SPECIAL Informat.ro / The Mircea Ship and the Trophy of the 5 Sisters: how a Romanian training ship carried the tricolor flag in the heart of the American celebration

The ship "Mircea" left Constanța on April 16, paraded on July 4 on the Hudson River, navigated 60 nautical miles in the Trophy of the 5 Sisters, and entered Boston Harbor on the night of July 9 to 10. The award ceremony will take place between July 11-16, as part of Sail Boston. This is the fourth transatlantic voyage in the ship's history and the most ambitious in recent decades.

On April 16, 2026, the ship Mircea raised anchor from the military port of Constanța and set sail westward. On board were 188 crew members, including 75 Romanian cadets and 19 foreign students from ten partner countries. Final destination: Boston. Mission: to represent Romania at the SAIL250 event, organized to mark 250 years since the adoption of the American Declaration of Independence.

The fourth transatlantic voyage of the ship took place on a route of approximately 14,000 nautical miles, over 150 days, with stops in 15 ports in Europe, America, and Africa, including five American cities: Miami, Norfolk, Baltimore, New York, and Boston. On July 4, the ship Mircea paraded on the Hudson River alongside the Statue of Liberty, together with tall ships from 20 countries. And on the night of July 9 to 10, after a course of 60 nautical miles, it entered Boston Harbor, completing the Trophy of the 5 Sisters.

Trophy of the 5 Sisters: 60 nautical miles after midnight

The Trophy of the 5 Sisters brought together four crews, Mircea (Romania), Eagle (USA), Sagres (Portugal), and Gorch Fock (Germany), on a route of approximately 60 nautical miles, navigated between New York and Boston.

The post published this morning on the official Facebook page of the ship "Mircea", co-signed with the Romanian Naval Forces, describes the end of the competition: "After a course full of emotions, held on a route of approximately 60 nautical miles, the sister ships crossed the finish line after midnight, marking the end of a competition in which teamwork, maritime spirit, and emotions accompanied the sailors of the four crews throughout the crossing."

The winner has not been publicly announced. The organizers of SAIL250 chose to keep the suspense until the official award ceremony, which will take place in Boston Harbor between July 11-16, as part of the Sail Boston event. The official statement of the ship concludes with a single sentence: "Until then, the suspense remains on board!"

A family of ships with roots at Blohm & Voss

The four ships that competed in the Trophy of the 5 Sisters are not sisters just by metaphor. Eagle, Sagres, Gorch Fock, and Mircea are part of a real family of training tall ships built according to the same original design, coming from the Blohm & Voss shipyards in Hamburg in the 1930s.

The first ship of the series, Gorch Fock, was launched in water in 1933. The project proved so successful that the shipyard immediately produced four more similar ships. Mircea is the only one among these that is an exact replica of the original Gorch Fock, the others, Horst Wessel (the future Eagle) and Albert Leo Schlageter (the future Sagres) are seven meters longer and have somewhat more powerful auxiliary engines.

Eagle was launched in 1936 under the name Horst Wessel, with its home port in Kiel. At the end of World War II, it was ceded to the United States as war reparations, sailed from Germany to its new home port in New London, Connecticut, with a German crew and American sailors on board, and entered service with the U.S. Coast Guard under the name Eagle.

Sagres was launched in 1937 under the name Albert Leo Schlageter. Confiscated by the U.S. after the war, it was sold to Brazil, where it sailed as a training ship under the name Guanabara. In 1961, the Portuguese Navy bought it to replace an older training ship and named it Sagres, the same name it carries today. Sagres completed a circumnavigation of the globe on December 24, 2010, and is still sailing today.

Gorch Fock, the ship competing today in the Trophy of the 5 Sisters, is the second ship with this name. Germany lost all its training ships as war reparations, and in 1957 the Federal Navy decided to build a new training tall ship based on the original plans. The second Gorch Fock was launched in water on August 23, 1958, and is still in service today.

Mircea is the only ship in this series that has always sailed under the same flag — the Romanian one. With one exception: a short period after World War II, when it was confiscated by the Soviet Union. It returned to the Romanian navy, was refurbished at the Blohm & Voss shipyards in Hamburg in 1966, at the same shipyard that built it, and has been sailing uninterrupted until now. It is the only one from the original series that is an exact replica of the first Gorch Fock.

That these four ships, built at the same shipyard, according to the same design, have come to sail under the flags of four different nations, Romania, the USA, Portugal, and Germany, and now have reunited over 60 nautical miles at sea, is one of the most beautiful coincidences that naval history has produced in the 20th and 21st centuries.

July 4: the Romanian brig alongside the Statue of Liberty

Before the regatta, the ship Mircea experienced the central moment of the entire mission: the Independence Day parade. On July 4, 2026, the ship paraded on the Hudson River, alongside the Statue of Liberty, as part of the International Tall Ship Parade held in New York and New Jersey, alongside ships from another 20 countries.

Euronews Romania headlined: "The ship Mircea paraded alongside the Statue of Liberty at the parade organized for Independence Day." Digi24 noted that the ship anchored in Sandy Hook Bay on the morning of Friday, joining the "impressive group of tall ships arriving from around the world to participate in SAIL250 New York."

Friday evening, July 4, also brought an unexpected test: a strong atmospheric front generated gusts of wind over 80 km/h in a few minutes, putting all the anchored ships to the test. Mircea passed the test, the anchoring maneuver was redone, and the next day the parade took place as planned.

Built in 1938 at Blohm & Voss, refurbished at the same shipyard in 1966, the ship is named after the voivode Mircea the Elder and has trained generations of naval officers over nearly 90 years of uninterrupted service. The voyage in 2026 is the fourth transatlantic in the ship's history and the most complex in terms of route: 14,000 nautical miles, 150 days, 15 ports.

Sail Boston July 11-16: the award ceremony and the last American days

The ship Mircea is now in Boston Harbor, where it will remain until July 16. Sail Boston, the fifth and final stage of the SAIL250 tour, takes place between July 11-16 and brings to the city's harbor more than 50 tall ships from 21 countries, with free public access. The event includes naval parades, open programs on board the ships, and, most importantly for Mircea, the award ceremony for the Trophy of the 5 Sisters.

The winner of the regatta will be announced during this ceremony. Until then, as the official crew said, the suspense remains on board. On July 16, Mircea will raise anchor from Boston and begin the return journey to Constanța, where it will arrive in September.

*****Summary made with the help of a data monitoring flow provided by the media monitoring platform NewsVibe Romania. The analysis, data, and images presented have been enhanced with the help of Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence tools.