USC&GS Yukon (1873)

For other ships with the same name, see USC&GS Yukon.

Yukon
History
United States Coast Survey
Name	USCS Yukon
Commissioned	1873
Renamed	USC&GS Yukon (1878)
Fate	Sold 1894
Notes	The U.S. Coast Survey was renamed the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey in 1878
United States
Name	Elwood
Identification	Signal letters: QVTN
Fate	Wrecked 14 December 1895
General characteristics as survey ship
Type	Survey ship
Tonnage	101
Length	84 ft (26 m)
Beam	22 ft 2 in (6.8 m)
Draft	9 ft (2.7 m)
Propulsion	Sails
Sail plan	Schooner-rigged
General characteristics in commercial service
Type	Schooner
Tonnage	97.27 GRT 92.44 NRT
Length	84 ft (25.6 m)
Beam	23 ft (7.0 m)
Depth	8 ft (2.4 m)
Propulsion	Sails
Sail plan	Schooner-rigged

USC&GS Yukon was a schooner that served as a survey ship from 1878 to 1894 in the United States Coast Survey, which was renamed the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey in 1878. She was the pioneering Coast Survey or Coast and Geodetic Survey ship in many of the waters of the Territory of Alaska, including the Bering Sea and the western Aleutian Islands, and she also operated extensively in California and Washington. She later entered commercial service as Elwood and was wrecked in 1895.

Career

Survey ship

Yukon was the first Coast Survey ship to bear the name. She entered Coast Survey service in 1873, having been built and outfitted in Kennebunk, Maine, specifically for Alaska service. The Coast Survey was renamed the Coast and Geodetic Survey in 1878.

Yukon is most noted for cruises under Acting Assistant William Healey Dall in 1873, 1874, and 1880, leading to the publication of the Pacific Coast Pilot - Alaska in 1883. The 1873 cruise surveyed the western half of the Aleutian Islands, the eastern half having been surveyed the previous year by the U.S. Coast Survey schooner USCS Humboldt. The 1874 cruise first proceeded to Sitka in Southeast Alaska, and then west along the coast of the Gulf of Alaska as far as Unalaska in the Aleutians, and then entered the Bering Sea and visited Nunivak Island and the Pribilof Islands before returning to Sitka. In 1880, Yukon initially followed much the same course as in 1874, but also included stops at Plover Bay (now Provideniya Bay) on the coast of Siberia, the Diomede Islands, and Point Belcher on Alaska′s Chukchi Sea coast.

A particular focus of these trips was to correct the position of the various bays and islands, which were often misplaced by as much as 20 nautical miles (37 km; 23 mi) on the charts of the era, and to document compass variation. These activities depended on astronomical observation to determine location and direction, observations which were notoriously difficult in the cloudy and variable weather of the Bering Sea. The Plover Bay visits of 1880 served to recalibrate marine chronometers against the known longitude of that location. Marcus Baker was the astronomical observer for all three trips.

Another focus was the collection of biological specimens. The 1880 cruise carried Tarleton Bean as biological observer. Bean's focus was to document the fish and other marine resources of the region from both a scientific and a practical perspective. Edward Perry Herendeen – a former whaling captain who later went to Point Barrow on Alaska′s Arctic Ocean coast with the International Polar Expedition of 1881–1883 commanded by United States Army First Lieutenant Patrick H. Ray – was sailing master for all three trips.

Yukon also worked in California and extensively in Washington. In 1877 and 1878, Yukon carried out a hydrographic survey of upper Puget Sound under United States Navy Lieutenant Richard M. Cutts, assisted by Lieutenants Ambrose B. Wyckoff and U. Harris. Wyckoff's observations convinced him that Puget Sound was an ideal location for a naval shipyard. His reports and enthusiastic promotion over the subsequent 13 years led to establishment of the Puget Sound Naval Station at Bremerton, Washington, of which he served the first commander from 1891 to 1893.

Yukon was decommissioned in 1894 and was sold that year at Tacoma, Washington.

Commercial service

After her sale, the ship entered commercial service as a schooner with the name Elwood.

Elwood departed Seattle, Washington, on 1 September 1895 bound for Kodiak on Kodiak Island and Cook Inlet on the south-central coast of Alaska on what was destined to be her final voyage. At 2:00 a.m. on 14 December 1895, she was wrecked on a reef off Gardner Point (57°01′N 134°37′W) in Southeast Alaska. One member of her crew died when he attempted to reach shore. Her captain and the rest of her crew reached land safely by clinging to her wreckage. Once ashore, they made their way to Murder Cove on the southernmost coast of Admiralty Island in the Alexander Archipelago and then to Killisnoo, where the United States Revenue Cutter Service revenue cutter USRC Wolcott rescued them. Wolcott transported them to Sitka.

• 
  William Healey Dall
• 
  Marcus Baker
• 
  Tarleton Hoffman Bean
• 
  Ambrose B. Wyckoff

References

Bibliography

• NOAA History, A Science Odyssey: Tools of the Trade: Ships: Coast and Geodetic Survey Ships: Yukon
• E. W. Eickelberg, Lituya Bay, Gulf of Alaska. U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey FIELD ENGINEERS BULLETIN no. 10, December 1936
• Lewis Publishing Company (1903) A volume of memoirs and genealogy of representative citizens of the city of Seattle and county of King, Washington, including biographies of many of those who have passed away "Ambrose B. Wyckoff" pp 385–388. Lewis Publishing Company, New York, Chicago.
• Baker, Marcus (1906) Geographic dictionary of Alaska, ed 2 United States Geological Survey Bulletin 299 p 27
• Rathbun, Richard (1884) "Fisheries of the United States" United States National Museum, Bulletin, Issue 27, Part 1 pp 527–8
• Puget Sound Naval Shipyard HistoryLink.org Essay 5579.
• United States Coast Survey work. Overland Monthly v 11 p573 1873.
• Bureau of Navigation, US Dept. of Commerce. Annual list of merchant vessels of the United States . Government Printing Office, Washington.
• United States Coast and Geodetic Survey. REPORT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OF THE US COAST AND GEODETIC SURVEY SHOWING THE PROGRESS OF THE WORK 1873, 1874, 1875, fiscal years 1877, 1878, 1879, 1886. Google Books shows these as publication years 1875, 1877, 1878, 1880, 1881, 1881, 1887.

External links

Accounts of the Yukon cruise of 1880

• New York Times (1880) Ililuliuk on Unalashka; A graphic picture of a village in Alaska. September 17, Page 2
• New York Times (1880) Cruising in the arctic; The Yukon at St. Paul and at Plover Bay. November 21, Page 8
• New York Times (1880) Ten days in the arctic; The Yukon cruising on the Alaskan coast. December 6, Page 2
• Baker, Marcus (1881). "Boundary line between Alaska and Siberia". Bulletin of the Philosophical Society of Washington. 4: 123–133.
• Dall, W.H. (1881). "Notes on Alaska and the vicinity of Bering Strait". American Journal of Science. 21: 104–111.
• Dall, William Healey (1917). "Reminiscences of Alaskan volcanos". Scientific Monthly. 7: 80–90.
• Bean, Tarleton H. "A NATURALIST'S ADVENTURES" in Rudolf Kersting (ed) The white world: life and adventures within the arctic circle portrayed by famous living explorers Lewis, Scribner & co., New York pp 249–266 1902