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86-617: Thomas Corwin was the first revenue cutter to regularly cruise the Bering Sea and the Arctic Ocean . Built in the state of Oregon , she was finished and commissioned in San Francisco which remained her home port . In a 23-year federal career, she participated in the search for the USS ; Jeannette , landed scientific parties on Wrangel and Herald islands, took part in the shelling of

172-602: A Revenue Cutter Service vessel. The addition of steam jackets on the cylinders to reduce condensation losses was another innovation new to the service. Her cost and displacement were somewhat greater than the Dexter-class (1874) cutters of similar length and overall design. Construction of the Corwin was contracted in May 1875 with completion scheduled for February 28, 1876. Captain John W. White

258-771: A Revenue Service crew during the Spanish–American War , serving around San Diego, and was returned to the United States Treasury Department in August 1898. She was back in service in Alaska in 1899 The Corwin was decommissioned and sold February 14, 1900 for US$ 16,500 and was replaced on the Bering Sea patrol by the USRC Manning . Corwin remained active in the Bering Sea as a merchant and charter vessel after she

344-549: A barrel tip-down, remove the plug and reload actions. The later breech-loaders included the Ferguson rifle , which used a screw-in/screw out action to reload, and the Hall rifle , which tipped up at 30 degrees for loading. The better breech loaders, however, used percussion caps , including the Sharps rifle , using a falling block (or sliding block ) action to reload. And then later on came

430-536: A beam wind), 11.5 knots under steam alone, and 13–14 knots under combined power. In 1900, her speed (probably cruising speed) was reported as 9 knots. Details of the Corwin's original three-gun armament are not available. In 1891 she reportedly carried four three-inch breech-loading rifles and two Gatling guns . In July 1891, the New York Times reported that she would be rearmed with six-pounder Hotchkiss rapid-fire guns. The Corwin spent her entire career in

516-535: A bullet fit in a percussion cap. Usually derived in the 6 mm and 9 mm calibres, it is since then called the Flobert cartridge but it does not contain any powder; the only propellant substance contained in the cartridge is the percussion cap itself. In English-speaking countries the Flobert cartridge corresponds to the .22 BB and .22 CB ammunitions. In 1846, yet another Frenchman, Benjamin Houllier , patented

602-417: A copper base with integrated mercury fulminate primer powder (the major innovation of Pauly), a round bullet and either brass or paper casing. The cartridge was loaded through the breech and fired with a needle. The needle-activated central-fire breech-loading gun would become a major feature of firearms thereafter. The corresponding firearm was also developed by Pauly. Pauly made an improved version, which

688-547: A cylindrical breech plug secured by a horizontal wedge in 1837. In the 1850s and 1860s, Whitworth and Armstrong invented improved breech-loading artillery. The M1867 naval guns produced in Imperial Russia at the Obukhov State Plant used Krupp technology. A breech action is the loading sequence of a breech loading naval gun or small arm . The earliest breech actions were either three-shot break-open actions or

774-483: A dead stop and quivers from stem to stern with the tremendous impact A rending grinding noise is heard and the berg which challenged us is a berg no longer..." Finding the streams near Cape Chaplino still ice-clogged, the Corwin returned to Nome. In mid-July she headed north on a minerals exploration trip. She reached the coal deposits after prospecting stops at Grantley Harbor (adjacent to Port Clarence, Alaska ) and along

860-593: A few muzzleloading weapons, such as mortars , rifle grenades , some rocket launchers , such as the Panzerfaust 3 and RPG-7 , and the GP series grenade launchers, have remained in common usage in modern military conflicts. However, referring to a weapon specifically as breech-loading is mostly limited to non-repeating firearms, including single-shots , derringers , double-barreled shotguns , double-barreled rifles , combination guns , and volley guns . Breech-loading provides

946-530: A few years later. The carbine was used extensively by the Forest Rangers, an irregular force led by Gustavus von Tempsky that specialized in bush warfare and reconnaissance. Von Tempsky liked the short carbine, which could be loaded while lying down. The waterproofed cartridge was easier to keep dry in the New Zealand bush. Museums in New Zealand hold a small number of these carbines in good condition. During

