J.R. Tolkien is a gaff-topsail schooner of Netherlands registry used for passenger cruises on the Baltic Sea and elsewhere in European waters.

Originally named Dierkow, the vessel was built in 1964 as a seagoing diesel-electric tug at the Edgar-André-Werft in Magdeburg, East Germany.

As a tug Dierkow was employed in freight transportation under East German registry from the Baltic port of Rostock.

[6] In 1994 Dierkow was acquired by the Van der Rest family for conversion to a topsail schooner with auxiliary propulsion for passenger cruising.

Undergoing conversion at Rotterdam between 1995 and 1998, the craft was placed in Netherlands registry at Amsterdam and was renamed J.R. Tolkien in honor of the British author J.R.R.