USFS Eider was an American motor schooner in commission in the fleet of the United States Bureau of Fisheries from 1919 to 1940 and, as US FWS Eider, in the fleet of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service from 1940 to 1942 and again in the late 1940s. She ran a passenger-cargo service between Unalaska and the Pribilof Islands, and also carried passengers, supplies, and provisions to destinations on the mainland of the Territory of Alaska and in the Aleutian Islands. She occasionally supported research activities in Alaskan waters and the North Pacific Ocean, and she conducted patrols to protect Alaskan fisheries and marine mammals. In 1924, she provided logistical support to the first aerial circumnavigation of the world. Prior to her acquisition by the Bureau of Fisheries, the ship was the commercial fishing vessel MV Idaho. From 1942 to 1945, the ship served in the United States Coast Guard as the harbor fireboat YP-198 during World War II. After the end of her Fish and Wildlife Service career, she served in the United States Geological Survey from 1949 to 1954, and from 1955 she operated in the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands.
Construction and commissioning On 21 April 1910, the United States Congress assigned the responsibility for the management and harvest of northern fur seals, foxes, and other fur-bearing animals in the Pribilof Islands in the Bering Sea, as well as for the care, education, and welfare of the Aleut communities in the islands, to the United States Bureau of Fisheries (BOF). Since 1917, the BOF had operated a "Pribilof tender," a dedicated supply vessel used to transport passengers and cargo to and from the Pribilof Islands. On 1 July 1918, the U.S. Congress appropriated US$20,000 to the BOF for the construction or purchase of a wooden-hulled motor vessel capable of operating in the rough waters of the Bering Sea to replace its existing Pribilof tender, the steamer USFS Roosevelt. The naval architecture firm of Lee and Brinton of Seattle, Washington, designed the ship, to be known as USFS Tern, following the BOF's custom of naming its vessels assigned to operate in the waters of the Territory of Alaska after seabirds common in the region. Tern was to be 70 feet (21 meters) long and have a heavy-duty 80-horsepower (60 kW) engine, a cruising range of over 2,000 nautical miles (3,700 kilometers; 2,300 miles), a cargo capacity of 30 tons, and sleeping accommodations for 16 people. The BOF advertised in Seattle for bids for the construction of Tern in 1918, but when the bidding period closed on 3 December 1918, the lowest bid was US$27,500, which was US$7,500 more than the Congressional appropriation. The BOF advertised for bids in Seattle again, but when the bidding closed the second time on 8 January 1919, the lowest bid, $26,000, still was too high. The need to replace Roosevelt became more urgent on 17 January 1919, when the BOF assessed her as in need of major repairs, and the Steamboat Inspection Service later confirmed it; on 21 April 1919, an inspection at Bremerton, Washington, revealed extensive dry rot requiring an estimated US$186,000 in repairs, which the BOF deemed prohibitive. The BOF advertised in Seattle for bids for the construction of Tern for a third time, only to find that when bidding closed on 12 May 1919, the lowest bid, US$28,800, again exceeded the Congressional appropriation. Roosevelt was condemned on 4 June 1919. On 11 July 1919, the U.S. Congress passed a deficiency act that appropriated an additional US$7,500 for her replacement. The BOF scrapped plans to build Tern, and instead purchased the 88-foot (27-meter) motor schooner Idaho in the summer of 1919 for US$26,000. Nilson and Kelez had constructed Idaho in Seattle and launched her on 16 November 1913. Employed as a commercial deep-water Pacific halibut fishing vessel, Idaho was well known in the area and regarded as seaworthy and capable of operating in the Bering Sea during voyages to the Pribilofs. The BOF renamed her USFS Eider and converted her for fisheries use by transferring most of Roosevelt′s movable equipment to her before selling Roosevelt on 15 July 1919 and adding additional cabin space and a communications room. The United States Navy installed a modern 0.5-kilowatt wireless system in her communications room and a 1-pounder gun on her deck so that could provide armed protection of fur seal rookeries.
Service history
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