‘Floating history’ docks in Istanbul
ISTANBUL
Nava Scoala Mircea, one of the Romanian Navy’s oldest ships which the Turkish media outlets nicknamed “Floating history,” anchored in Istanbul’s Sarayburnu port on May 11.
Entering Istanbul Strait early in the morning, the 84-year-old three-masted vessel docked at the port with the assistance of three Turkish coastal safety vessels.
“There are only five of these ships in the world,” local officials said about the training vessel carrying Romanian cadets.
Built in 1938 in Hamburg, Germany, the ship was named after Wallachian Voivode, Mircea the Elder, who ruled Wallachia, a region in Romania, between 1386 and 1418.
After World War II, it was temporarily taken over by the USSR but later returned to Romania. The ship was modernized in works that started in 1994 and lasted for eight years.
The Romanian press sees the ship as “a true ambassador of Romania.”
