Gdynia Maritime University GMU

On 14 March, Dar Młodzieży left port on its first voyage of the 2025 sailing.  With a group of 50 pupils on board from the Maritime Schools in Gdańsk who helped prepare the ship, the Dar Młodzieży headed to Antwerp. Taking the place of the students for the next stage of the voyage will be students from the Belgian Maritime Academy. The interns, their two tutors, and the 33 crew members on board were seen off from the port in Gdynia by HM The Rector of GMU, Professor Adam Weintrit, and the Director of the Maritime Operations Department, Captain Dariusz Jellonek.

Cooperation between Gdynia Maritime University and the Belgian Maritime Academy dates back to 2008 and continues the tradition of the two institutions' students studying together which began at the Faculty of Navigation of the University College in Southampton in 1940 where Polish and Belgium cadets shared classrooms and paraded in front of the banner of the State Maritime School in Gdynia.

In 2024, Antwerp Maritime Academy became a member of the International Association of Maritime Universities, of which I was the chair. An audit of the Academy was carried out before awarding membership by Captain Piotr Kopacz from the Faculty of Navigation of GMU. For the past 17 years, students of the Academy, Hogere Zeevaartschool Antwerpen, have undergone training on board Dar Mlodzieży, led by a Polish team whose skills the institution's authorities value highly. The White Frigate will arrive in Antwerp on 20 March. There, 104 Belgium students will take the places of the pupils from the Maritime Schools in Gdańsk and spend a month training on board, calling at the port of Ponta Delgada in the Azores – commented HM The Rector, Professor Adam Weintrit.

The ship will return to Antwerp on 18 April, where the Belgium students will disembark. Replacing them will be 120 pupils from maritime high schools in Gdańsk, Kędzierzyn-Koźle and Wrocławia. Dar Młodzieży is then scheduled to set sail for Oslo, where it will take part in celebrations for the May 3 Constitution National Holiday, organised by the Ambassador of the Republic of Poland in Oslo. Before setting off on the voyage, the ship will return to its home port in Gdynia and take part in the Hafengeburtstag - celebrations of the founding of the port of Hamburg - recognised as the biggest maritime festival in the world.

Dar Młodzieży will return to its home port of Gdynia on 18 May.