USCGC Eagle (WIX-327) vintage style military canvas art by Squadron Posters!
Eagle commenced its existence in Weimar Germany and Nazi Germany as Horst Wessel, a ship of the Gorch Fock class named after the original Gorch Fock (1933), not the current German training ship Gorch Fock (1958) which is a belated replacement for the three ships lost as war reparations. Horst Wessel was an improvement on the original 1932 design. The ship was larger in dimension and its spars were all steel, unlike Gorch Fock’s wooden yards. SSS Horst Wessel began life as Schiff (“ship”) 508 at Blohm+Voss in Hamburg, Germany in 1936. Her keel was laid on 15 February, she was launched on 13 June, completed on 16 September, and commissioned on 17 September. She was the second ship in the class to be built, following the class namesake Gorch Fock. Rudolf Hess gave the speech at her launch in the presence of Adolf Hitler, and Horst Wessel’s mother christened the new ship with a bottle of champagne.[5] The name was given in tribute to SA leader Horst Wessel, who had been accorded martyr status by the Nazi Party. He also wrote the song which came to be known as “Horst-Wessel-Lied”, which was later used as the Nazi party’s anthem. Shortly after work began on Horst Wessel, the Blohm & Voss shipyard laid the keel of the German battleship Bismarck, which was labeled Schiff 509.
On 15 May 1946, she was commissioned by CDR Gordon McGowan into the United States Coast Guard as the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Eagle. In June 1946, a U.S. Coast Guard crew sailed her from Bremerhaven to Orangeburg, New York – through a hurricane – assisted by Kapitänleutnant Schnibbe and many of his crew who were still aboard. The German volunteer crew disembarked at Camp Shanks and Eagle proceeded to her new home port of New London, Connecticut. Check out this stunning USCGC Eagle (WIX-327) art by Squadron Posters!
Squadron Posters offers the world’s largest collection of Squadron Specific Art! Check out our stunning vintage style military aviation themed travel posters, honoring All Branches of Service. Our artwork not only represents aircraft, armored cavalry, or ships, it represents adventure and travel. This means we create posters featuring the Space Needle, New Orleans, the Golden Gate Bridge, Mt Rushmore and the National Mall. Of course, McChord AFB isn’t in Seattle but if you’re stationed there your adventure surely involves the Space Needle! (See our Facebook page HERE)
This is what makes Squadron Posters different–it’s about remembering where you’ve lived and what you’ve seen with a vintage themed travel poster. – Collect your travels and tell your story!








