PORTSMOUTH, Va. — America’s Tall Ship Coast Guard Cutter Eagle is scheduled to arrive March 27 in Morehead City, N.C., for a welcome ceremony and public tours.
The following itinerary, subject to change, is as follows:
Thursday, March 27, 1 p.m., Eagle moors at Morehead City State Port
Thursday, March 27, 2 p.m., welcome ceremony and press conference
Thursday, March 27, 4 p.m., public tours
Friday, March 28, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., public tours
Saturday, March 29, 10 a.m. to 7:30 p.m., public tours
The Eagle will be moored at the Morehead City Port Authority Pier located at 113 Arendell St.
On Sunday, March 30, the Cutter Eagle is scheduled to depart at 4 p.m.
Eagle’s spring deployment is the first opportunity for underway training for 2014 for 60 Coast Guard and National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration officer candidates currently working their way through the Officer Candidate School program at the Coast Guard Academy in New London, Conn. Upon graduation May 7, the trainees will become officers in the Coast Guard and NOAA assuming operational duties throughout the country.
The Eagle’s uniqueness as the Coast Guard’s only square rigger ship allows cadets and officer candidates the rare opportunity to apply hands-on experience for the navigation, engineering, and other professional theory learned in the classroom. These are the very same learning experiences critical for cadets and officer candidates to be effective as leaders in the Coast Guard’s operational forces
At 295 feet in length, the Eagle is the largest tall ship flying the stars and stripes and the only active square-rigger in U.S. government service.
Constructed in 1936 by the Blohm and Voss Shipyard in Hamburg, Germany, and originally commissioned as the Horst Wessel by the German Navy, the Eagle was taken by the United States as a war reparation following World War II.
With more than 23,500 square feet of sail and six miles of rigging, the Eagle has served as a classroom at sea to future Coast Guard officers since 1946, offering an at-sea leadership and professional development experience.
A permanent crew of seven officers and 50 enlisted personnel maintain the ship and guide the cadets and officer candidates through an underway and in-port training schedule, dedicated to learning the skills of navigation, damage control, watchstanding, engineering and deck seamanship.
