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 ...
The Pine Tree Riot of 1772 NH was over pine trees used for masts.
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.
Gee, I didn’t know ships could adopt political ideologies.
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
Because we kicked their ass.
That’s right. And my Dad was one of the victors. CBI Theater of War.
Because we took it from their cold dead fingers, and it is ours now.
Its war booty. The implication that somehow its “tainted” because the Germany Navy built it before WWII is just stupid.
Not that she's so active, but I thought the USS Constitution was still on the rolls.
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.
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.
Wow. That took me on a little excursion. Thanks.
Same reason we used Werner von Braun to go to the Moon.
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.
You don't Spend 1 Trillion (in 1940's Dollars) and sacrifice 500,000 Men and Not Get something material out of it.
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.
We could try to sell it, but we might have to give it a discounted sail price
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.
That’s right. FDR recalled Joe Kennedy as the Ambassador to the Court of St. James because he was too sympathetic to the Nazis.
That was my first thought process
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