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1032-565: A pod of beluga whales in the Bering Sea. One of the central characters in the 1949 film Down to the Sea in Ships has the given name "Bering" due to having been born in a ship crossing the Bering Sea. The 2002 supernatural thriller, Ghost Ship , directed by Steve Beck , follows a marine salvage crew in the Bering Sea who discover the lost Italian ocean liner, Antonia Graza that disappeared in 1962. Breech-loading weapon A breechloader

1118-465: A protected and reinforced bow for ice work. In 1908, after arriving at Nome during a particularly bad ice season, the Corwin headed out again and cut channels to free three steamers that were stuck in the ice 50 miles from Nome, one (the Victoria ) in danger of sinking and all in danger of being carried north by moving ice. On June 11, 1909, Corwin received a distress call from St. Croix a vessel trapped in

1204-527: A revolver using rimfire cartridges. The first centrefire cartridge was introduced in 1855 by Pottet, with both Berdan and Boxer priming . In 1842, the Norwegian Armed Forces adopted the breech-loading caplock, the Kammerlader , one of the first instances in which a modern army widely adopted a breech-loading rifle as its main infantry firearm. The Dreyse Zündnadelgewehr ( Dreyse needle gun )

1290-547: A small subspecies of Canada goose, the Bering Canada goose ( Branta canadensis asiatica ) is extinct due to overhunting and the introduction of rats to their breeding islands. The Bering Sea supports many species of fish, some of which support large and valuable commercial fisheries. Commercial fish species include Pacific cod , several species of flatfish , sablefish , Pacific salmon , and Pacific herring . Shellfish include red king crab and snow crab . Fish biodiversity

1376-421: Is a firearm in which the user loads the ammunition from the breech end of the barrel (i.e., from the rearward, open end of the gun's barrel), as opposed to a muzzleloader , in which the user loads the ammunition from the ( muzzle ) end of the barrel . The vast majority of modern firearms are generally breech-loaders, while firearms made before the mid-19th century were mostly smoothbore muzzle-loaders. Only

1462-579: Is a marginal sea of the Northern Pacific Ocean . It forms, along with the Bering Strait , the divide between the two largest landmasses on Earth: Eurasia and the Americas . It comprises a deep water basin, which then rises through a narrow slope into the shallower water above the continental shelves . The Bering Sea is named after Vitus Bering , a Danish -born Russian navigator, who, in 1728,

1548-575: Is commonly referred to as the " Bering land bridge " and is accepted by most, though not all scientists, to be the first point of entry of humans into the Americas . There is a small portion of the Kula Plate in the Bering Sea. The Kula Plate is an ancient tectonic plate that used to subduct under Alaska. On 18 December 2018, a large meteor exploded above the Bering Sea. The meteor exploded at an altitude of 25.6km, releasing 49 kilotons of energy. The International Hydrographic Organization defines

1634-416: Is high, and at least 419 species of fish have been reported from the Bering Sea. The Bering Sea is world-renowned for its productive and profitable fisheries, such as king crab , opilio and tanner crabs, Bristol Bay salmon, pollock and other groundfish. These fisheries rely on the productivity of the Bering Sea via a complicated and little understood food web. Commercial fishing is lucrative business in

1720-409: Is much easier as well, as the ammunition can be unloaded from the breech end and is often doable by hand; unloading muzzle loaders requires drilling into the projectile to drag it out through the whole length of the barrel, and in some cases the guns are simply fired to facilitate unloading process. After breech-loading became common, it also became common practice to fit counter-recoil systems, such as

1806-401: Is very important to the seabirds of the world. Over 30 species of seabirds and approximately 20 million individuals breed in the Bering Sea region. Seabird species include tufted puffins , the endangered short-tailed albatross , spectacled eider , and red-legged kittiwakes . Many of these species are unique to the area, which provides highly productive foraging habitat, particularly along

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1892-465: The American Civil War , at least nineteen types of breech-loaders were fielded. The Sharps used a successful dropping block design. The Greene used rotating bolt-action, and was fed from the breech. The Spencer , which used lever-actuated bolt-action, was fed from a seven-round detachable tube magazine . The Henry and Volcanic used rimfire metallic cartridges fed from a tube magazine under

