The D. Fernando II e Glória Frigate is the last sailing warship of the Portuguese Navy and the last ship that undertook the 'Carreira da Índia' (India Run), a military route that for more than 3 centuries connected Portugal with that ancient colony. She was also the last tall ship to be built at the royal shipyard of Daman (State of India) where she was launched in 1843 and then towed to Goa to be fitted out as a full-rigged ship.

The ship was named D. Fernando II e Glória in honour of Ferdinand Georg August of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, husband of Queen Maria II of Portugal, and of the Queen herself, whose name was Maria da Glória.

Between 1865 and 1938, anchored in the Tagus, it functioned as the Naval Artillery School.

In 1947, the ship became the headquarters of a welfare institution that received many teenagers and young boys, mostly orphans and from underprivileged classes, who received education and seamanship training so that they could later work in the Navy, fisheries navy or merchant navy.

In 1963, when she was still being used for this purpose, D. Fernando II e Glória suffered a major fire that destroyed most of her, remaining half submerged in the River Tagus until 1992, when there was a decision to promote the recovery and restoration of the ship, a project considered by the government to be of cultural interest and that, framed in the Patronage Law, was immediately sponsored by many companies and institutions.

The hull was reconstructed at the Ria Marine shipyard, in Aveiro. In 1997, she returned to Lisbon and the restoration works were completed at Arsenal do Alfeite, where she was fitted out to serve as a museum ship. In April 1998, she was handed over to the Navy as an Auxiliary Unit and opened to the public at EXPO 98.