COMMANDER Gordon McGowan, cast in the role of master of a three-masted bark by order of the U.S. Coast Guard, found himself short on square rigged sailing knowledge and long on re-fitting problems when faced with transforming a battered German prize of war, the Horst Wessel, into a well-found Coast Guard training ship, the Eagle. The period was the end of the Second World War; the place was bomb-shattered Bremerhaven. In the SKIPPER AND THE EAGLE you’ll meet “Doc,” a dentist with a burning ambition to remove an appendix at sea; “Ducky,” an internationally known ocean racing yachtsman, now a naval officer dividing up ships of the German navy among the Allies. There’s a decidedly practical, if unorthodox, British Naval officer who assigns German seamen to Cmdr. McGowan in his search for men to augment his short-handed and inexperienced crew of graduates from boot camp. Cmdr. McGowan (now Capt. Rtd) was the only Coast Guard officer in Germany, a fact which gave rise to a series of amusing episodes. Furthermore, he had been brought up in steam vessels, and his knowledge of sailing ships left much to be desired. In fact, he feels that knowledgeable sailors should read this book if only to feel vastly superior to the author! He has a fully developed sense of humor and a talent for understatement which makes his book delightful reading. When the Eagle was finally made ready for sea, she took off through the mine fields of the North Sea and English Channel. Then under sail, to Funchal, Madeira, where the skipper had his first harrowing experience with rigid protocol. The Eagle enjoyed a long downhill run with the Trade Winds to Bermuda. On the voyage from Bermuda to New York the Eagle was caught in a full-fledged hurricane and the description of this ranks near the top of sea-going literature. The SKIPPER AND THE EAGLE is hearty fare for all with a love of the sea, ships, and the men who sail them. There isn’t a dull page in it.

How a U.S. Coast Guard officer sailed a German prize of war, a three masted bark, across the Atlantic through trade winds and a hurricane.

 As a boy growing up in New York City, Kevin P. Gilheany had two dreams: to join the Coast Guard, and to play the bagpipes. But by the time he finished high school he was overweight, had a drinking problem, and couldn’t swim. Undeterred by the doubts of the folks at home, he decided to enlist in the Coast Guard anyway. With great determination, and some divine intervention, he passed the swim test and graduated from boot camp, thus beginning an eventful and diverse twenty-year career in the 1980s and 1990s Coast Guard. He set a goal for himself to get command of his own patrol boat, and along the way he was involved in capturing drug smugglers, rescuing hundreds of Haitian migrants at sea, recovering Space Shuttle Challenger debris, surviving a “hooligan navy” experience on a Coast Guard workboat, coordinating search and rescue during the famed “Perfect Storm,” and leading armed boardings of ships following the terrorist attacks of 9/11. When he was asked by one of his men, who was dying from brain cancer, to play bagpipes at his retirement ceremony, Kevin started down a new path to have bagpipers officially recognized as part of the Coast Guard. This ultimately led a boy who couldn’t swim to fulfill both of his childhood dreams and leave a lasting legacy by founding the U.S. Coast Guard Pipe Band.

A great sea story of fathomless evil and moral redemption tells how a Nazi ship was reborn as the proud U.S. Coast Guard "Eagle." Line illustrations & photos throughout.