When U.S. Secretary of State William Seward purchased the Alaska Territory from the Russian imperial government in 1867, he added an area twice the size of Texas, and 30,000 miles of coastline, to the United States for the price of a mere $7.2 million – and yet it took a while for many to consider it a good deal. Among the few Americans who knew much about Alaska, many considered it a frozen wasteland, and the press generally excoriated the purchase, with nicknames such as “Seward’s Folly,” “Walrussia,” and “Seward’s Ice Box.”

On Oct. 18, 1867, when the Russian flag was lowered and the Stars and Stripes raised at Baranof Castle, on a hill overlooking the town of Sitka, the U.S. diplomats in attendance had been transported aboard the Revenue Cutter Lincoln, which had been charged with exploring and cataloging the resources of the new territory. At the time, Alaska had only one lighthouse – a seal oil lamp and reflector in the cupola of Baranof Castle – but Congress’ indifference to the new territory briefly snuffed it out before the U.S. Army took control, maintaining it until 1877. The U.S. Lighthouse Service added its own beacon light and 14 navigation buoys in Sitka Harbor in 1884.

A focus of early patrols for one of the Coast Guard’s predecessors, the Revenue Cutter Service, was the area around the Pribilof Islands, where 80 percent of the world’s northern fur seals returned each year to give birth and breed.

A focus of early patrols for one of the Coast Guard’s predecessors, the Revenue Cutter Service, was the area around the Pribilof Islands, where 80 percent of the world’s northern fur seals returned each year to give birth and breed. The seals’ thick pelts were highly prized and, with the departure of the Russian-American Company and its controlled harvests, the islands and the waters around them became overrun with hunters, many of them from Canada, who killed indiscriminately and soon threatened the seals with extinction. The secretary of the treasury, who regulated the killing of the animals, dispatched revenue cutters to enforce proper harvesting of the seals under U.S. law.

Alaskan patrol cutters, like the Lincoln before them, continued the tradition of what became known as the Bering Sea Patrol, and later the Alaskan Patrol. Cutter crews conducted scientific surveys of the territory’s ocean, flora, and fauna; delivered doctors, teachers, mail, and supplies to remote villages; enforced fish and game laws; policed the distribution of alcohol, ammunition, and firearms; and conducted occasional search and rescue (SAR) operations for stranded whalers, fishermen, or explorers – including the service’s first official case above the Arctic Circle: the 1880 search for the lost steamer Jeannette.

 

 

For many years, revenue cutters were the only administrators of law and order in the untamed Alaskan outback. The Bering Sea Patrol established the tradition of the “Court Cruise,” transporting a judge, public defender, deputy U.S. marshal, and court clerk to conduct criminal trials in isolated communities. In some cases, if the case went against the defendant, the cutter would become a floating jail, transporting the convict to serve sentence at an on-shore facility elsewhere.

 

“Healy’s Fire Canoe”

In the late 19th century, two now-legendary names made their mark in this wild frontier. One belonged to a man: Capt. Michael A. Healy, whose nickname, applied with varying degrees of affection – but never to the captain’s face – was “Hell Roarin’ Mike.” The other name belonged to a ship, the Revenue Cutter Bear, perhaps the most famous ship in Coast Guard history.

Framed in oak, sheathed in Australian ironbark, the Bear, a former whaler, had already acquired renown as one of the North’s hardiest vessels when Healy took command of it in 1886. At the time, a great migration of fortune hunters was streaming into the northwest – hordes of whalers and sealers, prospectors and miners, and their suppliers, surged into and around remote settlements such as Kotzebue and Nome, with federal agencies struggling to establish government control and education for the booming communities.

In 1886, the ravaging of fur seals in the Bering Sea had reached a peak, as poachers, aware of a coming crackdown, launched a last push to harvest as many of the animals as possible. Healy was ordered to seize any vessel found sealing in the Bering Sea, but the patrol fleet, consisting of the cutters Bear, Rush, and Corwin, was severely tested by the vast area. Healy decided to act with harshness, to compensate for his disadvantage in numbers. In 1887, in his first patrol, he captured a dozen Canadian schooners and sent them to Sitka with prize crews. Tensions between the United States and Britain escalated to the brink of war in 1892 when the Corwin, under the command of Capt. Calvin L. Hooper, seized the British steamer Coquitlam in the act of receiving illegal seal pelts. The ship was bonded for $600,000, and the British raised a protest so strident that the matter was turned over to an international arbiter – but the issue wasn’t resolved until 1911, when a treaty prohibited seal harvesting by all but native subsistence hunters.

