A piece of history has arrived on the Central Coast.
A full-scale replica of the galleon ship the San Salvador is docked in Morro Bay, and visitors will have the opportunity to take a tour.
It’s a joint partnership between the Maritime Museum of San Diego — which led the design and building of the replica ship — and the Morro Bay Maritime Museum called The Pacific Heritage Tour 2023.
The ship first arrived Tuesday and will be docked at the South T Pier through at least Sunday, Aug. 20, which is the last day visitors can take a tour.
The last time the ship was in Morro Bay was 2016.
Tours are offered Friday, Aug. 11 through Aug. 20 every 15 minutes from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tickets can be purchased online.
Multi-day sailing tours are available. San Salvador will be sailing from Morro Bay to the northern Channel Islands and to Oxnard. The tour departs Aug. 21 and finishes Aug. 26.
From Aug. 27 to Sept. 1, it will sail from Oxnard to the southern Channel Islands and to San Diego.
Those tours cost $2,259 per person and are available for those ages 12 and up.
“This changed the world”
The San Salvador was the first recorded European vessel to sail along the Southern California coastline. It belonged to explorer Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo and first arrived in San Diego on Sept. 28, 1542.
The 92-foot replica vessel is a full-rigged galleon, meaning it’s a larger, multi-decked sailing vessel with three or more masts.
“This was a state-of-the-art piece of technology for the 16th century,” said Larry Newland, a volunteer with the Morro Bay Maritime Museum. “This changed the world.”
The ship has four operational 16th-century black-powder weapons, as well: two breech-loaded cannons and two versos, which are iron guns on a swivel mount.
The replica was constructed using the “scarce historical clues” that existed and experts from a handful of historical subject matters were consulted, including those in historical documents, marine archaeology and sailing, according to a graphic by the Maritime Museum of San Diego.
It first launched in 2015 in Chula Vista.
Learn more about the ship on the San Diego Maritime Museum website.
