Tall Ship Barque EAGLE Sails Into Homeport New London Thursday

NEW LONDON, CT—Thursday evening, the US Coast Guard cutter Eagle, America's Tall Ship, sailed into its home port of New London.

New London Mayor Michael Passero said the the Whaling City welcomes the Barque EAGLE back to Connecticut’s first Coast Guard City.

"The Barque EAGLE has been in Service to our Nation since 1946 when Naval CDR Richard McGowan led a small crew to refurbish the Barque EAGLE in post-war Germany and sail her to New London," Passero said.

The ship has been home-ported in New London since 1946, with the exception of two short maintenance periods.

The Coast Guard said in a media release that the Eagle returned home after completing a major modernization at the Coast Guard Yard in Baltimore.

Called the "Service Life Extension Project, which began in 2014 and was completed in 2018," the modernization "included an array of shipboard improvements on the Eagle. The most significant upgrades completed during that time included the replacement of about 3,000 square feet of steel hull plating, installation of a new engine and associated propulsion equipment, complete renovation of all the crew and trainee berthing areas, and a variety of structural inspections."

The Coast Guard said the crew was most recently on a European deployment with 10 port visits that included the 75th anniversary of D-Day; sail festivals in France and the Netherlands; and a key Independence Day celebration in the Azores. This summer alone the ship and her crew traveled over 15,000 nautical miles, the equivalent of traveling 60 percent of the distance around the Earth.

Passero said the Barque EAGLE "has been an essential training asset for more than 10,000 Coast Guard Academy cadets and 2,000 officer candidates, in addition to Coast Guard recruits and A-school trainees, Tall Ships America crews, New London JROTC, international maritime students, the crew of the USS Constitution, and Midshipmen from the Naval Academy in Annapolis Midshipmen.

The EAGLE's last port of call was Bermuda before heading "home."

The EAGLE will be a focal point of the New London waterfront for decades to come including,
serving as a pier-side exhibit for the future National Coast Guard Museum, Passero said.

Some may have witnessed her arrival home on the New London Maritime Society's 'Harborcam,' that provides a seabird's-eye vista of the Thames, and New London Harbor facing the Long Island Sound with views to the Ledge and Race Rock lighthouses.