Coast Guard Barque Eagle Will Visit Newport This Summer

She’s known as “America’s Tall Ship” and is the largest tall ship flying the Stars and Stripes.

And she’s coming to Newport.

The Coast Guard Barque Eagle is kicking off her 2015 cadet summer training program at the end of April and will make stops in ports up and down the coast along with a stop in Bermuda.

The Eagle will be in Newport from July 31 to Aug. 3.

The Eagle and her crew have been at the Coast Guard Yard facility in Baltimore for a Service Life Extension Project, the U.S. Coast Guard said in a release. As a result, she’ll be away from her home port of New London, Conn., for several years.

The ship was built in 1936 and is the only square-rigger in U.S. government service.

She’s one of three sail training ships operated by the pre-World War II German Navy. When the war ended, the vessel, then-named Horst Wessel, was taken as a war reparation by the United States and recommissioned as the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Eagle.

“Eagle provides an unparalleled at-sea leadership and professional development experience for future officers of the U.S. Coast Guard,” the release stated.

For a more detailed history of the ship, the Coast Guard Academy has a nice writeup.