Throughout the years from 1885 to 1926, she made the seasonal trek each May from her port in Oakland, California, to sail north to the waters of the Territory of Alaska for the five-month season, cruising 10000 nautical miles on the Bering Sea Patrol, where she looked out for seal poachers, shipwrecked whalers, and illicit trade with Alaska Natives, ferried reindeer from Siberia to Alaska, and served as a floating courthouse.