Tall Ship Eagle docks in Astoria
Tall Ship Eagle Thursday morning on its way to Astoria. Public tours last today through Sunday.
ABOARD THE TALL SHIP EAGLE -- We caught our first glimpse of the U.S. Coast Guard Barque Eagle after it crossed the Columbia River. Like a vision from the past, it rounded the sharp rock outline of the south jetty and hove into view.
Even under motor power, it cuts a fine figure. Under sail, it can speed up to 17 knots, and carries a permanent crew of six officers, 54 crews and about 150 cadets.
It's main mission is to build leadership and following skills for Coast Guard and Naval Academy cadets, a floating classroom for weeks and sometimes months on end.
and team building skills on the Tall Ship Eagle's bridge.
For Tim Steiner, a Corvallis native whose finishing up his second year at Annapolis, the 33-days he spent aboard were eye-opening.
"We went through a pretty big storm and nobody got much sleep -- you have to jam yourself into your coffin bunk,'' Steiner said. The tight quarters -- nine to a berth in Steiner's quarters -- helps cadets, future officers all, to get along in trying conditions.
They also learn to climb rigging, stand watch, take the helm, navigate, haul lines, set anchor and polish seemingly acres of brass.
At 295 feet long, with a mainmast at 147 feet, the ship was hard to miss as it steamed into Astoria Thursday for four days of public tours at the Maritime Museum.
According to the skipper, Capt. J. Christopher Sinnett, the ship is the pinnacle of sailing technology.Built in 1936 by the Germans and commissioned as the Horst Wessel, it was seized as a prize of war after German's defeat in World War II. It is the largest tall ship in the U.S. fleet, and the seventh ship to bear the name Eagle going back to 1792.
Early Thursday, family and friends of crew members and cadets and others, piled onto about four Coast Guard motor lifeboats at the Hammond Marina and ferried to the ship as it steamed into port. We transferred to the gleaming white, steel-hulled ship while it was underway; not as scary as it sounds, but not for the faint of heart.
to the ship's rudder. His dad is a crew member on the Coast Guard's ship Steadfast.
Even with nearly 300 people aboard, there was plenty of room to explore the teak wood weather decks; watch the cadets spin the triple wheel at the helm; and hear them bark navigation commands as they worked the ship upstream to Astoria.
Thursday from 2 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.; Friday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and on Saturday
and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 8:30 p.m.
