New London — The Coast Guard barque Eagle is scheduled to host free public tours this weekend at City Pier.

Tours are scheduled to be offered Friday from noon to 5 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.

At 295 feet long, Eagle is the largest tall ship flying the stars and stripes, and the only active square-rigger in U.S. government service, the Coast Guard Academy said in a release announcing the tours. Eagle was constructed in 1936 in Hamburg, Germany, and originally was commissioned as the Horst Wessel by the German Navy. The U.S. took Eagle as a war reparation following World War II.

With more than 22,300 square feet of sail and six miles of rigging, Eagle has served as an afloat classroom to would-be Coast Guard officers since 1946, the academy said. A permanent crew of eight officers and 50 enlisted personnel maintain the ship and train up to 150 cadets at a time in the skills of navigation, damage control, engineering and deck seamanship.