Meanwhile, the slaughter of the fur seals – along with the indiscriminate killing of other animals, such as bowhead whales and walrus – continued, despite the efforts of the Bering Sea Patrol. In his Arctic career, which had begun more than a decade earlier with the Jeannette search, Healy had witnessed the deadly effect these depredations were having on Alaska Native populations. Many had starved, while others traded away furs and ivory for illegally imported alcohol, often leaving themselves unprepared for winter.

Healy had noticed, in his travels, that the Chukchi people of Siberia kept domesticated reindeer (in Alaska, the term “reindeer” is used to note the difference between tame and wild caribou, though they are the same animal) and lived off the herds year-round as a dependable food supply. With Rev. Dr. Sheldon Jackson, general agent for education in Alaska, Healy hatched a plan to import reindeer from Siberia to Alaska and teach the North American natives how to herd and raise the animals. In the summer of 1892, Healy and the Bear made five trips to Russia and brought a total of 171 reindeer, along with five Siberian herders as instructors, to Port Clarence, just north of Nome, where Alaska’s first reindeer station was established. It was the first of many reindeer deliveries undertaken by revenue cutters until 1906, when the Russian government pulled out of the agreement.

Healy’s ambitious humanitarian initiative didn’t take, ultimately: The conversion of traditional subsistence hunters into herdsmen proved impracticable – and in the eyes of many today, wrongheaded. But nobody, least of all the natives Healy was trying to save from starvation, doubted his good intentions, and the program achieved two important results: First, it brought reindeer to Alaska, where – along with the wild caribou population – the animals would number a half-million by the beginning of World War II. Second, and more important, it established a tradition of trust and rapport among the Revenue Cutter Service – and later the Coast Guard – and Alaska Natives, whose enduring respect for the captain was reflected in their name for his ship: “Healy’s Fire Canoe.”

 

The Overland Relief Expedition

Reindeer proved critical to one of the most dramatic rescues ever undertaken by the Revenue Cutter Service – a mission often described as the greatest rescue in Coast Guard history. In November 1897, just as the Klondike-Yukon gold rush was heating up, an early cold snap locked eight whaling vessels – the entire American whaling fleet – in heavy ice near Point Barrow, stranding about 265 whalers near the northernmost point in Alaska. Here, they were doomed to remain, unless help arrived, until the ice melted again the following summer.

President William McKinley ordered the service to organize a relief expedition, and the Bear – now commanded by Capt. Francis Tuttle – was naturally chosen for the voyage. Because of the obvious danger, Tuttle refused to accept anyone other than volunteers for the mission – and every one of the Bear’s officers and crewmembers offered to go.

President William McKinley ordered the service to organize a relief expedition, and the Bear – now commanded by Capt. Francis Tuttle – was naturally chosen for the voyage. Because of the obvious danger, Tuttle refused to accept anyone other than volunteers for the mission – and every one of the Bear’s officers and crewmembers offered to go.

The plan was for the Bear to land a rescue party on shore as far north as possible – which proved to be far south of where Tuttle had hoped. In early December 1897, the party made a hair-raising landing in frigid, violent surf at Cape Vancouver, about 100 miles south of the Yukon River mouth. Still 1,500 miles from the whalers’ position, Tuttle and his cuttermen decided to follow through with their plan: an overland expedition, through the forbidding Alaska interior, during the coldest and darkest time of year, to bring food and relief to the icebound whalers. Alaska Natives warned against the attempt – but the men were reluctant to abandon an expedition requested by the president himself.

The party was led by Lt. David H. Jarvis, who was assisted by Lt. Ellsworth P. Bertholf and the ship’s surgeon, Dr. Samuel J. Call. After hiring a guide at the village of Tununak, they traveled overland to the reindeer station at Port Clarence, north of Nome. To provide food for the stranded men, they acquired a herd of about 400 reindeer that would be driven north with the assistance of W.T. Lopp, a missionary, and Charlie Artisarlook, a local herder. The party still had 800 miles to go.

 

 

Nobody had ever attempted such a journey in the dead of winter. For 100 days, Jarvis and his men fought their way across the Alaskan wastes, with no trail to guide them: over vast snowfields, the jagged ice ledges of Kotzebue Sound, mountain passes, and frozen tundra, through blinding blizzards, and temperatures that fell to 60 degrees below zero, until finally reaching Point Barrow on March 29. Their surviving 382 reindeer arrived the following day.

