The Cuauhtémoc Navy Ship Arrives in Puerto Vallarta

The Secretary General of the local council, Victor Manuel Bernal Vargas, officially welcomed the ship with Vice Admiral Alberto Zarate Castillo, commander of the Eighth Naval District.

The ship will offer free tours between November 16 – 18 from 11 AM to 7 PM at the Marina cruise terminal, with her message of friendship and peace.

Under the command of Captain Juan Carlos Vera Minjares, the ship “Cuauhtémoc” sails with a crew of eight captains, 40 officers, nine guest officers, 74 cadets and 123 crew, including 23 women who are an integral part of the crew, as are four officers, two guest officers, and eleven cadets from the Naval Academy.

The ship is also known as the “Ambassador and Knight of the Seas” with its 34 cruises dedicated to education. The ship is 90 meters in length and 12 meters in width, weighing 1800 tons, and carrying food for 45 days for 186 crew and 90 cadets.

ARM Cuauhtémoc is a training vessel of the Mexican Navy, named for the last Mexica Hueyi Tlatoani Cuauhtémoc who was captured and executed in 1525.

She is the last of four sister ships built by the Naval Shipyards of Bilbao, Spain, in 1982, all built to a design similar to the 1930 designs of the German firm Blohm & Voss, like Gorch Fock, USCGC Eagle and the NRP Sagres.

Like her sister ships, the Colombia’s Gloria, Ecuador’s Guayas and Venezuela’s Simón Bolívar, Cuauhtémoc is a sailing ambassador for her home country and a frequent visitor to world ports, having sailed over 400,000 nautical miles (700,000 km) in her 23 years of service, with appearances at the Cutty Sark Tall Ships’ Races, ASTA Tall Ships Challenges, Sail Osaka, and others.

The Navy educational ship’s  arrived Saturday in Puerto Vallarta is part of its “Americas 2014” tour commemorating the 100th Anniversary of the heroic acts the people of Veracruz took against the US Occupation of their city in 1914.

The United States occupation of Veracruz, which began with the Battle of Veracruz, lasted for seven months and was a response to the Tampico Affair of April 9, 1914. The incident came in the midst of poor diplomatic relations between Mexico and the United States, and was related to the ongoing Mexican Revolution.