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ELLSWORTH PRICE BERTHOLF 



MEMBER 



Commodore Bertholf was boni in New York City, April 7, 1866. He was educated 

 at the Naval Academy and the Revenue Cutter School. He was appointed a 3rd Lieu- 

 tenant, and was advanced through all grades of the Revenue Cutter Service, during" which 

 time he saw service on nearly all of its stations. His most conspicuous services were in 

 Alaska and the Arctic. In December, 1897, he volunteered as a member of the overland 

 expedition to gO' to the rescue of 300 whalers, whose vessels had become icebound and 

 wrecked in the vicinity of Point Barrow, the northernmost land on this continent. With- 

 out sufficient food it was almost certain that the entire number would be doomed to star- 

 vation during the long winter. President McKinley accordingly directed the Revenue Cut- 

 ter Service to rescue the unfortunate men. Such an expedition into the Arctic in mid-winter 

 had never before been undertaken, and it was successful only because of the indomitable 

 courage of Bertholf and his two associates, who, with the aid of natives, drove a large herd 

 of reindeer across the barren and frozen wastes of Alaska and arrived in time to furnish 

 food and save the lives of the famishing sailors. For this heroic duty Congress awarded 

 each of the three officers a gold medal. 



In 1911 the then Captain Bertholf was selected as the Commodore Commandant of the 

 Revenue Cutter Service, a position which he filled with marked ability for eight years. Dur- 

 ing his incumbency of the office, and largely due to his efforts, the Coast Guard was created 

 by the merging of the Revenue Cutter and Life Saving Services. 



Retiring from government service on June 30, 1919, he was at once appointed as a 

 vice-president of the American Bureau of Shipping, a position which he filled with distinc- 

 tion until his untimely death. 



He was elected a member of this society at the annual meeting in 1914. He died sud- 

 denly in New York on November 11, 1921. 



MARTIN CORYELL ERISMANN 



MEMBER 



Mr. Erismann was born in Lambertville, N. J., in 1877, his mother being one of the 

 Coryell family, of Coryell Ferry on the Delaware, and his father a native of Switzerland who 

 came to this country as a young man. An inborn love for everything which floats led to a 

 course in naval architecture at Glasgow University as the finish of an education, after which 

 followed some twenty years of professional work in both commercial and yacht designing. 



