David H. Jarvis

During the harsh winter of 1897–1898, Jarvis, then serving as a first lieutenant aboard the U.S. Revenue Cutter Bear, led the Overland Relief Expedition, bringing a three-man rescue team with a herd of about 400 reindeer across 1,500 miles of tundra and pack-ice to Point Barrow, Alaska, to bring needed food to 265 whalers whose ships had become stranded in the ice off the northern Alaska coast.

[5][6][Note 1] On June 18, 1883, he was commissioned as a temporary third lieutenant and his first assignment was aboard USRC Hamilton, reporting at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on July 5, 1883.

[5][8][9][Note 2] This assignment lasted a little more than two months as he was transferred from the cutter on September 11 for an undisclosed reason only to be reassigned to Hamilton again on November 24.

During the time Jarvis was assigned to Hamilton, her cruising area was from Great Egg Harbor, New Jersey, to Bodie Island, North Carolina, including Delaware Bay.

[8][10][Note 4] On March 16, 1888 Jarvis received orders that transferred him to the Pacific coast where he spent the balance of his career with the RCS.

[5] Rush left San Francisco bound for the Seal Islands on June 5 and returned from the patrol on October 15 at Port Townsend, Washington.

[4] Because of a lack of trained dogs, Jarvis instructed Bertholf to continue searching the Inuit villages for sled teams while he and Call went ahead to Cape Prince of Wales, where there were large numbers of domesticated reindeer.

"[17] In recognition of their work, Jarvis, Bertholf and Call were awarded Congressional Gold Medals for "heroic service rendered" in legislation passed on June 28, 1902.

[1] March 29, 1905, Jarvis was promoted to captain but resigned three months later from the Revenue Cutter Service on June 30 to become manager of a Seattle salmon cannery.

"[2] When Wickersham ran for delegate to Congress in 1908 on an anti-Guggenheim platform, he broke with Jarvis and accused him of corruption, bribery and other crimes.

[1] Jarvis committed suicide on June 23, 1911, shooting himself in his room at the Seattle Athletic Club, one day after Wickersham demanded a new investigation of him for allegedly defrauding the government on coal contracts.

"[2] Captain Ellsworth Bertholf commented, "I lived with him in the same tent, was his comrade in times of hardship and danger... Not many people really knew him, for he was a silent man.