The bit about the body following the divers around reminds me very much of a short story called "Dead Men On Parade". As exploration of the Kamloops grew, whispers of Grandpa began to make the rounds in diving circles. MI St. Louis River As more divers have visited the wreck of the Kamloops the legend of Old Whitey has grown. In December of 1928 a message in a bottle was found at the mouth of the Agawa River by a trapper. Remains of 215 children found buried near school in Canada. Unfortunately for Kamloops and other vessels assigned to Lake Superior runs, a massive storm began hammering the lake on 5 December. [4] The ship, and the twenty-two men and women aboard, were never seen alive again. Until then, though, hell wait patiently for visitors, and relish the company. Photo: Doug Bell . Where is the actual evidence of the 215 bodies discovered at the grounds of the former Kamloops Indian Residential School? 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. The tug "Siskiwit" was dispatched to pick up any bodies that might wash ashore and secure the wreckage, on November 9 th.The tug also was given instructions to secure the mail, the purser's and ship's books and papers. This ship is capable of carrying over 20,000 TEU containers when fully loaded. Photo courtesy of Brian Stephens, Kamloops, British Columbia. Canadian professor Frances Widdowson said that no one dares question indigenous leaders in Canada these days, which makes it difficult to check their claims about buried remains of children. Like the Kamloops and its well-preserved "Old Whitey," the preserved bodies of Lake Superior typically were attached to vessels at the lake's bottom. 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. It came true, you're lookin' at it. Tomson Highway, a full-blood Cree, is a well-known Canadian composer, author and pianist. The alleged burial ground, which is said to include 215 bodies some as young as 3 years old was located with the help of ground-penetrating radar at the site of the former Kamloops Indian . The Kamloops is considered an expert dive due to the depths involved; most of the wreck lies below 200 feet. 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). It would seem that at least one of the ships crew decided to stick around, and so many divers had met him that they even gave him a nickname: Grandpa. HAH! Some cargo remains in the holds, while other cargo is strewn around the wreck site. The ship was released unharmed at 4:00 that afternoon after jettisoning 900 tons of ore (Detroit Free Press Oct. 27, 1926). It involves a ship called The SS Kamloops that sank in 1927 off Isle Royale in Lake Superior. She hit Isle Royale broadside, smashing her starboard bow. 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).). Manage Settings Cookie Notice The body of one of the deceased crew members, dubbed Old Whitey, floats amongst the wreckage of the ship with some divers claiming it follows them as they dive. KAMLOOPS was of the vessel type built to the maximum possible canal dimensions. The visibility was poor, on account of frost fog, and it is not known if the KAMLOOPS saw the rock or heard the signal. [10] The exact cause of her sinking remains a mystery as of 2022. You cant criticize them. The Canadian professors also take issue with reports that at least 150,000 Indigenous children were forced to attend residential schools, which is now accepted as gospel in Canada. I find it a little hard to swallow the body still being in tack too. One of the three broken masts from the 1891 wreckage of SS Atlanta. The Canadian government and provincial authorities pledgedabout $320 millionto fund more research and in Decemberpledged another $40 billioninvolving First Nations child-welfare claim settlements thatpartially compensate some residential school attendees. Gehl was not alone in his belief that survivors might be on Isle Royale. When the Kamloops failed to arrive at her destination on December 12 a search expedition was launched. It must be made certain that no one is on the island before the search for the missing steamer is given up as hopeless" he said (Port Arthur News Chronicle, Dec. 16, 1927). The crew was forced to "finish" the engines. The History of the Kamloops. They speak of paying respects to Old Whitey or shaking hands with grandpa. Some of them rationalized it as currents, but others insisted that there was something unnatural, even intelligent, about the way Grandpa moved. For further reading and research, explore the source materials that contributed to the History & Culture: Shipwrecks website. Phone: (250) 372-3322 Newsroom: (250) 851-3204. All rights reserved. The last trip of the 1927 season would be Kamloops' final trip. The Kamloops was built in the UK for Steamships Ltd. of Montreal, Canada. All this about unmarked graves and missing children triggered a moral panic. Also, it is too dangerous to recover a body trapped that far down. Kate Crowley Historical Collections of the Great Lakes Index: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=SS_Kamloops&oldid=1099272159, This page was last edited on 19 July 2022, at 22:22. . These two parts seem very contradictory to me. Highway, who wrote about his sub-Arctic childhood in last years Permanent Astonishment, told The Post that he credits his years spent at Guy Hill for his success in life. [3] Approximately fifty dives were made to Kamloops out of 1,062 dives made to wrecks in the Isle Royale National Park in 2009. [4], Of the nine bodies recovered from Kamloops, five were identified and the remains shipped to next of kin. With no power, she was at the mercy of the raging storm and the northeast gales tossed and blew her toward Isle Royale. A collective memorial stone was placed over their gravesite in 2011. Some divers have reported seeing the ghost of old whitey in separate places to his corpse. A video of some intrepid divers exploring the wreck of the SS Kamloops. Can't find much info on it and it seems like it might just be an urban legend. [4], Kamloops completed its sea testing on 5 July 1924, was shipped to Copenhagen, Denmark, to pick up freight, then was taken to Montreal and Houghton, Michigan, United States. Sled Dogs Lifesavers candies still preserved in the cargo hold | Via Doug Bell / YouTube. The ship was 260ft deep, its detached smokestack lying a short distance away. Full Circle Superior Since last years announcement, there have been no excavations at Kamloops nor any dates set for any such work to commence. But I didnt see any strange deaths, he said. Frederick Stonehouse Captain R. Simpson of Quedoc arrived at the Soo and discovered Kamloops still on the unreported list. only shades of grey. Experts say an estimated 150,000 children attended the schools. They attempted to assist him but were forced to send him to the surface alone after he became unconscious. Storm signals were raised once again on December 7, as a northeast wind began blowing at 20 to 30 miles per hour. We and our partners use data for Personalised ads and content, ad and content measurement, audience insights and product development. Two divers in Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin found the mummified remains of 52-year-old Dirk Kann of Guttenberg, Iowa 225 feet below the surface Saturday still in his wet suit, WLUK-TV reported. I don't remember who wrote it, but it's in one of the Alfred Hitchcock story collections and I read it several times when I was a kid. S.S Kamloops sunken in Lake Superior with holds a preserved corpse, nicknamed "Old Whitey". Duluth The downbound grain fleet had weathered the storm at Fort William. It appeared to have lost power and slid down an underwater incline, coming to rest on its side. In the novel, the body of a fictional contemporary diver is found together with the historical human remains in the ship's engine room. 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. Kamloops, BC V2C 1T5. The Kamloops and her 22 crew members were never seen alive again. When they decided to use federal funds they got during Covid to contract with an expert to look for the remains, the results were lightning quick, Read told The Post. I went because my father wanted me to, Highway said about his dad, a caribou hunter and champion dog sledder who was illiterate. News of the discovery was relayed to the port cities from Isle Royale by the captain of Winyah. Submit Yours, 2020 Lake Superior Publishing LLC. Search parties were sent out through the Great Lakes, all of them turning up no evidence of the ship, and on the 26th, three weeks after the ships disappearance, winter weather came down hard, as did hope for the Kamloops crew, and the search was halted. The Kamloops and her small crew of about two dozen spent most of their time running cargo along the Canadian shore, from Montreal to Fort William. Some even returned saying that they had seen Grandpas ghost and his body in the same trip, though never in the same room. It's a torso with some leg stumps, that's all that's . Beside her was the KAMLOOPS upbound loaded with package freight, with 21 [sic] men aboard, and captained by William Brian. At least 80 people survived Sunday's shipwreck off the Calabrian coast, but rescue crews recovered 60 