United States Revenue Cutter BEAR and the S.S. CORWIN in background, caught in the ice, near Nome

• Main Author: Lomen Bros.
• Other Authors: University of Washington Libraries, Special Collections Division
• Format: Other/Unknown Material
• Language: unknown
• Subjects: Marine accidents > Alaska > Mail steamers > Alaska; Government vessels > Alaska; Revenue cutters > Alaska; Bear (Revenue cutter); Corwin (Ship); Sea ice; Antarctic; Bering Sea; Byrd; Newell; Pacific; Antarc*; Nome; Alaska
• Online Access: http://cdm16786.contentdm.oclc.org:80/cdm/ref/collection/alaskawcanada/id/1021

Caption on image: Caught in the Ice. Copyright by Lomen Bros., Nome PH Coll 328.283e The BEAR patrolled the North Pacific and the Bering Sea in 1896 with the other revenue cutters, after which she was assigned to patrol Puget Sound (p. 10). She sailed from November 1897 to September 1898 assisting whaling vessels trapped or disabled in ice flows (p 43). She worked on the Bering Sea patrol almost constantly from 1899 until 1926, when she became a maritime shrine (p. 376). "On January 28, 1915, the U.S. Revenue Cutter Service and the Lifesaving Service were merged under the designation of United States Coast Guard" (p. 255). Control of the Coast Guard and the BEAR was transferred to the Navy department after the declaration of World War I (p. 293). The BEAR ended her government service in 1925 when she was given to Oakland, California, as a maritime shrine (p. 372). Admiral Byrd puchased the BEAR in 1931, renamed her BEAR OF OAKLAND, and she served as the flagship of his second Antarctic expedition (p. 412). The BEAR sank in 1963 being abandoned on a beach by a bankrupt Nova Scotia sealer. She was purchased by Alfred M. Johnston of Villanova, Pennsylvania, who towed her to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and converted her to a museum and a restaurant (p. 679). Notes from Gordon Newell, ed., The H.W. McCurdy Marine History of the Pacific Northwest (Seattle: Superior Publishing Co, 1966).