USN, USCG:
USS
Bear was a dual steam-powered and sailing ship built with six-inch (15.2 cm)-thick sides which had a long life in various cold-water and ice-filled environs. She was a forerunner of modern
icebreakers and had a diverse service life. According to the
United States Coast Guard official website,
Bear is described as "probably the most famous ship in the history of the Coast Guard."
Built in Scotland in 1874 as a steamer for
sealing, she was owned and operated out of
Newfoundland for ten years. In the mid-1880s, she took part in the search for the
Greely Expedition. Captained by
Michael Healy of the
United States Revenue Cutter Service (later part of the
U.S. Coast Guard), she worked the 20,000-mile coastline of
Alaska. She later assisted with relief efforts after the
1906 San Francisco earthquake.
Her services also included the second expedition of Admiral
Richard E. Byrd to
Antarctica, and again to the southernmost continent in 1941 to evacuate Americans at the beginning of
World War II. She later served in patrol duty off the coast of
Greenland for the
United States Navy. Between some of these missions, she was a museum ship in
Oakland, California and starred in the 1930 film version of
Jack London's
The Sea-Wolf.
After World War II,
Bear was returned to use again as a sealing vessel. Finally, in 1963, 89 years after she had been built, while being towed to a stationary assignment as a
floating restaurant in
Philadelphia,
Bear foundered and sank in the
North Atlantic Ocean about 100 miles (160 km) east of
Cape Sable Island,
Nova Scotia.
USRC Bear in 1910
USS
Bear (AG-29) pictured in Antarctic waters during operations with the U.S. Antarctic Service. Note the aircraft on the ship. "One of two ships that supported the 1933-1935 Byrd Antarctic Expedition,
Bear was built in Scotland in 1874, and purchased by the U.S. Navy ten years later specifically for use in the rescue of members of the Greeley expedition in the Arctic. Along with another ship,
Thetis, she rescued six survivors on 23 June 1884. Transferred to the Revenue Cutter Service (later U.S. Coast Guard), she served until 1929, making 34 voyages to Alaskan and Arctic waters. She was sold to the City of Oakland, California, in 1929 for use as a museum. After participating in the Byrd expedition of 1933-1935, during which she was known by the name Bear of Oakland, the ship was repurchased by the Navy in 1939. Commissioned as Bear (AG 29), she made two voyages to the Antarctic as part of the U.S. Antarctic Service and subsequently operated with the Northeast Greenland Patrol until decommisioned in 1944." (NMNA)
