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Written by 28 August 2025
There’s nothing like a spot of time travel, all the way back to the 16th century, on board Galeon Andalucia, currently moored at Shoreham Port.
Fresh from a visit to Amsterdam, the 160 ft Galeon is an impressive sight, her sails furled and her masts piercing the moody sky as she gently sways at anchor beside Port Kitchen. She was built in 2009 from iroko (an African hardwood, standing in for oak, mainly now protected), and pine.
The Galeon, which arrived at Shoreham in the early hours of Tuesday, is a faithful reproduction of the Spanish cargo vessels which sailed the seas hundreds of years ago. For safety and legal reasons, the Galeon now has 21st century features such as stainless steel-clad masts, a fiberglass strengthened hull and an engine to aid maneuvering in and out of ports.
Eager crowds of adults and children, some dressed as sailors and pirates, thronged onto the Galeon when I visited today, and even a couple of sharp showers didn’t put them off. We toured the upper decks (with an impressive complement of anchors), including the mizzen area, the poop and the quarter decks.
There was certainly a class divide at sea. In the so-called noble area, you could view the more luxurious section in the prow, where the officers hung out. Below deck there was certainly a keen sense of claustrophobia in the low-ceilinged rooms.
On the way down to the bowels of the ship, the barrels of the canons, with their range of 150 metres, pointed peacefully out to sea. In the hold, where food supplies were kept, hammocks used by ordinary seamen were displayed. It was hard to imagine where the hundreds of crew could possibly have fitted into such a relatively small space.
Liaison Officer and Project Manager Lupo Bathke started as a volunteer on the Galeon, which now has 30 crew, compared with 150 to 200 she would have carried back in the day. Plus cargo, and passengers.
Cargo ships travelled in convoys of up to 60, Lupo says, and in a bad storm it wasn’t unusual to lose 30-40 of them, which could be catastrophic.
Nowadays in the interests of authenticity only Spanish is spoken on board by the volunteers and crew, who come from a variety of European countries to experience 16th century life at sea.
Was it a hairy experience crossing the Atlantic in a relatively small vessel? Apparently not, Galeon Andalucia is best suited to the open sea where the long waves roll in regularly. The Med, the Irish sea and the Channel, where the wave frequency is shorter and sharper, is more of a challenge.
Is it strange being at sea for days at a time, and is it easy to sleep? “It’s at sea where you sleep the best,” Lupo says.
From Shoreham the Galeon will continue her European tour, promoting Andalucia as an educational floating museum. Then she will head over the Atlantic to the US.
Galeon Andalucia will be at Shoreham until Sunday 7th September. For tickets go to: https://tickets.velacuadra.es/selection/timeslotpass?productId=10229452191365>mStepTracking=true
