The Bannockburn was a Canadian registered steel-hulled freighter which disappeared on Lake Superior

Lake Superior

Lake Superior is the largest of the five traditionally-demarcated Great Lakes of North America. It is bounded to the north by the Canadian province of Ontario and the U.S. state of Minnesota, and to the south by the U.S. states of Wisconsin and Michigan. It is the largest freshwater lake in the...

 in snowy weather on Friday, 21 November 1902. She was sighted by the captain of a passing vessel, the SS Algonquin, around noon of that day but minutes later disappeared. The wreck of the ship has never been found, and no bodies were ever recovered. Within a year of her disappearance she acquired a reputation as a ghost ship

Ghost ship

A ghost ship is a supposedly haunted or ghostly vessel, such as the Flying Dutchman.The same term is also used to describe derelict ships found adrift with their entire crew either missing or dead, such as the Mary Celeste or the Baychimo....

 and became known as The Flying Dutchman of the Great Lakes.

History of the ship prior to sinking

The Bannockburn had technically sunk once before, on the morning of 15 October 1897: under Captain John Irving, laden with grain and destined for Kingston, Ontario from Chicago, Illinois, she had struck the wing wall of Lock No. 17 of Welland Canal

Welland Canal

The Welland Canal is a ship canal in Canada that extends from Port Weller, Ontario, on Lake Ontario, to Port Colborne, Ontario, on Lake Erie. As a part of the St...

 and sprung a leak sending her to the bottom of the shallow canal where she took on nine feet of water before coming to rest. However, no lives were lost and she was raised afterward. She had also been badly damaged several months prior when she ran on the rocks near Snake Island Light on the morning of 27 April while at full speed—however, after dumping 30,000 bushels of grain cargo she was able to float and again no lives were lost though her forefoot and frame were badly stove in.

Chronology of disappearance

The final voyage of the Bannockburn began at the Canadian lakehead near what is now known as Thunder Bay

Thunder Bay

-In Canada:Thunder Bay is the name of three places in the province of Ontario, Canada along Lake Superior:*Thunder Bay District, Ontario, a district in Northwestern Ontario*Thunder Bay, a city in Thunder Bay District*Thunder Bay, Unorganized, Ontario...

, under Captain George R. Wood. She was downbound

Downbound

Downbound - A direction a vessel is moving in the Great Lakes region. The St. Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation uses term for eastward movements of cargo. The U.S. Coast Guard uses the term for vessels following the current....

 carrying 85,000 bushels of wheat, leaving the city of Fort William

Fort William

Fort William may refer to:In Canada:*Fort William, Ontario, a Canadian city which, together with Port Arthur, became part of Thunder Bay in 1970**Fort William , a related Canadian federal electoral district...

 on November 20 and headed for Georgian Bay

Georgian Bay

Georgian Bay is a large bay of Lake Huron, located entirely within Ontario, Canada...

. She suffering a slight grounding but no apparent damage on her way out to the open lake, and her departure was delayed one day. She recommenced her journey on the 21st. Sometime that day, Captain James McMaugh of the upbound

Upbound

Upbound - A direction a vessel is moving in the Great Lakes region. The St. Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation uses the term for westward movements of cargo. The U.S. Coast Guard uses the term for vessels proceeding against the current....

 Algonquin, another lake freighter, reported viewing her through binoculars about 7 mi (11.3 km) to the southeast of him, about 80 mi (128.7 km) off Keweenaw Point

Keweenaw Peninsula

The Keweenaw Peninsula is the northern-most part of Michigan's Upper Peninsula. It projects into Lake Superior and was the site of the first copper boom in the United States. As of the 2000 census, its population was roughly 43,200...

 and 40 mi (64.4 km) off Isle Royale

Isle Royale

Isle Royale is an island of the Great Lakes, located in the northwest of Lake Superior, and part of the state of Michigan. The island and the 450 surrounding smaller islands and waters make up Isle Royale National Park....

. He was well-acquainted with her profile and he stated that he viewed her "several times" over the course of a few minutes to note her progress, which was very nearly on course. At a certain moment, however, he attempted to spot her and was surprised that he was unable to do so. He blamed this sudden disappearance on the somewhat foggy weather, and dismissed it.

A powerful winter storm raked Lake Superior that night. At 11:00 pm the nightwatch pilothouse crew of the passenger steamer Huronic, also upbound on the lake, reported seeing lights on a ship they passed in the storm which they believed were in the pattern of those of the Bannockburn. However, no signals of distress were observed, and the two ships passed each other without incident.

The Bannockburn was reported overdue the following morning at the Soo Locks

Soo Locks

The Soo Locks are a set of parallel locks which enable ships to travel between Lake Superior and the lower Great Lakes. They are located on the St. Marys River between Lake Superior and Lake Huron, between the Upper Peninsula of the US state of Michigan and the Canadian province of Ontario...

, but given the weather the previous night, this was not considered unusual. When she still did not report several days later, however, the fear that she had been lost began to grow.

On November 25 the steamer John D. Rockefeller passed through a field of floating debris near Stannard Rock Light

Stannard Rock Light

The Stannard Rock Light, completed in 1883, is a lighthouse located on a reef that was the most serious hazard to navigation on Lake Superior. The exposed crib of the Stannard Rock Light is rated as one of the top ten engineering feats in the United States. It is from the nearest land, making it...

 which might have been that of the Bannockburn, though at this time the Bannockburn had not yet been reported lost and the crew of the Rockefeller did not know what might have caused the debris field. By 30 November, the ship and crew were officially given up as "lost".

On Friday, December 12, the Captain of the Grand Marais Lifesaving Station found a cork life preserver from the Bannockburn washed up on the beach. This item is the only known wreckage from the ship ever to have been recovered.

Captain wood was the oldest person aboard the vessel, at age 37. Most of the crew were between the ages of 17 and 20. One of the ship's two wheelsmen

Helmsman

A helmsman is a person who steers a ship, sailboat, submarine, or other type of maritime vessel. On small vessels, particularly privately-owned noncommercial vessels, the functions of skipper and helmsman may be combined in one person. On larger vessels, there is a separate officer of the watch,...

, Arthur Callaghan, was only 16. Although the ship was considered to be of recent manufacture (at nine years old it was still thought of as almost new) the overall inexperience of her crew might have been a factor in her being lost. Such young crews, however, were common on the Great Lakes at the turn of the 20th century because they were inexpensive to hire and shipping firms had strong financial incentives and no legislative reason not to take advantage of this whenever they might, even in Canada.

There are many theories as to what went wrong. Captain McMaugh proposed that the ship might have experienced a boiler explosion though he did not hear one and no charred wreckage typical of such an explosion was later found anywhere along the route that the Bannockburn was known to have taken. Alternatively, the at-that-time uncharted danger of the Superior Shoal

Superior Shoal

The Superior Shoal is a geologic shoal of approximately located north of Copper Harbor, Michigan in the middle of Lake Superior whose highest point lies only below the lake's surface. The shoal is a volcanic hump in an otherwise deep part of the lake, and though fishermen had known of its...

might also have been the cause.
Interestingly when the Soo locks were drained at the end of that season, a hull plate from a ship was found in the lock. It was supposed to have belonged to the Bannockburn, and without it her hull would have had an unknown weak point.

The only known memorial to the Bannockburn is a stone tablet in a church in Port Dalhousie, Ontario. It is in memory of her captain, and was purchased by his brother.