Here we see past Warship Wednesday subject, the oldest vessel in the U.S. Coast Guard, and one of the last ships afloat and in active service that dates from World War II: the Gorch Fock-class segelschulschiffUSCGC Eagle (WIX-327), America’s only active-duty square rigger.
This uncommon view of her was taken last week at the Coast Guard Yard in Baltimore, the only one in the service, as Eagle undertakes the next step in her five-year SLEP modernization. She is inside the former U.S. Navy ARD-18 Class Auxiliary Repair Dock, USS Oak Ridge (ARDM-1).
Built at Alameda in 1944, the Oak Ridge is 81-years young and during her lengthy Naval career was based in the Philippines, Groton, Rota, and Kings Bay until she was disposed of in 2001. The 551-foot dock can lift ships up to 437-feet long, making her ideal for the Coast Guard as her largest vessels, the new National Security Cutters, are just 418-feet oal.
The dock was transferred to the Coasties in 2001 with the assumption she had about five more years left on her before she would be condemned, and Eagle may be Oak Ridge‘s last customer.
The dock is in bad shape.
According to a 2015 DHS report, she sank in 2011 resulting in $4 million in repairs and costs $1 million per year to barely maintain– 11 times greater than the more modern Syncrolift shiplift system the Yard has installed.
Her gantry cranes, installed in 1963, are inoperative as “it is no longer cost-effective to fabricate replacement parts for crane engines, structure, and controls.” Further, “Other installed equipment including diesel generators, auxiliary pumps, boilers, streamlines, welding gas, air compressors, airlines, and crew berthing have all been removed from
service over the past 10 years as a result of disrepair.”
As far as her hull, she is supposed to be dry-docked herself every 10 years but hasn’t been since the 1990s and there are no active shipyards within a safe distance from the CG Yard capable of drydocking her, so, “this work has been permanently deferred until Oak Ridge is removed from service,” which is expected in 2018.
As for Eagle, on the other hand, the last mid to walk her decks likely hasn’t been born yet.
Warship Wednesday, Aug 5, 5015: 225 Years of Semper Paratus
In honor of the Coast Guard’s 225th Birthday this week, this one is a no-brainer.
Here we see the oldest vessel in the U.S. Coast Guard and one of the last ships afloat and in active service that dates from World War II (although from the other side), the Gorch Fock-class segelschulschiff training barque USCGC Eagle (WIX-327), America’s only active-duty square-rigger.
The Gorch Focks
Designed by John Stanley, the Gorch Fock-class school ships, three master barques with 269-foot long steel hulls, 18,000 sq. feet of square-rigged sails fore and main, and gaff-rigged mizzens, were perhaps the best training ships built in the 20th Century.
Horst Wessel at sea, 1938
First ordered to replace the lost Segelschulschiff Niobe, which capsized in 1932, SSS Gorch Fock was ordered the same year from Blohm and Voss in Hamburg and completed in just 100 days. Then, with a need to greatly expand the German Kriegsmarine, the sisters SSS Horst Wessel in 1936, SSS Albert Leo Schlageter in 1937, Mircea for the Romanian Navy in 1937, and SSS Herbert Norkus in 1939.
The subject of our story, Horst Wessel, was a happy ship, commissioned on 17 September 1936, and spent summer cruises in 1937-39, roaming the globe with a crew of German officer cadets and craggy old chiefs and officers that dated back to the Kaiser’s time.
Importantly for history, her christening was the scene of an image that is perhaps more famous than she was.
August Landmesser was a worker at the Blohm + Voss shipyard in Hamburg. He appeared in a photograph refusing to perform the Nazi salute at the launch of the naval training vessel Horst Wessel on 13 June 1936.
“He had been a Nazi Party member from 1931 to 1935, but after fathering children with a Jewish woman, he had been found guilty of “dishonoring the race” under Nazi racial laws and had come to oppose Hitler’s regime. In February 1944, he was drafted into a penal unit, the 999th Infantry Battalion, where he was declared missing in action and presumably killed.”
