Michigan priest serves as chaplain on Coast Guard ship leading America 250 parade

[Episcopal News Service] The U.S. Coast Guard’s Eagle cutter will lead an international fleet of tall and gray hull ships as they sail into New York harbor and salute the Statue of Liberty on July 4, in celebration of the United States’ 250th anniversary and Independence Day.

Among the officers, crew and cadets who are celebrating on the 295-foot Eagle is the Rev. Sue Carter, an Episcopal priest based in the Diocese of Michigan. This is her second year serving as auxiliary chaplain on the Eagle.

“I’m looking forward to being alongside the cadets,” Carter, associate priest at St. Katherine’s Episcopal Church in Williamston, told Episcopal News Service before setting sail on the Eagle last month.

As chaplain, Carter holds worship services on the Eagle and is available for counseling and pastoral care whenever anyone on board needs it.

“They tell me that I’m their ‘nana’ on board,” she said. “Some also affectionately like to call me ‘Chaps.’”

Tall ships are large, traditionally rigged sailing vessels. They are categorized into four classes, A-D, based on length and other criteria. The Eagle, known as “America’s Tall Ship,” is one of the United States’ two active commissioned tall ships.

Commissioned and built in 1936, the three-masted barque Eagle was initially owned and operated by Nazi Germany as the Horst Wessel – named after the Sturmabteilung paramilitary member whose murder made him into a martyr for the Nazi Party. After World War II ended in 1945, the United States assumed ownership of the Horst Wessel as a war reparation. In May 1946, the ship was recommissioned as the Eagle.

Today, the Eagle, a Class A vessel, is used for training Coast Guard cadets and officer candidates. The ship also occasionally serves a public relations role for the Coast Guard and the United States, like for this year’s 250th anniversary celebrations.

“Every summer, the Coast Guard Academy’s sophomore class, or third class, divides into two phases and spends one phase training on the Eagle for a few weeks and another phase doing field work. Those who are part of the Eagle phase in July will have a particularly special time because they will be a part of the Independence Day festivities in New York City on this significant anniversary,” Carter said. “That’s an experience that can’t be replicated.”

The weeklong celebration will begin on July 3 with Class B tall ships sailing down the East River from Hell Gate Bridge to Gravesend Bay in Brooklyn, followed by a military history boat tour that will highlight strategic uses of New York harbor from the Revolutionary War through today.

The July 4 parade route includes sailing up the Hudson River from the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge, passing the Statue of Liberty, to the George Washington Bridge.

After the parade, some of the participating tall ships will berth in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Staten Island and New Jersey, and will open for free public tours through July 7. One of those ships is Italy’s Amerigo Vespucci, which is named for the explorer and navigator for whom America is named.

The celebration will culminate with the “Five Sisters Cup,” a regatta, or race, between the Eagle and three of its four identical sister ships: Portugal’s Sagres, Romania’s Mircea and Germany’s Gorch Fock. They will race from New York to Boston, Massachusetts. They last raced in 1976 for the United States’ bicentennial celebrations, which resulted in a Gorch Fock victory.

“It’s all fascinating history,” Carter said. “People will be pumped because a lot of us remember when the tall ships did the same parade and race for the 200th anniversary celebrations.”

After the festivities end in Boston, the Eagle will sail to Portland, Maine, where Carter will disembark. 

Even though she’s looking forward to witnessing this celebration as a chaplain aboard the Eagle, Carter said she’s most looking forward to watching the cadets gain confidence operating the ship over the coming weeks.

“Their skills and their confidence just grow immensely during that time period,” Carter, who was a journalism professor at Michigan State University in East Lansing for 28 years, said. 

Carter and the cadets won’t stay on the Eagle the entire time. On July 5, for example, some will join her in attending a festive worship service at St. Thomas Church on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, celebrating the United States’ 250th anniversary. The Rt. Rev. Ann Ritonia, The Episcopal Church’s bishop suffragan for Armed Forces and Federal Ministries, will preach.

Earlier this year, Ritonia reminded Carter and other Armed Forces and Federal Ministries chaplains during an in-person gathering why their roles are necessary. 

“As chaplains, we’re there for [cadets and active service members] in any capacity at any time, whether it’s a typical year or a special commemorative year like this one,” Carter said.

-Shireen Korkzan is a reporter and assistant editor for Episcopal News Service. She can be reached at skorkzan@episcopalchurch.org.