I want to tell everyone, I’m off on Labor Day on Monday, so I’ll be posting about my favorite ship of all time. It served 24 years in passenger service and in War.
I first heard about this ship when I saw some divers go into it. It’s almost pristine. Lake Superior has preserved this ship almost perfectly. It had a cargo of Lifesavers and toothpaste among other items. The labels look like they were printed yesterday, although it sank in 1927. I just heard a phrase on a documentary: “the ocean is a liquid archive.” It really is; it holds the answers to mysteries that we will never know. Although this didn’t happen in the ocean, the meaning is the same.
The SS Kamloops was built in 1924 in England for Canada Steamship Lines. She was a smaller freighter made for the old canal system before the St. Lawrence Seaway changed Great Lakes shipping forever. Most of her work was hauling cargo across the Great Lakes. Coal, machinery, food, and supplies filled her holds during her short career. By December 1927, the shipping season was almost over. Lake Superior was already turning dangerous with ice, snow, and freezing winds moving in across the water.
On December 6, 1927, the SS Kamloops left Port Arthur, Ontario, headed for Fort William, which is now Thunder Bay. She carried a crew of 22 souls. Not long after leaving, a massive winter storm swept across Lake Superior. Winds howled and ice built up on ships across the lake. Other captains later said it was one of the worst storms they had seen. The Kamloops vanished without sending a distress call. Search crews found bits of wreckage later, but the ship itself disappeared into the cold water of Superior. For nearly 50 years, nobody knew exactly where she rested.
When the SS Kamloops disappeared in a Lake Superior storm in December of 1927, many assumed that all 22 people on board went down with the ship. The crew included two women, stewardess Netty Grafton and assistant stewardess Alice Bettridge. For months there was no sign of the vessel. Then, when spring arrived, wreckage and bodies began washing up on Isle Royale. What investigators found suggested that at least some of the crew survived the sinking itself.
Several bodies were discovered on the island along with pieces of a lifeboat and oars. Some of the victims were wearing life preservers. This led many to believe that a group had managed to abandon the ship and reach shore. One body believed to be First Mate Henry Genest was found inland from the beach. That detail has always stood out. It suggests that he may have survived long enough to leave the shoreline and search for shelter before succumbing to the cold.
One of the crew members found was Alice Bettridge. Her story became even more tragic when a bottle containing a message was reportedly found on the Canadian shore of Lake Superior. The note was said to have been written by Alice. She said, “I am the last one left alive, freezing and starving to death on Isle Royale in Lake Superior. I just want Mom and Dad to know my fate.” Whether every detail of the story can be proven today is debated, but her parents said it was her handwriting. Netty Grafton is thought to still be in the Kamloops.
The most accepted theory today is that several crew members escaped the sinking and reached Isle Royale alive. They found themselves stranded on a remote island during one of the harshest times of the year. With little shelter, little food, and no way to call for help, they eventually died from exposure. It is one of the saddest stories on Lake Superior. They survived the storm and the sinking, only to lose their lives on land.
50 years later, in 1977, divers finally found the wreck near Isle Royale. The ship sat deep underwater and was still in surprisingly good condition because of the freezing temperatures. The Kamloops soon became one of the most talked-about wrecks on the Great Lakes.
Part of that came from the story of “Old Whitey” or “Grandpa,” the preserved body of one of the crew members that is still inside the engine room, floating around the room (Don’t worry, it will not be in the photos). Divers told stories for years about strange feelings around the ship. Ghost stories followed. But underneath all the legends is the real story. Twenty-two souls went out on Lake Superior in winter and never came home. That’s the important part. This sadly shows that no matter how many lifeboats, wireless equipment, and safety equipment you have, anything can happen.
Discover more from Old Steam Ships
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
This is one of the most bizarre stories I’ve ever heard! Adding insult to injury, so to speak, were the “survivors” who made it to Isle Royale only to suffer through the below freezing cold and starvation. What a truly horrible way to go. Reading about poor Alice was incredibly heartbreaking. This is quite a different tale from last week’s Andrea Doria story. You’re giving us quite an education, Max!
This was one of the first posts I wrote…the story got me right away. It’s bad enough being in a shipwreck…but after surviving that, you get caught in -30 degree weather on Isle Royale without supplies and wet.
Thank you Nancy
The cold weather is awful when you are soaking wet.
Yes it is Jim…when you step out in -30 weather
It is hard to believe how well-preserved everything is on it. I watched the last video. How unnerving it must have been for divers to come across the body still floating in the engine room. I feel sorry for that person and for the rest of the crew. The whole Upper Peninsula is a remote wilderness, so unfortunately not surprising no help came to them on Isle Royale, which is mostly left to the moose and the wolves.
I think it was Deke, who lives in Thunder Bay said the only way to get there is helicopter or boat…and I can’t imagine the weather they hit at that time of year.
This is one of the first posts I ever wrote up for this site…when I saw those lifesavers wrappers…I couldn’t believe it! That room as well…looks like you could sleep in it. Yea that poor engine room guy.
Max, I have to wonder what sank the ship. It was only 3 years old and had made so many trips through there, in good weather and bad. Why this time?
From what I read…some people figure it was ice…if too much ice builds up on a ship and can make it top heavy and capsize. I know what you mean though. Why not another time? But this storm was said by some to be just awful. Lisa…I could probably do a year of these JUST on the Great Lakes. Before I started…I would have never guessed…but you probably knew.
Amazing!!! You know, a few months ago I had little to no interest in old ship wrecks. Now I look forward to Fridays and the story of the week. Thanks, Max
Arthur…I was the same way! Thank you for saying that though. It’s such a wealth of stories in these. Not all happy…but Monday I’ll do one that doesn’t sink.
sad but remarkable story. I’d not heard of it, I wonder if Deke has (as you point out he’s Mr Thunder Bay!) Terrible luck to have the ship go down seemingly so close to land but then be marooned on a wilderness island in winter. It is incredible how well the wreck seems to be preserved.I don’t know how cold Superior is but I know Lake Ontario, shallower and further south, ranges from about 65 in winter to 40-ish in winter, and that’s at its surface so probably colder below. ‘The lake it is said never gives up her dead…’
There is a huge difference between salt water and fresh. Look at the Titanic now…it’s covered with “rusticles” and in a century it will mostly be gone…these in the Great Lakes? They will last a LONG time because of the cold water and hardly any oxygen.
Thanks for reading Dave…
You have said it repeatedly but this time it hit. The difference between salt water and “fresh” water is the preservation of the sinkage. Fascinating.
So sad to make it to land and still not survive.
Yea…escaping a suddenly sinking ship should be enough…
Right!!
I can only reiterate what others here have said. What a crap hand to be dealt, surviving the wreck only to land up freezing and starving. What a cruel twisted bastard ol’ Nettune turned out to be. The tale of Alice alone is beyond tragic. Great, if rather sobering education you’re giving us Max.
Thanks obbverse. This was one of the first ones I wrote… it stuck with me. At first because of the condition she is still in…but then…I found out about that note that Alice wrote…and that is when I knew… that is the story.
https://theelephantstrunk.org/2026/09/05/the-watchman-of-the-engine-room/
People don’t realize the Great Lakes can be as dangerous as the open ocean. The Edmond Fitzgereled showed us that. Good read, Max.
Thanks for dropping by Phil! I appreciate it. Yea…I could write a year of these just on the Great Lakes.