Lynner returns to historic Coast Guard cutter 65 years later

LYNN – For retired Coast Guard veteran Daniel Eugene Carmody, boarding the historic U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Eagle Saturday will be as exciting as the day he first stepped on board more than 65 years ago as a member of its first American crew.?It?s not about me, it?s about the ship,” said Carmody, who served with the Lynn Fire Department for 31 years, including 10 with his son, Fire Chief Dennis Carmody. “But this is a thrill.”Dennis and Daniel Carmody will be on board together when the Eagle sails into Boston on Saturday as part of the city?s week-long bicentennial celebration of the War of 1812.?Every time the Eagle comes in, he makes the effort to go see it,” said Dennis Carmody Tuesday. “It was one of the high points of his life.”The Eagle, a 295-foot tall ship, was handed over to the U.S. by Germany as a prize of war and commissioned into the Coast Guard in May 1946.A month later, Daniel Carmody, now 83, boarded the ship as a member of the Eagle?s first American crew.They were there to “bring her home,” he said.The original German captain and 60 German crew members remained on board during the journey as prisoners.Carmody, who was 17 at the time, and his fellow crew members weren?t sure the ship could make the 47-day voyage to New York when they first saw it in Germany, surrounded by bombed-out warehouses.But after Carmody and a few other crew members worked to clean and repair the engine, it did sail and even weathered a hurricane during the trip.?At the time we thought it was just a bad storm,” he said. “We lost nine sails (out of 27).”The effort to reunite Daniel Carmody once again with the ship began a few months ago.Dennis Carmody emailed the captain of the ship and inquired about an opportunity for his father to come aboard the 75-year-old ship as a guest of honor, and the captain obliged without hesitation and invited the fire chief along too.Daniel Carmody?s wife, Lillian Carmody, recalled visiting the ship with her husband, and watching him light up as the sails came into view.?He could tell it was the Eagle just by looking at the sails. All he has to say is ?I was on the first crew,? and we go in front of everybody in line,” Lillian Carmody said of the visits.The Eagle is still commissioned, and is primarily used as a training vessel for cadets in the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, Daniel Carmody said.?It?s quite a thing now,” he said. “They?ve got everything on it, radar and sonar. We had nothing but a radio.”Dennis Carmody remembers watching dolphins nip at the hull of the ship with his fellow sailors.?At 17, I probably didn?t enjoy the things I should have, but I was amazed with the ship,” he said.Taylor Provost can be reached at [email protected].