The NRP ''Sagres'' is a tall ship and school ship of the

Portuguese Navy The Portuguese Navy ( pt, Marinha Portuguesa, also known as ''Marinha de Guerra Portuguesa'' or as ''Armada Portuguesa'') is the naval branch of the Portuguese Armed Forces which, in cooperation and integrated with the other branches of the Port ...

since 1961. As the third ship with this name in the Portuguese Navy, she is sometimes referred to as ''Sagres III''.

Design and specifications

The ship is a steel-built three masted

barque A barque, barc, or bark is a type of sailing vessel with three or more masts having the fore- and mainmasts rigged square and only the mizzen (the aftmost mast) rigged fore and aft. Sometimes, the mizzen is only partly fore-and-aft rigged, b ...

, with square sails on the fore and main masts and

gaff Gaff may refer to: Ankle-worn devices * Spurs in variations of cockfighting * Climbing spikes used to ascend wood poles, such as utility poles Arts and entertainment * A character in the ''Blade Runner'' film franchise * Penny gaff, a 19th- ...

rigging on the

mizzen The mast of a sailing vessel is a tall spar, or arrangement of spars, erected more or less vertically on the centre-line of a ship or boat. Its purposes include carrying sails, spars, and derricks, and giving necessary height to a navigation l ...

mast. Her main mast rises above the deck. She carries 22 sails totaling about and can reach a top speed of under sail. She has a sparred length of , a width of , a draught of , and a displacement at full load of .

Ship history

The three-masted ship was launched under the name ''Albert Leo Schlageter'' on 30 October 1937 at Blohm & Voss in

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for

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

's '' Kriegsmarine''. The ship was named after Albert Leo Schlageter, who was executed in 1923 by French forces occupying the Ruhr area. Her first commander was Bernhard Rogge. ''Sagres'' is a sister ship of the ''Gorch Fock'', the ''Horst Wessel'', and the Romanian training vessel ''Mircea''. Another sister, ''Herbert Norkus'', was not completed, while ''Gorch Fock II'' was built in 1958 by the Germans to replace the ships lost after the war. Following a number of international training voyages, the ship was used as a stationary office ship after the outbreak of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

and was only put into ocean-going service again in 1944 in the

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden and the North and Central European Plain. The sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and ...

. On 14 November 1944 she hit a

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...

mine off

Sassnitz Sassnitz (, before 1993 in german: Saßnitz) is a town on the Jasmund peninsula, Rügen Island, in the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. The population as of 2012 was 9,498. Sassnitz is a well-known seaside resort and port town, a ...

and had to be towed to port in Swinemünde. Eventually transferred to Flensburg, she was taken over there by the Allies when the war ended and finally confiscated by the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

. In 1948, the U.S. sold her to

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

for a symbolic price of $5,000 USD. She was towed to

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a ...

where she sailed as a school ship for the Brazilian Navy under the name ''Guanabara''. In 1961, Ambassador Teotónio Pereira of

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

, who was also a man of the sea, loved sailing ships, and had been an organizer of the first Tall Ships’ Race, persevered in his mediations and the Portuguese Navy bought the ''Guanabara'' to replace the previous school ship ''Sagres'' (which was transferred to

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, where she is a museum ship under her original name ''

Rickmer Rickmers ''Rickmer Rickmers'' is a sailing ship (three masted barque) permanently moored as a museum ship in Hamburg, near the ''Cap San Diego''. Rickmer Clasen Rickmers, (1807–1886) was a Bremerhaven shipbuilder and Willi Rickmer Rickmers, (18 ...

''). The

renamed ''Guanabara'' as ''Sagres'' (the third ship of that name), where she remains in service to this day. In 2010, the ship performed her longest voyage, a round the world trip performing an approximate total of 35000 miles, under the command of CMG Pedro Proença Mendes. The ship left Lisbon on 19 January and returned on 24 December, having participated in Velas Sudamerica 2010, a historic

Latin America Latin America or * french: Amérique Latine, link=no * ht, Amerik Latin, link=no * pt, América Latina, link=no, name=a, sometimes referred to as LatAm is a large cultural region in the Americas where Romance languages — languages derived f ...

n tour by eleven tall ships to celebrate the bicentennial of the first national governments of Argentina and

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

. She also took part in the Expo Shanghai, among other events during that year. The ship has sailed under the

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

flag since 1962. For that reason, in 2012 there were major commemorations of her 75th anniversary and 50 years in the service of the Portuguese navy.

Sister ships

* ''Gorch Fock'' (ex-''Tovarishch'') * USCGC ''Eagle'' (ex-''Horst Wessel'') *'' Herbert Norkus'', never completed * ''Mircea'', Romanian sail training ship * ''Gorch Fock II''

Gallery

File:Portuguese tallship NRP Sagres.png, Line art of the ''Sagres'' File:NRP Sagres 1.jpeg, ''Sagres'' during Harborfest '82 File:Sagres II Opsail 2000 Crop.JPG, The ''Sagres'' at OpSail 2000 File:Sagres-MDQ.jpg, ''Sagres'' at dock in Mar del Plata,

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

, February 2010 File:Embarque del NRP Sagres.jpg, Decorative buoy, ''Sagres'' File:Buque 515 construido por "Blohm & Voss". NRP SAGRES. Portugal.jpg, ''Sagres''' builders' plaque File:Visita al Buque Escuela NRP Sagres de La Armada Portuguesa en Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (14280935517).jpg, ''Sagres'', view from aboard

References

External links