USCG Barque ‘Eagle’ Is Coming West
The USCG barque Eagle is headed to the West Coast. It’s the first time she’ll have been west since 2008!
The Coast Guard reports, “The selected port calls leverage Eagle’s unique ability to advance and foster international relations with some of the region’s most critical partners, and provides an opportunity to integrate domestic engagements along the US West Coast.”
We’re glad California is on the list of critical partners.
The Eagle is currently nearing Cuba as she heads toward the Panama Canal. Her ports of call and dates (subject to change) are below:
April 27: Puntarenas, Costa Rica
May 9: Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
May 23: Los Angeles, California
June 6: Portland, Oregon
June 13: Astoria, Oregon
June 25: San Francisco, California
July 7: Victoria, BC, Canada
July 15: Seattle, Washington
July 25: San Francisco, California
August 1: Los Angeles, California
August 8: San Diego, California
August 15: San Diego, California
September 4: Panama City, Panama
September 18: New London, Connecticut
She’s traveling the entire West Coast with a couple of opportunities to see her in Los Angeles and San Francisco.
Known as “America’s Tall Ship,” Eagle is a 295-ft, three-masted barque used as a training vessel for future officers of the United States Coast Guard. It is the largest tall ship flying the Stars and Stripes and the only active square-rigger in US government service. Approximately 120 cadets will crew the ship at any given time throughout her tour of the USA’s West Coast; cadets will swap out at various ports.
Eagle is expected to be open for free public tours on all their port calls, including both stops in San Francisco, though exact hours are still TBD. Public tour announcements will be made as the ship gets closer to each stop.
Worth mentioning is of course is the origin of this ship: Originally built as a SSS Horst Wessel, Schiff (“ship”) 508 at Blohm & Voss in Hamburg, Germany in 1936. 1945 all German sail ships were confiscated and given to other nations. The now called Eagle was transferred to the US Navy as a part war reparation. This ship has several “sister ships” still in existence, and two of them are still serving as training vessels, what is a testament to a robust, enduring quality of the haul:
NRP Sagres (Portugal,) also called Sagres III,
Mircea (Romania), and also the original
Gorch Fock I, since 2003 sold back to Germany, now a museum ship. After 1945 it served for a Soviet fleet and later for Ukraine as a “Tovarishch” (Comrade).
By absurd good luck, I served on the Eagle in the summer and fall of 1965 as an enlisted man in the Coast Guard Reserve, when the Eagle made its first voyage ever to the Pacific Ocean. I helped return the “Tall Ship” (one of only 17 in the world) from San Francisco thru the Panama Canal back to New London, CT, where it is permanently based at the Coast Guard Academy. This remains one of the greatest adventures of my entire life! I welcome any new feedback and/or comments. Cheers, Steve