The Peruvian Navy’s training ship Union set sail on its maiden voyage July 27, leaving Callao for the ports of Guayaquil, Cartagena, San Juan, Miami, Veracruz and Balboa.
The four-masted full rigged barque, launched in December, has been on the Navy’s wish list for well over a century. Its bronze figurehead is of Inca Tupac Yupanqui.
Built at the naval shipyard of Sima, in Callao, its design and most of the fittings involved several Spanish companies, including Navantia, Gefico and Cypsa — which designed the naval training ships for Ecuador, Mexico and Venezuela. The sails were made by Wienecke, Chile.
The ship is 115.75 m long, just a few centimeters longer than any of the other tall mast training ships in South America — the Libertad of Argentina, the Gloria of Colombia, Esmeralda of Chile, Cisne Branco of Brazil, Guayas of Ecuador, Capitán Miranda of Uruguay and the Simon Bolivar of Venezuela.
The B.A.P. Union sailed under the command of Capt. Gianfranco Polar with a complement of 22 officers, two guest officers from the Spanish navy, 93 cadets and 120 technical and sailing crew. The full-time crew was trained for several months in Spain. The voyage is scheduled to take three months.
