The disappearance of the SS Bannockburn
The Canadian freighter Bannockburn vanished on Lake Superior on 21 November 1902 in a snowstorm, and only a life preserver was ever found.
The SS Bannockburn was a Canadian steel-hulled freighter owned by the Montreal Transportation Company. On 21 November 1902 she left Fort William, Ontario, with a grain cargo of 85,000 bushels and was expected at Midland. She disappeared on Lake Superior in snowy weather, after a storm the night before.
The last report of her came from the steamer Algonquin, whose captain, James McMaugh, sighted her roughly fifty miles to the southeast of Passage Island. Wikipedia says this was around noon and that she disappeared minutes later. SooToday places the sighting in the afternoon and calls what McMaugh witnessed unexplainable. Accounts therefore differ on whether the ship was seen to vanish.
On the fifteenth of December 1902, The Whig told of a life preserver picked up by lookouts on the beach at White Fish Point, Michigan, with straps tied and seemingly bloodstained. Wikipedia says the life preserver is the only part of the ship ever found, and that no bodies were recovered. Within a year she had a reputation as a ghost ship and the nickname "The Flying Dutchman of the Great Lakes."
"The SS Bannockburn was a Canadian registered steel-hulled freighter that disappeared on Lake Superior in snowy weather on November 21, 1902.[1] 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, with the exception of a life preserver, and no bodies were ever recovered. Within a year of her disappearance she acquired a reputation as a ghost ship and became known as "The Flying Dutchman of the Great Lakes".[2][3][4] Her fate remains an unsolved mystery."
- The tale of the missing Bannockburn steamer, SooToday (Sault Ste. Marie Public Library archives)
- Don't 'Bannock'! It's Just a Ghost Ship, Great Lakes Museum, Kingston