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DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY -- NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER
805 KIDDER BREESE SE -- WASHINGTON NAVY YARD
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Return to Naval Historical Center homepagePolar Bear
A large creamy-white bear found in arctic regions.
(SP–3666: dp. 8,835; l. 353’3”; b. 49’; dr. 23’1”; s. 12 k.; cpl. 86)
Polar Bear (SP–3666) was built in 1918 by the Baltimore Dry Dock and Shipbuilding Co., Baltimore, Md.; requisitioned by USSB for use in NOTS as a refrigerated cargo ship 28 September 1918; and commissioned at Baltimore 3 December 1918, Lt. Comdr. Richard Russell Lukens, USNRF, in command.
Assigned to NOTS, Polar Bear sailed 19 December 1918 with a full cargo of general Army supplies for the American Expeditionary Force in France. She discharged her cargo at La Pallice, Verdun, Bordeaux and Paulliac before returning to the U.S. 3 February 1919.
Polar Bear was decommissioned at New York 10 March 1919, and was returned to the USSB.