The wreck of the legendary naval cutter USS Bear found off Boston | US News
The wreck of a legendary American warship that served in two world wars, patrolled the waters off Alaska for decades and was at one point commissioned by the first black man to command a government ship was found.
A wreckage believed to be the USS Bear, which sank in 1963 about 260 miles (418 km) east of Boston while being towed to Philadelphia, where it was to be converted into a floating restaurant, was located in 2019.
But it wasn’t until August of this year that a team of experts reviewing the evidence came to the conclusion that it was “reasonably certain” that the wreck was indeed the bear, officials said. the United States Coast Guard and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. at a waterfront press conference in Boston.
“At the time of the Bear’s loss, she was already recognized as a historic vessel,” said Joe Hoyt, of the Office of National Marine Sanctuary.
The legend of the bear is so steeped in Coast Guard lore that athletic teams at the Connecticut Coast Guard Academy are named the bears, in part in honor of the ship.
Built in Dundee in 1874, the Steam and Sail Bear was purchased by the United States in 1884 to assist in the search for the ill-fated Arctic Expedition led by Lieutenant Adolphus Greely, a member of the United States Army Signals Corps. .
The 190-foot (58 m) bear then spent more than four decades patrolling the Arctic, conducting search and rescue, law enforcement, performing person counts and of ships, to record geological and astronomical information, to record tides and to escort whalers.
The US Revenue Cutter Service merged with the US Rescue Service in 1915 to form the Coast Guard.
“In Bear’s 40-year career in Alaska, the cutter has carried out some of the most daring and successful Arctic rescues in history,” said William Thiesen, official Coast Guard historian for the region. ‘Atlantic.
“And when the malnourished Native Americans needed food, Bear brought it. When the stranded whalers needed to be rescued, Bear rescued them. One hundred years ago, when thousands of Alaskans contracted the Spanish flu during the pandemic, Bear brought in doctors and medicine. “
Thursday’s announcement coincided with the arrival in Boston of US Coast Guard Healy, named after the Bear’s captain from 1886 to 1895, Michael “Hell Roaring Mike” Healy.
The Healy, an icebreaker commissioned in 1999, recently completed a transit of the Arctic Northwest Passage.
Healy, born in 1839, was the son of a Georgia plantation owner and slave. Healy’s father sent him to Massachusetts to escape slavery, Thiesen said.
He compared the Healy – commissioned by Abraham Lincoln a month before the president’s assassination – to a sheriff from the Old West, whose jurisdiction was an area the size of the lower 48 states.
“Although he never, during his lifetime, identified himself as African American, perhaps to avoid the prejudices he would likely have encountered in his personal life and career, he was actually the first person to be. African-American descent to command a US government ship, ”NOAA said.
Even after his time in the Arctic ended, Bear’s career continued.
The ship served during both World Wars, patrolling Greenland waters during World War II and helping to capture a German spy ship.
Between the wars, the Bear was converted into a maritime museum by the city of Oakland, California; used as a movie set; and purchased by Adm Richard Byrd for use in his Antarctic expeditions.
The ship was decommissioned in 1944 and remained in Nova Scotia until her voyage to Philadelphia ended prematurely in 1963 about 90 miles south of Cape Sable, Nova Scotia, according to NOAA.
“Bear held various positions for almost 90 years, a remarkable record for a ship built from wood,” said Thiesen.
