The evening times. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1895-1902, 1901-01-21
THE OLD SI.BAhBOAfBBAR
Her Experience in the Arctic After
Reseuing GreeIy,
Purchased From England, But by
Her Services Among Ice FIoes and
Arctic GIasts Has Fully Justified
Her Cost-An Authority Among
Sea Lawyers in Polar Chimes.

The cruisings of the cid bark rugged
steamer Bear are pretty well known Her
adventures in the waters OF the Arctic
seas and her exploits IN the Greedy relief
expedition are matters Of history. The
Bear is a great ship Though only a rev
enue cutter. she is entitled TO q great niche
in the nomenclature of American naval
history
A letter in the Providence journal"
from Dutch Harbor. Alaska, gives an &C
count of what the Bear has been doing
since she went after Greedy.
The writer Mr. Walter E Clarke, al
luding to the cruisings of this steamer
declares that she has proved herself to be
he most useful vessel the Government has
ever sent into northern waters and he
asserts that many times over the Bear
has repaid the Government for
the comparatively small price paid
for her at the tine of her
purchase from England, which as many
persons know. was to go into the Arctic as
q part of the expedition sent 20 relieve
Lieutenant Greedy and his party Of ex-
p!Crers-
The Bear is one of the best ice boats
owned by the Government. Great tim
brace and strengthen the hull OF the ship
for contact with floating ice. The hull is
sheathed above the water line with Aus
traiian ironwood, the toughest wooden
material known. a steel or iron
sheathed vessel would never do for an
Arctic cruise such as the Bear is called
on 80 perform every year Every spring
the Bear goes north with fine new coat
of white paint; every fall she goes south
firm npT~
bow by contact with the ice pack, from
the water line to within few feet OF
the carved polar bear which decorates
her PROV
When the vessel enters the Behring
Sea in May or early June. there IS al
/ ways ice Last spring the Treasury De-
! partment authorities were particularly
! anxious that the Bear reach Nome, the
1 big lew mining camp. before any other
vessel so that there might be no law
! lessness during the first rush into the
| country of miners from the States. She
/ was not first, but was nearly first.
For three days she was in field Of
I ice, perhaps loo miles square. There
| we're occasional riffs or leads in this
! expanse Of frozen salt water, and
/ through these the cutter made her way
slowly. She passed several steel mer-
! chant vessels that found themselves
/ for The time being helpless on account
! of the ice pack. Nevertheless. the Bear
made perhaps twenty miles through this
! apparently hopeless area for three days,
/ when she emerged into clear water, and
reached Nome two days later.
| There was nothing novel about this ex-
| perience for the officers and crew of the
! vessel. for il is the regular thing on he
annual cruise into the North.
| Nevertheless it takes experience and
! knowledge of navigation in fields of Ice
to make such a voyage possible without
| great danger to those on board. and with
| out losing the whole object Of the cruise
/ which is to get to places
! Many OF the places visited by the Bear
! every summer are in such remote quarters
that not more than one vessel is seen
! there in the course of a year. Sometimes
/ a whaling ship IS seen at some Of them,
and II some seasons two or three Of these
hardy whaling craft visit the places in
/ question. but this is exceptional This
statement applies particularly . Point
/ Barrow. Icy Cape, Cape Lisburne and
| other points in far northern Alaska. in the
! Arctic Ocean In those waters The Bear is
a supreme authority WhaIers inclined to
break the law in regard 20 the liquor traf
fc with the natives fear her. and the Ia
( tive EskimO6 themselves respect her as
/ the sign OF an authority they feel but do
| not understand
The Bear had a very efficient compile
ment Of officers this year. Her comman-
/ der had a long experience in navigating
these waters. Among the wardroOm Off
GERS are TWO graduates of the Naval
| Academy at Annapolis. and one officer
who took a part of the course at that in
! stitution The engineer officers, three
/ in number, are all men Of technical edu-
/ cation. The executive officer, OF the
Bear is Lieut. Ellsworth P. Berthof and
the navigating officer is Claude 5. Coch-
ran. a graduate OF the Naval Academy,
! and formerly an officer in the navy
/ The day after the arrival of the Bear
| at Nome last summer, she was called on
TO gave forty eight officers and men from
a wrecked vessel, and had il not been for
the presence Of the cutter, these men
would almost certainly have been lost.
The wreck was the whaling bark Alaska,
which went aground quarter Of a mile
| of the Nome beach on the 9Th of June
The vessel was pounding badly and it vds
| a question of only a few hours when she
would break up. The height Of the surf
on the beach made IL out of the question
for any boat to put out to the vessel from
the shore, and there were no life saving
| appliances in the mining camp Lieu
| tenant BerthoIf called for volunteers from
the crew Of the Bear. and six men pre-
| scented themselves to man boat to 20 cut
| TO the wreck Mr. BerthOlf took the eer-
ing car, and he was the only person in The
| boat VINO ala not take the pEECaALlOH 10
wear a life preserver-
The sea was running very high. and
rain was falling fast, driven by half
| gale Of wind The boat escaped capsiz-
| ing and reached the wreck in safety
The whalers were notified that they
| could come on board the cutter. and
| they came of to the chip in their stout
whale boats within the next hour in an
exhausted condition.
| That afternoon another beat put
out from the Bear, and Lieutenant
Scott and one sailor from the Bear
went aboard the wreck to prevent the
possibility of hooters boarding her from
| the shore as soon as the storm Should
abate The Esxt day the storm did
! abate and Lieutenant Gamble went
aboard with another sailor as q guard.
Late in the Afternoon the Alaska began
to break up and il was found necessary
| = take the men from the vessel by send
ing q boat from the shore The exploit
Of the men who went out in a shore boat
| to take them off was worthy TO be called
a brave rescue, and they were rewarded
with $50 in gold. This is one Of many
phases of the Bears work in the Far
North.
Every summer. late in July or early il
august, the Bear goes to Point Barrow
the farthest north of all settlements OF
the North American continent Usually
| ice Is. encountered from the time the yes
sci leaves Behrfng Strait even al this
season Almost always the call at Poin
Barrow Is made with difficulty, for al