SS Kamloops Shipwreck Lake Superior 2021

[@lydialeigh4]

Amazing preservation on that wreck! Beautifully shot - thanks for sharing!

[@bbaz6729]

Proof that Life Savers can last forever.

[@simonolsen9995]

Proof of false advertising in this case.

[@kennysherrill6542]

Very cool old wreck, amazing how well the shoes are preserved and are those the packages of life savers? 👍👍👍👍👍♥️🇺🇸

[@BeckyKaganSchott]

Yes, boxes and boxes of life savers! Pep O Mint. It's amazing

[@Polo-Hat]

Made a couple dives on & in it about 25 years ago. Awesome shipwreck, but I was respectful when in the engine room. Watching your video, I was a little nervous that you may show him -- very glad you didn't. As you may know, some idiots have treated him as a special attraction...

[@BeckyKaganSchott]

thank you and i agree with you. i believe in respecting tge dead and itd not something i photograph. i have been in tge engine room and made sure my lens was tge other direction. in fact i found it creepy and fidnt even go inside this past trip. i want the story to be told and remembered but i try and be respectful. same thing when i dive WWII wrecks with bones.

[@lukeclay4286]

This is morbid curiosity but is it even possible to recognise the sailor in the engine room? How well preserved is he?

[@matt-ex4kr]

@@lukeclay4286 supposedly,if you knew him you would recognize him.word is there is a woman on board too.

[@lukeclay4286]

@@matt-ex4kr I’ve heard completely different that he is just a torso with stumps for legs.

[@alexslusher16]

If you've been in the engine room, did you see the corpse?

[@petergambier]

Thanks for posting this up Becky. It's astounding that some survivors made it to the shore of Isle Royale and especially sad to read that their bodies were found much later in the spring, question is, why did it take so long to find them? Even sadder, the last person left alive, Alice Bettridge the young assistant stewardess, after a trapper found her note in a bottle about freezing and starving to death on the nearest Isle and what a lonely death she and the other survivors must have had.

[@Minong_Manitou_Mishepeshu]

Isle Royale is iced in so bad during winter only a few fishermen and families stayed. Couldn't get boats out, far to rugged to go for long hikes so they stayed close to home. And the ship wrecked where it's really remote, even for remote Isle Royale standards. I'm actually surprised they found the remains so quickly. And all this happened right down the coast from where Monarch wrecked in Dec. 1906 and had a similar situation. Epic wrecks.

[@petergambier]

@@Minong_Manitou_Mishepeshu, thanks for the comment Minong, what a lonely death all those survivors had.

[@Fredfredfredfredfredfredfred]

It’s clear that they rationed first for that girl or did whatever to keep her first. The strength and poise that she must’ve had while writing that note is just breathtaking

[@JadedArsenic]

Eerily beautiful. Thank you for sharing this with those of us who cannot, for whatever reason, go ourselves.

[@Lanky41]

This is amazing to watch but I do have one question is old whitey still onboard? If so I hope he is at peace

[@LetsGetHaunted]

Hi, there! We are covering the story of the SS Kamloops for one of our podcast episodes and are looking for someone who has dived the Kamloops to give a short interview about their experience. Would you be interested in coming on the show? Interviews are typically 10 - 30 minutes long and you can promote or shout out any projects you'd like. Thank you for your consideration!

[@sissysovereign1294]

So I'm curious on how do you divers stay warm while exploring Superior? I've heard the temperatures down there are so cold that they're in the negatives. Is there a mechanic of sorts in your equipment that allows it to be more bearable?

[@BeckyKaganSchott]

Thanks for your question. First off the temps can't be in the negatives underwater or it would be frozen solid so temps are usually around 37f on the bottom but i've dived in May and it was 34 top to bottom. Typically in the summer we get thermoclines with warmer water around 60ft (50f maybe) and warmer towards th surface which helps with longer decompressions. On deeper dives we limit our time for exposure and also wear very thick or sometimes heated undergarments under our drysuits. The drysuits keep you dry. It doesn't mean you are warm, it is kidn of like going outside in Michigan in March and wearing layers and a winter coat. you're not warm but you're comfortable. Does that help!