1978-580: The Angoon Bombardment which was the shelling and burning of the Tlingit village Angoon in retaliation for a hostage-taking incident. A contemporary letter discovered about 1990 partly confirms and partly refutes the official Navy account of this incident. Her voyages in 1884 and 1885 included explorations by boat detachments of the Kobuk (1884 and 1885; Healy wrote Kowak) and Noatak (1885) rivers in Alaska and

2064-671: The Chukchi residents of the coast confirmed that the Vigilant had been lost with no survivors, and apparently had picked up survivors from the Mount Wollaston before her own disaster. In the course of the Corwin's 1880 cruise, Captain Hooper located and mapped coal deposits in cliffs east of Cape Lisburne , Alaska, previously discovered by Captain E. E. Smith, the Corwin's ice pilot. The crew mined coal from these deposits in both 1880 and 1881, and

2150-576: The Chukchi Sea . In 1882, with Michael Healy as captain, the Corwin was dispatched to St Lawrence Bay to pick up the stranded crew of the USS  Rodgers , another ship of the Jeannette search which burned while overwintering in Siberia. The Rodgers crew was picked up by the whaler North Star and later transferred to the Corwin which returned them to San Francisco. In October 1882 she participated in

2236-513: The Corwin as brig-rigged in this period, but photos from 1900 continue to show a gaff on the foremast and no yards crossed on the mainmast, so this is more a difference of terminology than a change of sail-plan. Captain West could not obtain a passenger license for the ship without having her re-caulked, so the small number of passengers were signed as crew members. She went up to Nome carrying expedition equipment and general cargo and from about June 3–10

2322-465: The Corwin to clear a channel through the ice so Progress could reach Cape Chaplino and the clear water just off the Siberian coast. Vanderlip described the Corwin's action as an icebreaker: "Some of the ice the Corwin can push to one side or the other but when this is not possible she backs up in order to get good headway and charges the obstruction and strikes it fairly between the eyes. She comes to

2408-456: The Corwin was towed from Port Townsend to Esquimalt and hauled out for refitting. She then spent most of that summer tied to the dock for nonpayment of the dockyard bill. Captain West, who had spent the early part of the season as second mate on an east coast collier, was eventually sent west with $ 2000 to settle up. After paying the bills, he set about finding work for the vessel to pay her keep. A plan to charter her out for halibut fishing

2494-876: The Corwin , including Corwin Bluff (the bluff near Cape Lisburne containing the Corwin Coal Mine), Corwin Rock in the Aleutian Islands, and possibly Cape Corwin on Nunivak Island . Kivalina lagoon was called Corwin Lagoon by the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey from 1884 to about 1950. The Corwin Cliffs in the Saint Elias Mountains , Yukon were named for the Corwin by I.C Russell in 1890. A contemporaneous model of

2580-524: The Discovery Channel television program Deadliest Catch . Landings from Alaskan waters represents half the U.S. catch of fish and shellfish. Because of the changes going on in the Arctic, the future evolution of the Bering Sea climate and ecosystem is uncertain. Between 1979 and 2012, the region experienced small growth in sea ice extent, standing in contrast to the substantial loss of summer sea ice in

2666-562: The North Aleutians Basin is also known as the "Greenbelt". Nutrient upwelling from the cold waters of the Aleutian basin flowing up the slope and mixing with shallower waters of the shelf provide for constant production of phytoplankton . The second driver of productivity in the Bering Sea is seasonal sea ice that, in part, triggers the spring phytoplankton bloom. Seasonal melting of sea ice causes an influx of lower salinity water into

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2752-424: The Tlingit village Angoon, interdicted whiskey traffic, rescued shipwrecked whalers, contributed to the exploration of Alaska , and arrested seal poachers. She had at least eight captains during her federal career, but is particularly associated with two: the cool and resolute Calvin L. Hooper and the volatile Michael A. Healy . She continued operating in the Bering Sea as a merchant and charter vessel after she

2838-447: The hydro-pneumatic recoil mechanism on the Canon de 75 modèle 1897 , onto field guns and howitzers to prevent the recoil from rolling the carriage back and forth with every shot and ruining the aim. This provided faster rates of fire, but this is not directly related to whether the gun is breech-loading or not. Now that guns were able to fire without the entire carriage recoiling, the crew

