The cutter Bear probably was the most famous polar exploration ship
of all time. Originally built as a sealing ship, she served the United
States as a rescue vessel, a revenue cutter, a Coast Guard cutter, a polar
exploration vessel, and an Arctic patrol ship during a career of unmatched
length. She was in the service of the US Government for nearly 60 years,
and she survived to be nearly 90 years old.
Haze Gray Photo Feature
The Cutter Bear
Sealer, Rescue Ship, Revenue Cutter,
Exploration Vessel, Patrol Ship
The Early Years
The famous cutter Bear was built in Dundee, Scotland, in 1874, as a
sealer. She was heavily built, with six inch thick oak planks, to endure
the abuse of arctic ice. She was rigged as a barkentine, and carried a
steam engine. From 1874 to 1884 she made annual trips to the arctic
In 1884, shortly after completing an overhaul, the ship was purchased by
the US government to be used for the rescue of the Greely Expedition,
which was trapped in Lady Franklin Bay in Northern Greenland. The
expedition, under the command of Lieutenant A. W. Greely, had set up a
camp to study the winter conditions of the north in 1881. Their relief
ship in 1882 had failed to reach them, and the 1883 ship also failed to
break through the ice. When the 1883 relief ship failed to reach the
camp, the men gambled that a rescue ship would be coming, broke camp, and
started trekking south. From August to October 1883 they moved south,
then set up camp for the winter. By springtime the food had run out; they
The Bear was the last hope of the trapped expedition, and the
government wasted no time in despatching her north. After a hurried trip
to New York she was outitted for the mission and commissioned in the US
Navy. Bear left New York April 25th, 1884, then stopped at St.
John's for final supplies. With the USS Thetis, another sealer
purchased for the rescue, as
flagship, Bear headed north from Canada on May 4th. She pushed
onwards under steam and sail, and soon entered the ice. Battling through
the pack ice while keeping a lookout for the expedition, she pushed
forward. On June 22 Bear and Thetis finally arrived at the
expedition's camp. Only Lieutenant Greely and six men remained alive.
Bear immediately turned south and raced the men to Portsmouth, NH
for medical treatment.
Bear at Brooklyn Navy Yard, preparing for the Greely rescue.
Bear's companion Thetis during the Greely rescue.
This photo of Thetis has been confirmed as dating to the rescue
similarity in the equipment carried by Thetis to that aboard
Bear is notable.
Bering Sea Patrol
Upon completion of the rescue the Navy turned Bear over to the
Revenue Cutter Service for use on the Bering Sea patrol. In 1886
Bear, operating from San Francisco, started a routine she would
carry out for more than 40 years. Each spring she sailed north into the
Arctic, acting as a mail boat, supply ship, hospital, police department
and court for the isolated northern settlements. She rescued dozens of
ships and persons in the frozen northern expanses during this time. With
the coming of winter, she would return to San Francisco to lay up for the
winter. Bear became an institution of the northern settlements;
she was recognized far and wide. She also made important contributions
"at home" -- her crew played a major role in rescue operations
following the San Francisco earthquake of 1906.
Bear, probably soon after she joined the Revenue Cutter Service.
Bear on Bering Sea Patrol.
Bear working through the Bering Sea ice to rescue a trapped ship.
In 1897 Bear embarked upon one of her greatest missions. After
a busy summer she was heading south for the winter, and put into Seattle
along the way. There she was met with the news that 8 whaling ships with
265 men aboard were trapped in the ice off Point Barrow, the northern
point of Alaska. President McKinley personally asked if Bear would
try a rescue dash, although no vessel had ever sailed north at that time
of year. Bear accepted the challenge, and sailed north on 27
November, with a volunteer crew. She drove northward into the cold,
stormy seas for many days, finally grinding to a halt in the ice at Cape
Vancouver, Nelson Island. She was still 1200 miles from the whalers.
Three of her officers, Lieutenants Jarvis and Bertholf and Surgeon Call
voluntarily left the Bear to trek through across the ice to the
whalers. Their remarkable journey took 120 days, averaging 10 miles a
day. For 800 miles they drove a herd of reindeer ahead of them, to feed
the trapped men. They were just in time. When the rescue party arrived
with the herd of reindeer, the whalers had run out of food and were
reduced to eating their boots.
Bear plowed forward again in the spring, finally arriving off
Point Barrow in July. She was promptly trapped in the ice herself;
the pressure of the ice bulged her decks and threatened to break
her rudder. Only by an all-hands effort to cut the ice away from her
hull was the ship saved. With the rescue completed, she sailed south
and broke out of the ice.
Bear at Oakland, California, in during her off-season.
In 1915 the Revenue Cutter service became part of the Coast Guard, and
Bear became USCGC Bear. During WWI she worked for the Navy,
but went back to Bering Sea patrol after the war. Bear was deemed
obsolete in 1921, but no replacement was available, so she served on. In
1924 she was trapped in ice, pushed ashore in a storm, and reported to be
destroyed, but she was eventually hauled off with little damage. 1926
marked Bear's 36th and final voyage into the Bering Sea. In 1928
the new cutter Northland was commissioned, taking over
Bear in drydock, showing damage to her forefoot.
