European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - September 30, 1978, Darmstadt, Hesse Is photos by Jim Cole v the Eagle in an Era of pinpoint navigation by satellite signal the Ideal platform for learning Basic Seaman s learning to sail by manhandling Staysail. Page 14 mess deck aboard coast guard training ship doubles As Classo the stars and stripes of. By j. King Cruger staff writer of 0 some the 295-foot-Long, Square a is an anachronism although a great Beautiful one that sets the mind reeling dwell on Days Long gone. In this Era of pinpoint navigation by signal and land based computers keeping Clos ships far at sea what is the . Coast guard doing training its future officers aboard a v could Well have come ghosting out of the 19th be the Eagle s six foot plus skipper Cacir. Paing a Salt who looks like Central casting was before he was put aboard three Summers ago i question As his three master sliced through Sull a summer training cruise. The Eagle is the Ideal platform for Lear. Seaman s knowledge and the coordination of 1 Bers As they work together in often hostile Clem it tests the ability of cadets to give comr. Wind swept environment gives knowledge dire Merable to Many jobs they will have to perform Confidence in their ability to accomplish tasks ficut conditions. That s the Confidence they la need to Harry rescues in 15 to 20-foot every summer the Eagle sets sail from in port of new London conn., site of the coast Academy and makes a Long training voyage erupted by several Goodwill Calls to foreign Mystic ports. Blk a is is. If ire this year the Eagle sailed to ports along the West coast of the United states returned through the Panama canal and is scheduled to arrive Back at the Academy on tuesday. Three years ago the coast guard Academy admitted its first female cadets. So last year for the first time they served aboard Eagle during its two month summer cruise. On that cruise Eagle sailed out of new London spent three weeks sailing to Hamburg Germany and after Calls at Chatham England and Malaga Spain sailed homeward on a voyage that took less than three weeks. How were the women aboard faring there s no appreciable difference in performance of the men and women said the skipper. Many of the 15 women we now have aboard Are our Best performers others Are not so Good. In general they Range in ability like their male counterparts. They Don t have the upper body strength that the men do but that s Only part of these bag. Endurance tenacious Ness intelligence More than offset being less Strong than the biggest Welling s evaluation of the women was echoed by it. Bill Wissman then the Eagle s commandant of cadets there is no real difference in the men and women cadets. Some Are into it and some Are not. We noticed the same thing Back at the Academy. We make it a Point that women do everything that the men and what they do Ain t easy mate. Think about going aloft at 3 . To furl sail in howling wind and blinding rain As the ship pitches and Rolls in a raging sea. How High aloft do they go Well those furling the uppermost sails the royals on the main Mast work nearly 140 feet above the deck while balancing on a wildly Sway ing foot rope. As Welling spoke of his ship and sail training the Taf frail log steadily clicked off sea Nile after sea mile As the sturdy steel sail training ship made a steady eight knots heading from Hamburg to Chatham about 30 Miles below London on the thames. The Eagle had been in the sprawling North German port on the Elbe to Honor the shipyard there where she was built Back in 1936. It comes As. A Surprise to most americans to learn that the very ship that led the operation sail 76 tall ships Parade past five million spectators in new York on that memorable fourth of july was launched from Ham Burg s Blohm and Voss shipyard As the Horst Wessel. Named for a Young nazi student who the party turned into a Martyr after he was killed in a Brawl in 1930, and with Hitler on hand for the launching the ship was one of three sister ships built for the German Navy in the 30s. The others Gorch Fock i sunk during world War ii but raised by the russians and renamed the Tova Risch Sagres ii originally the Albert Leo Schlageter seized by the . After the War and then Given to Brazil who finally turned it Over to the portuguese and Romania s Mircea still Cleave the seven seas. Germany in 1958 launched another training bark Gorch Fock ii pictured on the Back of the 10-Rnark Bill. The . Grabbed the Horst Wessel for reparations in 1946, sailed the ship Back to the states through a Hurri Cane and renamed it the Eagle the sixth to Bear that name in a proud line of cutters. At sea the 139 cadets perform All duties aboard the bark handling the 22,000 sure feet of sail and More than 20 Miles of rigging. More than 200 lines must be coordinated during a major ship Man Euver. The Eagle needs at least six knots of wind to set her sails. She is a working blend of the old and the new being equipped with air conditioned Crew s quarters with hammocks for the trainees Dacron sails and electric Anchor Windlass. She also sports a dishwasher radar and a sophisticated communications room. The decks Are three Inch thick teak lines Are Manila and the three wheel Helm it takes six cadets to steer when the ship is moving slowly through the water is Wood. It still has the original diesel a sometimes Balky 750 horsepower Plant that needs to be stopped and turned off before the engine can be reversed. Under full sail the ship can clip through the oceans at a maximum of 18 knots. Many of the cadets usually Only 18 or 19 years old have never been to sea before setting sail on the Eagle. By the time their training cruise is finished the bulk of them Are old salts who can handle the Helm and set sails As if they were sailors working the tall ships of a Century ago. Six . Coast guard cadets Man the three wheel Helm As others dress the saturday fiber 30, 1978 at least six knots of wind Are needed to set sails being readied by cadets on rat lines. The stars and stripes Page 15
