MV Brown Bear
MV Brown Bear as a University of Washington research vessel in 1963.
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United States | |
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Name | MV Brown Bear |
Namesake | Brown bear |
Operator | U.S. Bureau of Biological Survey and Alaska Game Commission |
Builder | Winslow Marine Railway & Shipbuilding Company, Bainbridge Island, Washington |
Cost | US$125,000 |
Launched | 7 November 1934 |
Fate | Transferred to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 30 June 1934 |
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service | |
Name | MV Brown Bear |
Namesake | Previous name retained |
Acquired | From U.S. Bureau of Biological Survey 30 June 1940 |
Fate | Transferred to United States Navy 5 January 1942 |
Acquired | Transferred from U.S. Navy 28 March 1946 |
Fate | Transferred to United States Navy May 1951 |
Acquired | Transferred from U.S. Navy 28 March 1946 |
Fate | Transferred to United States Navy May 1951 |
Acquired | From University of Washington 1965 |
Fate | Transferred to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration 3 October 1970 |
United States Navy | |
Name | USS YP-197 |
Acquired | From U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 5 January 1942 |
Decommissioned | 27 November 1945 |
Fate | Transferred to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 28 March 1946 |
Notes | Manned by United States Coast Guard personnel 5 January 1942–27 November 1945 |
Acquired | Transferred from U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service May 1951 |
Fate | Transferred to University of Washington by summer 1952 |
United States | |
Name | MV Brown Bear |
Namesake | Previous name retained |
Operator | University of Washington |
Acquired | From U.S. Navy by summer 1952 |
Fate | Transferred to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 1965 |
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration | |
Name | MV Brown Bear |
Namesake | Previous name retained |
Acquired | From U.S.Fish and Wildlife Service 3 October 1970 |
Decommissioned | 1972 |
Fate |
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General characteristics as Fish and Wildlife Service vessel | |
Type | Research vessel |
Tonnage | 300 gross tons |
Length | 114 ft (35 m) |
Beam | 27 ft (8.2 m) |
Draft | 13 ft (4.0 m) |
Propulsion | Two 200- Washington Iron Works diesel engines |
Speed | 8.5 knots (16 km/h) |
Range | 4,000 nautical miles (7,400 km) to 5,400 nautical miles (10,000 km) |
Boats & landing craft carried | One tender with 10-horsepower (8.5-kilowatt) Kermath Marine Engines engine |
Crew | Accommodation for 16 crew and scientists |
MV Brown Bear was an American research vessel in commission in the fleet of the United States Department of Agriculture′s Bureau of Biological Survey and Alaska Game Commission from 1934 to 1940 and in the fleet of the United States Department of the Interior′s Fish and Wildlife Service from 1940 to 1942 and from 1946 to 1951, under the control of the University of Washington from 1952 to 1965, and in commission in the fleet of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service from 1965 to 1970 and of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration′s National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) from 1970 to 1972.
Early in World War II, the ship was transferred from the FWS to the United States Navy for war service and renamed USS YP-197. Immediately transferred to the United States Coast Guard, she operated as a Coast Guard vessel from 1942 to 1945.
After her NMFS service, the ship operated commercially as the
Construction and commissioning
The U.S.
The
Operational history
Bureau of Biological Survey and Alaska Game Commission
In 1936, Brown Bear made history′s first survey of sea otters in and around the Aleutian Islands in the Territory of Alaska. The sea otter herd was of considerable commercial value as a source of furs, and Brown Bear′s survey demonstrated that the sea otters were becoming more numerous and expanding their range, dispelling fears that they were becoming extinct in the Aleutians.[1] Brown Bear also reported sightings of foreign commercial fishing activities in Aleutian waters, something that she did during her other cruises in Alaskan waters as well.[1]
Bureau of Biological Survey biologist Olaus Murie – accompanied by other scientists from both the Bureau and the Alaska Game Commission – used Brown Bear from 1936 to 1938 to study resources native to the Aleutian Islands, Alaska Peninsula, and Bering Sea.[1] In 1939, Brown Bear transported Bureau ichthyologist and University of Michigan Curator of Fishes Dr. Carl L. Hubbs to Unalaska and the Pribilof Islands during an intensive study he made of the Territory of Alaska's fisheries and marine mammals, and in September 1939 the ship conveyed him to Seattle.[1]
Fish and Wildlife Service (1940–1941)
In 1939, the Bureau of Biological Survey was transferred from the Department of Agriculture to the United States Department of the Interior,[3] and on 30 June 1940, it merged with the Bureau of Fisheries to form the new Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) as an element of the Department of the Interior.[4] Via this reorganization, Brown Bear became part of the fleet of the new FWS in 1940 as US FWS Brown Bear.