2924-432: The 1904 season. This work extended or replaced the stern cabin to give her an entire second deck as well as a vertical stem (fitted with a steel ice protector), two new deckhouses, and a forward pilothouse. This so altered her appearance that only a few of her numerous subsequent photographs give any hint of her past as a schooner. Besides the outward changes she was modernized with addition of electric lighting throughout

3010-606: The Alaska Peninsula and the Aleutian Islands and on the far north by the Bering Strait , which connects the Bering Sea to the Arctic Ocean 's Chukchi Sea . Bristol Bay is the portion of the Bering Sea between the Alaska Peninsula and Cape Newenham on mainland Southwest Alaska . The Bering Sea ecosystem includes resources within the jurisdiction of the United States and Russia , as well as international waters in

3096-460: The Arctic Ocean to the north. 'The White Seal', one of many chapters on Rudyard Kipling 's The Jungle Book , features the Bering Sea as the birthplace and homeland of Kotick, a rare white fur seal . The film Harbinger Down , which was released on August 7, 2015, was about a group of grad students who booked passage on the crabbing boat Harbinger to study the effects of global warming on

3182-483: The Bering Sea, which is relied upon by the largest seafood companies in the world to produce fish and shellfish. On the U.S. side, commercial fisheries catch approximately $ 1 billion worth of seafood annually, while Russian Bering Sea fisheries are worth approximately $ 600 million annually. The Bering Sea also serves as the central location of the Alaskan king crab and snow crab seasons, which are chronicled on

3268-639: The Corwin built by Captain Thomas Mountain is in the collection of the Oregon State Historical Society and was displayed at the Alaska State Museum in 2006. Bering Sea The Bering Sea ( / ˈ b ɛər ɪ ŋ , ˈ b ɛr ɪ ŋ / BAIR -ing, BERR -ing , US also / ˈ b ɪər ɪ ŋ / BEER -ing ; Russian: Бе́рингово мо́ре , romanized : Béringovo móre , IPA: [ˈbʲerʲɪnɡəvə ˈmorʲe] )

3354-500: The Ferguson rifle. About the same time and later on into the mid-19th century, there were attempts in Europe at an effective breech-loader. There were concentrated attempts at improved cartridges and methods of ignition. In Paris in 1808, in association with French gunsmith François Prélat , Jean Samuel Pauly created the first fully self-contained cartridges : the cartridges incorporated

3440-535: The Pacific and Arctic oceans; her home port throughout her government service was San Francisco. She made her first trip to northern waters in 1877 under Captain J.W. White. In 1880 and 1881 with Calvin L. Hooper commanding and Michael Healy as Executive Officer, she searched in the Arctic for the USS Jeannette , a lost exploration vessel, and two lost whaleships, Vigilant and Mount Wollaston . For this expedition, she

3526-690: The U.S. District Court, Oregon District ruled that the lien of libellants Coffin and Hendry was valid, that the government was not yet the owner of the vessel and had not been in possession when the vessel was seized by the marshal on November 29. However, the Corwin had been extricated about January 1, 1877 by Captain White and the USRC Rush and moved to the middle of the Columbia River (another source has this about January 10). The Government appealed Judge Deady's ruling and Coffin and Hendry withdrew their claim on

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3612-453: The advantage of reduced reloading time because it is far quicker to load the projectile and propellant into the chamber of a gun or cannon than to reach all the way over to the front end to load ammunition and then push them back down a long tube – especially when the projectile fits tightly and the tube has spiral ridges from rifling . In field artillery , the advantages were similar – crews no longer had to get in front of

3698-512: The barrel. These held a significant advantage over muzzle-loaders. The improvements in breech-loaders had spelled the end of muzzle-loaders. To make use of the enormous number of war surplus muzzle-loaders, the Allin conversion Springfield was adopted in 1866. General Burnside invented a breech-loading rifle before the war, the Burnside carbine . The French adopted the new Chassepot rifle in 1866, which

