When the legendary Revenue cutter Capt. Mike Healy patrolled the Bering Sea in the 19th century, it was a cruel, unforgiving and little known place. Sailing for months at a time, Healy saved whalers trapped in sea ice, supplied remote villages with food and medicine and chased illegal fur traders from his waters.

Today a Coast Guard icebreaker named in honor of Healy carries on his legacy in the Arctic, providing security, enforcing law and above all, uncovering the unknown.

Healy made port in Kodiak Tuesday on its return to Seattle after a four-month scientific mission in the Arctic. The 420-foot Healy is a Coast Guard Arctic research vessel used by the National Science Foundation for scientific purposes.

Some 50 defense attaches from international military institutions were in Kodiak Tuesday on a tour of Alaska. Healy officers and crew gave the dignitaries a tour of the ship and presented some of the research conducted this summer.

Healy is one of just two large icebreakers currently operating in the U.S. fleet. As the only icebreaker equipped to undertake scientific missions, Healy has an integral role in American efforts to map the Arctic and claim economic rights to the region.

The Arctic scramble

As warming oceans shrink the ice cap, the Arctic is more accessible to shipping and the exploitation of resources. For the first time in recorded history, the Northwest Passage was open for several weeks this summer.

Healy’s executive officer Dale Bateman expects commercial traffic to increase in the Arctic since the Northwest Passage can save millions of dollars in shipping costs between Asia and Europe.

Scientists aboard the Healy this summer used advanced sonar technology to map the Arctic seafloor.

“The Arctic, up until very recently, wasn’t a viable seaway for anyone,” Bateman said. “So there was no particular need to have accurate charts of the ocean floor.”

“Many of the charts that are used throughout the world have data that dates from Capt. Cook,” he said.

The mapping data, gathered in cooperation with the Canadian icebreaker Louis S. St. Laurent, also may be used by the U.S. government to lay claim to the Arctic seafloor.

“At some point in the foreseeable future, the United States and Canada will both submit a claim under the Law of the Sea Convention to the extended continental shelf,” Bateman said.

Under the convention, a country has sole rights to the economic resources stored within its continental shelf, such as oil or minerals. Despite broad support from diverging interest groups, the U.S. has not ratified the convention over concerns regarding national sovereignty.

Now that Arctic waters are becoming accessible and exploitation of its resources could become feasible, many northern countries are making excursions into the Arctic to lay symbolic claim to the region.

A Russian submarine made headlines last year by diving under the ice cap and planting a Russian flag on the ocean floor at the North Pole.

Dispute also exists over the Northwest Passage, which Canada says is an internal strait. Denmark and the United States consider the passage international waters over which Canada should not be able to exercise authority.

Pure science

Bateman said the Coast Guard and scientists aboard the Healy were interested in the mapping data for reasons of their own.

“I feel very comfortable we’re doing pure science,” he said. “It’s not politically motivated at all.”

Larry Mayer, director of University of New Hampshire Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping, said mapping work on the Healy was funded by the Extended Continental Shelf Task Force chaired by the State Department, the U.S. Geological Survey and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

“This is a wonderful example of being able to do things that are good for the nation at the same time that science is being advanced,” Mayer said.

Mayer said certain “morphological and geological criteria” must be met in order for a nation to claim sovereign rights over the seafloor beyond the usual 200 nautical miles exclusive economic zone.

“That’s why we are mapping,” Mayer said, though he said the research also holds great scientific value.

“Inasmuch as the Arctic is the least mapped ocean basin in the world, everything we collect is important to our further understanding of the evolution of the Arctic and the history of ice and climate,” he said.

Mayer said they mapped more than 10,000 square nautical miles on his leg of the trip alone, the fourth such mission since 2003.

As ships start trying to navigate the Northwest Passage from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean, Bateman said, the need for Coast Guard rescue missions will likely increase.

“Right now it’s a dangerous route,” Bateman said.

Three vessels in the oil industry were stuck in ice near Barrow in August, but were able to free themselves as the ice melted.

“That’s the scenario that the Coast Guard in particular has an interest in,” Bateman said. “Quite apart from any Law of the Sea Convention claims, for the United States Coast Guard it really is a matter of being able to be there to do traditional Coast Guard missions.”

U.S. fleet lacking

Bateman said the Coast Guard leadership advocates for expansion of the U.S. icebreaker fleet to meet the rising demand for Arctic missions. Russia operates seven large icebreakers while the Canadian Coast Guard has six.

A provision passed last week in a federal spending bill provides for the reactivation of the vessel Polar Star, bringing the number of large U.S. icebreakers back up to three.

Coast Guard commandant Adml. Thad Allen testified to a House of Representatives committee recently that America’s icebreaker fleet was losing ground and needed improvement.

“We are losing ground in the global competition,” Allen told the House committee. “I’m concerned we are watching our nation’s ice-breaking capabilities decline.”

The U.S. Coast Guard temporarily opened bases in Barrow and Prudhoe Bay this summer to support Arctic operations.

Yet, Bateman said an Alaska-based icebreaker is not a likely option. Icebreakers require frequent maintenance and repairs that are cheaper and easier to carry out in Seattle.

“The transit from Seattle to Kodiak is four days,” Bateman said. “So it’s cheaper for the Coast Guard and we’re able to leverage those resources by putting them in Seattle rather than Kodiak.”

The Healy family

The Healy made headlines and rocked the Kodiak Coast Guard community in August 2006 when two divers died in an accident 500 miles northwest of Barrow.

Lt. Jessica Hill and Petty Officer 2nd Class Steven Duque, both from Florida, became unconscious while diving and could not be revived after they were pulled to the surface.

Bateman said the crew of Healy still mourns the tragedy every day, but it does not keep crewmembers from doing their job. He said there are still some crewmembers on the Healy who were on board during the accident.

“I think it highlighted for the ship the need to make sure that we were always doing things by the book, double and triple checking that we’re operating safely,” Bateman said.

The Coast Guard is reorganizing its dive program “largely as a result of the accident,” he said.

“I don’t think that it’s ever very far from anyone’s mind on board, but it’s not constantly in our face,” Bateman said. On the one-year anniversary of the accident a memorial service was held aboard the Healy, which was at sea at the time, he said.

Bateman said the crew of a Coast Guard ship tends to become a family over the course of their tours.

“I find that to be particularly true of the icebreakers,” he said. “We go away for so long and go to places where we’re it. So you really do become a family.”

“I don’t want the ship to ever forget the loss of those two lives,” Bateman said. “Especially since we operate in places (where) if we’re not careful it can happen again. If we’re not careful, people can get hurt.”

“What we do is not inherently dangerous,” he said. “But where we go is absolutely unforgiving.”