If you are reading this blog, you likely already know that “America’s Tall Ship,” the 269-foot steel-hulled three-masted barque USCGC Eagle (WIX-327), started life in 1936 as one of the quartet of John Stanley-designed Gorch Fock-class school ships (segelschulschiff) for the German Kriegsmarine (Gorch Fock, Horst Wessel, Albert Leo Schlageter, and Herbert Norkus), followed by Mircea for the Romanian Navy. Horst Wessel (the future USCGC Eagle) at the Mürwik Naval Academy in Flensburg, Germany, during 1937, two years before the start of WWII. While the U.S. got Horst Wessel (now Eagle) in 1946, and has used her ever since, and Norkus never sailed, the original Gorch Fock went to the Russians, who kept her until 2003, then gave her back to the Germans, who use her as a museum ship. The Romanians still sail Mircea, while Schlageter— sailing under the name Sagres III for Portugal since 1961 after passing through U.S. and then Brazilian ownership– is also still in active service. Further,…
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