3784-415: The basis of assurances that they would be paid faster if they settled. After a flurry of unsuccessful legal actions by other claimants, the Corwin was removed to San Francisco where she was completed at a cost of $ 10150.77 and subsequently commissioned. Congress was still considering suppliers and workmen's claims in 1884. The Corwin was reported to be capable of 12 knots under sail (48-hour average with

3870-446: The coast. The largest seam had already been staked by a competing company (that party traveled by land), but the Corwin's party staked several other claims, mined and loaded coal, and returned to Nome with 100 tons (four lighter-loads) to sell. Coal was handled in sacks of 200 lb, lowered down the cliffs by rope. It reportedly sold tor $ 18–20 per ton at Nome. A second trip developed the mines and brought out 25 tons. In April 1901

3956-507: The early 14th century in Burgundy and various other parts of Europe, breech-loading became more successful with improvements in precision engineering and machining in the 19th century. The main challenge for developers of breech-loading firearms was sealing the breech. This was eventually solved for smaller firearms by the development of the self-contained metallic cartridge in the mid-19th century. For firearms too large to use cartridges,

4042-635: The first ascent and investigation of the newly formed Bogoslof volcano in the Aleutians . The Corwin was replaced on the Arctic patrol by the USRC Bear starting in 1886. Among the reasons for this change was the Corwin's limited coal capacity which interfered with long cruises. The Corwin returned to the Bering Sea in 1886 and from 1890 to 1897 to combat fur seal poaching. In December 1893 she carried dispatches to US ambassador Albert S. Willis in Hawaii at

4128-511: The first fully metallic cartridge containing powder in a metallic shell. Houllier commercialised his weapons in association with the gunsmiths Blanchard or Charles Robert. But the subsequent Houllier and Lefaucheux cartridges, even if they were the first full-metal shells, were still pinfire cartridges, like those used in the LeMat (1856) and Lefaucheux (1858) revolvers, although the LeMat also evolved in

4214-399: The gun and pack ammunition in the barrel with a ramrod , and the shot could now tightly fit the bore, greatly increasing its power, range, and accuracy. It also made it easier to load a previously fired weapon with a fouled barrel. Gun turrets and emplacements for breechloaders can be smaller since crews don't need to retract the gun for loading into the muzzle end. Unloading a breechloader

4300-682: The gun had numerous deficiencies; specifically, serious problems with gas leaking. However, the rifle was used to great success in the Prussian army in the Austro-Prussian war of 1866. This, and the Franco-Prussian war of 1870–71, eventually caused much interest in Europe for breech-loaders and the Prussian military system in general. In 1860, the New Zealand government petitioned the Colonial Office for more soldiers to defend Auckland . The bid

4386-412: The height of the political crisis following the deposition of Queen Liliuokalani . Corwin's arrival there caused some consternation since it was thought it might signal US intervention to restore the queen. The Corwin went into the dockyard at Quartermaster Harbor , Washington for extensive repairs including refastening and some engine work before the 1896 season. She operated under Navy orders with

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4472-633: The ice and taking on water South of Nome. Corwin refused to come to the aid of St. Croix for no less than $ 6,000. In 1914, it was arranged that she would lead the waiting fleet of steamers into Nome, following closely as the Revenue Cutter Bear picked out a channel through the ice. For most of her merchant career, she was owned by the Pacific Coal and Transportation Company (successor to the Corwin Trading Company), and her official home port

4558-399: The investors appear to have been as much enthusiasts as any Nome prospectors; all insisted on joining the expedition. To create cargo space in the Corwin , West had the entire wardroom torn out. The lost accommodations were replaced with a cabin constructed from the stern to the engine room, creating a raised poop deck . This modification is shown clearly in a 1902 photograph. West describes

4644-577: The last 50 years. The implication is that the carrying capacity of the Bering Sea is much lower now than it has been in the past. The sea supports many whale species, including the beluga , humpback whale , bowhead whale , gray whale and blue whale , the vulnerable sperm whale , and the endangered fin whale , sei whale and the rarest in the world, the North Pacific right whale . Other marine mammals include walrus , Steller sea lion , northern fur seal , orca and polar bear . The Bering Sea

