Description

USS BEAR COAST GUARD CUTTER

FULLY BUILT AND READY TO DISPLAY QUALITY SHIP MODEL

Dimension Approx.: 39″ L x 4″ W x 10″ H
The model is already built, NOT a model ship kit
Sails in unfurled unopened position

USS Bear — The Most Storied Ship in Coast Guard History

Few ships in American maritime history have lived a life as long, varied, and heroic as the USS Bear. Built in Dundee, Scotland, in 1874, she began as a powerful sealing steamer, her hull sheathed in six inches of solid timber to smash through North Atlantic ice. Designed as a barquentine with both sail and steam, she quickly became the most capable vessel in the Newfoundland sealing fleet — the lead ship of a new generation of heavy, ice‑breaking sealers.

But Bear’s destiny lay far beyond the seal grounds. In 1884, just after a major refit, she was purchased by the United States government to join the rescue of the ill‑fated Lady Franklin Bay Expedition. Her success in that mission marked the beginning of one of the most remarkable careers in American service. Assigned to the United States Revenue-Marine (later the Revenue Cutter Service and eventually the Coast Guard), Bear spent more than 40 years patrolling the 20,000‑mile coastline of Alaska. Under legendary captains like Michael “Hell Roaring Mike” Healy, she became a lifeline for remote communities — delivering mail, teachers, reindeer, medical aid, and justice to some of the most isolated places on earth. She hunted poachers, rescued shipwrecked whalers, enforced federal law, and even served as a floating courthouse.

Her reputation grew with every season. She ferried reindeer from Siberia to Alaska, carried survey teams and governors, and provided relief after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. By the time the Revenue Cutter Service merged into the U.S. Coast Guard in 1915, Bear was already a legend — a ship whose name inspired the Coast Guard Academy’s mascot, Objee the Bear.

After her retirement from Arctic patrols in 1926, Bear became a museum ship in Oakland and even starred in the 1930 film adaptation of Jack London’s The Sea-Wolf. But her service was far from over. Purchased by Admiral Richard E. Byrd, she sailed to Antarctica for his second expedition, and again in 1939–41 as USS Bear (AG‑29) for the United States Antarctic Service. She helped evacuate personnel as global tensions rose, then shifted to wartime duty.

During World War II, Bear served in the Greenland Patrol, her rig cut down and her engines modernized. She towed captured enemy vessels, patrolled icy waters, and remained — astonishingly — the oldest U.S. Navy ship deployed outside the continental United States during the war. She was one of the very few ships to serve in the Spanish–American War, World War I, and World War II, a testament to her durability and design.

After the war, she briefly returned to sealing as Arctic Bear, but the industry was fading. Museum groups tried to save her, but restoration costs proved too high. In 1963, while under tow to Philadelphia to become a floating restaurant, she was caught in a gale. The towline snapped, her mast collapsed and pierced her hull, and the great ship sank quietly into the North Atlantic — 89 years after her launch.

Her story did not end there. After decades of searching, her wreck was finally located in 2021, resting on the seafloor south of Nova Scotia — a discovery announced beside the modern Coast Guard icebreaker USCGC Healy, a fitting tribute to the ship that helped define the service.

The USS Bear remains one of the most iconic vessels in Coast Guard history — a ship that served in both polar regions, saved countless lives, and embodied the rugged spirit of American maritime service. Her figurehead survives in the Mariners’ Museum, and a detailed scale model stands at the Naval War College. But her true legacy lives on in the stories of the Arctic, the Antarctic, and the generations of sailors who knew her as the toughest, most dependable ship ever to wear the Coast Guard shield.