Historic Nao Victoria Docks in Newcastle for the First Time

A slice of maritime history has arrived on the Tyne, as the historic Spanish galleon Nao Victoria docks in Newcastle for the very first time.

Transcript

00:00So we're on the wonderful Quayside this morning here with the Neo Victoria which

00:06is the lovely ship behind me. Here that's open to the public for the next week so

00:11it's here for another week and it's a... Neo Victoria is the first ship to ever sail

00:17around the world and actually it's really something that we're really proud

00:20of here that has come to visit us here in Newcastle. Shows a bit of history and

00:25yeah a real different sight for people to see. Quite a few things I think that the

00:30bits that probably are important is that first and foremost it was the

00:34relationship with Neo Victoria Foundation. They have a number of ships like this in

00:38their family. We welcomed the Galleon last year to Newcastle Quayside it was a huge

00:43success and so we're really keen to continue that and bring them up so they

00:47were really keen to do it and Newcastle NE1 and partners did everything they can

00:52to make sure that they got the best welcome possible. The Neo Victoria here

00:56is a floating museum that brings to life the Spanish maritime history. Members of

01:01the public have the chance to climb aboard and learn about what life was like for

01:05sailors living and working on the high seas hundreds of years ago. The Galleon is a

01:09replica of the original 16th century Neo Victoria, the first ship to sail around

01:15the world on a voyage led by Spanish explorer Ferdinand Magalyn. So it's brought a lot of

01:21people to the city. I think that's you know that's that's one thing that

01:24Newcastle NE1 is all about you know today's launch of summer in the city so

01:28there's a number of exciting things that are happening across the city and this

01:31is just one of them. The reason why I'm really passionate about bringing things to

01:35the river is you know there is so much opportunity here to do you know so much

01:39more on the river. We have kayaking, we have boats visiting, we have events like the

01:43Dragon Boat Race and Neo Victoria. We want to basically continue bringing as much as we

01:48can to our river. Owned and operated by the Spanish Neo Victoria Foundation the

01:54replica Galleon was built by a naval engineer and historian and serves as a floating museum.

02:00A crew of between 50 to 35 people now sail the ship around the world. I think it's for

02:07everyone I mean there's lots of kids in there today you know very much pretending to be the

02:11pirates that they all want to be and you know I think it's a great you know great for history as

02:16well so anyone that enjoys their their history there's so much history on that boat

02:19and so many great stories that I think everyone should be so I do encourage

02:23everyone to be able to come down to see it it's a real real different kind of

02:27experience that you would ever get usually in Newcastle. The Neo Victoria is a

02:31full-size replica of the 16th century Spanish Carrick that completed the first

02:37circumnavigation of the globe from 1519 to 1522 under Ferdinand Maglion and Juan

02:44Sebastian Elcano. Built in oak and pine using traditional shipbuilding methods

02:50the replica was constructed in 1991 and famously retraced the original voyage

02:56between 2004 and 2006.