USCGC Eagle (WIX-327)
Encyclopedia
The (ex-SSS Horst Wessel) is a 295 feet (89.9 m) barque
Barque
A barque, barc, or bark is a type of sailing vessel with three or more masts.- History of the term :The word barque appears to have come from the Greek word baris, a term for an Egyptian boat. This entered Latin as barca, which gave rise to the Italian barca, Spanish barco, and the French barge and...

 used as a training cutter for future officers of the United States Coast Guard
United States Coast Guard
The United States Coast Guard is a branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven U.S. uniformed services. The Coast Guard is a maritime, military, multi-mission service unique among the military branches for having a maritime law enforcement mission and a federal regulatory agency...

. She is one of only two active commissioned sailing vessels in American military service, the other being the USS Constitution
USS Constitution
USS Constitution is a wooden-hulled, three-masted heavy frigate of the United States Navy. Named by President George Washington after the Constitution of the United States of America, she is the world's oldest floating commissioned naval vessel...

.

She is the seventh U.S. Navy or Coast Guard ship to bear the name in a line dating back to 1792. Each summer, Eagle conducts cruises with cadets from the United States Coast Guard Academy
United States Coast Guard Academy
Founded in 1876, the United States Coast Guard Academy is the military academy of the United States Coast Guard. Located in New London, Connecticut, it is the smallest of the five federal service academies...

 and candidates from the Officer Candidate School for periods ranging from a week to two months. These cruises fulfill multiple roles; the primary mission is training the cadets and officer candidates, but the ship also performs a public relations role. Often, Eagle makes calls at foreign ports as a goodwill ambassador.

Origin as Segelschulschiff Horst Wessel

The Eagle began its existence as the Horst Wessel, a ship of the Gorch Fock
Gorch Fock (1933)
The Gorch Fock I is a German three-mast barque, the first of a series built as school ships for the German Reichsmarine in 1933. She was taken as war reparations by the USSR after World War II and renamed Tovarishch...

 class. Constructed and designed by John Stanley, the Horst Wessel was an improvement on the original design. She was larger in dimension and her spars were all steel, unlike Gorch Focks wooden yards. SSS Horst Wessel began life as schiff ("ship") 508 at Blohm & Voss in Hamburg
Hamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...

, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 in 1936. Her keel was laid on February 15, launched on June 13, completed on September 16, and commissioned on September 17. She was the second ship in the class to be built after the class namesake,
Gorch Fock. Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...

 and Rudolph Hess were present at the launch and christening. The name was given in tribute to Nazi party member Horst Wessel
Horst Wessel
Horst Ludwig Wessel was a German Nazi activist who was made a posthumous hero of the Nazi movement following his violent death in 1930...

, who had been accorded martyr status. He also wrote the song (that would be known as 'Horst-Wessel-Lied
Horst-Wessel-Lied
The Horst-Wessel-Lied , also known as Die Fahne hoch from its opening line, was the anthem of the Nazi Party from 1930 to 1945...

') used in the Nazi national anthem.

SSS Horst Wessel served as the flagship of the Kriegsmarine
Kriegsmarine
The Kriegsmarine was the name of the German Navy during the Nazi regime . It superseded the Kaiserliche Marine of World War I and the post-war Reichsmarine. The Kriegsmarine was one of three official branches of the Wehrmacht, the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany.The Kriegsmarine grew rapidly...

 sail training fleet, which consisted of
Gorch Fock, Albert Leo Schlageter and Horst Wessel. She was commanded by Captain August Thiele
August Thiele
August Adolf Karl Hermann Thiele was a Vizeadmiral with the Kriegsmarine during World War II and commander of the heavy cruiser "Lützow". He was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves...

 and was homeported in Kiel. In the three years before World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, she undertook numerous training cruises in European waters, but also visited the Caribbean
Caribbean
The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...

. She was decommissioned in 1939, with the onset of the war, but served as a docked training ship until her recommissioning in late 1942. Equipped with two 20mm antiaircraft guns on the bridge wings, two on the foredeck, and two quad mounts on the waist, Horst Wessel is said to have downed three Soviet aircraft and one "friendly" German aircraft in combat. The crew had realized the German aircraft they had shot down was "friendly" while it was spiraling into the sea, and set about rescuing the pilot. When he set foot on the ship, he was furious and demanded an explanation. Upon review of the logs and radio personnel, it was determined that the pilot had been using the wrong codes for the battle group, showing the now embarrassed pilot that it was actually his fault.