Horst Wessel (the future USCGC Eagle) at the Mürwik Naval Academy in Flensburg, Germany, during 1937, two years before the start of WWII. Eight years later, the situation would be much different: the academy was the seat of government for Adm. Karl Dönitz, who briefly presided over what remained of the Third Reich from 30 April – 8 May 1945.
Crewmen on Horst Wessel performing a totenwacht over a dead comrade
Horst Wessel
Her German Eagle figurehead
When war came, the training fleet was laid up with Herbert Norkus, never fully completed, sunk at the end of the conflict, Gorch Fock herself scuttled in shallow waters off Rügen in an attempt to avoid her capture by the Soviets, who raised her and used her anyway as the training ship Tovarishch for decades, Schlageter damaged by a mine then confiscated and sold in poor shape to Brazil and Horst Wessel with an interesting story of her own.
Armed with several 20mm flak mounts, Horst Wessel had shuttled around the relatively safe waters of the Baltic and came out of the war unscathed.
Coming to America
The Coast Guard Cutter EAGLE, lying at a shipyard in Bremerhaven, Germany, in 1946, was being rigged and outfitted for her voyage to the United States. Note bombed-out buildings in the background
Won by the U.S. in a lottery of captured but still salvageable German ships, she was sailed to the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, where she took the place of the 188-foot Danish merchant academy training ship Danmark, which during the war had trained thousands of USCG and Merchant Marine officers.
Horst Wessel arrived with a mix of new USCG plankowners, including 6 officers and 55 men, who shadowed a German volunteer crew consisting of the vessel’s former skipper, Kpt/Lt. Barthold Schnibbe and 48 men, and was commissioned 15 May 1946, as USCGC Eagle, while Danmark was returned to her proper owners that September after Eagle was ready for deployment.
A plaque with the names of her mixed first USCG/last German cruise. It could probably be considered the last Atlantic crossing by the Kriegsmarine.
Since then, she has been used extensively with a core USCG cadre crew of six officers and 55 enlisted personnel, and as many as 150 cadets on summer and even yearlong cruises. During the past seven decades, it can be said that she has sailed with over 10,000 swabs holystoning her decks and rigging her lines.
Eagle under U.S. Flag 1954. Note that she did not receive her distinctive red racing stripe until 1976– the last ship in the Coast Guard to do so
She has been inspected by just about every sitting President since Truman, including JFK, a former Navy man.
August 15, 1962–President John F. Kennedy addressing Cadets while visiting on board the U.S Coast Guard Academy training bark EAGLE,
President Kennedy reviewed the USCGC Eagle’s crew in 1962. Note the M1 Garands, still a staple of the USCGA.
Eagle allows future officers to put into practice the navigation, engineering, damage control, and other professional theories they have previously learned in the classroom.
ATLANTIC OCEAN – Photo of events aboard the Coast Guard Cutter Eagle July 6, 2012. U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Patrick Kelley.
Upper-class trainees have a chance to learn leadership and service duties normally handled by junior officers, while underclass trainees fill crew positions of a junior enlisted person, such as helm watches at the huge double wooden wheels used to steer the vessel.
The sails are set aboard the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Eagle on Wednesday, July 27, 2011. The Eagle is underway on the 2011 Summer Training Cruise, which commemorates the 75th anniversary of the 295-foot barque. U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 1st Class NyxoLyno Cangemi
Everyone who trains on Eagle experiences a character-building experience gained from working on a tall ship at sea.
U.S. Coast Guard Academy Third Class Cadet Brandon Foy climbs the rigging Tuesday, July 12, 2011, aboard the Coast Guard Cutter Eagle. Foy is one of 137 cadets sailing aboard the 295-foot barque during the 2011 Summer Training Cruise, which commemorates the 75th anniversary of the ship. U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 1st Class NyxoLyno Cangemi
To maneuver Eagle under sail after her rerigging to a larger set of canvas than the Germans used, the crew must handle more than 22,000 square feet of sail and five miles of rigging.
