Even today the ship is renowned as a sailing residency of the Yugoslav president Josip Broz Tito. From March 1953, when he set sail for his first visit to Great Britain, Tito made 14 voyages with the “Galeb”, visiting 18 countries on three continents – Europe, Asia and Africa. During these visits the ship hosted many statesmen, like Britain’s prime minister Winston Churchill, king Paul and queen Frederica of Greece, Ethiopian regent Haile Selassie and king Hassan II of Morocco, as well as many presidents of Non-Aligned countries, Gamal Abdel Nasser, Jawaharlal Nehru, Ahmed Sukarno, general Abboud, Kwame Nkrumah, Habib Bourguiba, Sirimavo Bandaranaike, U Nu, Ne Win, Modibo Keita, Sekou Toure, archbishop Makarios, and also Nikita Khrushchev, premier of the Soviet Union.
The historical significance of the ship “Galeb“ extends to international level as on its deck the non-aligned movement was born. Further to statesmen, the ship Galeb hosted many internationally renowned scientists, artists and highly ranked military officials. The Tito’s last voyage with this ship was in 1979.
On 10 October 2006, the Ministry of Culture declared the ship “Galeb” cultural heritage.
In 2009, the City of Rijeka became the owner of the cultural heritage “Galeb”.
Since June 2017 the ship Galeb has been included in the project titled “Touristic valorisation of the prominent monuments of Rijeka industrial heritage“ in favour of which through invitations to tender published by the Ministry of Regional Development and EU Funds the amount of HRK 68,891,606.18 has been awarded as a grant under the European Regional Development Fund. Within the mentioned project the administrative building of the former Sugar Refinery will be renewed, and both locations will become an integral part of the Rijeka Civic Museum.
The Dalmont shipyard from Kraljevica, earlier named after Tito, was awarded a contract for the reconstruction of the ship Galeb. The City of Rijeka signed the contract with Dalmont towards the end of November 2019, and at the beginning of December, the ship Galeb was towed to Kraljevica where it is awaiting reconstruction, with a 14-month envisaged deadline. The total value of the works amounts to HRK 58,572,773.64 (VAT included). The planned completion of the works, including its equipment and accommodation of the Rijeka Civic Museum is expected at the beginning of 2022.