USCG Barque Eagle was tearing from Victoria toward Port Angeles at 11 knots. That’s about 14 miles per hour in land terms, which just doesn’t capture the sense of speed on the sea.

The 60-by-30-foot American flag was beating in the wind, and being beaten up by the winds. It was time to replace the large national ensign with a smaller version.

The question: How to transfer it from the flag halyard attached to the mizzen boom, onto the deck and into safe storage in a good wind with respect and reverence?

And in the middle of the first race of the Tall Ships Challenge?

Eagle does not have 60 feet of unobstructed deck space.
It does, however, have the crucial resource
Bos’n Keith Raisch identified.

“Throw a lot of people at it,” he said.

The flag came down like a sail. Unlike a sail, it did not touch the deck. Instead, 18- and 19-year-old cadets gathered it up and toted it to the waist of the ship. Then they tried to sort it out.

Some held on to the edges. Some stood under it to keep it off the deck. Some worked on a plan.

They adjusted the jumble of fabric until they had the blue field of stars at one end and the stripes bundled at the other.
They negotiated the folds, backing under the deck to make room, until they could begin folding the stripes, triangle by triangle, until it was a perfect form of white stars on blue.

All told, it took them about half an hour to fold the ensign, and ace what might as well have been an exercise in a leadership course.