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"U.S.R.C.
"Bear" in Alaskan Waters" by Paul McGehee. The most famous ship in U.S.
Coast Guard history, the "Bear" was built in 1874. Built with 6" wooden
planking she was the finest ship of her era for cutting through ice.
She spent a decade working as a seal ship out of Newfoundland. In 1884
she was purchased by the U.S. government to become part of the United States Revenue Cutter Service, which later
became the U.S. Coast Guard. The
"Bear" first entered the pages of history in 1884 as the ship that got
through the ice to save the few remaining survivors of the Greely
Expedition party which had been trapped in the Arctic cold while
charting the coast of Greenland. As a United States Revenue Cutter the
"Bear" patroled 20,000 miles of Alaskan coastline for several years
rescuing trapped ships and keeping the peace. From 1885 to 1926, "Bear"
looked out for seal poachers, shipwrecked whalers, and illicit trade
with Alaska Natives, ferried reindeer from Siberia to Alaska, and
served as a floating courthouse. By order of the Department of the
Treasury, the crew of the "Bear" was given the power to arrest and
seize possessions of poachers, smugglers and illegal traders, as well
as take census of people and ships, record geological and astronomical
information, take note of tides, and escort whaling ships. One captain
of the U.S.R.C. "Bear," Michael "Hell Roaring Mike" Healy, was
considered a savior by many of the whalers and native Eskimos, as he
bought Siberian reindeer at his own expense for the starving natives to
use as the foundation for a new herd in Alaska. During one of its
yearly trips back to San Francisco, California "Bear" assisted in
rescue operations for 1906 San Francisco earthquake. The Revenue Cutter
Service became part of the U.S. Coast Guard in 1915 and the ship was
renamed the U.S.C.G.C. "Bear." A few years later in 1930, the "Bear"
(now named "Bear of Oakland") became a star of the silver screen as the
sealer "Macedonia" in the first motion picture production of Jack
London's "The Sea Wolf." In 1933-35 Admiral Richard Byrd used her on
his second Antarctic Expedition. After that much-publicized exploration
of the frozen continent, Byrd then leased the "Bear" to the United
States Navy for $1.00 a year. From 1939-41 the ship, now know as the
U.S.S. "Bear" served the Navy as part of the United States Antarctic
Service Expedition. When war broke out in 1941, the U.S.S. Bear
assisted in the evacuation of Antarctica, as international tensions
rose in the months that led up to America's entrance into World War II.
"Bear" arrived at the Mikkelsen Islands, just north of the Antarctic
Circle, on March 16, 1941, and its crew helped to build an airstrip to
evacuate personnel and equipment from the expedition base in the area.
From 1941 to 1944, U.S.S. "Bear" (AG-29) served in the Northeast
Atlantic Greenland Patrol. The rigging was cut down to two masts to
became a fully motorized ship with auxiliary wind power. After the
September 12, 1941 capture of the German-controlled Norwegian sealer
"Busko," (which was used as a supply ship for secret weather stations)
by U.S.C.G.C. "Northland," "Bear" towed the prize all the way across
the North Atlantic to Boston harbor! When more up-to-date ships were
finally available to replace her, "Bear" was decommissioned on May 17,
1944 and laid up in Boston until the end of the war. She had the
distinction of being the oldest U.S. Navy ship to be deployed outside
the continental United States during World War II. The years following
the war were difficult for the "Bear"...for a while, a new owner
purchased her to put her back into the sealing trade, but time had long
since passed her by. She languished at Halifax, Nova Scotia for years
with talk of her becoming a museum ship. That was never to be...however
in 1962 the "Bear" was purchased by a group which wanted to turn her
into a floating restaurant along the waterfront of Philadelphia. After
a year of refitting for her new life as a seafood restaurant, she sank
while being towed to Philadelphia in the waters off of Nova
Scotia...ending one of the most colorful careers of any vessel in
United States history. "U.S.R.C. "Bear" in Alaskan Waters" (a 1914 view
of this famous ship) is faithfully
reproduced
as an archival-quality print from
McGehee's original oil painting, each hand-signed by the artist.
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