USCGC EAGLE

USCGC EAGLE (WIX-327)

(295’ barque training cutter)

“america’s tall ship”

USCGC EAGLE (WIX-327) is a 295-foot barque used as a training cutter for Coast Guard Academy Cadets and Coast Guard Officer Candidates. Originally built in Germany in 1936 as the Horst Wessel, she served as the flagship of the Kriegsmarine sail training fleet. Horst Wessel was decommissioned in 1939, but served as a pier-side training ship in Stralsund for the marine branch of the Hitler Youth. In 1942, she was recommissioned as an active German Navy training vessel. After World War II ended, Horst Wessel was won by the United States as a war reparation and, subsequently, given to the U.S. Coast Guard in 1945 at the request of the Coast Guard Academy Superintendent, VADM James Pine. On 15 May 1946, she was commissioned into the Coast Guard as the United States Coast Guard Cutter EAGLE. In June 1946, EAGLE sailed from Bremerhaven, Germany to Orangeburg, NY with a crew of U.S. Coast Guard members and several former German Navy crewmen who were still onboard. After the volunteer German crew disembarked in New York, EAGLE continued its maiden voyage to her new homeport of New London, CT.

EAGLE
United States Coast Guard Academy Flag
Echo Signal Flag
(3.5” H x 3” W; .25” thick)