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The (formerly the ''Horst Wessel'') is a barque used as a training cutter for future officers of the United States Coast Guard. She is the only active commissioned sailing vessel, and one of only two commissioned sailing vessels, along with the , in American military service. She is the seventh Coast Guard cutter to bear the name in a line dating back to 1792, including the (Revenue Cutter ''Eagle'' ), which famously fought the British man-of-war ''Dispatch'' during the War of 1812. Each summer, ''Eagle'' deploys 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 voyages fulfill multiple roles; the primary mission is training the cadets and officer candidates, but the ship also performs a public relations role for the Coast Guard and the United States. Often, ''Eagle'' makes calls at foreign ports as a goodwill ambassador. Built as the German sail training ship ''Horst Wessel'' in 1936, it served to train German sailors in sail techniques until decommissioned at the start of World War II. Given anti-aircraft armament, it was re-commissioned in 1942. At the end of the war, ''Horst Wessel'' was taken by the U.S. as war reparations. == Origin as ''Horst Wessel'' == The ''Eagle'' commenced its existence as the ''Horst Wessel'', a ship of the ''Gorch Fock'' class. Constructed and designed by John Stanley, the ''Horst Wessel'' was an improvement on the original design. She was larger in dimension and her spars were all steel, unlike ''Gorch Fock'' wooden yards. SSS ''Horst Wessel'' began life as ''Schiff'' ("ship") 508 at Blohm & Voss in Hamburg, Germany in 1936. Her keel was laid on 15 February; she was launched on 13 June, completed on 16 September, and commissioned on 17 September. She was the second ship in the class to be built after the class namesake, ''Gorch Fock''. Rudolf Hess gave the speech at her launch in the presence of Adolf Hitler, and Horst Wessel's mother christened the new ship with a bottle of champagne. The name was given in tribute to SA leader Horst Wessel, who had been accorded martyr status by the Nazi Party. He also wrote the song which came to be known as 'Horst-Wessel-Lied' and used in the Nazi national anthem. Shortly after work began on the ''Horst Wessel'', the Blohm & Voss shipyard laid the keel of the German battleship ''Bismarck'', which was labeled ''Schiff'' 509. SSS ''Horst Wessel'' served as the flagship of the ''Kriegsmarine'' sail training fleet, which consisted of ''Gorch Fock'', ''Albert Leo Schlageter'' and ''Horst Wessel'' (a fourth ship, the ''Mircea'' was also built in 1937 for the Romanian Navy and work began on a fifth, the ''Herbert Norkus'', but stopped with the outbreak of war). The ''Horst Wessel'' was commanded by Captain August Thiele, a previous Captain of the ''Gorch Fock'', and was homeported in Kiel. In the three years before World War II, she undertook numerous training cruises in the North Atlantic waters, sailing with trainee groups consisting of both future officers and future petty officers. On 21 August 1938, Adolf Hitler visited the ship and sailed for approximately one hour before departing. Later that year, the ''Horst Wessel'' and ''Albert Leo Schlageter'' undertook a four-month voyage to the Caribbean and visited St. Thomas and Venezuela. Along the way, they caught numerous sharks and turtles at sea and kept ducks enclosed on deck to provide fresh eggs. The ''Horst Wessel'' was decommissioned in 1939 with the onset of World War II, but served as a docked training ship in Stralsund for the marine branch of the Hitler Youth until her recommissioning as an active Navy sail training vessel in 1942. Numerous weapons were installed throughout the decks, including two 20mm anti-aircraft guns on the bridge wings, two on the foredeck, and two 20 mm ''Flakvierling'' quad mounts on the waist. From late 1942 through early 1945 she sailed on numerous training deployments in the Baltic sea with cadets fresh out of basic training. On 14 November 1944, while sailing in rough weather with the ''Albert Leo Schlageter'' near the island of Rügen, the ''Albert Leo Schlageter'' hit a mine on its starboard bow. The ship received extensive damage and the ''Horst Wessel'' took her in a stern tow to keep her from running aground until larger ships could arrive the next day to assist. In April 1945, after the last German cadet class had departed, ''Horst Wessel'' departed Rügen with a group of German refugees on board. She sailed to Flensburg where Captain Barthold Schnibbe surrendered to the British, and the ship ran up the Union Jack. ''Horst Wessel'' was ordered to Bremerhaven, tied to a temporary pier, and much of its equipment was stripped. At the end of World War II, the four German sailing vessels then extant were distributed to various nations as war reparations. ''Horst Wessel'' was won by the United States in a drawing of lots with the Russian and British navies, and requested by the United States Coast Guard Academy's Superintendent. On 15 May 1946, she was commissioned by Captain Gordon McGowan into the United States Coast Guard as the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter ''Eagle''.〔http://www.uscga.edu/display.aspx?id=12049 ''Eagle's'' history from the USCGA website〕 In June 1946 a U.S. Coast Guard crew, assisted by Captain Schnibbe and many of his crew who were still aboard, sailed her from Bremerhaven, through a hurricane, to Orangeburg, New York. The German volunteer crew was disembarked at Camp Shanks and the ''Eagle'' proceeded to her new home port of New London, Connecticut. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「USCGC Eagle (WIX-327)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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