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__.....,...,,_._ .,..____ ...._ "North Western America Showing the Territory Ceded by Russia to the United States," US Coast Survey Map, 1867-Bear' s cruising waters. the smuggling of illegal liquor to native Alaskans, the stress caused by ten years on the job encouraged Healy's own drinking problem. In 1896, the service relieved Healy of command because of this, dropped him to the bottom of the captain's list, and placed him out of service for four years. The service later reinstated him and he served on board various curters before retiring in 1903 as the third-most senior officer in the Revenue Cutter Service. Physically spent, he died a year later at the age of sixty-five. In 1897, a year after Healy's transfer off the Bear, eight whaling ships became trapped in pack ice near Point Barrow, Alaska. Concerned that the ships' 265 crewmembers would starve to death, the whaling companies appealed to President William McKinley to send a relief expedition. For a second time in her history, Bear would lead a major rescue mission into the Arctic. In late November 1897, soon after completing her annual Alaskan cruise, the Bear took on supplies and sailed north from Port Townsend, Washington, towards the stricken whaler fleet. This would be the largest of several mass rescues of American whalers undertaken by Bear during the heyday of Arctic whaling, and it was the first time that a ship deliberately sailed into Arctic waters during the harsh Alaskan winter.
To lead the so-called Overland Relief Expedition, Bear's Captain Francis Tuttle placed Lt. David Jarvis-who was fluent in several native languages-in charge of a team including Lt. Ellsworth Bertholf, surgeon Samuel Call, and three enlisted men. With no chance of the cutter pushing thro ugh the thick ice to Point Barrow, Captain Tuttle decided to put the party ashore at Cape Vancouver, Alaska, and tasked them with driving a herd of the newly introduced reindeer to the whaling ships. Using sleds pulled by dogs and reindeer, the rescue party set out
The Overland ReliefExpedition approaches whalers trapped in the ice. 30
SEA HISTORY 146, SPRING 2014