We sailed for four days aboard the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Eagle and got a first-hand look at life on a tall ship.
Journey to America 250 aboard the U.S. Coast Guard Eagle Tall Ship
The U.S. Coast Guard Eagle sails from Norfolk to Baltimore as part of the historic tall ship training cadet event for America’s 250th anniversary.
Aboard the USCGC Eagle – 20 sailors balanced on ropes suspended above the ship, swaying in the wind. The US Navy’s Blue Angels sounded their masts. Whistling and cheering, a crowd gathered on the concrete pier below. The Coast Guard cutter Eagle enters Baltimore’s Inner Harbor.
The crew was on board preparing to pierce the undulating lines into the white hull of this historic 800 meter behemoth. They had spent hours over the past three days washing, painting and cleaning the deck to prepare it for guests. Some people had been awake since 3am.
The Eagle, known as “America’s Tall Ship,” is on a week-long journey north up the East Coast for Sail 250, an international maritime festival commemorating the nation’s founding. The celebrations will culminate on July 4, when ships and aircraft from 46 countries will converge on New York City in what organizers say will be the largest maritime and air gathering in U.S. history.
The Eagle-like ship, with its billowing sails, teak deck, and maze of ropes and rigging, draws crowds of tourists for a glimpse of the past.
Currently, Eagle and its international vessels are primarily used as training ships. The ship teaches “the old ways,” as its commander, Capt. Christopher Ensley, likes to say.
For the past 80 years, every U.S. Coast Guard Academy cadet has served aboard the Eagle. They’ll sail by the stars, hoist the sails, and literally learn the ropes of this nearly 100-year-old ship. The work is largely invisible to those who come on board for short tours.
With this summer’s Eagle trip, “we honor our past 250 years of service while building a bridge to the future with these young men and women on board,” Ensley said.
USA TODAY spent four days aboard the Eagle on its voyage from Norfolk, Virginia, to Baltimore to get a firsthand look at life on the historic tall ship and what it reveals about the nation’s past and future.
Set sail: Living “Jack Sparrow’s dream”
Sitting at a wooden table in a crowded dining room below deck, Emily Pawlak said she was living out a “Jack Sparrow dream,” named after the cunning protagonist of Disney’s “Pirates of the Caribbean” movie series.
Pawlak is one of about 150 Coast Guard cadets who will train at Eagle later in the summer. She is sailing the ship during the Sail250 festivities with a crew of approximately 60 non-commissioned officers and a small number of officers.
Six classmates stood around a stainless steel table in the kitchen, chopping carrots and peeling beets. They were blasting out “Escape (The Piñ Colada Song).” It was 7am
“I can’t say I’ve had enough rest, but that’s part of the fun,” said Paulak, setting a blue breakfast tray on the table and sitting on a cushioned bench.
She watched until midnight as the ship sailed from Norfolk out of the Chesapeake Bay.
From his deck, Polak saw lightning flashes lighting up the shoreline like fireworks. She felt the boat rocking back and forth in the raging water. The rustle of the sea intensified the smell of seaweed.
The Eagle avoided the brunt of the storm while its crew sailed out to sea. And when Pollak woke up the next day, the sun was high in the sky and the ocean was the color of deep Gatorade blue.
Tired or not, it’s time for a full day of training.
The era of sailing ships, when pirates like Johnny Depp’s fictional Jack Sparrow roamed the Seven Seas, ended about 200 years ago. The Eagle is currently the U.S. military’s only active sailing vessel, according to the Coast Guard. Most of the Coast Guard fleet is powered by diesel and gas engines.
Ensley said the academy still uses Eagle to train new sailors, build “sweat equity” and teach lessons in teamwork and leadership.
Holding a stainless steel coffee thermos, Ensley stood at the back of the ship near the navigation bridge, monitoring the cadets as they prepared to set sail.
One of the crew members yelled, “Fall!” and the cadets staggered along the narrow ropes and began unrolling the cords holding the white sails together. As the crew yelled “Seat Home,” the dozen or so cadets lined up below thrust their bodies back and forth to the rhythm and chanted “Heebe Ho.”
We held hands and pulled the rope to steer the sail, then rigged and hoisted the over 3,000-pound upper topsail yard into place.
Eagles and their complicated history
Eagle’s interior walls tell its story. A photo of a German Navy boat from World War II hangs between the portholes in the wardroom where officers gather for meals. The black-and-white snapshot of a sailor on deck pulling up a line resembles a modern-day scene that still takes place today.
