PENSACOLA, Fla., May 18, 2026—The U.S. Coast Guard’s tall ship, the USCGC Eagle, will visit Pensacola Memorial Day weekend.

The ship will be open to the public free of charge May 23 from 1-4 p.m. and May 24 from 10 a.m.-7 p.m. at Plaza de Luna at the end of Palafox Street.

The 295-foot three-masted sailing ship is the flagship of the U.S. Coast Guard. It serves as a training vessel for cadets at the U.S Coast Guard Academy and candidates from the Officer Candidate School, according to the academy’s website.

The Eagle, known as “America’s Tall Ship” and the largest ship flying the American flag, is the only active-duty sailing vessel in the U.S. military and one of only two commissioned sailing vessels. The Navy’s USS Constitution is the other one.

According to the Eagle website, its primary mission is training and every cadet will spend a minimum of six weeks on board.

The Eagle was built in Germany in 1936 as a training vessel and was one of three sail-training ships operated by Germany prior to World War II. After the war, the ship was taken to the United States as a war reparation and re-commissioned in 1946 as the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Eagle.

Facts and Figures

• Length: 295 ft. (roughly equivalent to a football field)
• Number of sails: 23
• Sail area: 22,227 square feet
• Tallest mast: 150 feet (roughly equivalent to a 15-story building)
• Length of rigging: 6 miles
• Working crew: 55
• Maximum people capacity: 239
• Weight: 1,655 tons (EAGLE’s hull and decks are made of steel)
• Speed under sail: 17 knots (20 mph)
• Speed under power: 10 knots (11 mph)
• Gallons of fuel oil: 24,215
• Weight of anchors: 3,860 lbs.