Juan Sebastián Elcano

I am back in Oslo after some glorious vacation days in sunny Nice. Back in town is also a beautiful ship, the four-masted topsail, steel-hulled schooner Juan Sebastián de Elcano - a training ship for the Royal Spanish Navy. At 113 metres (370 feet) long, she is the third-largest Tall Ship in the world.

She is named after Spanish explorer Juan Sebastián Elcano, captain of Ferdinand Magellan's last exploratory fleet. The ship also carries the de Elcano coat of arms, which was granted to the family by Emperor Charles I following Elcano's return in 1522 from Magellan's global expedition. The coat of arms is a terraqueous globe with the motto "Primus Circumdedisti Me" (meaning: "First to circumnavigate me").

The Juan Sebastián de Elcano was built in 1927 in Cadiz, Spain, and her hull was designed by the Spanish naval architect and engineer Juan Antonio Aldecoa y Arias in the Echevarrieta y Larrinaga shipyard in Cadiz. After the proclamation of the Second Spanish Republic in April 1931 it became part of the Spanish Republican Navy.

In 1933 under Commander Salvador Moreno Fernández's order a series of improvements were made to the ship and the bronze plate with the Latin language inscription Tu Primus Circundedisti Me was placed near the prow. At the time of the coup of July 1936 it was at Ferrol, a harbor that had been taken by the Nationalist faction.

Thanks Wikipedia