Many of the whalers had abandoned their ships, which had been completely crushed by the ice, and made their way to an old whaling station at Point Barrow. When Jarvis’s cuttermen and the reindeer arrived, the whalers couldn’t believe their eyes. Though they had managed to lay in an impressive store of food and fuel for the winter, many were already suffering from scurvy, and they had generally become a lawless and ruthless lot.

On July 28, Tuttle and the Bear finally broke through to Barrow. Tuttle was relieved to discover that the expedition had succeeded, and that all but a few of the whalers had survived

Jarvis went to work immediately, restoring order. Houses were built. The whaling station where the men had sheltered was so filthy that it was torn down and used for firewood. Call ministered to the sick and wounded. Food was rationed and distributed. Daily inspections were instituted to ensure cleanliness and order, and recreation and work programs were begun to strengthen the men and lift their spirits. In May, baseball games were organized and played on the ice off the Point.

On July 28, Tuttle and the Bear finally broke through to Barrow. Tuttle was relieved to discover that the expedition had succeeded, and that all but a few of the whalers had survived. Bear delivered the survivors to Seattle on Sept. 13, 1898, almost 10 months after it had left the previous winter, and for their part in the mission, Jarvis, Bertholf, and Call – men whose names resound today on the cutter hulls and building façades of the Coast Guard – were awarded Congressional Gold Medals in 1902, “commemorative of their heroic struggles in aid of suffering fellow-men.”

 

The Modern Coast Guard in Alaska

While the exploits of the Revenue Cutter Service were making headlines around the world, the Coast Guard’s other two legacy agencies were quietly laying the groundwork for a continued presence in Alaska. In 1900, the U.S. Lighthouse Service, with a $100,000 budget granted by Congress, began building more lighthouses in southeastern Alaska and on its western coast. From 1902 to 1905, seven lights were built to help guide ships through the Inside Passage to Skagway.

In 1903, the government built two lights to help ships on their way to the Bering Sea. Alaska’s first outer coastal lighthouse, the Scotch Cap light, was established at Unimak Pass, in the Aleutian Island Chain. By the 1930s, there were 16 lighthouses on the Alaskan coastline.

In response to the gold rush boom, the U.S. Life-Saving Service, in 1905, established its first Alaskan – and by far its northernmost – station at Nome, whose offshore anchorage was notoriously shallow and treacherous. Under head keeper Thomas Ross, surfmen rescued people from ice floes and grounded or capsized vessels; helped fight fires; and mounted dogsled deliveries of medicine and supplies.

In the decades after the Revenue Cutter Service and the Life-Saving Service combined to form the U.S. Coast Guard in 1915 (the Coast Guard took on the duties of the Lighthouse Service in 1939), the new multi-mission agency underwent dramatic changes, many of them fueled by technology. Aging cutters were replaced by larger Treasury-class ships, some of which carried fixed-wing aircraft.

These Coast Guard assets would prove invaluable after the United States declared war on Japan in 1941. The Coast Guard in Alaska was instrumental in preparing for inevitable battle, establishing long range navigation (Loran) monitor stations on the mainland and in the Aleutian Island chain for naval ships and aircraft. When the Japanese attack came in June 1942 with an aerial bombing of Dutch Harbor on the island of Unalaska, the CGC Onondaga defended it fiercely, firing 2,000 anti-aircraft rounds. When the Coast Guard was placed under the wartime command of the U.S. Navy, many of its Alaskan personnel and cutters served with distinction. The CGC Spencer, for example, a Treasury-class cutter first used for SAR in Alaskan fisheries, served in the Pacific War, escorted convoys during the Battle of the Atlantic, and hunted German U-boats.

 

Above the Arctic Circle

In the latter part of the 20th century, with Alaska becoming increasingly settled along its southern coast and its panhandle archipelago, the Coast Guard’s infrastructure was established around these population centers. Headquartered in Juneau, with air stations at Kodiak and Sitka, smallboat stations in Juneau, Ketchikan, and Valdez, and seven marine safety units – only one of which, at Dutch Harbor, is west of the Gulf of Alaska – the Coast Guard’s 17th District is positioned to provide prompt service to the vast majority of Alaskans. Its only permanent installation above the Arctic Circle, a Loran station at Port Clarence, was disestablished in 2010 after Loran technology was displaced by the Global Positioning System.

