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 ...
What’s the big deal? It’s not like it’s flying a Confederate flag or something.
Because we have it????maybe...???
it is a legitimate war prize. watch the left try to get rid of it now.
Fly a Confederate flag from it and then build a wall around it to keep the illegals out.
The Eagle is a prize of war. She wasn’t captured on the high seas & boarded like the U-505, but get this:
There hasn’t been a peep out of postwar Germany about the Eagle, but they have a standing demand that they want the U-505 returned to Germany even though it was captured in combat (first “Away all boarders!” command by a U.S. captain since the War of 1812).
When the U-505 was being restored at the Chicago Museum of Science & Industry, German suppliers who had originally fitted her out assisted in the restoration while protesting, “That’s our U-Boat and we want it back but we’ll at least fit her out properly so you thieving Amis can see what real German workmanship is like!!”
Why does North Korea still have The Pueblo?
No, the ship itself was not a NAZI. Who built it is totally immaterial. It is a vessel in the service of our Nation at the Coast Guard Academy. This is the same stupid stuff as the Confederate flag flap.
By the way, The United States took German Type 21 submarines into our fleet after WWII. They were the best subs we ever had until the nuclear fleet emerged.
My heart sank when I saw what they did to that vessel at the museum. They cut mammoth holes in it to make it a walk-in exhibit. If you want to see a submarine, go through the hatch like God intended.
I can't get over this! Do you think that an inanimate object actually adopted NAZI political views?
Insanity runs deep in the United States.
1959 was the best year of my life.
I had not yet been conceived.
She’s beautiful!
It’s still a NAZI SHIP.
Don’t be a
You realize that
Now that’s a
You sure can
There is no
And everybody on board is SO SCREWED!!!
We are not
This can be
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