A historic U.S. Coast Guard ship built by the Nazis in the 1930s is set to drop anchor in San Francisco this weekend for the first time in 17 years. The Barque Eagle — stretching the length of a football field and wielding 6 miles of rigging — is the largest ship of its kind in the American fleet.
San Francisco is the ship’s sixth port of call on a 14-week voyage up and down the West Coast. The Eagle is scheduled to be moored at Pier 17, where the public can walk its teak wood decks for themselves during free tours offered from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Saturday, June 28. No tickets are required, according to a U.S. Coast Guard
news release.
Despite the ship’s moniker as America’s Tall Ship, Nazi Germany’s navy originally commissioned it to be built in 1936 at the Blohm and Voss Shipyard in Hamburg. The craft was christened the Horst Wessel, for a Sturmabteilung storm trooper who penned the official Nazi anthem, before the United States claimed it as a war reparation at the end of World War II.
Now, the Eagle sails under the stars and stripes for the Coast Guard Academy, serving primarily as a training vessel for cadets and officer candidates to test their navigation, ship-handling and engineering skills outside the classroom.
The Eagle also acts as a goodwill ambassador for the Coast Guard and the United States by docking in foreign ports. During its tenure, the ship has carried Presidents John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon and Harry S. Truman aboard its decks.