It was on March 19th,1963, during the early morning hours, in a gale off of Nova Scotia, the mast of the famous USS Bear snapped, after the towline broke, and when the mast collapsed, it punctured the hull, and the retired Revenue Cutter Service vessel sank.

It went down 100 nautical miles south of Nova Scotia. It was being towed by the tug Irving Birch to Philadelphia to be converted into a floating restaurant when the mishap occurred, bringing the vessel’s famed life to a close.

The ship’s life began in Scotland in 1874 when the vessel was constructed as a wooden sealing vessel with a six-inch hull to navigate through ice.

Ten years later,in 1884, the vessel was purchased by the U.S. Navy for a rescue mission to rescue the Greely Expedition. After that, the Bear would continue as a U.S. Revenue Cutter for 47 years in Alaska waters. The vessel enforced the laws, delivered mail and reindeer along 20,000 miles of coastline.

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