New London — The second tall ship to visit the city this week sailed into Fort Trumbull State Park on Thursday.

The Coast Guard barque Eagle, which is two months into its summer training schedule, has returned for a brief stop to its longtime home.

Eagle's homeport has temporarily shifted from New London to the Coast Guard yard facility in Baltimore while the ship undergoes extensive maintenance, or a face-lift as the crew calls it, to extend its service life.

The ship's homeport is expected to shift back to New London in 2018.

The Eagle is here to pick up the first group of Coast Guard Academy cadets, who will train on the ship for about a month. The second group of cadets will be picked up in London, England, to start their monthlong training.

A group of officer candidates previously were training on the ship for a two-week period in March.

Three different groups of "swabs," or new academy students, also will train on the Eagle.

The training enables cadets and officer candidates to practice navigation and engineering, and put to use much of what they've learned in the classroom.

Upper class trainees, who perform service duties usually handled by junior officers, help to lead underclass trainees, who fill crew positions.

Six officers and 55 enlisted personnel make up Eagle's permanent crew and are in charge of maintaining the ship year round.

The crew also serves as mentors and points of knowledge for the trainees.

Eagle's arrival comes on the heels of the Mexican tall ship ARM Cuauhtémoc, which is used to train cadets of the Mexican naval academy.

Cuauhtémoc is scheduled to leave New London at 10 a.m. Friday to continue its cadet training cruise. 

It next heads to Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Eagle is not offering public tours while in New London, and will depart on Saturday for Dublin, Ireland.

The ship will make port stops in Madeira, Portugal, and Hamilton, Bermuda, among other places, and will return to New London Aug. 12-15.

j.bergman@theday.com