[@spiralrose]

Old Whitey is not featured in this upload… he’s what makes the Kamloops unique.

[@BeckyKaganSchott]

I don't film dead bodies that perrished in horrible accidents out of respect. Yes having a preserved corpse is unique to this wreck but i'm not going to use it to gain views on social media.

[@SatyrToon]

That man's body is not a cool accessory to gawk at. Yes, it's interesting that he's so well preserved and remains in the wreck, but he was a person at one point and that wreck is his tomb.

[@perc7226]

@@SatyrToon no one cares

[@SatyrToon]

@@perc7226 judging by the owner of this channel's reply, HE does.

[@groovy2305]

@@BeckyKaganSchott if that's the case what was the point in bothering to dive on the ship and record anything at all to be uploaded to the internet? a lot of people are claiming this sentiment that it's out of respect for Old Whitey or the other crewman, but it just sounds like a thinly veiled attempt at gatekeeping and having a holier-than-thou attitude. At least those with real respect didn't photograph/record anything at all in the wreckage, or what they did document they kept off of the internet, so I don't see what the point is in diving on the wreckage, recording inside of the wreckage, then uploading the footage of the wreckage online while still trying to claim you have sooo much respect for the SS Kamloops and its late crew.

[@bovinejonie3745]

Boxes of life savers. A bit ironic, I guess.

[@ToyotaGuy1971]

Imagine trying that toothpaste

[@359Joey]

Is it really that close to Isle Royale? It seems like less that 100 yards to swim to the island. Hard to believe its 180 feet deep that close to the Island?

[@BeckyKaganSchott]

It really is that close to an island. Some of the crew made it off noto the island before dying of exposure. It's a rick cliff and just plumets down into the depths. The wreck actually sits in 190-270ft down the slope

[@359Joey]

@@BeckyKaganSchott Wonder why all 9 crew didn't just swim to shore.

[@markdarragh6620]

Another awesome video! A bit more advanced than the old Scuba Quest days!

[@BeckyKaganSchott]

Thank you and yes haha a tad more advanced. I started diving Lake Superior 12 years ago and it still takes my breath away

[@prodextron]

Putting Old Whitey (RIP) for a moment, the real question is, how did the Lifesavers candy not dissolve being under water for almost a century? Is it because of the temperature of Lake Superior? I'm a simple consumer of KZbin videos. I do not posses the knowledge of chemists or physicists. Aside from that mystery, this is an awesome video and keeps the legacy of Kamloops going for future generations.

[@BeckyKaganSchott]

Great question. So the candy has actually disolved. It's no longer there it's just the foil packaging thats preserved and held the shape of when it had life savers in it

[@abbeymclaughlinpersonal]

This is amazing footage. Thank you (to you and the other divers) for braving this. It's cool to see.

[@veronikakovacova15]

Beautifull video. Hope to dive great lakes wrecks one day, you are really inspiring

[@lolitbird7522]

On some level I get why you chose not to film Old Whitey…but to me the interesting way his body was preserved makes him a water mummy…and if it’s not okay to display this interesting and highly unique method of preservation why are Egyptian mummies not afforded this same courtesy? They were human too and people disturbed their tombs and put them on display for the public to see, so why are these preserved human remains not afforded the same courtesy as Old Whitey or the crew of the Edmond Fitzgerald? Does the recentness of these deaths and the fact that we may share the same religion as them make them more entitled to be left undocumented than people who lived thousands of years ago? It just seems a little hypocritical that the length of time since their death makes these fascinating preserved lake bodies entitled to privacy while bodies like the Tolland man and the Inca Maiden (who only died 500 years ago and was a sacrifice) and the bodies/skeletons from the Mt Vesuvius eruption can be studied and filmed without any backlash. Also how is okay that the people who died on Mt Everest are able to be photographed even though many of them had passed many years after Old Whitey? So in 50 years will it finally be okay to document and study Old Whitey as more than likely by then no living person of his family would have ever known him? Also why not bring his body up to be studied and then have him interred somewhere (like near his family/descendants) or hell even put him back in his final resting place if they think it’s not too morbid to put a drowning victim back in the place they died. But the fact remains there have been no truly informative documentaries showing this fascinating natural preservation method, and scientifically inclined people would like to see what exactly this preservation method is and what it may or may not have done to the body. This is me legitimately asking as i really don’t see why some are allowed to be viewed by the public (aka mummies) and the Lake Superior bodies are not.

