Yugoslav gunboat Beli Orao

Beli Orao
Beli Orao at Trieste, Italy, after being completed
History
Kingdom of Yugoslavia
NameBeli Orao
NamesakeThe double-headed white eagle on the Yugoslav coat of arms
BuilderCantieri Riuniti dell'Adriatico in Trieste
Laid down23 December 1938
Launched3 June 1939
Commissioned29 October 1939
Out of serviceApril 1941
FateCaptured by Italy
Italy
Name
  • Alba then
  • Zagabria
AcquiredApril 1941
Out of serviceSeptember 1943
FateReturned to Yugoslavia in December 1943
Kingdom of Yugoslavia
NameBeli Orao
AcquiredDecember 1943
FateTransferred to Yugoslav Navy post-war
Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia
Name
  • Biokovo then
  • Jadranka
AcquiredPost-World War II
FateScrapped after 1978
General characteristics
Displacement
Length
  • 60.08 m (197 ft 1 in) (pp)
  • 60.45–65 m (198 ft 4 in – 213 ft 3 in) (oa)
Beam7.95–8.08 m (26 ft 1 in – 26 ft 6 in)
Draught2.8–2.84 m (9 ft 2 in – 9 ft 4 in)
Installed power1,900 bhp (1,400 kW) or 2,200 bhp (1,600 kW)
Propulsion
  • 2 × diesel engines
  • 2 × shafts
Speed18.5 knots (34.3 km/h; 21.3 mph)
ComplementUnknown
Armament
  • 2 × 40 mm (1.6 in) guns
  • 2 × machine guns

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.