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weemsbotts · 4 years ago

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The Ballad of Barkentine Bear: The Wooden Ship with a Stout Broken Heart

By: Lisa Timmerman, Executive Director

In 1975, Rear Admiral Richard Blackburn Black presented HDVI with a ballad he wrote for the USS Bear, a feisty Coast Guard ship with an amazing history! According to beautifully printed sheet, Black watched “as the barkentine BEAR backs away into the sea smoke” in 1934. So why is this treasure in our Archives?

Alexander Stephen & Son constructed the United States Revenue Cutter Bear in Dundee, Scotland, completed in 1874 and commissioned on 03/02/1885. The USS Bear began its incredible career shortly afterwards by heading to the Artic to rescue the stranded Greely expedition, an expedition that experienced serious misfortunes leaving then First Lieutenant Adolphus Washington Greely and his command with inadequate amounts of food and clothing. The ship saved the remaining survivors many already deceased from the poor conditions and even suicide. In 1885, the Treasury Department commanded the ship to patrol the Alaskan waters and the Artic Ocean. Commanded for a time by “Hell Roaring” Mike Healy, the ship: delivered mail, government agents and supplies; transported Federal prisoners; served as a court; assisted in investigations and criminal prevention and law enforcement; provided much needed medical services; and imported Siberian reindeer for the indigenous peoples in need of food (sorry Santa). In 1897, the USS Bear once again rescued stranded crews although the ship itself could not get as close as possible. The “Overland Expedition for the Relief of the Whalers in the Artic Ocean” translated into a 1,600-mile journey with dog teams, sleds, guides, and tasty reindeer. After serving in WWI, the Bear was decommissioned and used as a museum (woo!) until the early 1930s when Admiral Richard E. Byrd purchased her use ($1,050) for his Second Antarctic Expedition and later used the Bear again in 1939-1941. While the Bear entered WWII, the Navy took the ship off the list of active vessels and in 1948 a Canadian steamship company purchased the ship with plans for a sealing vessel but changing economics led to Alfred M. Johnston’s purchase with designs for a commercial museum (woo!) and restaurant near Philadelphia. However, the Bear sank during its final journey by tow to Philadelphia.

The ship’s amazing history can only come alive with the help of those who actively served on her or benefitted from her service. What was it like to see the mighty USS Bear after eating moss? Receiving court justice on the decks? The smells of the herd of rein – wait, never mind on that one. Black was an Antarctic explorer and part of Byrd’s second Antarctic expedition. He eventually purchased Rippon Lodge and came to know the William and Anne Flory, sending them this ballad “with high regard and best wishes”. Take a deep breath (if you are alone) and let Black help bring this ship back to life:

If wooden ships have hearts of oak

And I believe they do

I know of one whose stout heart broke!

The BEAR, an ancient barkentine

Whose years topped eighty-nine,

Was limping southward, old and green,

Upon a tow-tug’s line

Her destination? “Shame!”, she cried,

I’m going to be a pub,

A rest’rant – (Chicken? Stewed or fried?)

A gin-mill! That’s the rub!”

She lay back on the cable then

And dreamed of all her past –

Of gales and ice and shouting men,

Taut canvas in the blast,

The shriek of wind, the sting of sleet,

The green seas sweeping back,

The clinging seamen with their feet

Braced on the foot-rope track,

With bellies pressed against the yard,

Chilled fingers clutching sail,

And elbow movement slowed and hard

By wind on raincoat’s tail.

She thought of evenings still and bright,

Locked in Antartic pack, -

Ice-blink ahead, and blue-black night

Behind her in her track,

When Byrd and English paced her deck

With anxious eyes ahead,

While Ben Johansen said, “By heck,

Ve’ll push trow or ve’re dead!”

Then Crusen – (now it’s forty-one) –

Fought through to Biscoe Isles,

To free the men on Stonington.

One hundred forty miles

Of ice-locked sea BEAR could not break,

So in a patched up plane

The East Base men – a chance to take –

All reached the ship again.

Her thoughts then flew back sixty years

To Bering Sea Patrol,

Her fights with poachers, British jeers,

And heavy whale-ship toll,

Her years of aid to Barrow town

And starving Aleuts,

And murderers at her yard-arm

A-hanging in their boots.

Now, back to present, and the gale

Off Nova Scotia’s shore:

The seas run high, the tug men pale,

“OLD BEAR can’t take much more!”

Old ships have souls, some sailors say,

And some have died of shame, -

I’ll not contend this, either way,

And I will place no blame

But tell you just what seamen saw

Aboard that towing ship;

The BEAR heaved back, began to yaw, -

Her bow commanded to dip.

Then with a muffled, mighty sigh

Her seams all opened wide,

And with her colors gaff-tip high

She plunged beneath the tide!

“West Over Sea,” the Vikings said

When funeral was planned,

With chieftain lying midships, dead,

Full armored, sword in hand.

I’ll always feel, as some with voice

Who worked that ship with me,

That she went down by her own choice –

The BEAR – West Over Sea!”

Note: Winter lore featuring monsters, the history of holiday traditions, and new ideas for your Holiday 2020 will abound in our “Gingerbread Tales” virtual program held on Saturday, 12/05 @ 10am and Tuesday, 12/08 @ 1pm! Click here for our “you decide” price tickets. Teachers, want us to present this to your class with featured activities? Email for details: [email protected]

(Sources: HDVI Archival Files: Blackburn, Barkentine Bear; United States Coast Guard Historian’s Office: US Coast Guard Cutter Fact Sheets: Bear, 1885)

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