The U.S. Revenue Cutter Bear, active in Alaska waters from 1885 to the 1920s. The Bear was one of the few signs of legal authority in most of coastal Alaska in early territorial days. Revenue Marine Captain Mike Healy, its legendary captain, was described in the New York Sun in the 1890s as "a great deal more distinguished person in the waters of the far Northwest than any President of the United States.... He stands for law and order in many thousands of miles of land and water...." Healy was frequently called upon to act as a peace officer and to administer legal and extralegal forms of justice.
     Judge James Wickersham followed the "floating court" tradition of Healy and other cutter captains in 1900 by traveling by cutter, with an entourage of 18 jurors from Valdez, to preside over a felony trial in Unalaska in the Aleutian Islands. His trip led to regular summer journeys in which the court, with judge and jurors, traveled by Revenue cutter along the Alaska coastline and came ashore where needed to administer justice.