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Why is the US still using a Nazi tall ship?
BBC News ^ | 29 July 2015 | James Morgan

Posted on 07/29/2015 7:42:24 AM PDT by Freeport

The Eagle was built by the Nazis and fought for Hitler in World War Two - so how did a tall ship that once flew the swastika end up as a training vessel for new US Coast Guard cadets?

Driving home along the coast of Connecticut one winter's evening, Tido Holtkamp saw a ghost.

There she was - moored in the harbour, her three towering masts, draped with those familiar sails he had rigged back in the German Navy in World War Two.

Her body had been repainted in the red, white and blue of the US, but her curves were unmistakable.

"That's my ship!" shouted Holtkamp, stopping the car. "That's my ship. The Horst Wessel. What in the world is she doing here in America?"

He may be 89 years old now, but the old sailor still twinkles wide-eyed as he recalls that moment back in 1959.

We are sitting in the grand museum of the Coast Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut, not far from the place where the sight of the ship stopped Holtkamp in his tracks.

Above him hangs a carving of a gleaming golden eagle - the original German figurehead of his beloved vessel.

She is docked outside in the bay, with 150 young cadets preparing to jump aboard, climb the rigging and set sail for the Bahamas.

The Eagle is the flagship of the Coast Guard, and the only tall ship on active service in the US military.

Since 1946 every single new cadet undergoing officer training has begun his or her career by learning to sail on her - the old way.


(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.com ...


TOPICS: History; Military/Veterans
KEYWORDS: coastguard; eagle; horstwessel; sailingship
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To: captain_dave

The Pine Tree Riot of 1772 NH was over pine trees used for masts.


21 posted on 07/29/2015 7:53:44 AM PDT by cripplecreek (Sad fact, most people just want a candidate to tell them what they want to hear)
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To: dfwgator

A superior design and construction is not tied to a particular ideology. Just a very good example of technology, adapted to the needs of the next in line to acquire the property.

ISIS got a significant boost in their ability to quickly transfer manpower around Iraq and Syria when they “inherited” the Humvee’s, M1A1 Abrams, and MRAP’s from the fleeing Iraqi troops.


22 posted on 07/29/2015 7:55:14 AM PDT by alloysteel (If Stupidity got us into this mess, then why can't it get us out? - Will Rogers.)
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To: Freeport

Gee, I didn’t know ships could adopt political ideologies.


23 posted on 07/29/2015 7:55:36 AM PDT by GingisK
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To: Freeport

Same reason millions drive Volkswagens— WW2 ended 7 decades ago and the world has moved on...

Now the Greeks want to talk about the Elgin Marbles...

Oh, and BBC, congratulations on getting downsized— you’ve earned it!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/07/02/bbc-jobs-layoffs_n_7711932.html


24 posted on 07/29/2015 7:56:00 AM PDT by ameribbean expat
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To: AppyPappy

Because we kicked their ass.


That’s right. And my Dad was one of the victors. CBI Theater of War.


25 posted on 07/29/2015 7:56:15 AM PDT by laplata ( Liberals/Progressives have diseased minds.)
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To: Freeport

Because we took it from their cold dead fingers, and it is ours now.


26 posted on 07/29/2015 7:56:43 AM PDT by Little Ray (How did I end up in this hand-basket, and why is it getting so hot?)
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To: Freeport

Its war booty. The implication that somehow its “tainted” because the Germany Navy built it before WWII is just stupid.


27 posted on 07/29/2015 7:58:32 AM PDT by PGR88
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To: Freeport
The Eagle is the flagship of the Coast Guard, and the only tall ship on active service in the US military.

Not that she's so active, but I thought the USS Constitution was still on the rolls.

28 posted on 07/29/2015 8:02:03 AM PDT by Smokin' Joe (How often God must weep at humans' folly. Stand fast. God knows what He is doing.)
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To: Freeport

It must have been a slow day at the BBC. The history of the Eagle has been known and documented since the mid 1960s that I personally know about. If I knew about it 50 years ago there has to be others who knew about it first.


29 posted on 07/29/2015 8:02:05 AM PDT by Nip (BOHEICA and TANSTAAFL - both seem very appropriate today.)
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To: Freeport
Besides, it goes back in time to the bronze age...


30 posted on 07/29/2015 8:02:06 AM PDT by Mad Dawgg (If you're going to deny my 1st Amendment rights then I must proceed to the 2nd one...)
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To: Freeport

So? In the Tall Ship wars of the Napoleonic era it was more important to capture a ship than sink it. You got prize money, and the ship would be refitted and turned against the enemy.

Even the Germans scuttled their iron fleets after WWI.


31 posted on 07/29/2015 8:04:14 AM PDT by Ruy Dias de Bivar
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To: cripplecreek

Wow. That took me on a little excursion. Thanks.


32 posted on 07/29/2015 8:05:36 AM PDT by Fester Chugabrew (Even the compassion of the wicked is cruel.)
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To: ameribbean expat

Same reason we used Werner von Braun to go to the Moon.


33 posted on 07/29/2015 8:06:06 AM PDT by dfwgator
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To: laplata

They must not have been able to find any photos of Eleanor Roosevelt giving a Nazi salute, and didn’t want to show any of the sacred Kennedy’s giving one despite the strong likelihood such exist. That’s the current fashion when trying to smear a selected target with a Nazi brush. Besides, why scrap a boat undoubtedly built with typical German engineering precision? Their own royal navy was never averse to renaming and putting to use captured French ships during the Napoleonic wars.


34 posted on 07/29/2015 8:06:44 AM PDT by katana (Just my opinions)
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To: Freeport
Because it is a Prize of War?

You don't Spend 1 Trillion (in 1940's Dollars) and sacrifice 500,000 Men and Not Get something material out of it.

35 posted on 07/29/2015 8:16:36 AM PDT by KC_Lion (PLEASE SUPPORT FR. Donate Monthly or Join Club 300! G-d bless you all!)
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To: GingisK
Gee, I didn’t know ships could adopt political ideologies.

This one did, having been named Horst Wessel. The ship's namesake was a Nazi activist who was fatally shot by Communists in 1930.

The Nazis decided to turn him into a hero and a martyr, and a song that he wrote that became known as the Das Marschlied von Horst Wessel (the Horst Wessel marching song) became the party's theme song.

36 posted on 07/29/2015 8:23:21 AM PDT by Fiji Hill
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To: Freeport

We could try to sell it, but we might have to give it a discounted sail price


37 posted on 07/29/2015 8:25:45 AM PDT by chajin ("There is no other name under heaven given among people by which we must be saved." Acts 4:12)
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To: Tijeras_Slim

Prinz Eugen survived two blast, and was drug back to Kwajalein Atoll, where it finally turned turtle and rested. I hope to go see it one day.

At that point it had been renamed USS Prinz Eugen.


38 posted on 07/29/2015 8:26:16 AM PDT by Conan the Librarian (The Best in Life is to crush my enemies, see them driven before me, and the Dewey Decimal System)
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To: katana

That’s right. FDR recalled Joe Kennedy as the Ambassador to the Court of St. James because he was too sympathetic to the Nazis.


39 posted on 07/29/2015 8:26:20 AM PDT by laplata ( Liberals/Progressives have diseased minds.)
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To: GingisK

That was my first thought process


40 posted on 07/29/2015 8:26:35 AM PDT by knarf (I say things that are true ... I have no proof ... but they're true.)
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