US Coast Guard EAGLE

by James Williamson

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Price

$5,000

Dimensions

22.000 x 15.000 inches

Title

US Coast Guard EAGLE

Artist

James Williamson

Medium

Painting - Watercolor And Gouache

Description

Watercolor painting of United States Coast Guard Tall Ship EAGLE sailing near the Statue of Liberty by artist James Williamson. Sail on, sail on, thou fearless barque, where'er blows the welcome winds.

Artist James Williamson ASMA,
Signature Member of the American Society of Marine Artists

The USCGC Eagle (WIX-327) (formerly the SSS Horst Wessel) is a 295-foot (90 m) barque used as a training cutter for future officers of the United States Coast Guard. She is the only active commissioned steel hulled sailing vessel in American military service. She is the seventh U.S. Navy or Coast Guard ship to bear the name in a line dating back to 1792. Each summer, Eagle conducts cruises with cadets from the United States Coast Guard Academy and candidates from the Officer Candidate School for periods ranging from a week to two months. These cruises fulfill multiple roles; the primary mission is training the cadets and officer candidates, but the ship also performs a public relations role. Often, Eagle makes calls at foreign ports as a goodwill ambassador.
Built as the German training vessel Horst Wessel in 1936, it served to train German sailors in sail techniques until decommissioned at the start of the war. Given anti-aircraft armament it was re-commissioned in 1942. At the end of the war Horst Wessel was taken by the US as war reparations.
The Eagle has a standing crew of six officers and 56 enlisted; on training missions, she carries on the average a complement of 12 officers, 68 crew, and up to 150 cadets. Each year, she takes one long training cruise to the Caribbean, the Pacific Coast, or Europe, and two shorter cruises along the U.S. East Coast.
During her many years of service, Eagle has traveled to ports throughout the United States and overseas. Among her various cruises, Eagle has participated in various Tall Ship races and events including the various incarnations of Operation Sail, most notably the American Bicentennial OpSail '76.
In September 1987, she undertook a yearlong cruise to Australia from her home at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy. During this cruise Academy instructors were embarked to conduct the cadets' courses while underway. In 2005, as part of the Trafalgar 200 International Fleet Review in the Solent off southern England, Eagle was one of a number of tall ships from several nations to be reviewed by Queen Elizabeth II, along with the U.S. Navy warship USS Saipan (LHA-2). Later that summer, Eagle returned to Bremerhaven for the first time since World War II, to an enthusiastic welcome.
In March 1998 Eagle trained her first and only enlisted members of the Coast Guard otherwise known as November-152 boot camp company. The members flew from Cape May, NJ to Roosevelt Roads Naval Station in Puerto Rico. After just three days of training Eagle headed out to Fort-de-France, Martinique; La Guaira, Venezuela; Cartagena, Colombia; then finally returned home to New London for boot camp graduation.
In 2010 she participated in Velas Sudamerica 2010, an historical Latin American tour by eleven tall ships to celebrate the bicentennial of the first national governments of Argentina and Chile.

Uploaded

August 30th, 2014

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