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Aboard the Barque Eagle By DAMIAN MANN Gale-force winds cut across the North Atlantic as U.S. Coast Guard Cadet Creighton Helms struggled with his crewmates to stow a slippery, 20-ton yardarm. Suddenly the huge steel arm creaked and buckled, swinging back some 20 degrees from its normal position. Swells continued to roll over the teak-covered deck of the U.S. Coast Guard Barque Eagle, the tallest square-rigger in government service. With a broken yardarm, the ship could no longer use wind to push 22,000 square feet of sails for the five-day journey to the Irish Coast. "We're still baffled by how that happened," remembered Helms, of Medford. A 20-year-old graduate of South Medford High School who returned for a visit to his family recently, Helms was baptized into the U.S. Coast Guard during this recent voyage. Fortunately for Helms, the 295-foot vessel, taken from the Germans after World War II, had a backup diesel motor that kept the Eagle chugging along at about 10 knots an hour, sloshing through turbulent seas. "I got a little seasick," he remembered. "It was really hard not to." Helms, who plans to become a medical doctor, has joined up for a nine-year stint with an elite group of cadets who are going to the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, one of the top-rated schools in the country. Though the storm was ferocious, Helms said it wasn't as bad as the one depicted in the recent movie, "The Perfect Storm." Even so, Helms remembered, "The rain was coming down so hard, the radar bounced off it." During his 16 days on the open sea, the storm was not the only memory that stands out in Helms' memory. "Just as we were leaving Canada, we saw a very large and dying whale," he said. "We saw it four miles off the starboard bow." Even at that distance, the smell of the sick creature permeated the air. "It was horrible," said Helms, who remembers hundreds of birds feasting on its still-living carcass. The Coast Guard, which often checks out environmental problems, determined the whale was dying from natural causes. On calmer days, Helms and his crewmates would climb the masts to watch four or five pods of dolphins darting alongside the ship or a 15- or 16-foot tiger shark hugging the wake left by the hull. By the time the ship reached Cork, Ireland, everyone was looking forward to liberty. "In Ireland, I got to kiss the Blarney Stone," said Helms. After that, it was smooth sailing as the ship stopped at Brest, France, and, finally, at Lisbon, Portugal, thousands of miles from the point of departure at St. John's, Newfoundland. But this training, as romantic as it may sound, is just a precursor to Helms' duty patrolling the seas for drug smugglers, illegal aliens and environmental problems. "Sometimes you have to get up at 2 in the morning to rescue a stranded boat off the Boston coast," he said. "We save lives when no one else can." Drug smugglers, who often have more sophisticated equipment than the Coast Guard, are particularly dangerous in Latin America because of stiff prison sentences. "They would prefer a shoot-out rather than get caught by us," said Helms. The Coast Guard isn't for everyone. Of the 330 cadets who start out, Helms said only 180 are expected to graduate after four years. Helms' father, Larry, said both his sons decided to join the military. "We have two sons and we're proud of them both." The father said his son almost didn't make it into the Coast Guard because he had damaged his knee, but worked for more than a year to rehabilitate it. "He got special compensation and dispensation to join." Helms' mother, Rae Jean, said she doesn't worry about the often perilous occupations of her sons. "I worried more when they were in high school." As a service to parents, the Coast Guard offers a Web site that gives daily updates on the Eagle's progress across the seven seas. Helms, who will soon be going to Acapulco for weapons training, said his 16 days at sea was memorable. "Even though it was fun, everybody was anxious to get home." On the Net: www.uscg.mil/hq/eagle Reach reporter Damian Mann at 776-4476, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.