Early in November, 1897, it was brought to the attention of the President that eight vessels of the whaling fleet were caught by the ice in the vicinity of Point Barrow and their crews were in great danger of starvation. An expedition was ordered and placed under the command of Captain Francis Tuttle of the Revenue Cutter Bear, whose officers and crew were all volunteers. The Bear sailed from Seattle, Washington on November 27, 1897 and returned ten months later, bringing four crews of wrecked whalers and having fully carried out all the orders and accomplished all the purposes of the expedition without loss or accident of any kind.