SY "Dar Pomorza" as The Flying Dutchman

Picture taken early morning when the myst covered Gdynia

SY "Dar Pomorza" (Gift of Pomerania), called the White Frigate, has been associated with Gdynia since 1929. She was built in 1909 in the Blohm & Voss shipyard in Hamburg as a training ship for the German merchant maritime school. After her launch on 18 September 1909 the ship was named "Prinzess Eitel Friedrich" and set off for her virgin cruise to Christiansand and Antwerp. When Germany lost the First World War the ship was taken over by the French, who brought her to the port in Saint Nazaire. In 1926 she was renamed "Colbert" and was to replace the French school sailing boat "Richelieu". The plan was however never fulfilled. A year later the ship’s new owner was Baron de Foreste, who intended to transform her into an ocean sailing boat, but this idea also remained nothing more than a plan.

In 1929 the ship was bought from the funds raised at the public collection by the Pomeranian National Fleet Committee for the amount of 7,000 pounds sterling. It was to replace the worn school barge "Lwów". Then the frigate was renamed again "Dar Pomorza" (Gift of Pomerania) to commemorate the generosity of the local community. In June 1930 the ship was for the first time anchored in the roadstead in Gdynia, and on 13 June the bishop St. Okoniewski blessed the ship and her flag.

The frigate was given to the State Maritime School in Gdynia and became the second (after the "Lwów") cradle of Polish navigators. Within her 51 years in the school "Dar Pomorza" took 102 school cruises, covering half a million sea miles. 13 384 students of the Maritime School were trained on her decks.

On 4 August 1982 the "Dar Pomorza" was formally removed from school operations, and at the same time a flag was raised on her successor "Dar Młodzieży" (the Gift of the Youth), designed and built in Gdańsk.

On 16 November 1982 "Dar Pomorza" was given to National Maritime Museum in Gdańsk.

Taken from en.nmm.pl/dar-pomorza/history-...