January 5, 2022 – USS Bear

We’re halfway through our theme week on Good Things That Happened in 2021! In August 2021. the Coast Guard and NOAA announced that the wreckage of a famous ship, the USS Bear, had been found off the coast of Boston. The Bear had a long and storied career. It was originally built for seal hunting, but was purchased by the U.S. government in 1884. From 1885-1926, the vessel sailed the waters of Alaska on the Bering Sea Patrol, where she looked for seal poachers, shipwrecked whalers, and ferried reindeer from Siberia to Alaska, among other duties. During World War II, the Bear patrolled the waters around Greenland for the U.S. Navy, and helped capture a German spy vessel. In 1948, she was purchased with the intent to be used for sealing, however she ended up laying idle for years. Then in 1962, the ship was bought again, this time to be used as floating restaurant. However, on it’s way to Philadelphia in March 1963, a gale struck and the ship sank. The wreckage wasn’t located until 2019, and then positively identified last year.