Mercator

Built in 1932 to the order of the Belgian government by Ramage & Ferguson Ltd. of Leith in Scotland as a sail training ship for Belgian merchant navy officers.

She was originally rigged as a topsail schooner, but grounded and was damaged on the voyage to Ostend and re-rigged as a barquentine in France.

She made long voyages: to Easter Island in 1934/35, on the Amazon in 1936 and to the West Indies and South America in 1940. Because of the Second World War she remained in West Africa and was used for hydrographic work. In January 1943, in the Belgian Congo, she was handed to the British Navy and used as a depot ship for submarines at Freetown in Sierra Leone; she was returned to Belgium in 1948 and given a general overhaul by 1951.

The Association Maritime Belge operated her as a sail training ship until 1961, when she was laid up; since 1963 she has been a museum ship at Ostend, sometimes making short trips under engine to towns along the Channel coast. She is a Belgian national memorial and hosts an exhibition about the history of Belgian sail training ships and life on board.