bodies, including those of several children and the corpse of a young man Monday morning. Divers report seeing Whitey follow them or stare at them while they explore the shipwreck. At over 16 acres in size, it is also the world's largest man-made reef built to hold the remains of over 125,000 people. Almost half of a century after it had disappeared, on August 21, 1977, Minneapolis sport diver Ken Engelbrecht finally spotted the dark shadow of the wreck during an exploratory dive. Whats still missing, however, according to a number of Canadian academics, is proof of the remains in the ground. The explorer, Fred Shannon, is releasing the book and video next week to mark the sinking of the 729-foot ore carrier during a gale on Lake Superior on Nov. 10, 1975. He gave the following account: The QUEDOC passed upbound December 4. The conditions in which a body breaks down are only partially related to outside forces. The prospect of finding survivors still alive on Isle Royale was considered remote (Daily Mining Journal, Marquette Dec. 16, 1927). Apostle Islands 2023 NYP Holdings, Inc. All Rights Reserved, with the help of ground-penetrating radar, all flags on federal buildings fly at half-mast, being murdered and buried in what some past school attendees say was an apple orchard. 109 W. Superior St. #200 Duluth, MN 55802 218-722-5002 edit@LakeSuperior.com. So in order to receive an education, Highway said he entered the Guy Hill Indian Residential School in Manitoba on September 1, 1958. On earlier dives, bits of cargo, such as a brass barrel and a ladder, were sighted. Fragments of superstructure, including the top of the wheelhouse, a spar with a flag on which was printed KAMLOOPS, and a lifeboat were found in the area between Green Isle and Hawk Island. Two bodies had been reported found by David Lind: The bodies, both wearing life preservers with "KAMLOOPS" stenciled on them, were reported located near Twelve 0' Clock Point on Amygdaloid Island (sic) on the north shore of Isle Royale. 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. What happened to the American dream? there are storys like that here(lake tahoe) they are not sure how deep the center is.it's said it's unmeasure able I know that part to be true as i've been on the caost gaurd boat and there depth finder shuts off in the center.they know there are cemment shoes in our lake and say bodies dumped by the mob in the deep area are still there due to the extreme old and lack of fish. Since the Kamloops discovery, investigators using ground-penetrating radar say theyve located what may be the unmarked graves of another 800 or so children at residential schools in British Columbia and Saskatchewan, according to reports. Encounters with Grandpa have proven to be extra scary because hes not just any ghost he inhabits a well-preserved corpse, nicknamed Old Whitey, that has remained trapped in the downed ship for nearly a century. A more comprehensive search for the wreck and crewmembers was undertaken, but nothing was found. I came across an interesting story recently that circulates among diving enthusiasts. We were able to get great video of t. The coal fired, forced draft engine could not function without the stack. It was surmised that the first mate was able to make it to shore and remove his lifebelt before succumbing to the elements (Ft. William Daily Times Journal, June 14, 1928). The bottle contained a note from Alice Bettridge, the assistant stewardess of the Kamloops. An ancestor of mine lived there for a time in about, donna Creamore | Lake Superior Journal: The Vanishing Act at Pebble Beach, In 1976, I married my wife and we took a camping honeymoon. Tkemlps te Secwpemc spokesman Larry Read confirmed to The Post this week that no bodies have yet been exhumed from the Kamloops school and no dates have been set to start excavations. Michigan HOUGHTON, MI On Saturday, July 13, a recreational SCUBA diver exploring the Kamloops shipwreck at Isle Royale National Park was fatally injured in a diving accident. Marie, Capt. A strong advocate of Indian education, he assisted the Oblate Fathers in establishing a day . That's why embalming is necess. Holy **** that gives me shivers, I am now traumatised for several weeks. Then there were others who reported something even more frightening: that Grandpa would follow them as they made their way through the ship, and that he wasnt just a ghost he was physical. Theres a lot of misinformation floating out there. The SS Kamloops was last seen in December 1927 and went missing. Royal University in Calgary. 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