At the end of World War II, the four vessels then extant were distributed to various nations as war reparations. Horst Wessel was taken by the United States. She was first sent to Wilhelmshaven
Wilhelmshaven
Wilhelmshaven is a coastal town in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated on the western side of the Jade Bight, a bay of the North Sea.-History:...

, Germany, then to Bremerhaven, and was commissioned into the United States Coast Guard
United States Coast Guard
The United States Coast Guard is a branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven U.S. uniformed services. The Coast Guard is a maritime, military, multi-mission service unique among the military branches for having a maritime law enforcement mission and a federal regulatory agency...

 as the Coast Guard Cutter
Eagle on 15 May 1946. In June 1946 a U.S. Coast Guard crew, assisted by the German captain and crew still aboard, sailed her from Bremerhaven
Bremerhaven
Bremerhaven is a city at the seaport of the free city-state of Bremen, a state of the Federal Republic of Germany. It forms an enclave in the state of Lower Saxony and is located at the mouth of the River Weser on its eastern bank, opposite the town of Nordenham...

, through a hurricane, to Orangeburg, New York. The German volunteer crew was disembarked at Camp Shanks
Camp Shanks
Camp Shanks, named after Major General David Carey Shanks was a United States Army installation in and around Orangeburg in the Town of Orangetown, New York. Situated near the juncture of the Erie Railroad and the Hudson River, it served as a point of embarkation for troops departing overseas...

 and the
Eagle proceeded to her new home port of New London, Connecticut
New London, Connecticut
New London is a seaport city and a port of entry on the northeast coast of the United States.It is located at the mouth of the Thames River in New London County, southeastern Connecticut....

.

"America's Tall Ship"

The
Eagle has a standing crew of six officers and 56 enlisted; on training missions, she carries on the average a complement of 12 officers, 68 crew, and up to 150 cadet
Cadet
A cadet is a trainee to become an officer in the military, often a person who is a junior trainee. The term comes from the term "cadet" for younger sons of a noble family.- Military context :...

s. Each year, she takes one long training cruise to the Caribbean, the Pacific Coast, or Europe, and two shorter cruises along the U.S. East Coast.

During her many years of service,
Eagle has traveled to ports throughout the United States and overseas. Among her various cruises, Eagle has participated in various Tall Ship
Tall ship
A tall ship is a large, traditionally-rigged sailing vessel. Popular modern tall ship rigs include topsail schooners, brigantines, brigs and barques. "Tall Ship" can also be defined more specifically by an organization, such as for a race or festival....

 races and events including the various incarnations of Operation Sail
Operation Sail
Operation Sail refers to a series of sailing events held to celebrate special occasions and features sailing vessels from around the world. Each event is coordinated by Operation Sail, Inc., a non-profit organization established in 1961 by President John F. Kennedy and must be approved by the...

, most notably the American Bicentennial OpSail '76.

In September 1987, she undertook a yearlong cruise to Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

 from her home at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy. During this cruise Academy instructors were embarked to conduct the cadets' courses while underway. In 2005, as part of the Trafalgar 200
Trafalgar 200
Trafalgar 200 was a series of events in 2005 held mostly in the United Kingdom to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar, where a British fleet led by Admiral Nelson defeated a joint Franco-Spanish fleet during the Napoleonic Wars. During the summer of 2005 there was an...

 International Fleet Review
International Fleet Review
For a full list of ships present, see List of ships present at International Fleet Review, 2005The International Fleet Review took place on 28 June 2005, as part of the Trafalgar 200 celebrations to commemorate the 200th year after the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805.- 2005 Review Line-up :During the...

 in the Solent
Solent
The Solent is a strait separating the Isle of Wight from the mainland of England.The Solent is a major shipping route for passengers, freight and military vessels. It is an important recreational area for water sports, particularly yachting, hosting the Cowes Week sailing event annually...

 off Southern England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, Eagle was one of a number of tall ships from several nations to be reviewed by Queen Elizabeth II
Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom
Elizabeth II is the constitutional monarch of 16 sovereign states known as the Commonwealth realms: the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, Barbados, the Bahamas, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Belize,...

, along with the U.S. Navy warship . Later that Summer,
Eagle returned to Bremerhaven
Bremerhaven
Bremerhaven is a city at the seaport of the free city-state of Bremen, a state of the Federal Republic of Germany. It forms an enclave in the state of Lower Saxony and is located at the mouth of the River Weser on its eastern bank, opposite the town of Nordenham...

 for the first time since World War II, to an enthusiastic welcome.

