An impressive new sight along Front Street drew admiring glances from Bermudians and visitors alike when the US Coast Guard Cutter arrived in the wake of the Newport-Bermuda Race yachts.

The tall ship once belonged to the Germans but was taken by the Americans at the end of the Second World War as reparations. Since then it has been used as a seagoing classroom for future officers in the US Coast Guard.

With news that Princess Anne was coming to the Island to take part in the celebrations for the 100th Newport-Bermuda yacht race, US Consul General Gregory Slayton arranged for the to arrive to be part of the event and to host a reception for the Royal visitor.

Docked alongside Terminal One on Front Street and her masts reaching 147 feet into the air the proved to be an eye-catching addition for locals and visitors. But what use could the world?s superpower still have for such an outdated vessel?

Capt. Eric Shaw said: ?I liked my last ship which had a helicopter pad and these really great toys. But this... this is phenomenal.?

He explained that using engines to power across the sea ?might get you from A to B, but it?s like cheating. With this ship you have to earn every mile you make.?

And that is why it is so useful for cadets to learn the ways of the ocean and the winds. Being able to feel the effect of different elements of nature and how to counteract them or use them to greatest advantage with simple technology is what being onboard the is all about.

It is a testing ground. He said: ?This ship is manual ? 1,000 horsepower ? if you can do something here then you can do it anywhere. You learn that you can?t do it without the sea and the wind.?

Living in close quarters with other crew members and having to work as a team to achieve the desired outcome of steering and maintaining the ship is another training advantage of the ?all hands on deck? set-up.

And it is a testing ground for upcoming officers to take charge of junior cadets and make the orders and decisions to run the ship in calm and stormy weathers.

Although primarily a training vessel the does get involved in genuine assignments, one of the more amusing occasions came last August as she was preparing to sail from Tenerife in the Canary Islands off North West Africa.

A distress flare was spotted and the went to the rescue discovering a small boat filled with 100 West African migrants.

The ship offered assistance ? including handing out bottles of Scottish mineral water it had collected during its previous duty as a ?water station? for the Edinburgh Marathon in Scotland.

This explained a later garbled message from the Spanish authorities on Tenerife about the ?Scottish Africans? arriving safely on shore. The played host to Princess Anne last Sunday before she left the Island.