On this day December 6, 1927, the canaller KAMLOOPS was last seen heading along the high cliffs of Isle Royale by the freighter QUEDOC during a blinding snowstorm. She was heavily coated with ice and about a quarter of a mile behind the QUEDOC. The QUEDOC barely avoided running on the rocks and blew its whistle as a warning for the KAMLOOPS. The QUEDOC made it to Duluth. The KAMLOOPS was not seen again.
KAMLOOPS at the Soo in 1925
The KAMLOOPS was built in 1924 by the Furness Shipbuilding Co. of England for the Canada Steamship Lines. Built to fit in the locks of the Welland Canal, she measured 250 feet in length and 42.9 feet in beam and carried package freight from Canadian port to port usually from Montreal up the lakes to Thunder Bay.
On this final trip she was carrying papermaking machinery, coiled wire for range fencing, shoes, food items, piping, and tar paper. She sailed from Courtright, Ontario on December 1st having added bagged salt to her cargo, up Lake Huron and through the Sault Ste. Marie Canal on the 4th. A massive winter storm met her on Lake Superior on the 5th.
Photo at top of page: KAMLOOPS at the CSL wharf in Port Arthur
The KAMLOOPS, under the command of Captain William Brian, carried a crew of 20 including two women. No wreckage was discovered until May of the next year. Fishermen discovered pieces of the cargo, ship, and bodies off Twelve O’Clock Point on Isle Royale. A search was made. Nine bodies were found in all. It appeared first mate Henry Genest had made it to shore, removed his life belt and was able to go inland some distance before succumbing to the elements. One body was of Assistant Steward Alice Bettridge who had managed to write a message in a bottle which was not found until December of 1928. It read: “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.”
The wreck of the KAMLOOPS was discovered in August 1977 at a depth of about 260 feet. She is lying on her starboard side at the bottom of an underwater cliff. Some of her crew are still at their stations.
Suzette Lopez
Photo Credit: Great Lakes Marine Collection of the Milwaukee Public Library and Wisconsin Marine Historical Society.
