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Welcome Aboard The CG Barque Eagle

Click on chart for Eagle's current position

Moored at Pier 17

St. John's, Newfoundland

The Barque Eagle is moored in St. John's, Newfoundland after completing the first transit leg the cruise. Unfortunately four ambulances met the Barque Eagle upon arrival.

All photos are credited: U.S. Coast Guard photograph by Petty Officer Second Class Andrea Rask.

May 17, 2005

The Coast Guard Barque Eagle, homeported in New London, Conn.

17 May 05 2005

Captain's Log - Capt. E. J. Shaw

As I say when I speak over our general announcing system, the 1MC, This is the Captain speaking: We've had a pretty eventful first transit leg this summer. See our 14 May entry concerning the upper topsail yard. Friday morning, 13 May, we were motorsailng under our three topmast staysails on track for a Monday arrival to St. John's. The seas were a little lumpy, 11 feet, and the winds were fresh out of the northwest at 29 knots. This placed EAGLE close to being in the trough of the waves, meaning we were wallowing a little as we headed almost parallel to them. Just before our morning muster on deck, EAGLE took a big roll to starboard. We had about ten cadets sitting on a bench on the port side of the ship's waist, the middle deck of the ship. The cadets were standing duty as our watch on deck. When the roll occurred, they were thrown off the bench and into one of the two lifelines we had stretched across the waist in case this happened. All ten grabbed for it at the same time; it parted at its bulkhead fitting, and the cadets continued to tumble down into the lee waterway. When they hit the starboard bulkhead, EAGLE shipped water over that rail, rolled to port, and the cadets were washed back. The bridge piped "Corpsman to the waist!" and when I arrived our medical officer, Lt. Stehn, our two corpsmen, HS1 Anderson and HS2 Morgan, were already on scene and examining our cadets. The stretcher bearer teams arrived shortly after. Four cadets were down on the deck. Lt. Stehn and his teams stabilized all the cadets, placing them each in neck braces and back boards as a precaution. Our executive officer, Cmdr. Marcille coordinated the support for the medical teams and the cadets while I monitored our bridge and communications activities. Once our medical officer determined they were ready for transport, crew members carefully brought our cadets to the wardroom which had been rapidly converted to a larger sick bay.

Not yet knowing how badly the cadets were injured, we called to our Atlantic Area headquarters to ready for a helicopter medevac. (Having a medical officer onboard who is also an aviation medical officer makes that communication far more efficient, by the way.) In the wardroom as the cadets warmed up and our medical team more thoroughly reviewed their conditions, we were able to determine that all the cadets were in good enough condition to remain on board rather than attempt an at-sea helicopter transfer which naturally carries its own set of risks.

The next question was, where to take the cadets. Our determining factors were how fast could we get our cadets to the best care possible. I consulted the U.S. Navy Atlantic Meteorological Center in Norfolk, VA by a radio-telephone patch through our Coast Guard CAMSLANT telecommunications center in Chesapeake, VA. We had researched and considered three possible ports to head for. There were Halifax, Nova Scotia; Port Hawkesbury on the eastern tip of Nova Scotia; and St. John's, Newfoundland. Port Hawkesbury was the closest, but it was dead up wind and up sea, making our speed of advance the slowest to it. We were also only able to establish that Port Hawkesbury had the minimum care we'd need for our cadets. The next closest port was Halifax with good medical facilities, but the weather was predicted to go sour and remain so for our transit. The weather experts said the best weather and our fastest course for port was to continue to St. John's. St. John's also has a teaching Hospital affiliated with Memorial University, the Health Sciences Center. We brought the engine to flank speed and estimated we could arrive by in St. John's late the next day, Saturday or early Sunday morning. With the medical staff ministering, a constant flow of cadet classmates and crew visiting and keeping spirits up, plus a string of movies for entertainment, our injured cadets were kept as comfortable as possible for the trip. We also placed into operation our Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM) Team--four of our crew members specially trained to help military members deal with the emotional after-effects of a stress-inducing situation. Lt. Fleming, operations officer, revised our trackline reducing the overall mileage. The engineers stood watch on the main diesel engine as it shouldered down and drove us on.

We arrived in St. John's a little after sunset Saturday night, two days early. Four ambulances awaited our arrival along with a contingent of Canadian Armed Forces. Our cadets were taken one at a time down our brow but not after first running a gauntlet of cheering crew and cadets, each getting three cheers and a hip-hip hooray. We had our medical officer, one of our corpsmen, and two of our EMT-qualified crew members stay with our cadets throughout the night as they were examined and run through tests.

By Sunday morning, I was allowed to visit all our cadets. They were in good spirits and we had a better picture as to their injuries. Two of the cadets were never officially admitted and I got to take them back to the ship. The cadet we knew had a knee injury had, in fact, a broken knee cap. After our examinations, those of the ambulance paramedics and of the attending, physicians we were all surprised when X-rays also found he had a collapsed lung. They placed a chest tube and his lung is operating normally. Our cadre member had a cracked pelvis. The course of treatment is careful exercise and she was admitted so that nurses could monitor her beginnings down that road. Last night she was doing stairs under their supervision. A fourth class cadet we thought had a hip or pelvis injury apparently didn't, but was admitted for pain management and further testing. Our cadet we knew had injured ankles did have one sprained ankle and a break in the first foot bone below the other ankle. She was one of the two released to me, but she'll probably need follow up care by an Orthopedist, and possible surgery in the U.S. The other cadet who got to go back to the ship on Sunday was one who cracked her cheek. She has one big shiner, but is doing very well.

Sunday afternoon we rotated our EAGLE watch at the hospital and I got to visit again all the cadets except our cadet who was being prepped for knee surgery. He came out with flying colors and the surgical team even allowed one of our corpsmen, HS2 Morgan, to stay in the operating theater with him.

Yesterday morning was another round of visits and the reception of parents who flew in. I did get to see our knee patient and he is doing remarkably well. In the afternoon all of our cadets were treated with a visit from the First Coast Guard District Commander, RADM David Pekoske and our U.S. Counsel General for this region of Canada, Mr. Leonard Hill. Both were up for an EAGLE reception and went straight from the airport to the hospital to see the members of 2006 and 2008 there.We're now in the process of determining who will be able to sail with us and making transportation arrangements for those cadets who will need to return to the Coast Guard Academy for follow-on treatment. We'll have Coast Guard personnel with our cadets here in Canada until they all are back in the United States. Until they return to the U.S. I am very relieved to have seen absolutely the kindest, most caring, and incredibly talented medical staff at the Health Sciences Center that I've ever had the privilege of working with. Our cadets are in great hands and our Coast Guard is ensuring they received the best care.