USCGC Eagle (WIX-327) - Specifications and Miscellany

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 1,000 horsepower (750 kW), is also somewhat more powerful than that of the Gorch Fock. There are two 320 kW (430 hp) Caterpillar generators that can be run single or paralleled. Eagle has a range of 5,450 nautical miles (10,000 km) at her cruise speed of 7.5 knots (14 km/h) 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 19 knots (35 km/h) on a broad reach under sail alone for a number of hours.

Eagle has over 6 miles (9.7 km) of running rigging and approximately 22,280 square feet (2,070 m2) 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.