This photo is undated, but was quite possibly taken during repairs following
Bear's 1924 grounding. The damage visible her is consistent with
being ground over rocks. This almost certainly is not ice damage, which
would make itself evident near the ship's waterline, not at the bottom of
Bear's forefoot after the damage had been repaired.
The Antarctic Expeditions
Following the conclusion of her Bering Sea service, Bear became
a museum at Oakland, near her old winter home, and was owned by the City
of Oakland. Her rest at Oakland was not to last long, however.
Bear playing the part of Death Larsen's sealship
"Macedonia" for the 1930 movie "The Sea Wolf".
This filming probably took place during Bear's years as a
museum ship at Oakland.
Shortly after Bear was retired Admiral Byrd decided to purchase
the ship to replace his old City of New
York for his next expedition to the South Pole. The Admiral
requested that the City put Bear up for auction so he could buy
her. This was done, but Byrd almost lost the ship when a scrap dealer
unexpectedly bid $1,000 for her. Byrd informed the scapper of his
intentions, bid $1,050, and acquired the ship. Bear was renamed
Bear of Oakland sailed for Boston to refit. The old barkentine
sailed from Boston on 25 September 1933 in company of the steamer Jacob
Ruppert, bound for New Zealand. On the way she weathered many severe
storms, one of which forced her into port and into drydock for repairs.
She finally arrived at Wellington, NZ, on 6 January 1934.
Bear of Oakland sailed for Little America, the Antarctic base, on
19 January. 12 days later she arrived and unloaded her supplies and
equipment. After making several exploration trips through the ice, she met
a British ship offshore and picked up the expedition's doctor. She then
had to fight her way back through the ice to drop off the doctor and pick
up extra personnel; she barely made the trip. After 8 desparate hours
conducting final loading and unloading operations, Bear sailed
north out of the ice. She encountered terrific gales on the trip north,
struggling through winds up to 100 miles an hour, and being blown onto her
Bear of Oakland in drydock at Newport News Shipbuilding & Drydock.
This photo was almost certainly taken during October 1933, when Bear
underwent emergency repairs in drydock at Newport News following storm damage
suffered off Diamond Shoals. At the time she was en route from Boston to
New Zealand for her first Antarctic mission.
Dogs and gear on Bear of Oakland's deck, headed south towards
Bear of Oakland in the Antarctic ice pack.
Bear of Oakland in the ice during one of her Antarctic expeditions.
Overhead view of
Bear of Oakland around the time of her Antarctic expeditions.
Bear transferring cargo in the Antarctic ice.
Bear sailed north to New Zealand, spent the Antarctic winter in
overhaul, and again sailed south on 1 January 1935. She was so deeply
laden with supplies and equipment that she had but 20 inches of freeboard.
Bear arrived at Little America on January 19 and began the
evacuation of the base. The work went on around the clock for two weeks,
with Bear shuttling between the icepack and the steamer
Ruppert, standing by offshore. The evacuation was completed and
Bear sailed north again on February 5th. Her voyage finally ended
at Boston, where she lay alongside a wharf, unmaintained, for many years.
Most people thought she would never sail again.
In 1939 President Roosevelt commissioned Admiral Byrd to lead an
expedition to Antarctica to lay claim to previously unclaimed territory
there. Bear was overhauled to serve as the flagship of the
expedition; she was joined by Northland. Bear received new
diesels engines and new spars before she sailed south on 22 November 1939.
She arrived off Antarctica on the 31st of December. During the next few
weeks she set new records by pushing through the ice to points never
before reached. At one point she was trapped and nearly crushed, only
escaping because her spotting aircraft found a lead through the ice. Again
Bear spent the winter in New Zealand, returning to pick up the
expedition in late December, 1940.
Bear in the ice during the 1939-1940 Antarctic expedition.
Another view of Bear during the 1939-1940 expedition.
Bear, nearly obscured by ice, during her final Antarctic voyages.
The World at War and the Final Years
The Battle of the Atlantic was raging by the time Bear reached
Boston. Due to a shortage of patrol ships she rejoined the Navy as
a Greenland patrol ship. Her rig was cut down to two pole masts;
she became a motor vessel. On the Greenland patrol she made the
first US capture of the war: the German ship Busko, captured
while setting up a radio station to assist U-boats. Bear served
until new vessels were available to replace her; she was then laid up
Bear sails from Boston for service on the Greenland Patrol.
Her appearance has been extensively altered during conversion for her new
The cutter Bear as USS Bear (AG 29) during WWII, on
Greenland Patrol. Note the floatplane.
After WWII Bear was offered for sale, and was purchased by
Frank M. Shaw of Montreal for $5199.00. He renamed her Arctic
Bear. In 1948 she was towed to Canada for reconversion to her original
sealing role, but this plan fell through. Arctic Bear was
abandoned in the mud at Halifax. In 1962 she was purchased and converted
to a restaurant/museum ship for use at Philadelphia; her original name was
restored. In March 1963 the tug Irving Birch towed her from
Halifax, bound for Philadelphia. A few days out a gale struck, parting
the towline. Bear's foremast collapsed, poking a hole in her hull,
and she slowly filled and sank. She went down early in the morning of
March 19, 1963, 250 miles east of Boston.
The end of Bear.
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