USCGC Eagle ( WIX - 327 ) The ( ex - SSS " Horst Wessel " ) is a barque used as a training cutter for future officers of the United States Coast Guard . She is the only active commissioned steel hulled sailing vessel in American military service . She is the seventh U . S . Navy or Coast Guard ship to bear the name in a line dating back to 1792 . Each summer , " Eagle " conducts cruises with cadets from the United States Coast Guard Academy and candidates from the Officer Candidate School for periods ranging from a week to two months . These cruises fulfill multiple roles ; the primary mission is training the cadets and officer candidates , but the ship also performs a public relations role . Often , " Eagle " makes calls at foreign ports as a goodwill ambassador . Origin as Segelschulschiff " Horst Wessel " . The " Eagle " began its existence as the " Horst Wessel " , a ship of the Gorch Fock class . Constructed and designed by John Stanley , the " Horst Wessel " was an improvement on the original design . She was larger in dimension and her spars were all steel , unlike " Gorch Fock " ' s wooden yards . SSS " Horst Wessel " began life as Schiff ( " ship " ) 508 at Blohm & Voss in Hamburg , Germany in 1936 . Her keel was laid on February 15 ; she was launched on June 13 , completed on September 16 , and commissioned on September 17 . She was the second ship in the class to be built after the class namesake , " Gorch Fock " . Rudolf Hess gave the speech at her launch in the presence of Adolf Hitler . The name was given in tribute to SA leader Horst Wessel , who had been accorded martyr status by the Nazi party . He also wrote the song ( that would be known as ' Horst - Wessel - Lied ' ) used in the Nazi national anthem . SSS " Horst Wessel " served as the flagship of the Kriegsmarine sail training fleet , which consisted of " Gorch Fock " , " Albert Leo Schlageter " and " Horst Wessel " . She was commanded by Captain August Thiele and was homeported in Kiel . In the three years before World War II , she undertook numerous training cruises in European waters , but also visited the Caribbean . She was decommissioned in 1939 , with the onset of the war , but served as a docked training ship until her recommissioning in late 1942 . Equipped with two 20mm antiaircraft gun s on the bridge wings , two on the foredeck , and two " Flakvierling " quad mounts on the waist , " Horst Wessel " is said to have downed three Soviet aircraft and one " friendly " German aircraft in combat . The crew had realized the German aircraft they had shot down was " friendly " while it was spiraling into the sea , and set about rescuing the pilot . When he set foot on the ship , he was furious and demanded an explanation . Upon review of the logs and radio personnel , it was determined that the pilot had been using the wrong codes for the battle group , showing the now embarrassed pilot that it was actually his fault . At the end of World War II , the four vessels then extant were distributed to various nations as war reparations . " Horst Wessel " was taken by the United States . She was first sent to Wilhelmshaven then to Bremerhaven , and was commissioned into the United States Coast Guard as the Coast Guard Cutter " Eagle " on 15 May 1946 . In June 1946 a U . S . Coast Guard crew , assisted by the German captain and crew still aboard , sailed her from Bremerhaven , through a hurricane , to Orangeburg , New York . The German volunteer crew was disembarked at Camp Shanks and the " Eagle " proceeded to her new home port of New London , Connecticut . " America ' s Tall Ship " . The " Eagle " has a standing crew of six officer s and 56 enlisted ; on training missions , she carries on the average a complement of 12 officers , 68 crew , and up to 150 cadet s . Each year , she takes one long training cruise to the Caribbean , the Pacific Coast , or Europe , and two shorter cruises along the U . S . East Coast . During her many years of service , " Eagle " has traveled to ports throughout the United States and overseas . Among her various cruises , " Eagle " has participated in various Tall Ship races and events including the various incarnations of Operation Sail , most notably the American Bicentennial OpSail ' 76 . In September 1987 , she undertook a yearlong cruise to Australia from her home at the U . S . Coast Guard Academy . During this cruise Academy instructors were embarked to conduct the cadets ' courses while underway . In 2005 , as part of the Trafalgar 200 International Fleet Review in the Solent off southern England , " Eagle " was one of a number of tall ships from several nations to be reviewed by Queen Elizabeth II , along with the U . S . Navy warship . Later that summer , " Eagle " returned to Bremerhaven for the first time since World War II , to an enthusiastic welcome . In March 1998 Eagle trained her first and only enlisted members of the Coast Guard otherwise known as November - 152 boot camp company . The members flew from Cape May , NJ to Roosevelt Roads Naval Station in Puerto Rico . After just 3 days