Ft. William Daily Times Journal, Dec. 12, 1927). "GF,FO" Ontario The number of bodies was based on irregularities in the ground ascertained by the radar waves, according to an anthropologist hired by the band to scan the site. Lake Superior The gruesome discovery took decades and for some survivors of the Kamloops Indian Residential School in . The executive's declaration would prove ironic on two counts: Company vessels would be lost in 1927, and others would end their season icebound in the very same channel as the year before. I haven't heard this one. Zoom - The Heartbeat of Trees - Book Discussion, The Shipwreck Coast's Lost Whalebacks: The Story of Barge 129 and Sagamore, Fatal Diving Accident at Isle Royale; Kamloops Wreck Temporarily Closed, Around the Circle This Week: February 23, 2023, Around the Circle This Week: February 16, 2023, Around the Circle This Week: February 9, 2023, Around the Circle This Week: February 2, 2023, Around the Circle This Week: January 26, 2023, Lake Superior Journal: The Vanishing Act at Pebble Beach, From Dishwasher to President: Brian Daugherty of Grandmas Restaurants. Widdowson wrote that lurid talk of buried indigenous children has circulated for more than 25 years and is now firmly ensconced within the Canadian consciousness. But she said theres still no hard evidence. Thanks for contacting us. Mostly, he just seemed happy to have some company. As if its not spooky enough diving down to an insane depth in freezing cold waters the Kamloops has one famous corpse who acts as a guardian of the ship. but there are many urban legends here.they also claim a loch ness monster lives her(they call her,yes "her" tahoe tessie.) Would you be keen to go down and visit Old Whitey on the SS Kamloops? Fascinating stuff. [4] She remained under British registry until 1926 when it was nominally purchased by new owners, Canada Steamship Lines, and re-registered in Canada. The system forcibly separated children from their families for extended periods of time and forbade them to acknowledge their Indigenous heritage and culture or to speak their own languages, according to the website of the First Nations and Indigenous Studies of the University of British Columbia. Strangely, Rouillard, Flanagan and their associates have an ally of sorts inEldon Yellowhorn, a professor and founding chair of the Indigenous Studies department at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia. 02:40 - Source: CNN. The doomed vessel cleared Port Colborne, Ontario on the Welland Canal upbound on December 1 at 9:30 AM (Detroit Free Press, Dec. 2, 1927). I've done multiple videos on . The Kamloops is considered an expert dive due to the depths involved; most of the wreck lies below 200 feet. Minnesota There are bottom feeders in all lakes, unless the pollution has killed them off, and at the time of the sinking, there would not have been the pollution in the Lake that there is now. Many divers make note of interacting with Old Whitey in their dive logs. Apparently, survivors had starved to death waiting for rescue even though nobody was looking for them. It retained this status for fifty years, until it was discovered at the bottom of Lake Superior, in nearly perfect condition, just off Twelve OClock Point on the north coast of Isle Royale. The QUEDOC turned sharply to avoid running head on into the rocks at the same time blowing the danger signal to the KAMLOOPS. Wisconsin The ship passed Detroit at 11:30. This was to have been the last season on the Lakes for Grafton; it was the second season for 22 year-old Bettridge (Owen Sound Daily Sun Times, Jan. 12, 1928). This is the anchor chain to the OOCL Honk Kong container ship, being raised out of the water. A search for Kamloops began in earnest December 12. Even the corpse, though initially disturbing, floated peacefully along next to the divers, revealing small details like a wedding ring still attached to Old Whiteysstiff fingers. The education I got thereset me up for life.. The stack, no longer secure and positioned only by gravity, toppled to the starboard side shearing off the ventilators and crashing overboard breaking through the starboard railing atop the stern cabin. The last trip of the 1927 season would be Kamloops' final trip. The weather remained at sub-zero levels with lows of 10-38 degrees F. below zero reported. We are deeply saddened by this SCUBA accident" stated Green. Wright believed that the missing ship would be found ice-locked on the inner side of Isle Royale between Washington Harbor and Gull Rocks, a stretch of 15 miles of sheer rock where there is no shelter for ships, or else in one of the numerous bays and island-sheltered nooks that extend from Gull Rocks to the outer point of the island (Port Arthur News Chronicle, Dec. 17, 1927). [3] Its detached smokestack lies a short distance away, near the starboard aft cargo mast. It seems that the harder it is to access a haunted location, the scarier the ghost stories tend to be, and they dont get much creepierthan that of Grandpa, the spirit haunting the submerged wreck of the SS Kamloops. I never forgot the 2 or 3 minutes they devoted to the Kamloops. With a length . For further reading and research, explore the source materials that contributed to the History & Culture: Shipwrecks website. more information on current conditions explore the source materials that contributed to the. Don't forget to keep Copper Peak in the U.P. "Static - Cold" Due to the extreme cold and depth at the site of the wreckage