Eagle To Honor Crew Of Lost Coast Guard Cutter

As it returns to North American shores, the Coast Guard cutter Eagle will stop to honor the first losses of the service during World War II.

The New London-based tall ship, which was taken as a prize of war from Germany after this conflict and is now used as a training ship, is returning from a . As it leaves Reykjavik, Iceland for Halifax, Nova Scotia today, the Eagle will stop off the coast of the island nation in Faxe Bay to lay a wreath over the wreck of the Coast Guard cutter Alexander Hamilton. The ceremony will also cast seven flowers into the sea to honor the surviving crew members who served aboard the 327-foot "Secretary of Treasury class" Coast Guard cutters during World War II.

The Alexander Hamilton, a twin-screw steam engine-powered cutter, was built at the New York Navy Yard and launched on Jan. 6, 1937. Originally stationed on the West Coast, the ship conducted most of its patrols in the Bering Sea before it was transferred to the East Coast after the war began in Europe in 1939. Here, she performed "neutrality patrols" ordered by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to protect American shores. After a German U-boat attacked an American destroyer in September of 1941, Roosevelt authorized Navy and Coast Guard ships to "shoot on sight" any ships threatening American vessels. The Alexander Hamilton donned a gray camouflage coat of paint and began performing additional readiness drills.

Originally assigned to weather reporting duties, the ship took a more active role after the United States entered the war in December of 1941, the Alexander Hamilton was the third Coast Guard ship to join an armada of Navy, Coast Guard, and Royal Navy ships in protecting merchant convoys crossing the Atlantic Ocean. The Alexander Hamilton joined 29 other ships on the evening of Jan. 15, 1942 and made her first successful escort to a mid-ocean rendezvous point with the Royal Navy; the ship was lost two weeks later.

While escorting a disabled storeship to Iceland on Jan. 29, the U-132 fired four torpedoes at the cutter. One struck the Alexander Hamilton between the fireroom and engine room. The explosion killed or fatally wounded 32 men and damaged the ship beyond repair. Eight-one crew members survived. Attempts to salvage the ship were unsuccessful. The cutter capsized while under tow on Jan. 30, and the ship was scuttled by a Navy destroyer.

Several destroyers in the area tried unsuccessfully to find the U-132 after the attack. The submarine was sunk in November of 1942.

The final resting place of the Alexander Hamilton was not known until August of 2009, when the Icelandic Coast Guard discovered a shipwreck 28 miles off the coast of Iceland. The wreck was later identified as the lost cutter. The Eagle will be the first Coast Guard ship to pay its respects at the site since the sinking.

"This stop will be an important and historical part of the Eagle's summer and perfectly compliments our ship’s training mission," said Lt. Jeff Janaro in a statement. "The cadets aboard the ship are familiar with Coast Guard history, and this ceremony will show them the importance of tradition and sacrifice as we reflect on our service’s heroes."

The Eagle is scheduled to arrive in Halifax on July 15. It will also visit Boston, Mass. on July 22; New Bedford, Mass. on July 29; and New York City on Aug. 5 before returning to New London on Aug. 12.