Yugoslav gunboat Beli Orao

Beli Orao

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	Alba then Zagabria
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	Biokovo then Jadranka
Acquired	Post-World War II
Fate	Scrapped after 1978
General characteristics
Displacement	567 t (558 long tons) 660–661 t (650–651 long tons) (full load)
Length	60.08 m (197 ft 1 in) (pp) 60.45–65 m (198 ft 4 in – 213 ft 3 in) (oa)
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	2 × diesel engines 2 × shafts
Speed	18.5 knots (34.3 km/h; 21.3 mph)
Complement	Unknown
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.