Eagle is the seventh ship to bear the name in the long line of proud cutters dating back in 1792 that had continuous seagoing services. It was commissioned two years after the formation of the Revenue Marine the forefather of today’s United States Coast Guard. It was built in 1936 by the Blohm & Voss Shipyard in Hamburg Germany as a training vessel for German Navy cadets and was commissioned Horst Wessel serving as a training ship for the Kriegsmarine during the World War II.
The age – old custom of capture and seizure in World War II, Horst Wessel was taken by United States as a war prize. It was initially selected by the Soviet Union in a draw during the division of the Nazi vessels but a U.S. representative convinced the Soviet to trade draws before the results of the draw were officially announced.
And the German barque was commissioned to the U.S. Coast Guard service as the Eagle on May 15, 1946 and sailed from Bremerhaven, Germany to New London, Connecticut following Columbus’ route across the mid – Atlantic. She survived a hurricane during her trip to New London and arrived safely. She endured another hurricane in September 1954 on its way to Bermuda and hosted OpSail at the World’s Fair in New York in 1964 and hosted it again in 1976 during the Bicentennial celebration of the United States. It also hosted the Statue of Liberty centennial celebration in 1986.
The Coast Guard decided to paint it with the “racing stripe” to her unadorned hull in the middle of 1976 which created major controversies and it was the last known cutter to be painted which many of the sailing community denouncing the new paint job.
From her home at the United States Coast Guard Academy she took a yearlong cruise in September 1987 to Australia wherein Academy instructors conducted cadet courses while sailing. It was among the number of tall ships from different nations to be reviewed by Queen Elizabeth II in 2005 during the Trafalgar 200 International Fleet Review in the Solent of Southern England together with the U.S. Navy USS Saipan (LHA-2) warship. It returned for the first time to Bremerhaven since it left Germany in World War II later that summer and was met with an enthusiastic welcome.
Eagle trained her first and only enlisted Coast Guard members in March 1998 known as the November – 152 boot camp company. And today, Eagle serves as a seagoing classroom with instructors from the United States Coast Guard Academy for about 175 cadets. She is a three – masted sailing Barque with 21, 350 square feet of sail and homeported at the Coast Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut and the only active commissioned sailing vessel of the U.S. Maritime Services.
Coast Guard challenge coins come rarely in the industry. You can find some of the few and rare coast guard challenge coins in websites like U.S. Challenge Coins, eBay and Amazon. Greatly designed Eagle Tall Ship challenge coins are also available to add to your collection.