Tall Ships Gold Rush Race The Eagle
° Index ° Eagle ° Guayas ° Hawaiian Chieftain ° Kaiwo Maru ° Deep Sea Derby, 1852 ° Levy's Log
Sail San Francisco 1999
As part of the Sesquentennial celebration of the discovery of gold in California, a parade of tall ships, canvas sails snapping, glided under the Golden Gate Bridge, welcomed by cheers from thousands of spectators lining the Headlands and sailing alongside in their own vessels.
This was the biggest gathering of tall ships on the Pacific Coast in the 20th Century.
The square-riggers represented five foreign countries and included theCalifornian, the state's official tall ship. Vessels representing the Navies of Canada, Colombia, Ecuador, Indonesia and Japan, used to train Navy cadets, were part of the festival.
The Master Mariners Benevolent Association (MMBA) was formed in 1867 by owners of coastal and Bay working schooners to raise funds for the families of sailors lost at sea by scheduling an annual race to settle arguments among shippers as to who had the fastest vessels.
U.S. Coast Guard Barque Eagle is the largest Tall Ship flying the Stars and Stripes and the only square-rigger in U.S. government service.
She is the seventh Coast Guard Cutter to bear the name in a proud line dating back to 1792.
The ship was built in 1936 by the Blohm and Voss Shipyard in Hamburg, Germany, and commissioned as Horst Wessel, one of three sail training ships operated by Nazi Germany to train cadets for the growing German Navy. Early in World War II it was converted to a cargo ship, transporting men and supplies throughout the Baltic Sea, but continued to perform a training mission as well. The ship is said to have downed three aircraft in combat during this period. Following World War II, it was taken as a war prize by the United States and a Coast Guard crew -- aided by the German crew still on board -- sailed the tall ship in 1946 from Bremerhaven to its new home port in New London, Connecticut.
Eagle now serves as a seagoing classroom for the future officers of the U.S. Coast Guard. A seasoned permanent crew of five officers and 30 enlisted personnel maintains the ship year round and provides a strong base of knowledge and seamanship for the training of up to 150 cadets or officer candidates at a time. It is on the decks and in the rigging of the Eagle that these young men and women get their first taste of salt air and life at sea. The experience helps them to develop skills of leadership and teamwork, as well as a healthy respect for the elements, that will serve them for a lifetime. They are tested and challenged, often to the limits of their endurances; working aloft, they meet fear and learn to overcome it. The training they receive under sail has proven to be a valuable asset to generations of Coast Guard officers throughout their careers.
Eagle offers future officers the opportunity to put into practice the navigation, engineering, and other professional theory they have previously learned in the classroom. Upperclassmen exercise leadership and service duties normally handled by junior officers, while underclassmen fill crew positions of a junior enlisted person, such as help watches at the huge wooden wheels used to steer the vessel.
To maneuver the Eagle under sail, the crew must handle more than 22,000 square feet of sail and five miles of rigging. Over 200 lines control the sails and yards, and every crew member, cadet and officer candidate must become intimately familiar with the name, operation, and function of each line.
Like the great Cape Horn square-riggers built during the first three decades of the 20th Century -- the twilight era of sail --Eagle is constructed of modern materials. Eagle has a steel hull four-tenths of an inch thick; two full length steel decks with a platform deck below and a raised forecastle and quarter-deck; and weather decks made of three inch thick teak over steel. Its design and construction embody centuries of development in the shipbuilder's art, and Eagle eagerly takes to the element for which it was designed, effortlessly and gracefully driving under full sail in the open ocean at speeds up to 17 knots.
When in home port in New London, Eagle rests alongside a pier on the Thames River at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy. Approximately 900 men and women attend the Academy, all of whom sail at one time or another on America's only active duty square rigger.
| Type of Vessel | Barque: U.S. Coast Guard Sail Training Ship |
| Flag | United States |
| Owner | Coast Guard |
| Length Overall | 295 feet |
| Beam | 39.1 feet |
| Draft | Loaded: 16.0 feet |
| Displacement | Loaded: 1816 tons |
| Max. Mast Height | 147.3 feet |
| Sail Plan | Flying Jib, Outer Jib, Inner Jib, Fore Topmast Staysail, Main Royal Staysail, Main Topgallant Staysaill, Main Topmast Staysaill, Mizzen Topgallant Staysaill, Mizzen Topmast Staysaill, Mizzen Staysail |
| Sail Area | Total: 22,227 square feet |
| Speed | Under power: 10 knots Under sail (up to): 17 knots |
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