The sails are set Saturday, June 25, 2011, aboard the Coast Guard Cutter Eagle in the Atlantic Ocean between Iceland and the United Kingdom. U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 1st Class NyxoLyno Cangemi
Over 200 lines control the sails and yards, and every crewmember, cadet, and officer candidate must become intimately familiar with the name, operation, and function of each line.
The crew aboard the Coast Guard Cutter Eagle works to take in the sails as the ship heads to Corpus Christi, Texas, July 2, 2010. Crewmen work in the rigging nearly 100 feet above the water. U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Patrick Kelley.
While she has the nickname of “America’s Tall Ship” and is seen around the world waving the flag, her bread and butter are training cadets from the U.S. Coast Guard Academy as well as NOAA Officer Candidates, and the occasional Navy, Merchant Marine, and foreign allied maritime officers as well.
The crew aboard the Coast Guard Cutter Eagle works to take in the sails as the ship heads to Corpus Christi, Texas, July 2, 2010. Crewmen work in the rigging nearly 100 feet above the water. U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Patrick Kelley.
And all those sails don’t raise themselves
These ships have proven durable, with Gorch Fock returning to Germany from Russia in 2003 and resuming her old name as a museum ship, Mircea entering her 77th year of service to the Romanian Navy this year, and Albert Leo Schlageter— sailing under the name Sagres III for Portugal since 1961– all still in active service.
Truth be told, only the sad Herbert Norkus, which never sailed anyway, has been lost from the original five-ship class.
Further, since the war ended, another five ships have been built to the same, although updated, design. These include yet another Gorch Fock (built for West Germany in 1958), Gloria (1967, Colombia), Guayas (1976, Ecuador), Simón Bolívar (1979, Venezuela), and Cuauhtémoc (1982, Mexico).
In short, nine tall ships are running around the earth to the same general specs.
And the best-traveled of the pack is Eagle, who is all ours and hopefully will see another 75 years under sail.
CARIBBEAN OCEAN – The U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Eagle transits the Caribbean Ocean under full sail on Monday, June 7, 2010. Crewmembers assigned to the Eagle “America’s Tall Ship” set sail from New London, Conn., for the annual Summer Training Program in April. U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Jetta H. Disco.
ATLANTIC OCEAN – The Coast Guard Cutter Eagle sails through dense fog, Tuesday, July 17, 2012. The crew of the Eagle takes extra safety precautions when sailing through the fog, such as sounding the foghorn and standing extra lookouts. U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Erik Swanson.
(June 26, 2005) ONBOARD THE USCGC EAGLE – A view from the bowsprit onboard the Eagle during a cadet summer training patrol. The U.S. Coast Guard Cutter EAGLE designated ‘America’s Tallship’ is a three-masted, square-rigged sailing vessel. Coast Guard photo by Ensign Ryan Beck)
Guantanamo Bay, Cuba (May 20)–The Coast Guard Cutter Eagle sails into Guantanamo Bay to spend the night. The Eagle is involved in training exercises in the Caribbean. USN photo by FINCH, MICHAEL L LCDR
The Coast Guard Cutter Eagle sails through the ocean as the moon’s reflection beams across the sea. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Walter Shinn)
Seaman Katy Turner (right) of Cincinnati, Ohio, and Petty Officer 1st Class Ted Hubbard of West Springfield, Mass., work from one of Coast Guard Cutter Eagle’s small boats to inspect and clean the hull before entering port Thursday, Aug. 6, 2009. Conducting small boat operations is one of the most dangerous evolutions for the crew because the small boats are lowered manually by crewmembers, rather than by a mechanical hoist.
The Coast Guard Cutter Eagle is seen on a foggy Sunday morning at the Coast Guard Yard, Baltimore, Nov. 17, 2013. The Eagle, a 295-foot barque home-ported in New London, Conn., is a training ship used primarily for Coast Guard cadets and officer candidates. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Lisa Ferdinando)
ATLANTIC OCEAN – The Coast Guard Cutter Eagle sails through dense fog, Tuesday, July 17, 2012. The crew of the Eagle takes extra safety precautions when sailing through the fog, such as sounding the foghorn and standing extra lookouts. U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Erik Swanson.
