The ‘Juan Sebastián de Elcano’ celebrates her 85th Anniversary coinciding with a port-call in Panama

The training ship ‘Juan Sebastián de Elcano’ arrived at the Panamanian city of Balboa to participate in the 500th anniversary of the discovery of the Pacific Ocean by the Spanish explorer Núñez de Balboa. The last port-call in this city was in 2008, and this one is the 23rd time the ship visits Balboa.

The ship is also celebrating her own 85th anniversary. Her first training cruise was in 1928.

In her 85 years of history, the ‘Juan Sebastián de Elcano’ has carried out 83 training cruises, 10 of them around the world, visiting more than 70 nations and calling at 1,140 ports. The ship has sailed one million, six hundred and sixty thousand nautical miles which amounts to 34 years of continuous navigation.

The first training cruise

This training ship was delivered to the Spanish Navy on February 29th 1928. Her fist commanding officer was Commander Manuel de Mendívil y Elio.

Her first day’s run –from Cádiz to Málaga– took place a month and a half after her delivery, with His Majesty King Alfonso XIII on board. Many national ports were visited in the first instruction cruise, among them Cádiz, Seville, Málaga, Las Palmas, Tenerife and Pasajes. The ‘Juan Sebastián de Elcano’ sailed during 57 days 5,769 miles at an average speed of 4.2 knots.

During the stopover in Seville the ship participated in the 1928 Universal Exhibition held in that Andalusian city.

After visiting the Canary Islands and having sailed through the Atlantic Ocean for 40 days, the ship arrived at San Sebastian where she received the battle ensign from her sponsor the Infanta Beatriz de Borbón.

The cruise concluded in Cádiz on July 15th. The ship then proceeded to the San Fernando Shipyards for the underwater cleaning of the hull. A few days afterwards the ‘Juan Sebastián de Elcano’ started her first cruise around the world following the opposite route of Magellan-Elcano. This first circumnavigation lasted ten months, from August 1st 1928 to May 28th 1929.