Welcome Aboard The CG Barque Eagle
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Click on chart for Eagle's current position
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450 miles southeast of Greenland
53o35.2'N 38o03.6'W
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Underway on board Barque Eagle in the North Atlantic.
Crew and Cadets come together as training continues.
All photos are credited: U.S. Coast Guard photograph by Petty Officer Second Class Andrea Rask.
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May 21, 2005
The Coast Guard Barque Eagle, homeported in New London, Conn.
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Captain's Log by 1/c Eric Majeska for Capt. E. J. Shaw
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With three days at sea under their belts, Eagle's cadets and crew are getting back into the daily routine of the Barque. The day away from port, the decks after hours were seen nearly deserted as those not on watch spent their free time in their racks, recovering from their adventures in St. John's. Now the decks are seen busy as usual with cadets playing guitar, working out, or just reading and relaxing on the waist. The seas have subsided and sunshine shines through the cracks in the clouds warming those below on the decks.
A safety stand-down was held on Friday to go over safety issues and concerns following last week's injuries. Cadets and crew discussed anything that they saw on the ship that they felt could be made safer. Everyone is a little more careful and wary, with a new found respect for the dangers of the sea after the events that occurred before St. John's. Like sirens, the waters call to us with their beauty, making it too easy to forget the chilling cold danger that surrounds our floating refuge for miles in every direction.
But many morale events are on the way, and while Saturday nights on the Barque are quite different from those on land, cadets still become restless and excited as the weekend arrives. Saturday night is cadre pizza night, where the 1/c will cook pizza for the 3/c and crew. Loud music and crazy outfits usually follow when the 1/c run these events. Friday at 4 a.m., Eagle passed the longitude of where the Titanic sank. Some of the cadets felt this was a good point to retire their old collar devices to the sea. On Sunday, the movie "Titanic" will be shown for the crew and root beer "iceberg" floats will be served. Karaoke night is also approaching next Wednesday.
The winds have not been favorable for Eagle. With the wind coming from the direction to which we want to go, no sails have been set since leaving St. John's. The Captain and Bos'n were seen this morning doing a wind dance, as the current winds are the opposite of what the Northwesterly winds of the North Atlantic should be doing.
With a lack of sail stations, the Eagle cadets and crew have been performing a variety of drills in the past few days. Cadets are assigned to jobs with a crew member so they can experience what it is like to be part of the repair team. Cadets participated in the first steering casualty drill on Friday. When main steering goes out, this must be recognized and then the helmsman the switches to aft (or backup) steering on the fantail. 3/c Harms communicated with 3/c O'Brien on the aft helm until Petty Officer 1st Class Hennessy could discover the pretend problem. A sigh of relief came from the members involved in the drill when 3/c Harms announced in the end "I have the helm."
The weekend is here with holiday routine to come on Sunday. Cadets and crew will have some down-time to prepare for another strenuous but exciting week ahead. Less than two weeks till Germany, cadets fall asleep with dreams of Apfel-streutals and Black Forest Cakes that await at the end of the long crossing of the great Atlantic.
21 May 05 by 3/c Katherine M. Ustler
(L to R) 3/c Harms, England, and Kirking work out during their spare time on the waste to keep in shape for the autumn football season.
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So...there I was, sitting in the Captain's cabin learning about sail history, Eagle's origin, and of course the proper sea story telling etiquette. The stories were interesting, however, it was hard to concentrate due to the lack of sleep and the sea starting to take effect on my stomach. I was relieved when I got back out to the waist, but I did miss the warmth of the cabin. I never expected to spend my summer bundled to the point where movement is almost impossible. Even at night you can look around and see people sleeping with every layer still on them only to wake up and find more coats and foul weather gear to throw on. Despite the coldness, the whale sighting and stories from the crew have been worthwhile!
21 May 05 by 3/c Eric A. Laurel
3/c Fallon stands the four-hour watch as helmsman.
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Two weeks until Germany. I no longer feel like death. The first few days underway, with the medication or not, I always think about how much I would like a land billet, but then with the sun out and calm seas like yesterday afternoon, then I think it's not so bad. This summer is a lot more work than the leisurely one-week cruise post swab summer, with getting all of our sign offs and quals done. It's also a different feel with classmates I still barely know that I'm working along with, but it's cool to finally meet them. Some nights when there isn't much to do my mind drifts to thoughts of home and how I wouldn't mind a day in the sun with my friends back home in Oregon. My mom is on a trip with my friends in Europe. I hope she is having fun. I'm getting out of shape, it's hard to work out when you stand an early watch and all your body wants to do is sleep instead of ride the stationary bike and try to balance and jump rope on the waist. I hope we set sails soon. Prom is tonight back home. I still can't believe I'm a year into the Academy. My hands are numb so that's enough for this journal. Two weeks until Germany.
