NRP Sagres - The Portuguese Naval School Ship

The NRP Sagres is a lengthy school ship that has been serving the Portuguese Navy since 1961. As the third ship with this name in the Portuguese Navy, it is sometimes referred to as Sagres III.

The ship is a steel-built three masted barque, with square sails on the fore and main masts and gaff rigging on the mizzen mast. Its main mast rises 42 m above the deck. It carries 22 sails totaling about 2,000 m² (21,000 ft²) and can reach a top speed of 17 knots (31 km/h) under sail. It has a sparred length of 89 m (295 ft), a width of 12 m (40 ft), a draught of 5.2 m (17 ft), and a displacement at full load of 1,755 tons.

The three-masted ship was launched under the name Albert Leo Schlageter on 30 October 1937 at Blohm & Voss in Hamburg for Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine.

On 14 November 1944 this vessel hit a Soviet mine off Sassnitz and had to be towed to port in Swinemünde. Eventually, it was transferred to Flensburg where it was taken over by the Allies. By the end of the war it had finally been confiscated by the United States.

In 1948, the U.S. sold her to Brazil for a symbolic price of $5,000 USD. It was towed to Rio de Janeiro where it sailed as a school ship for the Brazilian Navy under the name Guanabara. In 1961, the Portuguese Navy bought the three-masted ship to replace the previous school ship Sagres (which was transferred to Hamburg, where it is a museum ship under its original name Rickmer Rickmers). The Portuguese navy renamed it Sagres (the third ship of the same name), and it continues to serve the Portuguese Navy till this day.

The ship has sailed under the Portuguese flag since 1962. In 2012 the ship celebrated its 75th anniversary and 50 years in the service of the Portuguese navy.