In June 1996, the U.S. Coast Guard training bark Eagle retraced her roots and reacquainted herself with some of her first German crew members.
Across the Elbe River and visible through the Eagle's rigging are the cranes of the Blohm and Voss shipyard, where the ship was launched 60 years ago. The yard and the city of Hamburg welcomed the ship and her crew, as former crew members of the sailing vessel once christened Horst Wessel came on board and reminisced. Friedrich Mettje, 83, brought a hat ribbon he had kept from his service on her for more than a half-century.