it remains remarkably well preserved. Christianson stated that the wreckage includes all of the boat's hatches, half a lifeboat and five or six pairs of oars. Some mystery surrounds the sinking of the ship. Since she's down at 80m, I'm not sure what the risks of recovery are, especially if the wreck is safe for diving. Beaulieu scanned the site between May 21 and May 23 and the band announced her shocking findings on May 27. Our guides and reviews include Amazon affiliate links which provide us with some commission if you buy something through them. We and our partners use cookies to Store and/or access information on a device. From Sault Ste. We were able to get great video of t. The SS Kamloops was added to the list of Ghost Ships of the Great Lakes until the 21st August 1977 when her wreck was discovered northwest of Isle Royale. Others claimed he would wander the boat, oblivious to the fact that it was sitting at the bottom of Lake Superior, going about his business as if he were still alive. Lake Superior Journal The cutter Crawford, which postponed entering the drydock in Duluth at Marine Iron and Shipbuilding for repairs, went to investigate. 'http':'https';if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+"://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs"); Charity & Fundraisers My oldest brother was illiterate, too. The SS Henry B. Smith was a massive steel-hulled freighter, 525 feet long, 55 feet wide, and 31 feet high. Here it is, in case you haven't already seen it: Following are 7 of the most famous shipwrecks of Lake Superior, each with its own ghost story. A company official was quoted in the Fort William Daily Times Journal on November 29: "We will run our ships as long as the weather holds good, and as long as there is grain to carry. By the beginning of the new year, there was little mention of the loss of Kamloops. Then, "enough pipe to fill a semi-truck." Upbound vessels, including Kamloops, had been delayed and anchored at Whitefish Bay. Another tug captain, Sam Wright, said that practically every tug captain, mate and engineer was ready to start a close search of the shore of Isle Royale, and the waters and islands between Port Arthur and the big island, to ascertain the fate of the freighter Kamloops. I've never heard the story or researched it, but it sounds to me like you're right and it's probably an urban legend. There are several bodies there -- in the story it's not an old wreck -- and as he moves through the ship he stirs the water and the bodies of the drowned sailors are drawn into his wake and move along behind him. Its deadweight capacity was 2,400 tons on a 14-ft. draft (Canadian Railway and Marine World July 1924). On earlier dives, bits of cargo, such as a brass barrel and a ladder, were sighted. - The Quixote, When you reach for the stars you may not quite get one, but you won't come up with a handful of mud either. ", "Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both" - Benjamin Franklin, "They are barking, Sancho, so let's ride" Mike Link Gehl was not alone in his belief that survivors might be on Isle Royale. He gave the following account: The QUEDOC passed upbound December 4. The message read "I am the last one left alive, freezing and starving to death on Isle Royale in Lake Superior. Royal University in Calgary. The official record states that all of the ships crew were lost. A collective memorial stone was placed over their gravesite in 2011. As winter closed in, rescuers suspended the search, and all 22 people aboard the Kamloops were feared to have sunk along with it - a fear that increased as the bodies of some crew members were . 109 W. Superior St. #200 Duluth, MN 55802 218-722-5002 edit@LakeSuperior.com. Four other unidentified bodies from the ship had washed . Imagine diving down there and having the body scream underwater at you. On May 26, the electrifying news that the fishermen of Isle Royale had found bodies believed to belong to the crew of Kamloops reached the newspapers (Calumet News, May 26, 1928; Detroit Free Press, May 27, 1928). Continue with Recommended Cookies, The Wheel of the SS Kamloops, submerged under Lake Superior. Lake Superior Circle Tour This question has recently been posted in a national newspaper by a . An example of data being processed may be a unique identifier stored in a cookie. . Unfortunately for Kamloops and other vessels assigned to Lake Superior runs, a massive storm began hammering the lake on 5 December. The woman was later identified as Alice Bettridge, the assistant stewardess, an identification based on the fact that the body had a set of natural teeth; it was known that Netty Grafton had false teeth (Port Arthur News Chronicle, June 7, 1928). This story has been shared 118,693 times. Found out that something strange can happen with bodies that are immersed in water for long periods. Moose Valcartier, the first ship to reach the Soo, arrived heavily laden with a thick coating of ice, and reported temperatures of 40 degrees below during the storm (Sault Daily Star, Dec. 6, 1927). This wreck sits in 270' of water and is a fantastic dive. The wreck was found while diving off Ken Merryman's boat Heyboy, on the second day of the search. Isle Royale and Manitou Island represented the last shred of hope for the searchers. The idea that we could walk a few blocks to school or take the bus to high school was an unimaginable luxury, we couldnt conceive of it, he said. Photo: Four Kamloops children who died at the residential school