USS Rodgers (1879)

Steam bark Mary&Helen, renamed USS Rodgers in 1881
History
Builder:	Goss, Sawyer, and Packard
Launched:	17 July 1879
Commissioned:	30 May 1881
Fate:	burned, 30 November 1881
General characteristics
Tonnage:	420
Length:	138 ft (42.1 m)
Beam:	30 ft 3 in (9.2 m)
Draft:	16 ft 8 in (5.1 m)
Speed:	6–8 knots (11–15 km/h)
Complement:	35

USS Rodgers was a steamship in the United States Navy acquired to search for Jeannette in 1881.

On 3 March 1881, Congress, besieged by constituents as well as government agencies, appropriated $175,000 "to enable the Secretary of the Navy to charter, or purchase, equip, and supply a vessel for the prosecution of a search for the steamer 'Jeanette' and such other vessels as might be found to need assistance during said cruise; provided that the vessel be wholly manned by volunteers from the Navy." The "other vessels" of most immediate concern were two whalers, Vigilant and Mount Wollaston missing in the Arctic Ocean since 1879.

The vessel purchased was the whaler Mary and Helen, specifically built for Arctic navigation by Goss, Sawyer, and Packard of Bath, Maine. Launched on 17 July 1879, she was the first steam whaler built as such for American registry and during her first, and only, season not only justified the faith of her owner, Capt. William Lewis of New Bedford, Massachusetts, but revolutionized the American whaling industry.

Acquired by the Navy at San Francisco, the whaler Mary and Helen was renamed Rodgers and commissioned on 30 May 1881, Lieutenant Robert M. Berry in command. She sailed north on 16 June. She arrived at Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, Russia, 33 days later, where the captain of the Russian corvette Streloch offered "any needed assistance" on behalf of his government.

Continuing on, Rodgers took on two Chukchis as hunters and dog drivers at St. Lawrence Bay and on 20 August entered the Arctic Ocean. At Herald Island, Lt. Berry found that the crew of Corwin on her second search for Jeanette, had already covered the island, unsuccessfully. Wrangell Land was next. As they looked for clues of the missing ship, the crew of Rodgers surveyed the area and proved that Wrangel Island was an island and not the southern edge of a polar land mass.