The Galeon Andalucia has travelled all the way from Spain, and lucky for us, it’s currently docked in Cardiff bay. It travels the globe, going port to port teaching locals all about the fascinating history of 16th century merchants and gives people an insight into what life would have been like on the Severn seas.
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00:00Well, it's pretty amazing. I think it's a unique experience. Almost everyone that comes
00:08here loves the experience. I think that it's pretty cool for people like me that are studying
00:15this thing, and we get to do our days of navigation here in an old galleon ship, and it's pretty
00:24fun too.
00:26Of course, learning about this ship is amazing, but it's just being here and seeing it all
00:30makes you think what it would have been like all those centuries ago on the seven seas.
00:34Well, there's not many of them like this. I know there are some, but like this one,
00:41there aren't that many. It's, I think, a pretty special thing to see one like this. It's not
00:46a replica of a specific ship. It replicates the galleons in general of the 16th century,
00:53and basically when they built it, it took them three years of investigation of how to
00:59build it, and they basically took a bit of every galleon that was created, so it's like
01:06a general galleon, basically.
01:09I am fighting every urge I have not to do my best pirate impression while being on board
01:13this fascinating ship, but Alfonso tells me it's actually a merchant ship, which was basically
01:18the 16th century cargo ship of modern day. This is a modern replica of what one might
01:22look like, and it tells a fascinating story from centuries ago.
01:26Well, they would learn that, first of all, this is not a pirate ship, that it's a merchant
01:30ship, and what they did at the time, that this was an innovation. It was one of the
01:36first cargo ships that were created. They would learn about the routes that they would
01:41make. They would go to the Philippines, to America, and go down the south. They would
01:45also learn a bit about the foundation that built this ship, which is now Victoria, which
01:51was the first ship to go around the world, and they would learn also how the people would
01:57live at the time, and how the people live here now.
02:00The Galleon Andalusia travels the world and has visited places absolutely everywhere,
02:04from New York to Shanghai, to places all over Europe, and the crew have had a great time
02:09exploring. I even saw a few of them sharing some Welsh cakes in their private quarters.
02:14Especially when we have this nice weather that is not supposed to be like this every
02:20day. And yeah, I think I'm going to be able to tell people in the future, hey, I've been
02:26sailing in a Galleon for a year, and it was awesome. Not many people are going to be able
02:31to say that nowadays.
02:32People here love this ship. It's one of the places where most people come. They tell us,
02:37they talk about us, about everything, about how they see it, and how they would not see
02:43it, and people here love it. Compared to other places, we love coming here because there's
02:49always an abundance of people coming and telling us and talking to us. I would be impressed
02:56if I had this in front of my house one day.