Although she long ago landed her German eagle for an American one, which carries the Coast Guard seal (while the old one collects dust as a war trophy at the USCGA Museum) and her original wheel carries her Horst Wessel birth name, it also carries her new monicker as well.
Her original German figurehead is on display at the USCGA Museum
The figurehead of the Coast Guard Cutter Eagle is seen on a foggy Sunday morning at the Coast Guard Yard, Baltimore, Nov. 17, 2013. The Eagle, a 295-foot barque home-ported in New London, Conn., is a training ship used primarily for Coast Guard cadets and officer candidates. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Lisa Ferdinando)
(June 23, 2005) – ONBOARD THE USCGC EAGLE – A U.S. Coast Guard Academy cadet takes the helm during a summer training patrol onboard the Coast Guard Cutter EAGLE. The three-masted, square-rigged sailing vessel is normally homeported in New London, Connecticut, and sails each summer for months at a time, visiting ports around the U.S. and abroad. (Coast Guard photo by Ensign Ryan Beck)
The helm of the Coast Guard Cutter Barque Eagle. Coast Guard photo by PA1 Donnie Brzuska, PADET Jacksonville, Fla.
In an oil painting on masonite, renowned aviation artist William S. Phillips depicts two icons of the Coast Guard: the cutter Eagle, and an MH-65 Dolphin helicopter, the standard rescue aircraft of the Coast Guard.
The ceremony will take place on Friday appx. 10:30 a.m. August 7 at the Oliver Hazard Perry Pier at Fort Adams State Park, Newport, R.I.
Eagle will be open to the public for tours at approximately 12 p.m. following the commemorative stamp unveiling ceremony.
In the event of inclement weather, the ceremony will take place in the visitor center across from the pier.
In Newport, Eagle will be open for free public tours:
* Friday from 12 p.m. to 7 p.m.
* Saturday from 11:00 a.m. to 7 p.m.
* Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Cutter Eagle by John Wisinski (ID# 90138)
If you cannot make Newport, the Eagle has her own social media account that is regularly updated and on a long enough timeline, she will be in a port near you.
Specs:
Length – 295 feet, 231 feet at waterline
Beam, greatest – 39.1 feet
Freeboard – 9.1 feet
Draft, fully loaded – 16 feet
Displacement – 1824 tons
Ballast (lead) – 380 tons
Fuel oil – 23,402 gallons
Anchors – 3,500 lbs. port, 4,400 lbs. starboard
Rigging – 6 miles, standing and running
Height of mainmast – 147.3 feet
Height of foremast – 147.3 feet
Height of mizzenmast – 132.0 feet
Fore and main yard – 78.8 feet
Speed under power – 10 knots
Speed under full sail – 17 knots
Sail area – 22,300 square feet
Engine – 1,000 horsepower diesel Caterpillar D399 engine replaced 700hp original diesel
Generators – two-320 kilowatt Caterpillar 3406 generators
Training complement – 6 officers, 54 crew, 20 temporary active duty crew when at sea, 140 cadets average.
Maximum capacity – 239 people
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Today’s bluejackets have to worry about modern 21st-century problems while underway such as flakey internet signals, running out of pop, broken exercise equipment, 1980s tech in the CIC, chicken wheels, and lines for the washing machine. One thing they don’t have to fool with is the old 01 Division holy-stone train.
What is a holystone? Well here is the wiki on it and another mention here but suffice to say that this lump of sandstone, boiler brick, or even ballast weight was common to sailors from the 18th century through WWII.
It’s simple to use, just add seawater and sometimes a liberal coating of sand and scrub away at the teak decking of your old school battleship, cruiser, destroyer, or frigate along with a dozen or so of your closest hammock mates under the close supervision of the bosun.
