• Artifacts

• Virginia

• Newport News

• Mariners' Museum

• Type: Nautical Figurehead

Rrrrrr

USS Bear Figurehead, once mounted on the bow of the famed cold- water cutter, survives as a lone relic of a vessel celebrated for Arctic patrols, Antarctic expeditions, and the rescue of the Greely party. The white animal sculpture, perched on a stemhead bracket, was carved for the 1874 Scottish- built ship, the figurehead now stands apart from its lost hull — BEAR sank while under tow to a stationary berth — leaving this fragment as the last tangible emblem of nearly nine decades of service.

History of the USCG Cutter BEAR

Built in Scotland in 1874 with exceptionally thick six-inch hull planking, the cutter BEAR combined steam power with full sailing rig and proved capable in some of the harshest ice-laden waters of the world. Originally launched as a sealing steamer and operated out of Newfoundland for a decade, she soon entered American service and began the career that made her, in the words of the US Coast Guard, "probably the most famous ship in the history of the Coast Guard." In the mid-1880s BEAR joined the search for the lost Greely Expedition, a rescue that cemented her reputation. Under Captain Michael Healy of the Revenue Cutter Service, she patrolled Alaska's vast 20,000-mile coastline, delivering medical aid, transporting reindeer herds, enforcing law, and serving isolated communities. Her versatility carried her far beyond Alaska: she supported Admiral Richard E Byrd's second Antarctic expedition, returned to the southern continent in 1941 to evacuate Americans at the outbreak of World War II, and later performed Navy patrol duty off Greenland. Between major missions, BEAR spent time as a museum ship in Oakland and even appeared in the 1930 film adaptation of Jack London's "The Sea-Wolf". After the war she briefly returned to sealing work before meeting her end in 1963, sinking in the North Atlantic while under tow to Philadelphia for conversion into a floating restaurant. - AsNotedIn