In March 1998 Eagle trained her first and only enlisted members of the Coast Guard otherwise known as November-152 boot camp company. The members flew from Cape May, NJ to Roosevelt Roads Naval Station
Roosevelt Roads Naval Station
Roosevelt Roads Naval Station is a former United States military air base in the town of Ceiba, Puerto Rico. The site is run today as José Aponte de la Torre Airport, a public use airport.-History:...

 in Puerto Rico. After just 3 days of training Eagle headed out to Fort de France, Martinique, La Guaira, Venezuela, Cartegena, Colombia then finally returned home to New London for boot camp graduation.

Specifications and miscellany

The design and construction of Eagle embodies centuries of development in the shipbuilder's art. The Eagle is slightly larger than her sister ship Gorch Fock. Overall Eagle displaces 1,824 tons. The hull is riveted Krupp steel four-tenths of an inch thick (10mm). There are two full-length steel decks with a platform deck below. The raised forecastle
Forecastle
Forecastle refers to the upper deck of a sailing ship forward of the foremast, or the forward part of a ship with the sailors' living quarters...

 and quarterdeck
Quarterdeck
The quarterdeck is that part of a warship designated by the commanding officer for official and ceremonial functions. In port, the quarterdeck is the most important place on the ship, and is the central control point for all its major activities. Underway, its importance diminishes as control of...

 are made of quarter inch steel overlaid with three inches (76 mm) of teak, as are the weather decks. Her auxiliary diesel engine
Diesel engine
A diesel engine is an internal combustion engine that uses the heat of compression to initiate ignition to burn the fuel, which is injected into the combustion chamber...

, at 1000 HP, is also somewhat more powerful than that of the Gorch Fock. There are two 320 kW Caterpillar generators that can be run single or paralleled. Eagle has a range of 5450 nautical miles (10,093.4 km) at her cruise speed of 7.5 knots (15 km/h) under diesel power. She carries a reverse osmosis system that replenishes the ship's fresh water supply at sea. In the summer of 1974, during the kick-off race for OpSail '76 (from Newport, Rhode Island
Newport, Rhode Island
Newport is a city on Aquidneck Island in Newport County, Rhode Island, United States, about south of Providence. Known as a New England summer resort and for the famous Newport Mansions, it is the home of Salve Regina University and Naval Station Newport which houses the United States Naval War...

 to Boston, Massachusetts), the participating ships encountered heavy weather and a number of participants other than Eagle dropped out. Off Cape Cod, the ship maintained a speed of 19 knots (37.2 km/h) on a broad reach under sail alone for a number of hours.

Eagle has over 6 miles (9.7 km) of running rigging and approximately 22300 square feet (2,072 m²) of sail area. To protect sails from chafing, the ship uses baggywrinkle
Baggywrinkle
Baggywrinkle is a soft covering for cables to reduce sail chafe. There are many points in the rig of a large sailing ship where the sails come into contact with the standing rigging; unprotected sails would soon develop holes at the points of contact...

 extensively.

Eagles propeller shaft can be de-clutched from the engine so the propeller can freewheel, thus lessening drag while the under sail. In 1976, the Coast Guard added the "racing stripe" to her otherwise unadorned white hull.

The ship has undergone numerous refits since she was acquired in 1946. On July 1, 1972, the ship was returning to her berth at the Coast Guard Academy in New London
New London, Connecticut
New London is a seaport city and a port of entry on the northeast coast of the United States.It is located at the mouth of the Thames River in New London County, southeastern Connecticut....

 at the mid-point of her annual summer cadet training cruises when she was involved in a serious accident. Despite extensive precautions, as the ship passed below the Gold Star Memorial Bridge and a twin bridge being built parallel to it, her foremast and mainmast caught the safety netting slung below the new bridge. Both masts were snapped off above the crosstrees
Crosstrees
Crosstrees are the two horizontal struts at the upper ends of the topmasts of sailboats, used to anchor the shrouds from the topgallant mast. Similarly, they may be mounted at the upper end of the topgallant to anchor the shrouds from the royal mast .See tops for the description of their purpose....

 (about seven-eighths of the way up each mast), the upper parts left hanging dangerously from the remaining upright parts of the masts. As a result, the ship had to undergo emergency repairs.

