Inspired by a recent post by @Edward_Liz about the Galleon Ship museum, Puerto Galera, Oriental Mindoro, Philippines, I thought I’d post about the Galleon Neptune, located in beautiful Porto Antico (the old port) in Genoa.
Firstly let me explain that galleon ships are large and full-rigged sailing ships, square- and lateen-rigged with a distinctive beak at the prow. They were primarily built for war but also used for cargo and trade purposes and transporting the riches and spoils of the Americas to Europe (e.g. silk, porcelain, carpets, and spices) from the 15th to 18th centuries. Typically, they have 3 or more masts.
In the summer of 2017 I went to Genoa while doing some research on the famous Italian explorer Christopher Columbus. Columbus was born in the medieval and early modern maritime republic of Genoa. Here is a photo of a model of the three masted La Santa Maria, the largest and flagship of the three Spanish ships used by Columbus in his first voyage across the Atlantic Ocean in 1492.
Beside the Galata Museo del Mare, a museum in Genoa, I saw this full-sized replica of the 1500 tons, II Galleon Neptune a full-rigged, 17th-century Spanish galleon which I believe was purpose built in 1985 for the Roman Polanski film, Pirates. At the time it was a major tourist attraction with a 9 euro entrance fee.
To finish off, I have my own collection of model galleons and here are a couple of photos of these. The first is scale model of the French Superbe. The Superbe, built in 1784, was a 74-gun ship in the French Navy. The second, is a replica of HMS Bounty. Although smaller than the Superbe model, this is a favorite of mine because of the history of the Bounty:
“was a small merchant vessel that the Royal Navy purchased in 1787 for a botanical mission. The ship was sent to the South Pacific Ocean under the command of William Bligh to acquire breadfruit plants and transport them to the West Indies. That mission was never completed owing to a 1789 mutiny led by acting lieutenant Fletcher Christian, an incident now popularly known as the mutiny on the Bounty.[1] The mutineers later burned Bounty while she was moored at Pitcairn Island”. (Wikipedia)
