00:01The Galleon Andalusia has arrived at Liverpool's Royal Albert Dog.
00:05This unique replica of a 17th century Spanish Galleon has come to the city for the very first time
00:12and is welcoming visitors on board, offering a unique glimpse into the history of these majestic ships.
00:18The Galleons were a merchant ship that travelled from China or Indonesia to Mexico.
00:24So this was a cargo ship and today we maintain as a museum.
00:29It is similar to the vessels that we know did call into the port.
00:33There's a really early image of Liverpool in 1680 and it's got kind of vessels in the foreground
00:39and they were of a similar kind of size to this so it really is a sort of a sense of
00:44if not this vessel this kind of ship would have been a presence on the Mersey
00:49you know from the earliest days of the port.
00:52This is a replica of the ships that crossed oceans and connected continents more than 400 years ago.
00:58I've been lucky enough to be invited to step on board, walk its decks and experience first-hand the adventure of a true floating museum.
01:07It's not just a ship, it's a journey through time.
01:10You know you don't have to read a ton of kind of context to get a sense of it.
01:15Once you're in the spaces you really, you get an immediate sort of sense of what living and working on a vessel like this would have been like.
01:24When we built the ship in 2009, it was built for a hundred persons participating in the construction of the wood, of the ship.
01:34All is handmade and everything today is hand operated.
01:38We have GPS, we have those things, we have engines but when we drop the sails, when we pull from a rope, it's strictly by hand.
01:47We pull the ropes, everybody we pull together and like a crew, like a team and that's the thing that keeps the galleon floating.
01:54A rich maritime history runs through the veins of Scousers and there's a place next to the River Mersey which we think encapsulates Liverpool better than any other.
02:04It is a unique way to get that experience of what a bustling boat like Liverpool would have been.
02:11It's not a Liverpool ship but it just brings to life that kind of quaysides and gives you a sense of what that traditional boat would have been like.
02:20It's an amazing vessel with a fantastic kind of presence in the dock.
02:25It's a big ship which is 51 metres long so it's not a small ship.
02:31We have between 25 and 30 crew members on board and most of them are students that are starting to be captain or chief engineers.
02:38So it's quite a big responsibility to be captain of El Galleon but also it's a so nice, so wonderful experience
02:45and every time that I come to ports or every time that I just drop the sails or every night that we see the stars, it's worth it.
02:55El Galleon's here at Canning Dock until Sunday 5th October.
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