This is the ARA (Armada de la República Argentina) Libertad.
She’s described as
a steel-hulled, full-rigged, class “A” sailing ship that serves as a school vessel in the Argentine Navy. One of the largest and fastest tall ships in the world, holder of several speed records, she was designed and built in the 1950s by the Río Santiago Shipyard, Ensenada, Argentina. Her maiden voyage was in 1961, and she continues to be a training ship with yearly instruction trips for the graduating naval cadets as well as a traveling goodwill ambassador, having covered more than 800,000 nautical miles (1,500,000 km) across all seas, visited about 500 ports in more than 60 countries, and trained more than 11,000 navy graduates.
Yesterday she was docked in San Juan harbor. As soon as I saw her I knew I had to go aboard. Lori and I walked up a steep gangplank and were greeted by an officer. “¿Permiso para subir a bordo?” I asked. He looked surprised but pleased. No one else had asked him for permission to come aboard. “¡Por supuesto!” he replied, and we stepped on deck.
One of the stranger facts about this Argentinian vessel is that an engraving of it docked at Archangel appears on Russia’s 500 ruble bill.
The original design of the bill featuring a steamship, but this was rejected by the Central Bank of Russia, which preferred a sailing boat. The artist then substituted a new ship based on the first photograph he found of a large frigate, not knowing he was drawing a ship that had never been to Archangel.
I was disappointed only that we were not allowed to go up to the bridge or enter any of the compartments. But the main deck was enough of a treat.
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