In 1940, Brown Bear was assigned to protect game in the
At some point in the four weeks after the
Fish and Wildlife Service (1946–1951)
Returning to her original name as US FWS Brown Bear, the vessel resumed her operations for the FWS.[1] In 1946, she was moored at the FWS pier at the north end of Lake Union in Seattle when a large fire gutted the FWS warehouse at the pier.[1] The fire scorched Brown Bear and she narrowly escaped destruction.[1]
Brown Bear left Seattle on 3 April 1947 carrying FWS personnel to Southeast Alaska, where they worked the downstream pink salmon fry-counting weir at the FWS Little Port Walter field station at Port Walter, Territory of Alaska.[1] After that, she served as a base of operations for the spring 1947 stream surveys headed by FWS biologist Samuel J. Hutchinson, operating skiffs with outboard motors to transport personnel between ship and shore.[1] Upon completion of the survey in early May 1947. Brown Bear transferred the survey staff to the FWS vessel US FWS Brant so that they could conduct additional surveys in Alaska′s Ketchikan district, then departed Alaska to transport Hutchinson to Seattle.[1]
By the end of the 1940s, Brown Bear was making regular supply runs to and from
University of Washington
The U.S. Navy again requisitioned Brown Bear when she arrived at Juneau in 1951,[1] but by the summer of 1952 the University of Washington's Department of Oceanography had acquired her.[1] The university employed her in research projects in Alaska, off the coasts of Washington and Oregon, and in parts of the Columbia River, and she often operated in cooperation with vessels from other agencies.[1]
In 1956 and 1957, Brown Bear worked with the FWS vessels
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (1965–1970) and NOAA
Around 1965, Brown Bear was returned to the Fish and Wildlife Service, which in 1956 had undergone a reorganization in which it was renamed the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and a new Bureau of Commercial Fisheries (BCF) was created within it; the BCF operated USFWS seagoing ships like Brown Bear, and so upon her return to the USFWS, Brown Bear was assigned to the BCF, again as US FWS Brown Bear.
On 3 October 1970, a major reorganization occurred which formed the
During these years, Brown Bear operated as a "
In 1972, NOAA procured a portable floating laboratory to replace Brown Bear.
Later career
By 1990, Brown Bear had been renamed MV Baja Explorador and was operating in Mexico as a commercial excursion vessel and for recreational underwater diving in the waters around Baja California.[1] By 1992 she had been sold to American owners, renamed Brown Bear, and moored at Los Angeles, California.[1] Records suggest that she never put to sea again, except to be moved to San Diego, California, in 1994.[1] In the meantime, she passed through a succession of owners – Michael Brittain of Seward, Alaska, then the Alaska Oceanographic Society, then the Anderson Tug & Barge Company, and eventually R/V Brown Bear Inc. of Seward.[1] In August 1994, she sank from neglect at San Diego, and by 1995 she apparently had broken in half.[1] She eventually was refloated, and sometime in late 1997 or January 1998 she was towed out to sea and scuttled in the Pacific Ocean off San Diego.[1]
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad ae af ag ah ai aj ak al am an ao ap aq ar as at au av aw AFSC Historical Corner: Brown Bear, Grizzly Bear & Black Bear - "Bear" Boats Retrieved September 14, 2018
- ^ "Fisheries Historical Timeline: Historical Highlights 1930's". NOAA Fisheries Service: Northeast Fisheries Science Center. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). June 16, 2011. Retrieved September 11, 2017.
- ^ "Fisheries Historical Timeline: Historical Highlights 1940's". NOAA Fisheries Service: Northeast Fisheries Science Center. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). June 16, 2011. Retrieved September 11, 2017.
- ^ Guinan, John A., and Ralph E. Curtis, "A Century Of Conservation," noaa.gov, April 1971 Retrieved August 22, 2018
- ^ noaa.gov AFSC Historical Corner - Timeline of Significant Events Retrieved August 23, 2018