Emergencies and World Disasters
Her Bottle, Her Plea: The SS Kamloops' Frozen Final Message
21 min•29 augusti 2026
Om avsnittet
Her Bottle, Her Plea: The SS Kamloops' Frozen Final Message
A young woman's handwriting in a bottle said she was "the last one left alive, freezing and starving to death on Isle Royale in Lake Superior," and that glass drifted for a year before a trapper found it frozen in the Agawa River-why did twenty-two people and a 250-foot freighter vanish from Lake Superior with no distress call and almost no wreckage for fifty years? This episode centers on that single sealed plea and the one detail found underwater decades later that reframes everything.
In this episode, we follow the timeline from the Kamloops' completion in 1924 to her disappearance in December 1927, the searches that followed, and the discovery of messages and wreckage that piece together an incomplete account of what happened; what does the evidence left on shore, in bottles, and two hundred and sixty feet underwater actually tell us?
Person: Alice Bettridge
Event: Disappearance of SS Kamloops
Date: December 6, 1927 (last confirmed sighting)
Location: Isle Royale / Lake Superior
Ship length: 250 feet
- The SS Kamloops completed sea trials on July 5, 1924, built by Furness Shipbuilding Company at Haverton Hill, Durham, England.
- The Kamloops registered 2,402 gross tons and had a triple-expansion steam engine producing 1,000 horsepower fed by Scottish boilers.
- On December 1, 1927, the Kamloops was loaded in Courtright, Ontario, with cargo including rolls of tar paper, paper-mill machinery, fence wire, pipe fittings, canned food, shoes, and sacks of salt.
- Twenty-two people signed on for the final leg; the last confirmed sighting was on the evening of December 6, 1927, moving southeast of Isle Royale and covered in ice.
- A trapper found a bottle with Alice Bettridge’s folded note in December 1928 on the frozen shore of the Agawa River, about a year after the ship vanished.
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© 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: [email protected].
A young woman's handwriting in a bottle said she was "the last one left alive, freezing and starving to death on Isle Royale in Lake Superior," and that glass drifted for a year before a trapper found it frozen in the Agawa River-why did twenty-two people and a 250-foot freighter vanish from Lake Superior with no distress call and almost no wreckage for fifty years? This episode centers on that single sealed plea and the one detail found underwater decades later that reframes everything.
In this episode, we follow the timeline from the Kamloops' completion in 1924 to her disappearance in December 1927, the searches that followed, and the discovery of messages and wreckage that piece together an incomplete account of what happened; what does the evidence left on shore, in bottles, and two hundred and sixty feet underwater actually tell us?
Person: Alice Bettridge
Event: Disappearance of SS Kamloops
Date: December 6, 1927 (last confirmed sighting)
Location: Isle Royale / Lake Superior
Ship length: 250 feet
- The SS Kamloops completed sea trials on July 5, 1924, built by Furness Shipbuilding Company at Haverton Hill, Durham, England.
- The Kamloops registered 2,402 gross tons and had a triple-expansion steam engine producing 1,000 horsepower fed by Scottish boilers.
- On December 1, 1927, the Kamloops was loaded in Courtright, Ontario, with cargo including rolls of tar paper, paper-mill machinery, fence wire, pipe fittings, canned food, shoes, and sacks of salt.
- Twenty-two people signed on for the final leg; the last confirmed sighting was on the evening of December 6, 1927, moving southeast of Isle Royale and covered in ice.
- A trapper found a bottle with Alice Bettridge’s folded note in December 1928 on the frozen shore of the Agawa River, about a year after the ship vanished.
To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.
© 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: [email protected].
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