Half Moon and the Polar Bear

The bear that came to dinner on Ocean Station Bravo

On closer examination it was determined that the object was a large polar bear that had been stranded on the floating chunk of ice. As the berg was hundreds of miles from land or solid ice and was rapidly melting as it drifted south in the Labrador current, Captain McKenzie authorized the capture of the bear as a humane alternative to letting it starve to death and/or drown when the berg melted as it approached the edge of the Gulf Stream.

A small boat was launched in an attempt to capture the bear. The animal was lassoed and brought back to the ship where it was shot. The ship's doctor brought the bones back to Staten Island to be analyzed as they had stopped an M-1 slug at 15 feet. The crew hoisted the dead bear to the fantail and it was hung up for pictures.

The bear was skinned and the meat sent to the commissarymen for preparation. Apparently the crew was divided over how much of a gourmet course this was on the ship's menu. A few enjoyed it while others claimed that it was far from the best meal they had ever eaten. Still others would not even try it. Reports from one of the crewmen that actually tried it said that tasted like fish, while others said it tasted like beef.

As far as is known, this is the only time that a live polar bear was captured on an Atlantic Ocean Station.

This story was first recounted by former FN3 Charles Whitehead, who was serving onboard Half Moon in 1952 when this strange incident occurred. CWO George Werth, who was also aboard at that time, provided these photographs to show how large the bear was and to prove that truth is sometime stranger than fiction.