She is one of only two active commissioned sailing vessels in the United States military today, along with USS Constitution which is ported in Boston Harbor.

The primary mission is training the cadets and officer candidates, but the ship also performs a public relations role for the Coast Guard and the United States.

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.

Shortly after work began on Horst Wessel, the Blohm & Voss shipyard laid the keel of the German battleship Bismarck, which was labeled Schiff 509.

(Mircea was also built in 1937 for the Romanian Navy, and work began on a fifth ship called Herbert Norkus, but was stopped with the outbreak of war.)

Later that year, Horst Wessel and Albert Leo Schlageter undertook a four-month voyage to the Caribbean and visited St. Thomas and Venezuela.

Horst Wessel took Albert Leo Schlageter in a stern tow to keep her from running aground until larger ships could arrive the next day to assist.

[18] Sail training during these early years of the Coast Guard Academy is remarkably similar to the program on board Eagle today.

An 1886 contemporary described the training experience on board Salmon P. Chase as such: [A cadet] has a taste of the sternest and most trying obligations at the threshold of his undertaking, which results in a pretty thorough test of his metal [sic], and if any one is actually unfit for the sea, physical or otherwise, the fact is at once brought to the surface, and gives him an opportunity to turn back at the beginning of a career in which he would not be likely to succeed.

The cadets are arranged into watches, and in this capacity they are under the instruction of the officer of the deck, and are required to write up the remarks in the rough log, to observe carefully the making and taking in of all sail, to study the various evolutions of the vessel, transmitting and giving commands when directed, and, after reaching a certain degree of proficiency, they are exercised in charge of the deck, and in working ship in the important operations of tacking and wearing.

Knotting, splicing, making mats, and learning the nomenclature of the different parts of the hull and spars, and the names and uses of ropes and sails, are among the first lessons in seamanship, and during periods of calm weather the rigging is reset and rattled down.

The cadets are given constant practice in raising shears, stepping masts, reefing, furling, and shifting sails, and in sending up and down yards.

The cadets are trained in the working of all classes of broadside and pivot guns, and are familiarized with the duties and stations of officers of divisions; they are taught the construction of magazines, the uses of fuses and projectiles, and the nature and properties of power and combustibles; are stationed at fire quarters and at the boats, and in case of an alarm at sea are required to act promptly in the discharge of their several duties.

[20] The current schedule also includes two 2-3 week voyages in the Spring and Fall with the semiannual Coast Guard Officer Candidate School classes.

They take classes on numerous subjects that are key to life at sea, including navigation, seamanship, ship and boat maneuvering, line handling, sailing, first aid, weather patterns, damage control, engineering, career development, and more.

They also stand watches in the engine room, on the bridge, on deck, in the scullery and galley, and during port calls, they assist the public by giving tours.

[24] In March 1998 Eagle trained her first and only class of future Coast Guard enlisted members, taking on the boot camp company November-152.

[citation needed] In 1972, at the request of the West German government, Eagle returned to Germany for the first time since 1946 and visited the port of Kiel where she had formerly moored on numerous occasions as Horst Wessel.

As the deck watch prepared to go aloft to furl sail, Eagle was hit by a squall with 70 knots (130 km/h) winds, forcing her into a 45-50 degree heel.

[30] At the personal invitation of Australian Prime Minister Robert Hawke, in September 1987, Eagle undertook a yearlong deployment to Australia from her home at the Coast Guard Academy.

In 2005, as part of the Trafalgar 200 International Fleet Review in the Solent off southern England celebrating the 200 year anniversary of Admiral Horatio Nelson's victory at the Battle of Trafalgar, Eagle was one of a number of tall ships from several nations to be reviewed by Queen Elizabeth II, along with the U.S. Navy warship USS Saipan.

In 2010 she participated in Velas Sudamerica 2010, a historical Latin American tour by eleven tall ships to celebrate the bicentennial of the first national governments of Argentina and Chile.

After 32 hours of calm waters, the wind freshened and then began to blow, and Eagle won the race in a dramatic fashion.

During the 1980s, under Captain David Wood, the split spanker was returned as it afforded reduced weather helm and allowed the helmsman to turn away (or 'fall off') from the wind more easily.

[38] On 1 July 1972, the ship was returning to her berth at the Coast Guard Academy in New London at the midpoint of her annual summer cadet training deployment when she was involved in another serious accident.

The Electric Boat facility in Groton, Connecticut was able to repair the masts in time for Eagle's planned deployment to Europe; she set sail just three and a half weeks later on 24 July.

The goal of this maintenance overhaul was for the ship to remain safe and viable as the Coast Guard's premier training vessel well into the 21st century.

Turdo oversaw Eagle and her valuable diplomatic and training mission during the COVID-19 pandemic, limiting cruise opportunities and ports of call.

Horst Wessel's first commander, German VADM August Thiele would go on to earn the Knight's Cross for his command of Kampfgruppe V.[34] Eagle has a significant presence in the Nantucket series of books by S. M. Stirling, in which she is visiting the island of Nantucket when a mysterious "Event" transports the entire island, including Eagle and her crew, back in time from 17 March 1998 to the year 1250 BC.

Sent across the Atlantic Ocean to barter for the grain and livestock the time-lost Nantucketers need to survive through their first winter, her arrival off the south coast of Bronze Age England leads the natives to name her crew (and, by extension, the rest of the Island's population) as 'The Eagle People'.