The Mircea is a three masted barque

Barque

A barque, barc, or bark is a type of sailing vessel with three or more masts.- History of the term :The word barque appears to have come from the Greek word baris, a term for an Egyptian boat. This entered Latin as barca, which gave rise to the Italian barca, Spanish barco, and the French barge and...

, built in 1938 in Hamburg

Hamburg

-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...

 by the Blohm & Voss shipyard as a training vessel for the Romanian Navy

Romanian Naval Forces

The Romanian Navy is the navy branch of the Romanian Armed Forces; it operates in the Black Sea and on the Danube.-History:-Development of the Romanian Navy:The Romanian Navy has been founded in 1860 as a river flotilla on the Danube...

. Her design is based on the successful plans of the Gorch Fock

Gorch Fock (1933)

The Gorch Fock I is a German three-mast barque, the first of a series built as school ships for the German Reichsmarine in 1933. She was taken as war reparations by the USSR after World War II and renamed Tovarishch...

; the last of a series of four sister ships. The ship is named after the Wallachian Prince Mircea the Elder

Mircea I of Wallachia

Mircea the Elder was ruler of Wallachia from 1386 until his death. The byname "elder" was given to him after his death in order to distinguish him from his grandson Mircea II...

. After World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 she was temporarily taken over by the USSR

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

, but later returned to Romania. In 1966, she was overhauled by Blohm & Voss.

The Romanian Navy had an older ship with the same name which was operational from 1882 to 1944.

Specifications

• Rump length: 73,7 m
• Overall length: 82,1 m
• Width: 12 m
• Height: 42 m
• Depth: 5,2 m
• Sail surface: 1800 m² (23 sails)
• Crew: 210
• Speed: 10 knots (approximately 19 km/h)
• Engine: 809 kW (diesel)

Sister ships

• Gorch Fock I
  Gorch Fock (1933)
  The Gorch Fock I is a German three-mast barque, the first of a series built as school ships for the German Reichsmarine in 1933. She was taken as war reparations by the USSR after World War II and renamed Tovarishch...
  
  (1933, ex Tovarishch (1951 to 2003))
• USCGC Eagle
  USCGC Eagle (WIX-327)
  The is a barque used as a training cutter for future officers of the United States Coast Guard. She is one of only two active commissioned sailing vessels in American military service, the other being the USS Constitution....
  
   (1936, ex Horst Wessel)
• NRP Sagres III (1937, ex Albert Leo Schlageter)
• Herbert Norkus (begun 1939, unfinished)
• Gorch Fock II
  Gorch Fock (1958)
  The Gorch Fock is a tall ship of the German Navy . She is the second ship of that name and a sister ship of the Gorch Fock built in 1933. Both ships are named in honor of the German writer Johann Kinau who wrote under the pseudonym "Gorch Fock" and died in the battle of Jutland/Skagerrak in 1916...
  
  (1958)

External links

Home page of Mircea at the Naval Academy in Constanța, Romania