Since 1867, however, the Coast Guard in Alaska has dedicated itself to its statutory responsibility to serve all Alaskans, no matter how distant from the nearest facility – and many of them are a great distance away. Barrow, the largest community on the North Slope and the northernmost U.S. city, is 820 nautical miles from Air Station Kodiak. The closest deep-draft port capable of fueling a large cutter is Dutch Harbor, a nearly 1,300-mile, five-day voyage from Barrow.

In Alaska, such distances have led the service to hone two distinct capabilities: An expeditionary mindset that places expert personnel on air and surface assets designed to cover great distances – and remain far from base, if necessary, for extended operations – and a tradition of building strong, mutually beneficial relationships with communities and agencies in the vast region.

In Alaska, such distances have led the service to hone two distinct capabilities: An expeditionary mindset that places expert personnel on air and surface assets designed to cover great distances – and remain far from base, if necessary, for extended operations – and a tradition of building strong, mutually beneficial relationships with communities and agencies in the vast region.

Both of these capabilities proved key to the success of another legendary rescue, conducted in 1980 after the Dutch cruise ship Prinsendam caught fire off Ketchikan, 130 miles from the nearest airstrip. Coast Guard, Air Force, and Canadian helicopters converged on the scene, and the CGCs Boutwell, Mellon, and Woodrush, along with other vessels in the area, responded to collect all 520 passengers and crew without loss of life or serious injury.

 

 

Over the past decade, the ice-free season along Alaska’s Arctic coast has continued to lengthen, and maritime activity north of the Arctic Circle has increased. In 2008, for the first time since satellites had been able to observe it, the Arctic sea ice retreated enough to create open – though not ice-free – waters all the way around the northern ice pack.

Where there’s water, the Coast Guard is charged with making its presence felt – and in the Arctic, the service has been resurgent, conducting maritime domain awareness flights and annual outreach, patrol, and enforcement operations in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas north of the Bering Strait. Despite the harsh climate and lack of infrastructure, about 2,500 active-duty, civilian, and auxiliary Coast Guard personnel serve in Alaska – and though the faces have changed, the names of those who wrote the history of the Coast Guard in Alaska have remained: The CGC Jarvis, after four decades of service that frequently involved fisheries enforcement in the Bering Sea, was retired from active service in September 2012. The CGC Healy, an icebreaker commissioned in 1999, is a floating laboratory designed for scientific research in the Arctic – but capable of fulfilling all the Coast Guard missions, including the January 2012 escort of an emergency fuel delivery through more than 300 miles of solid ice to the town of Nome.

The CGC Healy, an icebreaker commissioned in 1999, is a floating laboratory designed for scientific research in the Arctic – but capable of fulfilling all the Coast Guard missions, including the January 2012 escort of an emergency fuel delivery through more than 300 miles of solid ice to the town of Nome.

In August 2012, another legendary name returned to the Arctic in the form of the CGC Bertholf, the flagship national security cutter named for the man who assisted Jarvis’s 1897 Overland Relief Expedition, delivered Siberian reindeer to Port Clarence, took part in the Bering Sea Patrol, and eventually took command of the Bear.

From July to October 2012, in the Beaufort Sea off Point Barrow – hundreds of miles from the nearest air station or smallboat station – the Coast Guard, in the extended exercises known collectively as Arctic Shield, helped to manage one of the busiest maritime seasons in the Arctic to date. Rear Adm. Thomas Ostebo, District 17 commander, described Arctic Shield 2012 as “the first year we’ve had a sustained offshore presence for all Coast Guard missions, a 24/7 ready posture in the Arctic.”

 

 

The Coast Guard achieved this, in part, by bringing its own air and smallboat platform to Barrow: Bertholf, the first Legend-class cutter to patrol in the Arctic, provided a mobile base of operations with unique capabilities, including state-of-the-art command, control, and communications systems and the ability to launch and recover helicopters and smallboats.

Ellsworth P. Bertholf, as first commandant of the Coast Guard he had worked so diligently to create in 1915, successfully fended off the attempts of Congress to fold the service into the U.S. Navy after World War I.

Ellsworth P. Bertholf, as first commandant of the Coast Guard he had worked so diligently to create in 1915, successfully fended off the attempts of Congress to fold the service into the U.S. Navy after World War I. It seemed only fitting, in the summer of 2012, that the cutter bearing his name would help demonstrate the commandant’s convincing argument: There are some things – especially in the high Arctic, well beyond the reach of any other U.S. agency – only the Coast Guard can do.

This article first appeared in the Coast Guard Outlook 2014 Edition.