The 295-foot Barque Eagle is the flagship of the U.S. Coast Guard. She serves as a training vessel for cadets at the Coast Guard Academy and candidates from the Officer Candidate School. The Eagle is the only active-duty sailing vessel in America's military, and one of only two commissioned sailing vessels, along with the USS Constitution. EAGLE, the largest Tall Ship flying the Stars and Stripes and the only square-rigger in U.S. government service, is the seventh U.S. Coast Guard cutter to bear the name in a proud line dating back to 1792. Built at the Blohm + Voss Shipyard in Hamburg, Germany in 1936, and commissioned as Horst Wessel, Eagle is one of three sail-training ships operated by the pre-World War II German navy. At the close of the war, the ship was taken as a war reparation by the U.S., re-commissioned as the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Eagle and sailed to New London, Connecticut, which has been its homeport ever since. Eagle has offered generations of Coast Guard Academy cadets, and more recently officer candidates, an unparalleled leadership experience at sea.

Welcome to the website of the U. S. Coast Guard Historian's Office. We are proud to serve as the gateway to the study of our service's illustrious past. The Historian's Office collects, preserves, promotes and commemorates the Coast Guard's history and heritage in all forms, including the history and heritage of each of the five predecessor agencies that make up today's Coast Guard: the Revenue Cutter Service, the Life-Saving Service, the Lighthouse Service, the Bureau of Navigation and the Steamboat Inspection Service.