With the Eagle kicking off its tour of ports as part of the this week, it seemed appropriate to focus on the Coast Guard's training vessel for today's video. There is certainly no shortage of footage of the ship, especially after it made a visit to Europe last year to celebrate its .
This video, uploaded to YouTube and also to marine-portraits.de, captures the Eagle's , where the ship was built in 1936. Originally dubbed the Horst Wessel and used as a training ship for German Navy officers, the ship was taken as a prize of war in 1946 and brought to New London. It continues a similar function, training Coast Guard Academy cadets and making tours to national and international ports as "America's Tall Ship."
The video's soundtrack is provided by the Marinemusikkorps Nordsee. The music over the entry scenes sneaks in a bit of "In The Navy" by The Village People, and the band also plays the United States and German national anthems. Crew members festoon the rigging as the Eagle enters the harbor, and a small German flag waves on a mast while the enormous American flag flies near the stern.
The video also includes photos of Capt. Eric Jones meeting with officials at the pier. These included Consul General Dr. Inmi Kim Patterson; Captain Klaus Beyer, commanding officer of Regional Command Hamburg; U.S. Naval Attachés Stephen Beck von Peccoz and William Suggs; Press Attaché Mitchell Moss; and Joerg Pollmann, the site's harbormaster.
The Eagle will return to New London on the weekend of July 6-9 as part of OpSail 2012.