of training Eagle headed out to Fort de France , Martinique , La Guaira , Venezuela , Cartegena , Colombia then finally returned home to New London for boot camp graduation . In 2010 she participated in Velas Sudamerica 2010 , an historical Latin America n tour by eleven tall ships to celebrate the bicentennial of the first national governments of Argentina and Chile . Specifications and miscellany . The design and construction of " Eagle " embodies centuries of development in the shipbuilder ' s art . The " Eagle " is slightly larger than her sister ship " Gorch Fock " . Overall " Eagle " displaces 1 , 824 tons . The hull is riveted Krupp steel four - tenths of an inch thick ( 10mm ) . There are two full - length steel decks with a platform deck below . The raised forecastle and quarterdeck are made of quarter inch steel overlaid with three inches ( 76 mm ) of teak , as are the weather decks . Her auxiliary diesel engine , at , is also somewhat more powerful than that of the " Gorch Fock " . There are two Caterpillar generators that can be run single or paralleled . " Eagle " has a range of at her cruise speed of under diesel power . She carries a reverse osmosis system that replenishes the ship ' s fresh water supply at sea . In the summer of 1974 , during the kick - off race for OpSail ' 76 ( from Newport , Rhode Island to Boston , Massachusetts ) , the participating ships encountered heavy weather and a number of participants other than " Eagle " dropped out . Off Cape Cod , the ship maintained a speed of on a broad reach under sail alone for a number of hours . " Eagle " has over of running rigging and approximately of sail area . To protect sails from chafing , the ship uses baggywrinkle extensively . " Eagle " ' s propeller shaft can be de - clutched from the engine so the propeller can freewheel , thus lessening drag while under sail . In 1976 the Coast Guard added their " racing stripe " to her otherwise unadorned white hull . The ship has undergone numerous refits since she was acquired in 1946 . On July 1 , 1972 , the ship was returning to her berth at the Coast Guard Academy in New London at the midpoint of her annual summer cadet training cruises when she was involved in a serious accident . Despite extensive precautions , as the ship passed below the Gold Star Memorial Bridge and a twin bridge being built parallel to it , her foremast and mainmast caught the safety netting slung below the new bridge . Both masts were snapped off above the crosstrees ( about seven - eighths of the way up each mast ) , the upper parts left hanging dangerously from the remaining upright parts of the masts . As a result , the ship had to undergo emergency repairs . In 1982 , the ship underwent an extensive refit in the Coast Guard Yard at Curtis Bay ( near Baltimore , Maryland ) . During this yard availability her original 1936 Burmeister & Wain diesel engine ( along with its generators and evaporators ) were replaced by modern equipment . This made the engine room more spacious and less noisy and hot . The new engine could be controlled directly from the quarterdeck and responded instantly , rather than after a 30 - or - more - second delay common with the original engine . Additional watertight compartmentalization was also added ( previously , there had been only seven ) . This compartmentalization included closing in cadet berthing areas , eliminating separate upper - class ( fixed three - tier bunks ) and lower - class ( hammock ) berthing and making the ship better able to accommodate male and female cadets . An enclosed pilothouse was built around the exhaust funnel on the quarterdeck . Electronic equipment ( e . g . , radar , navigation , and radio equipment ) was updated as well . The helm station remains unsheltered and unchanged . The main helm station , also known as the triple helm , is connected via mechanical shaft linkage to the steering gear ( manual worm type ) located in the " captain ' s coffin " on the fantail along with the emergency , or " trick " wheel . Three turns of the main helm station equals one degree of rudder turn . That is why six persons are used to steer during heavy weather and while operating in restricted waterways . The emergency , or " trick " wheel is a single wheel that turns at a rate of one revolution to one degree of rudder turn . It is a bit harder to use . In popular culture . " Eagle " has a significant presence in the " Nantucket " series of books by S . M . Stirling , in which she is visiting the island of Nantucket when a mysterious " Event " transports the entire island , including " Eagle " and her crew , back to the year 1250 BC . Sent across the Atlantic Ocean to barter for the grain and stock the time - lost Nantucketers need to survive through their first winter , her arrival off the south coast of Bronze Age England leads the natives to name her crew ( and , by extension , the rest of the Island ' s population ) as ' The Eagle People ' . Although the " Eagle " described in the books is based on the real - world ship , all of her crew is fictional .