N. R. P. SAGRES, THE PORTUGUESE NAVAL SHIP by P. Cruz, Vasco da Gama

The Sail training ship “Sagres” was built in 1937 in the shipyard of Blohm & Voss, Hamburg, having then received the name of “Albert Leo Schlageter”. She was the 3rd of a series of four ships built by the German Navy comprising “Horst Vessel”(now Eagle of the US Coast Guard), “Gorch Fock” (now Tovarisch Ukaraine) and another sister-ship, “Mircea”, was also built expressly for the Romanian Navy.

Damaged during the World War II, “Albert Leo Schlageter” was captured in 1945 in Bremenhavenby the American Forcesand handed over to Brazil in 1948.

In 1962 portugal purchased the ship from Brazil in order to substitute the old sail training ship “Sagres”. Also this one was a formerly German ship named “Rickmer Rickmers”, that had been captured by Portugal during World War I in the Port of Horta, Azores, and incorporated in the Portuguese Navy as training ship in 1924. This explains why sometimes the present sail training ship “Sagres” is erroneously called “Sagres II”, especially abroad. Infact, she is the 3rd training ship of the Portuguese Navy bearing the name “ Sagres II”. The first on was a wooden full rigged ship built in England in 1858, used from 1882 to 1898 as training ship based on the river Douro, near Oporto.

The sail training ship Sagres was incorporated in the Portuguese Navy on 8th Feb 1962, on a special ceremony at Rio de Janerio. She sailed from Brazil on April 25th and arrived in Lisbon on June 23rd. The main purpose of maintaining a sail training ship in the Portuguese Navy was the sea training of cadets as a compliment of the technical and academic studies received at the naval academy.

NRP Sagres the Portuguese Naval Ship in Go

Since 1962, the Sagres has sailed every year on training Cruises. She stopped only in 1987 and 1991 due to modernization work. In fact, in 1991 the original engine was replaced by a new one and a fresh water maker was installed on board. This, together with the installation of the air-conditioning system in 1993, greatly contributed to the improvement of the condition of life on board.

Beside the training cruises Sagres is used abroad as itinerant Ambassador of Portugal and representative of the Portuguese Navy. Fulfilling her duties, the training ship Sagres has halt at 113 Ports in 45 countries, in several cruises, some for 8 months and longer, and has already carried out to world circumnavigations in 1978-1979 and 1983-1984.

Prince Henry, the figurehead of the Sagres, was the third son of the king Joao I. He was the great stimulator of the Portuguese discoveries. In the beginning of the Portuguese expansion in northern Africa he was besides his father, the king, on the conquest of Ceuta in 1415. It was during his life that Portugal consolidated its Atlantic option, which was already shown in the treaty with England in1373. In the Southwest end of Portugal, has since ancient times been considered as a geographical reference related to a great mythical charge. The Romans called Promontorium Sacrum.

We know the interest of Prince Henry for this place due to a document dated from 1443, on which he asked for the permission to build a village there. The reason for this village was probably the great Evolution of the discoveries after 1441. More important however was probably that the Prince Henry had about the Navigation problem of the Algarve coast (Southern Portugal), the link between the Mediterranean Sea and the north of Europe.

When the strong summer north winds hindered the ship sailing North from reaching the west coast of Portugal, they usually called at the natural shelter that is the inlet of Sagres.

On the other hand, under East winds (levante), very common in the area, the ship could not stay at the bay of Lagos and looked for shelter at the inlet of Belize, between cape of Sagres and Capes San Vincente, where they would stay until the weather conditions and allowed them to proceed to cross Gibraltar Strait.

This way, the Sagres promoted the exchange of knowledge and experiences between the seamen and, at the same time, was nearer fro the North Africa, from Madera Island and the African west coast to be found. Nevertheless, Sagres, although competing with Lagos and Cadiz, never imposed itself.

The main reason lays in the lack of water and productive soil to sustain a numerous population and important technical and financial means to carry on the project. This was evidence by the fact that several voyages, promoted by Prince Henry to African Coast set sail from Lagos. It was during this trips that the seamen could learn and recognize the characteristic of the winds and the currents, improve methods of navigations (estimated and celestial), to find out the position of the ship at the sea, and understand the way to built up the sea that led them through rough seas in the Atlantic in such cases as exploring the coast, improving the living on board and transporting new and more merchandised.

All this activity, undertaken with enormous perseverance and resolution, led to the well know “School of Sagres”. Therefore, the best way to honor the seamen, that were, simultaneously, master and pupils, was to give the name Sagres to the sail training ship of the Portuguese navy. One can never forget that Sagres represents the toughness in the search for nautical and geographical knowledge and the determination to succeed on the proposed goal.

(For Video clip of the Ship click
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPnXCnQjxcg&feature=recentlik 
courtesy JoeUkGoa)