The Europa is a steel-hulled barque registered in the Netherlands. Originally it was a German lightship, named Senator Brockes and built in 1911 at the H.C. Stülcken & Sohn shipyard in Hamburg, Germany. Until 1977, it was in use by the German Federal Coast Guard as a lightship on the river Elbe. A Dutchman bought the vessel (or what was left of her) in 1985 and in 1994 she was fully restored as a barque, a three-mast rigged vessel, and retrofitted for special-purpose sail-training.