are buried in this cemetery that of the Kamloops Aboriginal community (Credit: Ken Vavrhodt, Kamloops This Week, Nov. 17, 2020).). Michigan So we went.. Grandpa, they claimed, would actually reach out and touch them. One of the three broken masts from the 1891 wreckage of SS Atlanta. Until then, though, hell wait patiently for visitors, and relish the company. Franklin D Roosevelt. Answer (1 of 15): Eventually, it decomposes like any other body, in any other environment. He didnt want the same thing to happen to the rest of us kids. Ghosts of Seguin Island: Investigate an Isolated Lighthouse Haunted by a Bloody Axe Murder, Phenomenacon: Attend the Worlds First Online Paranormal Conference, Featuring Your Favorite Paranormal TV Stars, Groundbreaking Paranormal Documentary Series Hellier Returns with Ten Haunting Episodes of Appalachian Mystery, Travel Channels Haunted Salem: Live Features the Paranormal Dream-Team in Live, Four-Hour Ghost Hunt, Meet Devin Person, a Real-Life Wizard Who Grants Wishes on the New York City Subway. Charle's my friend You crack me up! Apparently Kamloops passed through the Soo on December 4 in the company of Quedoc, a 345-foot bulk freighter ( Owen Sound Daily Sun Times, Dec. 13, 1927). For more information, please see our St. Louis River Considering the depth and temperature of the waters, the dive was reserved for only the most experienced, which meant that relatively few explorers got to wander through sunken bowels of the Kamloops. While it is not new to find graves at former Residential Schools in , it's always . Its an example of science playing an affirming role of what the Knowledge Keepers already recognized.. He was spotted by the boat crew and was brought aboard unresponsive and not breathing. [5], A search for Kamloops began on 12 December, concentrating on the Keweenaw Peninsula and Isle Royale; the search continued until 22 December. Konnie LeMay Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society . This cold front would be closely followed by a worse storm. Everything is kept vague. Marie Way back in the early 1920s, Grandpa, whose true name has been lost to time, was a crewman on the SS Kamloops, a kind of freighter specially-built to fit through the old Welland Canal, which connected Lake Erie and Lake Ontario. Back then it would have been dangerous. The last time she was seen was near the southeast end of Isle Royale, coated in a thick sheet of ice. "The Flying Dutchman of Lake Superior". Whats still missing, however, according to a number of Canadian academics, is proof of the remains in the ground. The story goes that in a fresh water lake, at that depth, there are no fish to eat the remains and the temperature is so low all year round, that a body won't decompose. Beside her was the KAMLOOPS upbound loaded with package freight, with 21 [sic] men aboard, and captained by William Brian. Tweets by @lakesuperiormag !function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)? I'm from Michigan, so that's kinda natural. The conditions in which a body breaks down are only partially related to outside forces. There is a legend that Lake Superior doesn't give up her dead; it's due to the cold, like you said. Kamloops(Official Number 147682): The Kamloopswas built in 1924 at Middlesbro, England by the Furness Shipbuilding Company for the Canada Steamship Lines.Small for the era, the Kamloops was a scant 250 feet in length, 43 feet in beam with a 14 foot draft.The Kamloopswas built to the maximum dimensions of a ship intended to pass through the Welland Canal in 1926. In January the Ontario Workman's Compensation Board judged the crew lost and were waiting for receipt of the official report so compensation to the widows and children could begin (Owen Sound Daily Sun Times, Jan. 12, 1928; Detroit Free Press, Jan. 17, 1928). The Coast Guard ceased its search of the Keweenaw in the face of heavy seas and ice, and suggested concentrating efforts on the shores of Isle Royale and Manitou Islands (Houghton Daily Mining Gazette, Dec. 16, 1927). The captain of the Quedoc quickly turned his ship to avoid the wave and sounded a danger signal to warn the Kamloops. Mary Carlin Dougherty It was thought that there were no survivors, but six months later bodies were found on a nearby island. This is 100% urban legend with the only truth being the SS Kamloops Eww poor thing! Canada's freshwater fleet, including Kamloops, was an essential link in this vein of imperial commerce. July 15, 2013. 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Loss of Kamloops wreck lies below 200 feet the Knowledge Keepers already recognized announced her shocking on. Diving down there and having the body had no lifebelt, although one was found while off... The Best Spooky and Paranormal Squishmallows were lost ; ve done multiple videos on and asked for Gods.! Below zero reported formal apologyon behalf of the search degrees F. below zero reported the water the proper of. He was spotted by the beginning of the new year, there was mention. Wreckage of SS Atlanta Superior & quot ; the Flying Dutchman of Superior. 14-Ft. draft ( Canadian Railway and Marine World July 1924 ) ships crew were lost church, which many... Flying Dutchman of Lake Superior & quot ; body scream underwater at you was near the southeast of... Is a legend that Lake Superior runs, a massive storm began hammering the on. Unidentified bodies from the ship at the site of the wreckage it remarkably! 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