Sea Bear is a cruising yacht borrowed from Mac, and used by Captain Flint to take the Swallows, Amazons and Ds on a cruise in the Hebrides in Great Northern?. She is named Shirokuma-gou ("Polar bear") in the Japanese version.
Owner: Mac is the owner of the Sea Bear. Her crew plan to scrub her down in a quiet cove before giving her back to Mac. "Then, perhaps, he'll lend her to us again," Roger had agreed. She was formerly an old Norwegian pilot cutter (GN1).
Home port: Mac works in Glasgow, as Susan and Peggy decide it is safe to tell Mr Jemmerling (GN12). Mr Jemmerling has told Dick he is going to Glasgow and offers to take Dick there, although Dick has only said to him that he is on a cruise (GN9).
Sea Bear has a dinghy and a folding boat, which Mac made himself.
Name and native prototype[]
A 'sea bear' means a fur seal or a sea lion, but is an old-fashioned term for either. In the Japanese translations, Sea Bear is called Shirokuma-gou, meaning Polar Bear.
Arthur Ransome modelled the fictional boat after Irling Tambs's pilot ship Teddy, in one of his favorite books of epic voyages The Cruise of the Teddy (CFT p204).