CGC BARQUE EAGLE

A couple of weekends ago we had the opportunity to tour the Coast Guard Cutter BARQUE EAGLE when it sailing through Portland. It is a steel hull, 3 masted sailing ship and is the only active commissioned sailing ship in the military. Serving as a flagship for the Coast Guard Academy, it is a training vessel for the academy cadets with 6 officers and 48 enlisted men and women. Future officers practice navigation, engineering and ship maneuvering, setting the sails and controling the rigging; and learn leadership skills.

We could only tour the upper deck and compared to the other cutters in the CG, it was very different. It had wood floor boards and rails and many other wood details. Other cutters are mostly painted metal, making them cold and dull feeling. I couldn't believe all of ropes that were used for the sail rigging and masts. There were some coiled neatly in a huge circle on the deck. I couldn't help thinking what a mess you could make if you didn't know what you were doing! We also got to peek into the galley as we walked by where they we making grilled cheese sandwiches. The galley, from what I could see, looked a bit small.

Because of how it was moored up, it was hard to get get a good pic of the whole ship, so we tried to gets pics of interesting areas of the ship. I "borrowed" a couple of straight shots from the internet. They where changing crews while they were here and you can see in one of the pics a big pile of sea bags lined up on the dock, making it more difficult to get a good shot.

I was surprized at the turn out for the tour. There were a good many military people in line as well as civilians.