 Beli Orao at Trieste, Italy, after being completed
| |
| History | |
|---|---|
 Kingdom of Yugoslavia | |
| Name | Beli Orao |
| Namesake | The double-headed white eagle on the Yugoslav coat of arms |
| Builder | Cantieri Riuniti dell'Adriatico in Trieste |
| Laid down | 23 December 1938 |
| Launched | 3 June 1939 |
| Commissioned | 29 October 1939 |
| Out of service | April 1941 |
| Fate | Captured by Italy |
 Italy | |
| Name |
|
| Acquired | April 1941 |
| Out of service | September 1943 |
| Fate | Returned to Yugoslavia in December 1943 |
| Kingdom of Yugoslavia | |
| Name | Beli Orao |
| Acquired | December 1943 |
| Fate | Transferred to Yugoslav Navy post-war |
 Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia | |
| Name |
|
| Acquired | Post-World War II |
| Fate | Scrapped after 1978 |
| General characteristics | |
| Displacement | |
| Length | |
| Beam | 7.95–8.08 m (26 ft 1 in – 26 ft 6 in) |
| Draught | 2.8–2.84 m (9 ft 2 in – 9 ft 4 in) |
| Installed power | 1,900 bhp (1,400 kW) or 2,200 bhp (1,600 kW) |
| Propulsion |
|
| Speed | 18.5 knots (34.3 km/h; 21.3 mph) |
| Complement | Unknown |
| Armament |
|
Beli Orao (Serbo-Croatian for 'White Eagle') was a royal yacht built in 1938–39 for the Yugoslav Royal Navy, which intended her to serve as a patrol boat, escort, or guard ship in wartime. Upon completion, she was pressed into service as the admiralty yacht – used by senior admirals for transport and to review fleet exercises. She was captured in April 1941 by the Italians during the World War II Axis invasion of Yugoslavia. The Regia Marina (Italian Royal Navy) replaced her guns and used her as a gunboat for harbour protection and coastal escort duties, briefly as Alba then Zagabria. She was then used to train anti-submarine warfare specialists from the naval base at La Spezia.
After the Italian armistice with the Allies in September 1943, Zagabria escaped capture by the Germans and was returned to the Yugoslav Royal Navy-in-exile in December that year. Refitted, and under her original name of Beli Orao, she became a tender for a flotilla of motor gunboats that had been loaned to the Yugoslav Royal Navy-in-exile by the British Royal Navy. In this role she operated out of the British Crown Colony of Malta, and in the Tyrrhenian Sea off the western coast of Italy, and later in the Adriatic Sea off the Yugoslav coast. After the war she remained in Yugoslav hands under the names Biokovo then Jadranka, serving as a naval yacht and as a presidential yacht for the President of Yugoslavia Josip Broz Tito, and also as a dispatch boat. In 1978, she was still in service as a yacht, but was scrapped soon after.