This morning saw the arrival of the Mexican Navy sailing Ship ARM Cuauhtémoc entering the Grand Harbour and berthing at Pinto Wharf.
ARM Cuauhtémoc is a sail training vessel of the Mexican Navy, named for the last Mexica Hueyi Tlatoani Cuauhtémoc who was captured and executed in 1525.
She is the last of four sister ships built by the naval shipyards of Bilbao, Spain, in 1982, all built to a design similar to the 1930 designs of the German firm Blohm & Voss, like Gorch Fock, USCGC Eagle and the NRP Sagres.
Built at the Celaya Shipyards in Bilbao, she was designed by Naval Engineer Juan José Alonso Verástegui. Her keel was laid on July 24, 1981, and she was delivered to the Mexican Navy in Bilbao on July 29, 1982.
Like her sister ships, Colombia’s Gloria, Ecuador’s Guayas and Venezuela’s Simón Bolívar, Cuauhtémoc is a sailing ambassador for her home country and a frequent visitor to world ports, having sailed over 400,000 nautical miles (700,000 km) in her 38 years of service, with appearances at the Cutty Sark Tall Ships’ Races, ASTA Tall Ships Challenges, Sail Osaka, and others.
ARM Cuauhtémoc is a 90.5m class A 3 masted barque. The tall ship ARM Cuauhtémoc is a sail training vessel used by the Mexican Navy to develop the seamanship skills of their cadets. Many navies from across the world use tall ships like Cuauhtémoc to expose their cadets to an experience known as ‘Sail Training’, a course in personal and professional development championed worldwide for its effectiveness in developing key skills in leadership, teamwork and more.
