❖ HONORING A HUMANITARIAN for 11 November ❖

BEAR
1874-1963
ON 66840
She sailed under names: USRC BEAR, USCGC BEAR,
BEAR OF OAKLAND, ARCTIC BEAR and under the
flags of 3 nations, U. K., U. S., and Canada.
The BEAR had a career of 89 years in Polar Seas
as a Revenue cutter, rescue vessel, war hero,
humanitarian, movie star, and floating museum.

THE BARKENTINE BEAR

When the dews and damps of a deep-laid hull

Have rotted my body and soul,

When the seas have washed atop of my rigging

And no more will I reach for the pole,

When the men who go down to the sea in ships

Have seen me no more in southland slips,

When the northland people have looked off to sea 

In vain o'er the floes for a sight of me

Only then is my voyaging done.

When the barking of seal in the sea of the mists

Is echoed by bulwarks of steel,

When the bowheaded monsters of Akutan Bay 

Dive low under the grey iron keel.

When my mainsail and jib and topgallant sheer

Are furled forever from wind and from sleet,

When the men of my crews are phantom-like men

Who will only walk when the dead come again,

Only then are my glories all won.

While the lay of my lines is trim with the sea 

And my freeboard is handsomely high,

While there's coal in my bunkers and sail on my spars

And my helm will steer full and by,

While the pole-seeking hunters each year sally forth

To battle the tides and packs of the north,

While they creak in the nips and freeze in the air,

On I must sail to relieve their despair

Ere my voyaging's done.

I am old I am mellowed with near hundred years

Since my cutwater turned to the sea,

And the sealer and whaler, Aleut, Esquimaux

Signalled or waited in anguish for me.

But now through my timbers there sighs age's breath

And soon I must sail to the cold port of death.

For I have a promise I know I must keep 

And it's waiting for me in the still, silent deep 

Now that my glories are won.

Courtesy, Comdr.  M. A. Ransom (USCG, ret.)

USRC BEAR
One of the most famous ships ever to work in the 
North Pacific, seen here in Seattle, WA.
Among the Seattle men who served aboard in the 
Arctic was Rear Adm. F. A. Zeusler.
Photograph by James A. Turner, Seattle, WA.
Undated original from the archives of the Saltwater People Historical Society©

(L-R) Captain Francis Tuttle with close
friend Robert Moran fishing on Orcas Island, WA.
Tuttle took command of the USRC BEAR in 1896-1898
during the difficult pelagic sealing years in the North Pacific.
He had just brought the BEAR home to Seattle when a
request came from Pres. McKinley to head back north
to try & save 265 whalers trapped in their boats
in the ice near Pt. Barrow. It was specified that only
volunteers should sign on because of the high danger involved.
Tuttle also commanded her 1900-1902 and 1906-1907.
The story of the lengthy Overland Relief Expedition can be found in
The Great Ice Ship BEAR by Polly Burroughs.
A model of the BEAR is on exhibit at the Coast Guard Museum
in Seattle, WA. A post to honor that builder can be seen on 
this site here
There is also another post on the BEAR written by journalist 
R.H. Calkins see here
The above photograph by James McCormick
is from the archives of the S.P.H.S.©

CAPT. C. S. COCHRAN
aboard U.S.R.C. BEAR
Capt. Cochran served on the vessel
1914-1916, 1921-1924, and in 1926.
Original photo from the archives of 
the Saltwater People Historical Society©