NRP Zarco

Zarco Class

NRP Zarco was designed by Dutch naval architect and designer Peter Sijm, and built in 1983 at the Jachtwerf Jongert BV shipyards in Medemblik, Netherlands, having had several owners until 2007 when it was registered in Spain with the name “Blaus VII”. On the 3rd of July of 2015, “Blaus VII” was added to the Portuguese Navy and rechristened as NRP Zarco.

COAT OF ARMS

The Câmaras family Coat of Arms was adopted, given that it was the surname adopted by João Gonçalves Zarco in 1460. Both the arms as well as the name of the family from Câmara de Lobos were granted by D. Afonso V to the knight of the house of Infant D. Henrique, who would henceforth be named João Gonçalves da Câmara (de Lobos). It was this navigator who gave the name Câmara de Lobos to the township at Madeira Island.

PATRON

João Gonçalves Zarco was a navigator and knight of the house of Infant D. Henrique. Under the Infant´s orders, he performed a reconnaissance expedition to a couple of islands located in maps, in the company of Tristão Vaz Teixeira, disembarking at Porto Santo. In the following year, 1419, along with Bartolomeu Perestrelo, they made a second expedition with the objective of settling Portuguese in the archipelago, having this time found Madeira Island. They then performed a circumnavigation voyage around the island, naming the different shoreline gradients as they went along.

CHARACTERISTICS

Displacement60 tonsLength23 metersBeam5,6 metersDraught3 meters
PropulsionMaximum speed12 knots
Crew

​​MISSION AND EMPLOYMENT

On February of 2007, within the scope of narcotrafficking combat operation “Staple”,  a joint operation with the national criminal investigation police (PJ), “Blaus VII” was boarded 100 miles from the Madeira archipelago by a team from Special Actions Detachment (DAE) deployed from the corvette NRP António Enes. 1500 Kg of cocaine were found onboard. In that same year, after establishing a cooperation protocol with the national criminal investigation police, the ship was transferred to the Naval Academy in order to be used as a cadet training sailboat, and the Portuguese Navy took the responsibility of ensuring its guard and maintenance. Beyond the Naval Academy cadets training deployments, the ship likewise performs assignments within the scope of CINAV, the Center of Naval Investigation. 

Data de Atualização: 28 de September de 2021

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