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sea scientists have locate the wreck of the U.S. Revenue Cutter Bear — a ship that served at sea for at least 88 year and act a part in the famous seizure of a Nazi spy ship .
The Bear has a storeyed story : It begin go as a commercial-grade sealant in 1874 . Then , because the ship could travel through internal-combustion engine - filled urine , the administration buy it in the eighties to use for delivery work in the Arctic . It also served as a relief ship during theSpanish flu pandemicof 1918 - 1919 , a blow museum , a film set for a Hollywood motion picture and an expedition ship on Adm. Richard Byrd’sAntarcticexplorations .
The US Revenue Cutter Bear was capable of sailing through Arctic ice.
It also patrolled Arctic amnionic fluid for the U.S. Navy in both existence wars , and in 1941 it helped capture the Norse dragger Buskø , which was being used by the German military intelligence service table service Abwehr to report on weather conditions in the North Atlantic .
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The Bear was decommission in 1944 and tie up at a wharf in Halifax , Nova Scotia . It at long last sank after a storm in 1963 , somewhere in the south of Nova Scotia and due east of Boston , as it was being towed to Philadelphia .
A scan of the wreck believed to be the Bear.
" The Bear has had such an incredible history , and it ’s so important in many way in American and spheric maritime heritage because of its travels , " said Brad Barr , the foreign mission coordinator for the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ’s ( NOAA ) Maritime Heritage Program , who has lead the search for the wreck for several age .
Historic ship
In the belated seventies a group started explore for the Bear . It included the Massachusetts Institute of Technology ’s Harold Edgerton , who invented side - scan echo sounder — a technology wide used today to observe and image objects on the seafloor .
The group examine out the new side - scan applied science in 1979 , but they did n’t incur the wreck — peradventure because the emplacement of its sinking feeling had been misreported by its tow ship , Barr severalize Live Science ..
A mystical Navy submersible — the nuclear - power NR-1 — — carried out a 2nd search in 2007 , but it too was unsuccessful . Finally , the U.S. Coast Guard and NOAA link forces with other partners and began another hunt in 2019 .
An image of the wreck taken by a remotely controlled vehicle.
After map 62 square Swedish mile ( 160 straight kilometers ) of seafloor with sonar , they identified two submerged physical object in the search area .
In September , they returned on a Coast Guard ship equipped with a remotely manoeuver vehicle ( ROV ) to take submerged video and confirm that the large physical object is the wreck of Bear , Barr say .
The crash now lies on the seafloor at a depth of about 200 feet ( 60 meters ) , in Canadian piss about 90 marine land mile ( 167 km ) south of Nova Scotia ’s Cape Sable . The exact fix is being keep secret in the hopes of dissuade technical divers from trying to reach it , Barr articulate . The search partners are talk about with the Canadian government how the crash can be protected .
The aging wooden hull has been badly damaged by nets from fishing dragger and potent flow on the seafloor . But the researcher identify several distinctive features of the Bear , including the " bowknot staples " that strengthened its hull to allow the ship to handle heavy ice-skating rink in polar H2O , Barr said .
Steamship to diesel
As a result , several agglomerate of metal can be seen among the remain Mrs. Henry Wood of the wreck , which includes seafaring - ship technologies , Barr allege .
Related : In photos : Arctic shipwreck solves 170 - yr - old mystery
" There ’s a pile of metallic element debris with a deadeye [ a specify wooden pulley ] adhere up out of it , " he enounce . " These deadeye have been around since the 1700s , but they were used on the Bear to attach the standing rigging . "
Among the Bear ’s most far-famed exploit was its part in the 1884 deliverance fleet for the Greely Expedition to the Arctic , which had become lost in 1881 near Ellesmere Island , northwest ofGreenland . Several extremity of the expedition died of starvation and disease before the Bear rescued Greely and the other survivors .
After serving for many years as a government gross cutter in Arctic waters — bug and inspecting ships at sea , and often rescue commercial-grade ship trapped in chicken feed — the Bear was transmit to the Navy ; it patrolled around Alaska during World War I , and it delivered supplying there during the Spanish flupandemic .
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In 1929 , the decommission ship was give to the metropolis of Oakland in California , where it became a float museum and then a film set for the 1930 movie " The Sea - Wolf , " an adaptation of a Jack London novel .
The Bear was recommissioned for Arctic patrol during World War II , when it help capture the Buskø ; but it was mostly tied up in Halifax after that , until it sank in 1963 on its final voyage to Philadelphia , where it was destined to become a floating restaurant .
" These are implausibly compelling stories , " Barr sound out . " When you record the details of what the Bear did , how many survive it saved , how many incredible charge it was on — it is really the kind of story that people should be aware of . "
To memorialise its discovery , Barr has compiled year of historical enquiry intoseveral website postsdetailing the many exploit of the Bear . " One of the reason why we want to get hold it is because it allows us to tell all these stories , " he say .
Originally publish on Live Science .
