America's Tall Ship to return home

NEW LONDON, Conn. — The crew of the Coast Guard Cutter Eagle, America's Tall Ship, is scheduled to return to their homeport at Ft. Trumbull here Saturday at 10 a.m.

The crew is returning from the Coast Guard Yard in Baltimore where the ship underwent a four-month inspection, repair and maintenance process known as dry dock.

The ship will be in port until April when it's scheduled to depart on the 2012 Summer Training Cruise in support of OpSail, an international gathering of the world's tall ships commemorating the bicentennial of the War of 1812.

Built at the Blohm and Voss Shipyard in Hamburg, Germany in 1936, and commissioned as Horst Wessel, the Coast Guard Cutter Eagle is one of three sail-training ships operated by the pre-World War II German navy. At the close of the war, the ship was taken as a war reparation by the U.S., re-commissioned as the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Eagle and sailed to New London, Connecticut, which has been its homeport ever since. The crew of the Eagle has offered generations of Coast Guard Academy cadets, and more recently officer candidates, an unparalleled leadership experience at sea.

Operation Sail Inc. is a non-profit organization established in 1961 with the endorsement of President John F. Kennedy. Backed by a Joint Congressional Resolution, its mission is to advance sail training and to promote goodwill among nations. OpSail has produced five international sailing events in 1964, 1976, 1986, 1992, and 2000, each tied to a landmark historical event and culminating in a traditional Parade of Sail in New York Harbor. For more information, please visit www.opsail.org.

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