The Gloria is the official flagship and sail-training ship of the Colombian Navy, and her home port is Cartagena. Purpose-built in 1968 as a sail-training ship in the Celeya shipyard in Spain, the Gloria is over 56 meters (257ft) long - one of the biggest tall ships still afloat. She is steel-hulled, but there is plenty of polished wood and brass and her four masts and 23 sails give her an appearance of being even older than she is (every step on the ship has the name Gloria embedded in the solid brass escutcheon scuff-plates). Her figurehead, coated in glittering gold-leaf, is called Maria Salud, reputedly after the sculptor's daughter.
The Gloria has a full crew of 176, of whom up to 120 can be cadets. Our guide told us the last voyage, completed just a few months previously, was an anticlockwise circumnavigation of the South American continent via the Panama Canal and the Strait of Magellan; on that occasion the Gloria carried 6 female cadets.
Although from the outside the Gloria appears to be somewhat outdated, once inside the guest will be amazed. The Gloria can motor under her own power with her MAN diesel engine if so required. Computer monitors and electronic navigation instruments are used in the steering room, and air-conditioned coolness is but one surprise awaiting visitors to the officer's mess at the rear. Around the beautifully polished wooden bar, set into glass display cabinets like museum exhibits, are scores of pre-Colombian gold and ceramic artefacts. Since the ship is often invited to Tall Ship regattas around the world, the Colombian Government uses the ship to showcase its history to the foreign dignitaries who step aboard.
The Gloria has a full crew of 176, of whom up to 120 can be cadets. Our guide told us the last voyage, completed just a few months previously, was an anticlockwise circumnavigation of the South American continent via the Panama Canal and the Strait of Magellan; on that occasion the Gloria carried 6 female cadets.
Although from the outside the Gloria appears to be somewhat outdated, once inside the guest will be amazed. The Gloria can motor under her own power with her MAN diesel engine if so required. Computer monitors and electronic navigation instruments are used in the steering room, and air-conditioned coolness is but one surprise awaiting visitors to the officer's mess at the rear. Around the beautifully polished wooden bar, set into glass display cabinets like museum exhibits, are scores of pre-Colombian gold and ceramic artefacts. Since the ship is often invited to Tall Ship regattas around the world, the Colombian Government uses the ship to showcase its history to the foreign dignitaries who step aboard.
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