[@lolitbird7522]

Nevermind I just looked up soap mummies which is what old Whitey is and they are terrifying to look at honestly looks like something straight out of Resident Evil…Capcom plz do not make this a thing they are legitimately terrifying to look at. Now I understand why the diver actually didn’t film Old Whitey his body (from looking up soap mummies) would be horrifying to encounter not even in the sense that he was once a person but the preservation method far creepier than I thought it would be.

[@UriNierer]

It should be normal to show all of them. I would actually recover such bodies from wrecks and put them in a museum.

[@sissysovereign1294]

​. Isn't it creepy? There is another video on here simply titled Kamloops that actually does show his body for a minute, but it shows him in a position where only his rear,legs, and feet/boots are visible and sticking out while everything else above the waist is pinned down behind what looks like a staircase and out of view. Maybe that was nature doing both us the viewer, and Mr Whitey a favor by conveniently hiding the rest of his soapy state.

[@chesterfieldthe3rd929]

Because it's not fascinating. It's sad. That's why.

[@technologicallyilliterate]

I think it’s because this is a more recent tragedy. The sinking occurred nearly a century ago, but these people are still within living memory for the very oldest of Great Lakes residents on both sides of the lake. I’m not sure exactly who old whitey is, but I think he’s been identified. Being that less than a century has passed, he likely has living descendants and relatives that make photographing his mummified corpse somewhat of an ethical and privacy issue. I know I wouldn’t want people photographing my grandmother or grandfather’s corpses for their own amusement. With Egyptian mummies, though, the ethics are a bit different. They have no probable direct descendants, as they died thousands of years ago, and they can comfortably become more of a historical artifact at that point. The primary ethical issue is the removal of those mummies from their tombs by other countries, especially Britain.

[@Minong_Manitou_Mishepeshu]

Isle Royale wrecks rule.

[@BeckyKaganSchott]

agreed!

[@johnnumber1]

3:18 I wonder what one of those lifesavers would taste like if brought back up.

[@tnscubadiver]

Awesome photography Thanks for sharing

[@thebritishempire8754]

How is Old Whitey faring? Rest in heaven, sir.

[@jamesxiaolong2199]

I know this is morbid but do you ever give words to Grandpa if you encounter him? I had a cousin who dived here and was convinced he was being followed by grandpa.

[@BeckyKaganSchott]

I try to avoid it, it's deep, dark, creepy and inside the wreck but i say rest in peace and i won't bother you .Its a spooky place

[@jamesxiaolong2199]

@@BeckyKaganSchott entirely understandable. Thank you for the response.

[@williamcap2236]

Dam i love lifesavers wouldn't mind a pack of those

[@quincycroft3323]

Would've been crazy if they showed Old Whitey. They say he follows people who come in there welcoming anyone inside.

[@Honeydwarf85]

Did you see the remaining crew member on the wreck on your dive?

[@BeckyKaganSchott]

Yes, his body is inside the engine room. I don't shoot that though

[@alexslusher16]

@@BeckyKaganSchott that would honestly be creepy. Just swimming in the dark depths & you swim past a dead body. I'd probably $hit my pants if that happened to me. Especially if it touched me.

[@jeffsfleet]

Great video. Anyone know why there are orange chains on the ships wheels? 7:17 Is this to discourage theft?

[@BeckyKaganSchott]

It was actually put there around 1979 when the wreck was discovered. At that time it was not illegal to take things from a wreck. The divers that discovered it didn't want the wheel stolen. It's remained there still. It could be taken away but now it's kind of a piece of history

[@jebucha]

I did not expect to see cases of Lifesavers lol

[@shopdog831]

Lol those lifesavers tubes lasted pretty good

[@Hazztech]

They say there are more bodies in the nose.

[@melissacarterpresley5786]

No they don't.

[@Hazztech]

@@melissacarterpresley5786 they do.

[@blackivy8200]

This was amazing to watch i have chills and give you so much credit cause i would have had a panic attack. Divers are amazing.