Fifty-fifth
Congress, second session.

WILLIAM McKINLEY.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _January 17, 1899_.

_To the Senate and House of Representatives_:

It will be remembered that in the month of October, 1897, reports were
received here of the probable loss of the whaling fleet in the Arctic
regions, and of the likelihood that nearly 300 men, composing the
officers and crews of the fleet, would perish from hunger unless succor
could reach them early in the spring.

The revenue cutter _Bear_ was known to be _en route_ from the
Arctic Ocean to Puget Sound, Washington. Her arrival was anxiously
awaited, as no other suitable Government vessel could be made available
for Arctic work. That ship arrived at Seattle, Wash., on the 6th of
November, after a six-months' cruise in the Arctic, and I at once
ordered an expedition prepared for the relief of the imperiled whalemen.

The preparation of the _Bear_ was commenced on the 11th of
November, under the direction of the Secretary of the Treasury. Her
officers and men of the Revenue-Cutter Service all volunteered for the
perilous work, and the ship was completely fitted out, and, under the
command of Capt. Francis Tuttle, of the Revenue-Cutter Service, sailed
on her errand of mercy November 29, 1897, within nineteen days from the
inception of the movement.

The plan of the expedition was briefly as follows:

The ship was to be fully provided with rations for the ice-imperiled
whalemen, which were to be conveyed to them as soon as the ice
conditions in Bering Strait would permit the passage through. An
overland expedition was to be landed from the _Bear_ as soon as
practicable, at some point on the coast of Alaska, in Bering Sea, to be
determined upon by Captain Tuttle. The problem of getting food to the
imperiled people at the earliest time possible was the all-important
consideration, for it was fully understood that the _Bear_ could
not, under the most favorable conditions of ice navigation in that
region, reach their neighborhood before the following July or August.
The utter lack of transportation of any kind in this far-off land
suggested the idea, which was adopted as the only possible plan, of
driving reindeer overland, to be slaughtered on arrival, for food to
last until the arrival of the _Bear_ with supplies the following
summer. The reindeer were to be collected by the overland expedition
from several points in Alaska, notably Cape Prince of Wales and Point
Rodn