Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1924-07-17
ARCTIC SHIP OF MERCY,
RESCUER OF GREEDY, ENDS
PICTURESQUE CAREER IN ICE
Coast Guard Cutter "Bear"
Pinched and Battered in
Frozen Waters 1000 Miles
Beyond UnaIaska

WASHINGTON, July Is. - The
venerable coast guard cutter, the
Bear, has made her last Journey to
the Arctic. She is pinched in the
ice somewhere a thousand miles
north of Unalaska, two propellers
are broken, she has a score of dents
in her sides, and coast guard head
quarters has radioed orders to give
up, to return home from the fiftieth
annual cruise in the Far North.
SO "Healy's Puk Ooomiak" will
not take the mail and the messages
from civilization. to Point Barrow
this year. The old vessel, named
"Healy's Fire Canoe" by the natives
when Captain Healy used to cruise
her into the northern wastes, no
more will brighten the lives of those
lost from the world for q year at
a time. She has been branded un.
safe ,unseaWorthy, and when she
gets back to the states, if she does,
her last voyage will be ended. She
will be dismantled.
1t was on May 2 that the Bear,
in command of Captain Cochran,
steamed away from the Golden Gate.
A Ship of Mercy
Her skipper bore the usual broad
instructions ITO aid all peoples, to
assist commerce, to open lines of
communication" and last, but one
of the most important duties, to
carry the mails to every village not
The farthest north of these is
Point Barrow.
Her thin stream of smoke and
her white sails, for they use sails
wherever possible to conserve stores
of coal, eagerly have been watched
for many long days each summer by
the missionaries, the teachers, the
traders and the natives but their
watches this time will be in vain
in many villages.
A brief radio came through from
Captain Cochran today. 1t told in
a few words the story of a disap-
pointed crew and insurmountable ice
that blocked the northward way.
Half dozen times in June the Bear
was caught in the ice Men ac-
quainted with the north. brawny
and willing, freed her and she
sought another means of egress.
but July found her facing "heavi-
est ice" and a day later she was
held fast again. When she was
reached by the Bering Sea patrol.
to start back
Although Captain Cockran's Ia
message indicated his belief that he
would have little difficulty in re-
turning as soon as ice conditions
permit, Rear Admiral Billiard, the
commandment, and others at coast
guard headquarters. fear that the
olo boat may not emerge safely.
Her Last Voyage
She should never have gone this
year, they said, but Captain Cock
ran urged that the old Dundee
Whaler, the boat that had made
torty-nine trips into waters that
none other dared penetrate, includ-
ing the journey to the rescue of
Greely, should be given another
trial.
congress was asked at its last SEES
sion to appropriate money for A
new craft to replace the Bear. but
the Dill got lost in the jam of the
cloSlng days. Her sister ships. the
Iheus and the Resolute. long ago
were dlsmantled, but not until each
had served the government faith
FULLY for years and had carried
such figures as Schley and Usher
and others in the most hazardous
OF Journeys. Only the Bear re.
manned. But now even the Bear.
which has failed in so few at,
tempts to reach those who know no
other means of communication with
the outside world, has been doomed
by the hazards Of time and must be
cast aside