4730-530: The last steamer out in the fall. Her Master through most of her commercial service was Ellsworth Luce West. She attempted to rescue the Karluk survivors from Wrangel Island and participated in the search for four missing Karluk crewmen in 1914. The Corwin was named for Thomas Corwin , a well-known mid-nineteenth-century politician who served as Secretary of the Treasury during Millard Fillmore 's presidency. She

4816-473: The latter half of the 19th Century, but were slowly replaced by various designs for repeating rifles , first used in the American Civil War. Manual breech-loaders gave way to manual magazine feed and then to self-loading rifles . Breech-loading is still commonly used in shotguns and hunting rifles . The first modern breech-loading rifled gun is a breech-loader invented by Martin von Wahrendorff with

4902-402: The limits of the Bering Sea as follows: Islands of the Bering Sea include: Regions of the Bering Sea include: The Bering Sea contains 16 submarine canyons including the largest submarine canyon in the world, Zhemchug Canyon . The Bering Sea shelf break is the dominant driver of primary productivity in the Bering Sea. This zone, where the shallower continental shelf drops off into

4988-424: The middle and other shelf areas, causing stratification and hydrographic effects which influence productivity. In addition to the hydrographic and productivity influence of melting sea ice, the ice itself also provides an attachment substrate for the growth of algae as well as interstitial ice algae. Some evidence suggests that great changes to the Bering Sea ecosystem have already occurred. Warm water conditions in

5074-478: The middle of the sea (known as the "Donut Hole" ). The interaction between currents, sea ice, and weather makes for a vigorous and productive ecosystem. Most scientists think that during the most recent ice age , sea level was low enough to allow humans to migrate east on foot from Asia to North America across what is now the Bering Strait. Other animals including megafauna migrated in both directions. This

5160-535: The missing men. The Corwin struck a reef off Cape Douglas on her return trip and went hard aground. She was refloated by jettisoning and lightering supplies to lighten ship, with assistance from the USRC Bear and a crew from the Nome Lifesaving station. By 1916, the Corwin was majority-owned by Schubach & Hamilton, who sold her to Mexican owners. She burned in drydock at Salina Cruz that same year. Several places in Alaska and Yukon are named for

5246-458: The passenger and freight business and from 1906 to 1910 held a contract to transport mail to towns on Norton Sound and the Seward Peninsula . She was the first ship to reach Nome in the spring in 1902–1909, 1913 and 1914. She generally returned to Puget Sound in the fall and was often the last ship out of Nome. In part, her early arrivals were due to the fact that she was sheathed and retained

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5332-415: The problem was solved by the development of the interrupted screw . Breech-loading swivel guns were invented in the 14th century. They were a particular type of swivel gun , and consisted in a small breech-loading cannon equipped with a swivel for easy rotation, loaded by inserting a mug-shaped chamber already filled with powder and projectiles. The breech-loading swivel gun had a high rate of fire, and

5418-420: The rifles were manufactured and used in the Battle of Brandywine , during the American Revolutionary War , but shortly after they were retired and replaced with the standard Brown Bess musket . In turn the American army, after getting some experience with muzzle-loaded rifles in the late 18th century, adopted the second standard breech-loading firearm in the world, M1819 Hall rifle , and in larger numbers than

5504-416: The shelf edge and in other nutrient-rich upwelling regions, such as the Pribilof, Zhemchug , and Pervenets canyons. The Bering Sea is also home to colonies of crested auklets , with upwards of a million individuals. Two Bering Sea species, the Steller's sea cow ( Hydrodamalis gigas ) and spectacled cormorant ( Phalacrocorax perspicillatus ), are extinct because of overexploitation by man. In addition,

5590-429: The ship and running water in all staterooms. The changes added six first-class staterooms and more steerage space, bringing her capacity to 100 passengers and about 200 tons freight. One source reports the cost of the rebuilding as $ 40000. When she headed out for Alaska in May 1904 after addition of the second deck there were rumors the modification had made her topheavy. Some passengers complained before departure that she

5676-401: The site has since been known as the Corwin coal mine. On a visit to various Alaskan islands, they confirmed the St. Lawrence Island famine which killed over 1000 people. In 1881 the Corwin carried a scientific detachment including John Muir , Irving C. Rosse, M.D., and Edward W. Nelson , and in the course of the search for the Jeannette landed parties on Herald and Wrangel Islands in