But most of those on board say things are a far cry from those days. Originally named Horst Wessel after a member of the Nazi Party, it was built in 1936 to train cadets for the German Navy. The first time it was launched from the shipyard, Adolf Hitler was on board. His portrait hung in the flaghouse.
When the Allies won World War II, the United States received the ship as a trophy. Since 1946, she has operated as a training ship out of New London, Connecticut. A photo of Hitler was replaced with a painting of Alexander Hamilton, the father of the Coast Guard.
Cadet First Class Cole Miller found the history of the ship interesting.
“This is in some ways an indication of the evolution of things,” said Miller, who will be on board for 11 weeks this summer. “It’s always been a symbol.”
For many Americans, the idea of tall ships conjures up images of explorers and settlers sailing to the New World. For others, it serves as a reminder of a dark history in which millions of prisoners of war were crammed into crude cargo holds, shipped to ports and sold into slavery.
American author Alex Haley chronicled the horrors of the Middle Passage in his 1976 novel Roots: The Story of an American Family, part of which he wrote aboard the Eagle.
Haley joined the Coast Guard at age 17 and retired as the station’s chief reporter in 1959. Years later, while he was writing his Pulitzer Prize-winning book, Haley asked him to come aboard the Eagle as a guest for a week.
It is said that he isolated himself in his room and went below deck to understand some of what his enslaved ancestors might have experienced. Unlike the luxurious cabin Hayley is assigned to sleep in, the bilge at the bottom of the ship is usually full of water and mosquitoes.
When published, Haley’s book provided an alternative narrative to this country’s highly patriotic bicentennial celebrations, forcing Americans to come to terms with the brutality of slavery.
A plaque honoring Haley now hangs outside the flaghouse, near where Hitler’s portrait was displayed.
Ensley said it’s important for cadets to remember the past.
“Frankly, being true to who we are and what we are and our history is part of this ship.”
A modern ship with an old soul
The flag cabin’s tiger maple wall panels are one of the few original pieces left on the Eagle. Despite appearances, much of the ship is surprisingly modern.
Air conditioning keeps the cabin cool even on hot summer days at sea. Fresh water showers prevent the smell of sweat from young men engaged in physical labor from getting too strong. And below deck, a washing machine hums, circulating salt-stiffened uniforms.
The ship’s engines propel the ship when wind conditions are poor, giving the crew more control over port arrival schedules.
But on deck, the Eagle operates much the same way it has for the past 90 years.
As the ship headed back to the Chesapeake Bay for Baltimore, Cadet First Class Levi Edmonds taught the young students how to navigate using pen and paper.
The sailors, pressed against the ship’s railing, spotted the lighthouse and water tower through binoculars. Teams of three then found corresponding symbols on paper charts. They used a compass to calculate the exact location of the ship.
“It’s very intense,” Edmonds said. “Every three minutes, you have to report what you see.”
This is also a lost art. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is printing its 2024 nautical charts at sunset.
Like “grandma’s Volkswagen,” the boat doesn’t have power steering, Ensley said. To take the helm, six cadets must steer three giant wheels made of wood and copper. Other cadets are also standing nearby, observing the wind and sea conditions.
Chief Petty Officer Rob Lester, who was teaching cadets how to handle the rope, said: “People are getting really frustrated because it’s very messy.” “This boat was literally designed by German engineers to be as difficult as possible.
“It’s just a big excuse to scare and fail all young people.”
For the crew, it’s all about working hard and playing hard.
Standing on the edge of the ship, looking out at the rolling waters, Cadet First Class Carys Ray said the hard work of piloting a tall ship comes with moments of magic and levity.
She said she and other crew members “bonded through trauma” with many of their fellow crew members.
“When there’s nothing but complete darkness and there’s stars and it’s gorgeous and you’re just sitting with it, trying to stay awake, it just makes you vulnerable,” Ray said.
Miller, one of the other cadets, sat on a bench at the back of the ship one afternoon as hundreds of dolphins rose above the waves. From a distance, they looked like small white dots.
As they took to the air, Miller could catch a glimpse of their blowholes, friendly eyes and the sharp tips of their fins. Their white bellies appeared light blue as they glided back under the water. The pod of dolphins swam along the edge of the ship for more than 30 minutes.
Miller was reluctant to join the Eagle in the summer. A rising senior, he had already been on board the ship as a young cadet and was looking for a new experience.
But as Miller watched the dolphins, he said he felt a “need” to get on a sailboat.
“This never gets old.”
