USCGC Eagle (WIX-327) - Origin As Segelschulschiff Horst Wessel

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. Adolf Hitler and Rudolf Hess were present at the launch and christening. The name was given in tribute to Nazi party member Horst Wessel, who had been accorded martyr status. 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 guns on the bridge wings, two on the foredeck, and two 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, Germany, 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.