5762-426: The summer of 1997 resulted in a massive bloom of low energy coccolithophorid phytoplankton (Stockwell et al. 2001). A long record of carbon isotopes , which is reflective of primary production trends of the Bering Sea, exists from historical samples of bowhead whale baleen . Trends in carbon isotope ratios in whale baleen samples suggest that a 30–40% decline in average seasonal primary productivity has occurred over

5848-443: Was a limitation and danger present in the weapon's mechanism. More breech-loading firearms were made in the early 18th century. One such gun known to have belonged to Philip V of Spain , and was manufactured circa 1715, probably in Madrid . It came with a ready-to load reusable cartridge. Patrick Ferguson , a British Army officer, developed in 1772 the Ferguson rifle , a breech-loading flintlock firearm. Roughly two hundred of

5934-419: Was a single-shot breech-loading rifle using a rotating bolt to seal the breech. It was so called because of its .5-inch needle-like firing pin, which passed through a paper cartridge case to impact a percussion cap at the bullet base. It began development in the 1830s under Johann Nicolaus von Dreyse and eventually an improved version of it was adopted by Prussia in the late 1840s. The paper cartridge and

6020-408: Was able to remain grouped closely around the gun, ready to load and put final touches on the aim, prior to firing the next shot. That led to the development of an armored shield fitted to the carriage of the gun, to help shield the crew from long-range area or sniper fire from the new, high-velocity, long-range rifles, or even machine guns. Although breech-loading firearms were developed as far back as

6106-418: Was construction superintendent for the Revenue Cutter Service. The Corwin was the first government vessel constructed in the state of Oregon, and a large crowd came out to see her launched August 23, 1876. Oregon Iron Works became insolvent that fall and was declared bankrupt; this resulted in liens filed against the vessel by suppliers and subcontractors for unpaid bills. On January 2, 1877, Judge J. Deady of

6192-596: Was especially effective in anti-personnel roles. Breech-loading firearms are known from the 16th century. Henry VIII possessed one, which he apparently used as a hunting gun to shoot birds. Meanwhile, in China, an early form of breech-loading musket, known as the Che Dian Chong , was known to have been created in the second half of the 16th century for the Ming dynasty's arsenals . Like all early breech-loading fireams, gas leakage

6278-534: Was listed as Boston. Captain West returned as Master from 1902 to 1910; his wife Gertrude sailed with him as Ship's Clerk. Most of the crew were Eskimo (they were less likely to desert the ship to go prospecting), and the kitchen staff were Chinese. The Corwin held daily fire drills, and was equipped with wireless since the 1904 refit. In 1911 and 1912, the Corwin was listed as a ship of the Western Alaska Steamship Company. In 1913, her home port

6364-655: Was listed as Seattle and her owner as Ben Moyses. In 1914, a wealthy Nome mine-owner and businessman, Jafet Lindeberg , chartered the Corwin (Captain R.J. Healy) from the Kotzebue Transportation and Trading Company to attempt a rescue the Karluk survivors from Wrangel Island . She reached Wrangel Island one day after the survivors had been rescued by Olaf Swenson and his crew in the King & Winge . She then proceeded to look for four missing members of Karluk's crew, circling Herald Island without seeing any sign of

6450-692: Was much improved over the Dreyse needle gun as it had dramatically fewer gas leaks due to its de Bange sealing system. The British initially took the existing Enfield and fitted it with a Snider breech action (solid block, hinged parallel to the barrel) firing the Boxer cartridge. Following a competitive examination of 104 guns in 1866, the British decided to adopt the Peabody -derived Martini-Henry with trap-door loading in 1871. Single-shot breech-loaders would be used throughout

6536-483: Was occupied with the rescue and salvage of the barkentine Catherine Sudden , which had suffered a punctured hull and two broken masts hitting ice. A little later she set out on a prospecting expedition to Cape Chaplino and stopped at St Lawrence Island about June 17. There she encountered the Russian steamer Progress , chartered by American mining engineer Washington Vanderlip and his Russian backers. Vanderlip hired

