NMS Mircea

NMS Mircea is a three masted barque, built in 1938 in Hamburg by the Blohm & Voss shipyard as a training vessel for the Romanian Navy. Her design is based on the successful plans of the Gorch Fock; the last of a series of four sister ships. The ship is named after the Wallachian Prince Mircea the Elder. After World War II she was temporarily taken over by the USSR, but later returned to Romania. In 1966, she was overhauled by Blohm & Voss.

Predecessor
The Romanian Navy had an older ship with the same name which was operational from 1882 to 1944. This ship was captured from the Ottomans during the 1877-1878 Romanian War of Independence. She had a displacement of 360 tons and an engine of 160 hp, which together with her sails enabled her to reach a top speed of 12 knots. She was initially armed with four cannons, one revolving gun and two machine guns, however this was decreased to two 57 mm guns by August 1916. She was decommissioned in 1932 and preserved as memorial ship, before being sunk at Galați by Soviet bombers on 17 April 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 (1933, ex Tovarishch (1951 to 2003))
 * USCGC Eagle (1936, ex Horst Wessel)
 * NRP Sagres (1937, ex Albert Leo Schlageter)
 * Herbert Norkus (begun 1939, unfinished)
 * Gorch Fock II (1958)

Gallery

 * Mircea at Toulon, Tall Ships’ Races, 2007