Dar Pomorza

Type

Bark

Period

20th Century

Nation

Other

Overview: Dar Pomorza is a full-rigged sailing ship, popularly called the "White Frigate" in Polish tradition even though she is rigged as a bark/full-rigger. Built in 1909 in Hamburg, she became Poland's most celebrated sail training vessel and is now a museum ship in Gdynia, one of the best-documented tall ships of the interwar and postwar era. Specifications: She was built by Blohm & Voss and measures roughly 80 m on deck (about 93 m overall) with a 12.6 m beam. She carried 1561 gross tons, an auxiliary 430 HP engine reportedly of the type used in German U-boats, and set up to 2100 square metres of sail on a full-rigged ship sail plan; her ship's horn was salvaged from the scuttled German battleship Gneisenau. Service History: Launched in 1909 as the German training ship Prinzess Eitel Friedrich, she was taken by Britain as war reparations in 1920 and passed to France, where she served the naval school at St-Nazaire as "Colbert" before briefly going to Baron de Forrest. The Polish community of Pomerania purchased her in 1929 and she entered Polish service as Dar Pomorza in 1930. Over roughly five decades she completed over a hundred training cruises, took part five times in the Tall Ships' Races, and trained over 13,000 cadets before decommissioning on 4 August 1982. Notable Facts: Dar Pomorza is celebrated for being the first ship to carry the Polish colours around the world in a single voyage (1934–35) and for winning the Cutty Sark Trophy tall ships' race in 1980. She took part in Operation Sail events including a notable 1976 appearance in the United States, and the experience gained refitting her reportedly helped Danish shipbuilders design the sail training ship Danmark. She has been a museum ship in Gdynia since 1983, berthed alongside the destroyer ORP Błyskawica and administered by the National Maritime Museum in Gdańsk.