courtesy of the artists
USRC Bear —Greely Expedition Rescue Mission by Odie Tucker
Heave To…Or Else! by Ralph R. DeBaise
us dot
Rules of the Road at Sea and Ashore I enjoyed the short “Origins of the Rules of the Road” piece by the late Charles Dana Gibson in the recent issue of Sea History. Gibson discusses the US Navy’s issuance of General Order No. 34, which laid out rules for overtaking vessels and signals for passing. Gen. Order No. 34 had to have influenced avid yachtsman William Phelps Eno, “The Father of Traffic Safety,” as he created the overland “rules of the road” we use in the United States today. These include police to control traffic, light and semaphore signals, stop signs, traffic circles, one-way streets, taxi stands, pedestrian safety islands, designated fast and slow traffic lanes, and even the invention of crude but clever speed traps. It is hard to believe that one man dedicated so much of his life developing traffic controls. I published an
William Phelps Eno 6
article in 2017 in the journal New York History that goes into many of his hardfought innovations. You can find the article online through Project Muse (www. muse.jhu.edu) or JStor (www.jstor.org) by searching for “New York History” and “William Phelps Eno.” Dr. Louis A. Norton West Simsbury, Connecticut USRC Bear Inspiring a Nation, Then and Now Congratulations to all those who contributed to the discovery of the shipwreck site of the United States Revenue Cutter Bear. Thanks to the National Maritime Historical Society for an update on the discovery. It is truly regrettable this historic vessel didn’t safely reach its destination. As an artist in the Coast Guard Art Program (COGAP), the news of the recent discovery piqued my interest. The Bear’s successful search and rescue for the Greely Expedition was the subject of a watercolor painting, which I completed and gifted to the USCG archives (see image, above right). The Sea History article reminded me of some of the highlights of the Bear’s career, which I learned while conducting research for the painting. Odie Tucker Dauphin Island, Alabama From the editor: News of the discovery of USRC Bear’s wreck site this past October generated lots of interest, from those interested in maritime archaeology, Coast Guard history, the issue of race in government
service in the 19th century, armchair sailors, and artists. We received correspondence from two artists who, inspired by the history of Bear’s service in the Arctic, created paintings of the storied ship during that period. The first came from Odie Tucker, whose painting of the Bear during the Greely Expedition is above right. Above left is a painting by Ralph DeBaise, who described the scene he painted here: The revenue cutter Bear is shown blowing her whistle and firing a shot from the three-inch gun on her bow, intended to compel a suspicious vessel in US territorial waters to stop. It is based on an event that took place in July 1908 in the Bering Sea. The Bear encountered the vessel—what turned out to be a Japanese ship, Kensei Maur—deceptively rigged as a topsail schooner with a white hull, painted to resemble, at a distance, the revenue cutter Perry. The wind was light and her crew was desperately piling on all sail to escape into international waters. The Kensei Maur ignored the revenue cutter’s signal at first but was finally stopped and boarded. Bear’s crew discovered 730 illegal sealskins in the vessel’s hold and promptly arrested the ship’s crew. For more on the story of USRC Bear and the search to find the ship’s remains, please refer to pages 20–24 in this issue, for a feature article by William H. Thiesen and Bradley W. Barr, who headed up the search team. SEA HISTORY 178, SPRING 2022