Eagle (ship)

**eagle**
Ship data
flag	German Empire United States;
other ship names	Horst Wessel (1936–1946)
Ship type	Sail training ship
class	Gorch-Fock class
Callsign	NRCB
home port	New London
Owner	United States
Shipyard	Blohm & Voss , Hamburg
Build number	508
building-costs	2,400,000 Reichsmarks
Order	Navy
Launch	June 13, 1936
Commissioning	September 17, 1936
Whereabouts	In operation
Ship dimensions and crew
length	89.0 m ( Lüa ) 70.0 m ( KWL )
width	12.0 m
Draft	Max. 5.0 m
displacement	Construction: 1,634 t; Maximum: 1,750 t
crew	298
Machine system
machine	Diesel engine
Machine ; performance	1,000 PS (735 kW)
Top ; speed	10 kn (19 km / h)
propeller	1
Rigging and rigging
Rigging	Barque
Number of masts	3
Number of sails	23
Sail area	2,070 m²
Speed ; under sail	Max. 17 kn (31 km / h)

The Eagle (USCGC Eagle - WIX 327) is a barque of the United States Coast Guard . She serves as a sailing training ship for officer candidates of the US coast guard.

The ship , which belongs to the Gorch Fock class, was used by the German Navy as a sailing training ship until 1945 . Her name at the time was Horst Wessel , named after the SA storm leader Horst Wessel .

history

Horst Wessel

After the reconstruction of the Reichsmarine in the mid-1930s, the Gorch Fock was no longer sufficient for training. According to the same plans, only with a slightly longer hull , this second sailing training ship was therefore built by Blohm & Voss for the inspection of the naval education system. After its launch on June 13, 1936, the ship initially had no figurehead and only bare masts. The sails were attached to the equipment quay. Soon after, the ship received its figurehead in the form of an imperial eagle .

The ship was structurally subordinate, like the other training ships of the Navy, to the Naval School Mürwik . Before the commissioning on September 17, 1937, a core team was put together under commandant August Thiele. Many of them had served on other training ships, such as the Gorch Fock , and thus had appropriate knowledge and skills for commanding the ship. The main task of the ship was the training of marines who could later be used as mates or officers in the Reichsmarine. The course participants received their basic military training in the ship master departments z. B. in Stralsund ( Dänholm and Frankenkaserne) and then the nautical training on the sailing school ships. After the initial training was completed after commissioning, Admiral Erich Raeder , the Commander in Chief of the Navy, first visited the ship and inspected it. He was soon followed by Field Marshal General Werner von Blomberg , Minister of War and Commander-in-Chief of the Wehrmacht . He stayed longer on the ship. With the launch of the naval school, in front of whose boat harbor the Horst Wessel was anchored, he was transferred to the ship from there accompanied by the headmaster. His stand as Minister of War was raised on the mast (see picture of the ship in front of the Mürwik Naval School). Accordingly, he was received with all military honors. From the Horst Wessel he took over the parade of the school ships present, with the Gorch Fock at the head . He observed training and sailing maneuvers and spoke to the officers of the ship. B. with the then Lieutenant Hubert Freiherr von Wangenheim , who was head of the Mürwik Naval School from 1956 to 1960.

The ship carried out under the command of its first commander August Thiele until January 27, 1939, otherwise until the beginning of the war several trips abroad ( Las Palmas , Iceland , Edinburgh ). These trips served the high seas training of the course participants, but certainly also had foreign policy goals.

With Hitler's war aims and preparations, the training content for the navy also changed. The nautical training on sailing school ships took a back seat because the intensity and time required were reduced.

After a stationary stay in Kiel , the Horst Wessel was made available to the Marine Hitler Youth in Stralsund . In December 1940 it became a temporary auxiliary staff ship for the 2nd Admiral of the fleet , after which it was back in Kiel. The last commandant, Kapitänleutnant Schnibbe, stayed on the ship after the war ended and transferred it to the United States in 1946 as a reparation payment .

The launch of the sailing training ship under the name Horst Wessel
The sailing training ship in 1936 still without a figurehead
Regular crew of the ship in 1937 with Captain Thiele
The ship in front of the Red Castle in Flensburg in 1937 - Mürwik with figurehead

eagle

Since 1946 the former Horst Wessel has been sailing under the name Eagle (Adler) for about three months a year under the direction of the United States Coast Guard and is otherwise mostly in the new home port of New London (Connecticut) . The figurehead was exchanged for a modern variant in the 1970s. The eagle has had an open beak since then. The United States Coast Guard Academy and the United States Coast Guard also have an eagle in their coat of arms, but each with a closed beak. The old eagle is now in the US Coast Guard Museum in New London.

On June 4, 2011, the Eagle visited the city of Hamburg under the command of Captain Eric C. Jones and could be visited there at the landing stages. On May 10, 2019, she moored under the command of Captain Matthew Meilstrup at the regular port of her sister ship Gorch Fock in Kiel.