21 May 05 by 3/c Tenor A. Galambush
Yesterday we had watch on deck for four hours. Our job was to lend a hand if any of the sails needed to be shifted, but we were under power all day so there was not much for us to do. We sat on the deck for a couple of hours playing the cute little word games from family road trips. When that got old we went around the decks and recoiled some of the lines to make them pretty and keep them off the deck. That was quick work and seven of us knocked it out in no time. So two of my division members polished brass for the next hour. There is always brass to polish.
Photo: Seaman Holly Cordero chips paint with a needle gun.
20 May 05 by Lt. Jonathan Stehn, Medical Officer
(L to R) 3/c Andrews and Fang draw the CO2 system to better learn how the onboard fire-fighting systems work.
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Underway on board the Eagle in the North Atlantic for training. This is the second time I have been able to be aboard the Eagle as the medical officer in the last two years. It truly feels like I am dreaming. Who gets to cross the Atlantic under square sails anymore?
Unfortunately, due to a contrary wind, there hasn't been any sailing since we left St. John's. All the cadets and crew continue to work on learning new things or fine tuning the old. There are so many elements of seamanship that are common to power and sail, and the benefits of hours with the deck moving under your feet cannot be quantified.
We are more than 500 nautical miles northeast of Newfoundland and 500 miles south of Greenland. It is a long way to anywhere, and it makes me think of my training and experience, especially considering what we just went through.
Auxilarist Jim Stachelek works with boatswain's mate second class Karl Messner on chart corrections.
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I've been thinking about how what you learn and experience leads you to make choices in life that can lead to unexpected things. How the experience of saving those in trouble on the sea led to me to become a boatswain's mate, then the experience of seeing some lives lost lead to training to be an EMT. How five years of being an EMT blossomed into a desire to go further in my study of medicine and my eventual application to physician's assistant (PA) school. I thought about how I compared the experiences of being an EMT in remote Alaska, to the stories of the Army PAs that I met, and how it led me to request to train with the Army for my clinical year. I remembered seeing the possible parallels between Army deployments and deploying on a ship and went into that year desiring to learn to be more self-sufficient, or field expedient, and the Army docs were happy to oblige. I have been thinking about how the combat casualty care course, run by the Army at Camp Bullis, taught me to be systematic in my care of the patients so that I could do well--despite what seemed to be an overwhelming load of injured and lack of equipment. Most of all I have been thinking about how all that training and experience paid for itself in just a few hours last Friday.
Commander Graves (USN), the prospective commanding officer of the USS Constitution, climbs the rigging to get experience going aloaft.
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So it all goes back to training, and somewhat to experience, and that is why we are out here. We are preparing the men and women on board this ship to be the future of the Coast Guard. Not just the cadets, but the crew as well. We are trying to impart to them as many skills, and some of the lessons learned, as they are able to absorb in five short weeks.
Seaman Kevin Hampton splices some line in the boatswain's hole.
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We are also learning about ourselves. I am certain that the experience that some of the crew went through while they helped me care for their shipmates has affirmed their desire to go on to additional training. One wants to be a health service technician and eventually a PA, another to return to nursing school that was not taken seriously at a younger age. I am certain that the cadets, most of whom have never been through a similar experience, have a new found respect for themselves for going through that weather and learning that they have the strength to thrive in it.
For all of us, it has reminded us of the power of the human spirit, friendship and the Coast Guard core values of honor, respect and devotion to duty; human spirit as displayed by our shipmates who laid there injured, and still cracked jokes; the friendship of all their classmates who came to visit them both on the ship and at the hospital; honor and respect as the entire crew stood in lines and cheered in support of their shipmates as they were carried to the ambulances; the devotion to duty of those who continued to stand the watch, to navigate their shipmates to safety, and then to be by their sides in the hospital 24 hours a day. All of this is true, without regard to rank, rate or grade.
I finish this thinking of the shipmates who have gone back to Academy to continue their recoveries. I hope they all have fair winds and a following sea for their speedy recovery.
Seaman Kevin Hampton splices some line in the boatswain's hole.
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3/c DeCarol Davis' drawing of the CO2 system.
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Damage controlman third class Nicholas Arco instructs 3/c Meredith Tate on how the fire main system works on the ship.
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