New Britain herald., 1916-04-14
GREAT BEAR STARTS
 LONG TRIP IN MAY
Five Thousand Mile Voyage for
 Pleasure and Profit

1 about the middle of May on a fishing 1 and hunting trip to the far north-a 1 trip which has been planned partly as ] a summer vacation and partly as a commercial Venture-she will start on l a journey that will take her about 1 5000 miles from Seattle and will not i end till about the middle of Novem- 1 Der. Incidentally John Borden, Chi 1 cagO capitalist, sportsman and travel ] CT, and one of the vessels owners, will help the explorer, Vilhjalmur Stefans- | son-if help is needed-relOcate the l the continent he discovered in the pO- l lar regions.
 MT. Borden on his journey will be accompanied by Captain. Louis Lane, long time a resident of Nome, Alaska, and for years a gold miner, fur trader and whaler, and by three Chicago guests, who are going just for sport Norris H. Bokum, c. K. Knickerbock- CT and R. B. Slaughter-and the schooner will carry a crew of twenty four sturdy seamen.
 With MT. Borden, Captain> Lane is joint owner of the vessel, which, in cluding her equipments, cost $75,000 and is 137 feet long, 32 feet beam, with q draft of 14 feet and a speed of seven knots per hour. She carries three sails and, as an auxiliary force, an oil burning engine of 16O horse power. Her oaken hull is sheathed in iron wood, a heavy timber from the Philip pines, almost as impervious as it's name indicates.
 25.OOO Gallons of Fuel Oil.
 The Great Bear will carry 25,000 gallons of fuel oil and about $3,000 worth of provisions-canned vegeta- bes and fruits, sugar, coffee, flour, meal and salt meatS-enOugh to last the entire journey. A complete kitch- en will be provided and will be in charge of a chef of long experience. A medical chest fitted up according to the list authorized by the government for it's vessels will be a part of the ships equipment. No physician will accompany the expedition as MT. Bor- den says his experience in northern waters has given him sufficient eXperi- ence to handle any ailments peculiar to the northern country that might come to himself or his men.
 There will be private state rooms for each of the guests and comfortable bertns for each man of the crew, books and big phonograph will be among the things on board to provide entertainment for the long Arctic nights.
 Captain Lane, though only 36 years of age is as much at home in a boat on the icy seas of the north as would be @ landsman in an automobile tray cling city streets. He has been dweller in the Alaskan country since he was a child of twelve and has spent much of his time on the water. He will be in active charge of the boat as captain but will cooperate with MT. ] Borden in all matters of management ! except the actual technical details of 1 handling the vessel It was Captain l Lane who last August came to the res cue of the explorer Stefansson with timely supplies when Stefansson and the remnant of the original party that went to the northern regions with him had been given up for lost.
 Borden an Explorer.
 Mir. Borden is we'll fitted by experi- l ence for his proposed long journey. Though he did not go but half as far 1 north as his present plans will carry 1 him he made a notable voyage in the 1 summer of 1913 in his 100 foot sailing l yacht, Adventurer, from the coast of l Maine, around the American conti- 1 nent,, through the straits of Magellan, l thence to the Pacific coast and on to l a point about 300 miles north of the l Aleutian islands. It was the delightful 1 experience that he had on this trip l that got the salt of the sea into his | veins and caused the lure of the north | to call him again, call insistent, he said, that his forthcoming trip is ! the result.
 The route of the Great Bear will take her through the Pacific ocean for a distance of about 1000 miles on the first leg of the long journey from Se- attle, on which she will reach the Aleutian islands, where, she turns northward she will expect to encoun- ter much floating ice. This however is not expected to hamper her as her three great sails and her powerful oil burning engine are regarded as ample to make the handling of the boat easy, though the desired speed of seven knots an hour may be attained at all times.
 Another thousand miles will bring her to the Gulf of Anadyr, off the Si- berian coast Then she will pass into the Arctic ocean and will circle Point Barrow through the Beaufort sea and having added another 2,000 miles to the distance travelled from Seattle, she will reach Coronation gulf off the northern coast of Canada, where the journey will end The return will be made over the same route.
 The travellers on the Great Bear are going to harpoon the bowhead whale, which is valuable for it's oil and whale- bone and will hunt with shot guns the cider duck for it's valuable down. Thousands of dollars worth of game ic to ba hoO