Sailors rubbing the deck of the Japanese battleship Yamashiro, Seto Island Sea, 1943
Sailors rubbing the deck of battleship HMS Rodney, 1940
Sailors holystoning the deck of Pelorus-class protected cruiser HMS Pandora in the early 20th century
Working the deck of the old HMS Nelson
Royal Navy Battleship Sailors scrubbing holystoning Bridge HMS Royal Oak Photo 1917 colorized by Postales Navales
A working party holystones the deck of USS Oklahoma City (CLG 5) in June 1966. “25 licks per board”
USS Maryland BB-46 off Hawaii August 1941 LIFE Peter Stackpole holystoning
At the end of the day, you would have a nice, clean deck that had been stripped of its top layer of grit and grime.
September 1, 1986: German destroyer Rommel D-187 (right) in company with USS Iowa BB-61 and Peder Skram F-352. The deck was likely freshly stoned as the battlewagon was headed to NATO-allied ports and needed to be squared away for the inevitable spate of visitors
Of course, today’s sailors much prefer nonskid.
Except for those who are assigned to the last two wooden decked ships in the U.S. Fleet, the USS Constitution, and USCGC Eagle who just donated a spare one to the USS Missouri museum…
GULF OF MEXICO — An HC-144 Ocean Sentry aircrew from Coast Guard Air Station Miami in Miami, Fla., drops a replacement saltwater pump for the Coast Guard Cutter Eagle's main diesel engine, April 14, 2012. The main diesel engine's saltwater pump began leaking, which reduced the effectiveness of the engine's cooling system. U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Brandyn Hill.
120414-G-RU729-614 – CG aircraft delivers part to CGC Eagle
MISSISSIPPI RIVER — A Coast Guard aircraft delivered a replacement saltwater pump for the Coast Guard Barque Eagle’s crew to effect repairs on a square-rigger’s main diesel engine, Sunday.
Engineers aboard the Eagle, a 295-foot barque homeported in New London, Conn., noticed minor leakage from the saltwater pump Thursday through the course of hourly rounds of the ship’s engineering spaces.
The leakage continued to worsen throughout the day and a replacement pump was ordered while the Eagle remained at anchor off Key West, Fla. A 33-foot Special Purpose Craft – Law Enforcement boat crew delivered a replacement pump Friday evening and engineers worked through the night to affect repairs to the ship’s engine, though the part did not fit properly.
Another pump was placed on order as the engineers made temporary repairs in order to arrive on time to kick off the War of 1812 Bicentennial Commemoration. Once the part arrived in Key West, the air crew from Coast Guard Air Station Miami, Fla., flew to Key West to retrieve the pump and delivered it to the Gulf of Mexico where the crew airdropped the part to an awaiting small boat crew deployed from the Eagle.
The Eagle’s small boat crew recovered the pump from the ocean and brought it back to the ship, where the waiting engineering department was able to replace the pump so the ship could continue its voyage.
NEW ORLEANS — Pictured from left to right holding a replica commissioning pennant circa the War of 1812 aboard the Coast Guard Barque Eagle, April 17, 2012, are Capt. Peter Gautier, commander of Coast Guard Sector New Orleans, Rear Adm. Roy A. Nash, commander of the Eighth Coast Guard District, Capt. Steven Pope, Coast Guard Atlantic Area, and Vice Adm. Robert Parker, commander of Atlantic Area. Atlantic Area staff overseeing the Bicentennial of the War of 1812 presented the Eagle with the pennant. U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Brandyn Hill.
NEW ORLEANS – Capt. Eric Jones (left), commanding officer of the Coast Guard Barque Eagle, holds the end of a replica commissioning pennant before Lt. j.g. Jonathan Heesch (right) raises it aloft aboard the Eagle at the Bienville Wharf, April 17, 2012. The Eagle and its crew arrived in New Orleans for the Bicentennial Commemoration of the War of 1812. U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Brandyn Hill.
