GALLEONS OF FUN

A full-scale replica of Christopher Columbus' 1492 flagship Nao Santa Maria has opened its gangways to the public after docking in London for the first time. Express writer JOSH WHITE climbs aboard to experience the life of a 15th-century sailor

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A SPANISH vessel is stalking the ports of England, having barely escaped a blast of cannon fire from patriotic locals on the Isle of Wight.

But don’t worry, this galleon is not a centuries-late Armada straggler full of fearful Iberian seadogs, but an exact replica of Christopher Columbus’s flagship Nao Santa Maria — and its mission is conducted in the name of peace and education, not conquest.

This becomes immediately clear by the band of delightful Spanish students on board eager to give visitors, including me, a fascinating tour of their floating museum.

They cheerfully brush off the recent volley of gunfire from cannons and muskets — symbolic, of course — exchanged with The Spyglass Inn on the Isle of Wight before the Santa Maria disappeared around the head-land bound for its next destination: London.

"We don’t want to conquer England any more — only your people’s hearts,” jokes project manager Desiree Gonzalez, speaking at the 200-ton vessel’s temporary berth at St Katharine Docks, a stone’s throw from Tower Bridge, which opened its bascules last week to allow passage into the capital.

She and her crewmates will be welcoming the public aboard the ship all week until Sunday. After that, it will tour Britain’s coastline stopping in the likes of Poole, Southend-on-Sea and Weymouth.

The full-size replica of the 1492 ship previously navigated the Atlantic, from the Canary Islands to Puerto Rico, entirely under sail.

And at 29 metres long, eight metres wide, with four masts, five sails, and five decks, it is certainly an impressive sight.

Besides a fibreglass hull, elegantly hidden by wooden planks, Columbus’s famous ship is an almost perfect replica, down to its unusual shape, which often triggers sea sickness in all but the most hardened crew members used to the relative stability of modern vessels.