science

USS Bear

USS Bear is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand USS Bear rather than just read about it. In short: USS Bear was a dual steam-powered and sailing ship built with six-inch (15.2 cm)-thick sides which had a long life in various cold-water and ice-filled environments. She was a forerunner of modern icebreakers and had a diverse service life.

Key takeaways

USS Bear belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect USS Bear to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of USS Bear from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

USS Bear was a dual steam-powered and sailing ship built with six-inch (15.2 cm)-thick sides which had a long life in various cold-water and ice-filled environments. She was a forerunner of modern icebreakers and had a diverse service life. According to the United States Coast Guard official website, Bear is described as "probably the most famous ship in the history of the Coast Guard." Built in Scotland in 1874 as a steamer for sealing, she was owned and operated from Newfoundland for ten years. In the mid-1880s, she took part in the search for the Lady Franklin Bay Expedition. Commanded by Michael Healy of the United States Revenue-Marine, renamed the United States Revenue Cutter Service in 1894 (and one of the ancestor organizations of the United States Coast Guard), she worked the 20,000-mile (32,200 km) coastline of Alaska. She later assisted with relief efforts after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. Her services also included the second expedition of Admiral Richard E. Byrd to Antarctica, and again to the southernmost continent in 1941 to evacuate Americans at the beginning of World War II. She later served on patrol duty off the coast of Greenland for the United States Navy. Between some of these missions, she was a museum ship in Oakland, California, and starred in the 1930 film version of Jack London's The Sea-Wolf. After World War II, Bear was returned to use again as a sealing vessel. Finally, in 1963, 89 years after she had been built, while being towed to a stationary assignment as a floating restaurant in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Bear foundered and sank in the North Atlantic Ocean about 100 nautical miles (190 km; 120 mi) south of Cape Sable Island, Nova Scotia, Canada.

Construction and sealing career Bear was built in 1874 as a sealer at the Panmure yard of Alexander Stephen and Sons in Dundee, Scotland. She was custom-built for sealing out of St. John's, Newfoundland, Bear was the most outstanding sealing vessel of her day, the lead ship in a new generation of sealers. Heavy-built with six-inch (15.2 cm) thick wooden planks, Bear was rigged as a sailing barquentine but her main power was a steam engine designed to smash deep into ice packs to reach seal herds. At the time of her arrival in St. John's, there were 300 vessels outfitted each season to hunt seals, but most were small schooners or old sailing barques. The new sealing ships represented by Bear radically transformed the Eastern North Atlantic seal fishery as they replaced the hundreds of smaller sealing vessels owned by merchants in outports around Newfoundland with large and expensive steamships owned by large British and Newfoundland companies based in St. John's. Owned at first by the Scottish firm W. Grieve and Sons, she was acquired in 1880 by R. Steele Junior. Bear spent a decade sealing from St. John's. In 1884, the Steeles sent Bear back to Scotland for a refit.

American government service

The massive wooden hulls of Newfoundland sealing vessels had proved ideal for Arctic exploration. Just back from her refit in 1884 and ready for another season of sealing, Bear was instead purchased by the U.S. government in 1884. Under command of Commander Winfield Scott Schley, Bear and took part in the search for the Lady Franklin Bay Expedition, whose seven survivors were found at Cape Sabine. Bear served as a revenue cutter in the United States Revenue-Marine, renamed the United States Revenue Cutter Service in 1894, from 1885 to 1915 and as a cutter in the United States Coast Guard from 1915 to 1926. Throughout the years from 1885 to 1926, she made the seasonal trek each May from her port in Oakland, California, to sail north to the waters of the Territory of Alaska for the five-month season, cruising 10,000 nautical miles (19,000 km; 12,000 mi) on the Bering Sea Patrol, where she looked out for seal poachers, shipwrecked whalers, and illicit trade with Alaska Natives, ferried reindeer from Siberia to Alaska, and served as a floating courthouse. By order of the United States Department of the Treasury, Bear was given free run to arrest and seize possessions of poachers, smugglers, and illegal traders, as well as take census of people and ships, record geological and astronomical information, take note of tides, and escort whaling ships. One captain of Bear, Michael "Hell Roaring Mike" Healy, was considered a savior by many of the whalers and native Eskimos, as he bought Siberian reindeer at his own expense for the starving natives to use as the foundation for a new herd in Alaska, paralleling, and possibly in cooperation with, missionary Sheldon Jackson. During Captain Healy's and Bear's 1891 Bering Sea Patrol, the following was accomplished:

secured witnesses for a murder trial ferried reindeer sailed the Alaskan governor transported a U.S. geographical survey team carried lumber and supplies for school construction in remote areas delivered teachers to their remote assignments delivered mail for the U.S. Post Office Department enforced federal laws provided medical support to natives conducted search and rescue During one of her yearly trips back to San Francisco, Bear assisted in rescue operations for 1906 San Francisco earthquake. The Revenue Cutter Service was merged with the United States Life-Saving Service to form the United States Coast Guard on 28 January 1915 and the ship was renamed USCGC Bear.

Bear of Oakland

Cruising to Alaska for her last patrol in the 1926 season, on her return to Oakland that November she was replaced by a new cutter, USCGC Northland and ownership was transferred to the city for use as a large barquentine-rigged museum ship, Bear starred as the sealer Macedonia in the 1930 film version of Jack London's The Sea-Wolf. In 1932 Bear of Oakland was purchased by Rear Admiral Richard E. Byrd for $1,050, as a replacement for the barquentine City of New York. He used her in the Second Byrd Expedition alongside the old steel-hulled lumber ship Pacific Fir, renamed by Byrd Jacob Ruppert, in honor of the New York brewer who was a major sponsor of expedition. After the expedition, Admiral Byrd leased Bear to the Navy for one dollar a year, for use on his government sponsored (third) expedition.

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with USS Bear

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what USS Bear claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to USS Bear before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about USS Bear ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of USS Bear

In research: USS Bear appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses USS Bear in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: USS Bear is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1874 ships, Antarctica during World War II, Arctic exploration vessels, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for USS Bear outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study USS Bear in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what USS Bear means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain USS Bear out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is USS Bear in simple terms?

Why does USS Bear matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study USS Bear?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on USS Bear.