<\/p>
\u201cShe sails like a lost soul on the Arctic Seas \u2013 the ghost ship they call the Baychimo<\/em>. She floats wraith-like among the icebergs and flees, creaking, in the teeth of turbulent gales. She always survives, to become once again the fleeting entry in the logbook of a passing ship. Yet she has no man\u2019s hand to guide her. The Baychimo<\/em> was abandoned by her crew 42 years ago \u2013 left to be crushed like a walnut in the jaws of a merciless icefloe,\u201d reads an evocative article that was published in the Leicester Mercury<\/em> on 13 May 1974.<\/p> When former research engineer Peter Day began uncovering his genealogy 20 years ago, he had no idea that his family was inextricably linked with the \u201cMarie Celeste of the Arctic\u201d, to quote the article\u2019s headline. But as he scaled the branches of his family tree, Peter\u2019s attention was drawn to three brothers whose lives read like something out of Boy\u2019s Own \u2013 and one of them had been on the ship\u2019s last voyage.<\/p> When tracing his father\u2019s family history, Peter discovered that three of his great uncles<\/a> had been in the military, so turned to the service records on Ancestry<\/a> and Findmypast<\/a>, and at the Ministry of Defence\u2019s Army Personnel Centre at Kentigern House in Glasgow.<\/p> Great uncle number one, Frederick Thomas McElwee, was born to William Philip McElwee and Fanny Fullman in the barracks at Chatham in 1879, where his father was serving in the Royal Engineers during his 33 years in the British Army.<\/p> \u201cA half-remembered story, told to me by my father when I was very young, went that Frederick had himself joined the Royal Engineers before the first planes and later found himself in the Royal Flying Corps with the low service number of 6, and became the Royal Air Force\u2019s longest-serving officer.<\/p> \u201cAs a little boy at Chatham, Frederick probably watched the first tentative experiments with flying balloons in the shrubland behind the barracks, testing their potential for use in warfare.\u201d He joined the Royal Engineers as a boy sapper in 1894 aged just 15. \u201cI tracked down his Medal Index Card from the First World War<\/a> and his RFC number turned out to be \u2018326\u2019 rather than \u20186\u2019, but still remarkably low.<\/p> \u201cHe went out to fight in the Second Boer War<\/a> with a fortress company working on the railways, but soon transferred to a balloon company. He was involved in the first deployment of balloons in warfare, when they were used for spotting for artillery.\u201d The balloon companies were subsumed by the RFC in 1912 and Frederick went with them \u2013 and again, when the corps became the RAF in 1918.<\/p> \u201cFrederick\u2019s service spanned 48 years, eight months and 29 days \u2013 from a time before aeroplanes to the Battle of Britain<\/a> and the first jet aircraft; from semaphore to radar and radio navigation. Few people can have seen such changes in their military career.\u201d<\/p> The next brother was William (born 1886, Chatham). He joined the Army Ordnance Corps in 1909 and transferred to the RFC in 1915. While fighting in France, he was admitted to the British General Hospital at Rouen \u2013 with German measles. \u201cHis stay in the field hospital would affect the course of his life dramatically.\u201d<\/p> William was promoted to corporal, then sergeant, flight sergeant and temporary sergeant major, and mentioned in dispatches several times. He transferred into the RAF when it was formed, and was promoted to chief master mechanic. \u201cHe was the most senior non-commissioned officer in the corps. It was his job to make sure the aeroplanes kept flying \u2013 this involved overseeing the servicing and repairs of the aircraft. It was a huge responsibility.\u201d<\/p> In July 1919 the French government awarded him the M\u00e9daille d\u2019honneur en argent, and the following year he was awarded an oak leaf emblem for his mentions in dispatches.<\/p> But it was the exploits of the third of his great uncles, Percy (born 1884, Chatham), that Peter was most fascinated by. Percy signed up to the Royal West Kent Regiment in the First World War and fought in some of the bloodiest battles \u2013 the Somme, Passchendaele and Cambrai. He then joined the Merchant Navy<\/a>, and signed on with the Hudson\u2019s Bay Company in Canada<\/a>. \u201cThe family knew he\u2019d been on a ship called the Baychimo<\/em>, but that was all.\u201d<\/p> In the 1930s, the Baychimo<\/em> hit the headlines. Percy had been the ship\u2019s chief steward on its final voyage. Peter wrote to the Hudson\u2019s Bay Company Archives in Manitoba, and their records helped him to understand what happened.<\/p> On 6 July 1931, the Baychimo<\/em> left Vancouver, British Columbia, sailing eastwards and at every stop exchanging goods for valuable animal pelts. She reached the end of her run, Victoria Island, and turned to come back, but winter came early that year. \u201cOn 1 October, the ice closed in and sealed the ship\u2019s fate.\u201d With the ice threatening to crush the Baychimo<\/em>, the captain sent out an SOS. \u201cBy 15 October, their plight seemed so desperate that the Hudson\u2019s Bay Company sent two aircraft from the base at Nome, Alaska, 600 miles away. They rescued 22 of the crew, leaving the skipper and 14 men, including Percy, behind to wait for the ice to melt and release their ship and its precious cargo.\u201d<\/p> The men built a hut on the ice about a mile inland to shelter from the bad weather. \u201cHowever, a big storm hit one night and they awoke to find that the ship had disappeared. They thought it had sunk, and headed for the mainland to return home. A few days later, however, an Inuit seal hunter brought the astonishing news that he had seen their ship some 45 miles to the south-west.\u201d<\/p> Baychimo floated on for many years being spotted and, in some cases, boarded by curious sailors. The last sighting was in the 1960s. As late as the 1990s, the Hudson\u2019s Bay Company released a statement saying they had no proof the ship had sunk. \u201cIt\u2019s quite amazing to think she stayed afloat for so long,\u201d says Peter.<\/p> The journey has been a fascinating one for Peter, full of high-flyers and adventurers. \u201cIt\u2019s exciting stuff \u2013 my relations weren\u2019t stay-at-homers, they went out and lived full lives.\u201d<\/p>Frederick: Flying pioneer<\/h2>
William: Fighting on the front lines<\/h2>
Percy: Serving on the seas<\/h2>