D. Fernando II e Glória Frigate

The D. Fernando II e Glória was built in Damão, in the then Portuguese India, and launched in October 1823. The frigate is a grand testimony to the national maritime history. The vessel is made of teak, abundant in the Nagar-Aveli enclave, and sailed between the North Atlantic and the Indian Ocean for 33 years in the service of the Portuguese Navy. She was the last ship of the Carreira da Índia (India Run), a military route responsible for the annual maritime connection between Lisbon and Goa. Until 1938 the frigate was anchored in the Tagus River as a Naval Artillery School and subsequently welcomed the “Social Work of the Frigate D. Fernando”, an institution for underprivileged youngsters to receive instruction and seamanship training. Victim of a fire in 1963, the frigate remained stranded on the Tagus River and was restored only thirty years later by the Navy and the Government at the former Ria Marine shipyards, in Aveiro. In 1997, the frigate was re-launched at the Arsenal do Alfeite, where she received the mast and was transformed into a museum, remaining until today in a dry dock at the Largo Alfredo Diniz of Cacilhas, by the river terminal.