In 1982, the ship underwent an extensive refit in the Coast Guard Yard at Curtis Bay (near Baltimore, Maryland). During this yard availability her original 1936 M.A.N.
MAN B&W Diesel
MAN Diesel SE was a provider of large-bore diesel engines for marine propulsion systems and power plant applications. MAN Diesel employs over 7,700 staff, primarily in Germany, Denmark, France, the Czech Republic, India and China...

 diesel engine (along with its generators and evaporators) were replaced by modern equipment. This made the engine room more spacious and less noisy and hot. The new engine could be controlled directly from the quarterdeck and responded instantly, rather than after a 30-or-more-second delay common with the original engine. Additional watertight compartmentalization was also added (previously, there had been only seven). This compartmentalization included closing in cadet berthing areas, eliminating separate upper-class (fixed three-tier bunks) and lower-class (hammock) berthing and making the ship better able to accommodate male and female cadets. An enclosed pilothouse was built around the exhaust funnel on the quarterdeck. Electronic equipment (e.g., radar, navigation, and radio equipment) was updated as well. The helm station remains unsheltered and unchanged. The main helm station, also known as the triple helm, is connected via mechanical shaft linkage to the steering gear (manual worm type) located in the "captain's coffin" on the fantail along with the emergency, or "trick" wheel. Three turns of the main helm station equals one degree of rudder turn. That is why six persons are used to steer during heavy weather and while operating in restricted waterways. The emergency, or "trick" wheel is a single wheel that turns at a rate of one revolution to one degree of rudder turn. It is a bit harder to use.

In popular culture

Eagle has a significant presence in the Nantucket series
Nantucket series
The Nantucket series is a set of alternate history novels written by S. M. Stirling. The novels focus on the island of Nantucket which was transported back in time to 1250 BC due to something called "The Event"...

 of books by S. M. Stirling
S. M. Stirling
Stephen Michael Stirling is a French-born Canadian-American science fiction and fantasy author. Stirling is probably best known for his Draka series of alternate history novels and the more recent time travel/alternate history Nantucket series and Emberverse series.-Personal:Stirling was born on...

, in which she is visiting the island of Nantucket when a mysterious "Event" transports the entire island, including Eagle and her crew, back to the year 1250 BC. Sent across the Atlantic Ocean to barter for the grain and stock the time-lost Nantucketers need to survive through their first winter, her arrival off the south coast of Bronze Age England leads the natives to name her crew (and, by extension, the rest of the Island's population) as 'The Eagle People'. Although the Eagle described in the books is based on the real-world ship, all of her crew is fictional.

See also

  • See Sagres III, Gorch Fock I
    Gorch Fock (1933)
    The Gorch Fock I is a German three-mast barque, the first of a series built as school ships for the German Reichsmarine in 1933. She was taken as war reparations by the USSR after World War II and renamed Tovarishch...

     and Mircea
    Mircea (ship)
    The Mircea is a three masted barque, built in 1938 in Hamburg by the Blohm & Voss shipyard as a training vessel for the Romanian Navy. Her design is based on the successful plans of the Gorch Fock; the last of a series of four sister ships. The ship is named after the Wallachian Prince Mircea the...

     for her sister ships.
  • See Gorch Fock (1958)
    Gorch Fock (1958)
    The Gorch Fock is a tall ship of the German Navy . She is the second ship of that name and a sister ship of the Gorch Fock built in 1933. Both ships are named in honor of the German writer Johann Kinau who wrote under the pseudonym "Gorch Fock" and died in the battle of Jutland/Skagerrak in 1916...

     for training ship of the German Navy
    German Navy
    The German Navy is the navy of Germany and is part of the unified Bundeswehr .The German Navy traces its roots back to the Imperial Fleet of the revolutionary era of 1848 – 52 and more directly to the Prussian Navy, which later evolved into the Northern German Federal Navy...

  • List of large sailing vessels
  • Kieler Woche
  • Eagle Seamanship: A Manual for Square-Rigger Sailing, Naval Institute Press; 4 edition (April 15, 2011), ISBN 1591146313, by Eric C. Jones and Christopher D. Nolan - an operating manual for the ship, from rigging to maneuvering, by the ship's Captain and Navigator

External links

  • The home page of the USCGC Eagle at the United States Coast Guard Academy
    United States Coast Guard Academy
    Founded in 1876, the United States Coast Guard Academy is the military academy of the United States Coast Guard. Located in New London, Connecticut, it is the smallest of the five federal service academies...

  • Coast Guard's Official Eagle webpage
  • JanMaat page on the Horst Wessel (in German
    German language
    German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....

    )
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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