6622-420: Was overloaded and unseaworthy. Inspectors ordered that all freight be stowed below deck, but permitted her to sail. Subsequently, there were reports that wreckage from the ship had been found on Vancouver Island leading to fears she was lost, but she reached Nome safely on June 8. The Victoria Daily Colonist could not find the origin of the reports and branded them a deliberate hoax. The Corwin continued in

6708-479: Was protected by a patent on 29 September 1812. The Pauly cartridge was further improved by the French gunsmith Casimir Lefaucheux in 1828, by adding a pinfire primer, but Lefaucheux did not register his patent until 1835: a pinfire cartridge containing powder in a cardboard shell. In 1845, another Frenchman Louis-Nicolas Flobert invented, for indoor shooting , the first rimfire metallic cartridge , constituted by

6794-436: Was sheathed with one-inch oak planks from two feet above the water line to six feet below, with the oak applied over the copper and secured with 2.5-inch composition nails. Also added was an ice-breaking attachment for her bow, constructed of 3/8 inch iron plate, which could be put in place when needed. Captain Hooper sent out exploratory parties by dogsled along the Siberian arctic coast. Artifacts and stories collected from

6880-603: Was sold in 1900. As a merchant vessel, the SS Corwin started out as a support vessel for minerals exploration, and subsequently was extensively modified to carry passengers. She served coastal ports on Norton and Kotzebue Sounds, the Seward Peninsula, and the Bering Strait during the shipping season, and generally wintered in Puget Sound. She was the first steamer to reach Nome in the spring multiple years, and also frequently

6966-652: Was sold. In 1900 Ellsworth Luce West, a whaling captain from Martha's Vineyard , and some Boston investors formed a company to develop the coal deposits near Cape Lisburne to supply the Nome market. Needing a suitable ship, they entered the winning bid for the Corwin and organized as the Corwin Trading Company. The project increased in scope when one investor (veteran prospector, engineer, and writer A.G. Kingsbury) pledged Nome gold claims for his shares. Although Kingsbury described them as "conservative Boston capitalists"

7052-688: Was the first European to systematically explore it, sailing from the Pacific Ocean northward to the Arctic Ocean . The Bering Sea is separated from the Gulf of Alaska by the Alaska Peninsula . It covers over 2,000,000 square kilometers (770,000 sq mi) and is bordered on the east and northeast by Alaska , on the west by the Russian Far East and the Kamchatka Peninsula , on the south by

7138-424: Was the second of three Revenue Cutter Service and Coast Guard vessels to bear the name (there was also a patrol boat Cape Corwin ). She was built as a single-screw steam-powered topsail schooner by Oregon Iron Works at Albina ( Portland ) Oregon in 1876 and commissioned at San Francisco in 1877. She was constructed of fir and "fastened with copper, galvanized iron, and locust tree nails". Her appearance

7224-478: Was typical of revenue cutters of the period, flush-decked (or nearly so) with clipper bow, fantail stern, two sail-bearing masts, pilot house and funnel amidships and a deckhouse (probably including the upper parts of the engine and boiler rooms) beneath and extending behind the pilot house. The boiler powering the propulsion machinery was of the Scotch marine boiler type and was the first instance of that type of boiler on

7310-554: Was unsuccessful and the government began instead making inquiries to Britain to obtain modern weapons. In 1861 they placed orders for the Calisher and Terry carbine , which used a breech-loading system using a bullet consisting of a standard Minié lead bullet in .54 calibre backed by a charge and tallowed wad, wrapped in nitrated paper to keep it waterproof. The carbine had been issued in small numbers to English cavalry ( Hussars ) from 1857. About 3–4,000 carbines were brought into New Zealand

7396-542: Was vetoed by F.W. Huestis, president of the Corwin Trading Company, reportedly because of insurance costs. By 1902 the Corwin was licensed to carry passengers as well as freight. Accommodations were rearranged to carry 35 first-class and 50 steerage passengers. She departed Seattle in May and spent the summer and early fall serving Nome and surrounding towns and camps as far north as Deering on Kotzebue Sound. She underwent further modification at Moran's yard in Seattle before

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