Environmental
Stewardship
Arctic Regulations
Rulemaking shapes expanded activity
and protects the Arctic.
byLTDANIEL VELEZ
Judge Advocate
U.S. Coast Guard Offce of Maritime and International Law
The Overland Expedition
On Nov. 15, 1897, Treasury Secretary Lyman J. Gage wrote to U.S. Revenue Cutter Service Captain Francis
Tuttle, commanding ofcer of the cutter Bear, to inform him of a dire emergency in the Arctic. A feet
of eight whaling vessels with 265 persons aboard had become trapped — icebound in the vicinity of
Point Barrow, Alaska. In response, Captain Shoemaker, Commandant of the Revenue Cutter Service,
dispatched the Bear with a volunteer crew to attempt a rescue.
The Overland Expedition would
become one of the most difcult and
audacious rescue attempts in Coast
Guard history.1
Ice conditions and the technology of
the time prevented sailing to Barrow,
so the plan called for sailing as far
north as possible, followed by a land
crossing of the Arctic, to bring relief
to the trapped whaling crews. The
success of this efort, in which the
great majority of the trapped mariners were rescued, demonstrated
the Coast Guard's commitment to
excellence in Arctic operations.
The Overland Expedition reaches trapped vessels at Point Barrow, Alaska. U.S. Coast Guard
photo.
42
Proceedings
Summer 2013
www.uscg.mil/proceedings
