 Esmeralda inPearl Harbor, 2006 | |
| History | |
|---|---|
 Chile | |
| Name | Esmeralda |
| Namesake | Esmeralda (The Hunchback of Notre-Dame) |
| Operator | Chilean Navy |
| Laid down | 1946 |
| Launched | May 12, 1953 |
| Identification | |
| Nickname(s) | La Dama Blanca (The White Lady),Agnès |
| Status | In active service |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type | Juan Sebastian Elcano-classtraining ship |
| Displacement | 3754 tons |
| Length | 113 m (371 ft) |
| Beam | 13.11 m (43.0 ft) |
| Height | 48.5 m (159 ft) |
| Draft | 7 m (23 ft) |
| Sail plan | four-masted barquentine; 21 sails, total sail area of 2,870 m² (30,892 sq. ft.) |
| Speed | max 13 knots engine, 17.5 knots sail |
| Complement | 300 sailors, 90 midshipmen |
| Armament | 4 × 57 mm ceremonial gun mounts |
Esmeralda is a steel-hulled four-mastedbarquentine[1] of theChilean Navy.
_makes_her_way_pierside_to_Naval_Station_Pearl_Harbor.jpg)
The ship is thesixth to carry the nameEsmeralda. The first was thefrigateEsmeralda captured from the Spanish atCallao,Peru, byAdmiral Lord Thomas Cochrane of theChilean Navy, in a bold incursion on the night of 5 November 1820. The second was thecorvetteEsmeralda of the Chilean Navy, which, set against superior forces, fought until sunk with colors flying on 21 May 1879 at theBattle of Iquique. These events are considered significant milestones by the Chilean navy.
Construction began inCádiz, Spain, in 1946. She was intended to become Spain's national training ship. During her construction in 1947 the yard in which she was being built suffered catastrophic explosions, which damaged the ship and placed the yard on the brink of bankruptcy. Work on the ship was temporarily halted. In 1950Chile and Spain entered into negotiations in which Spain offered to repay debts incurred to Chile as a result of theSpanish Civil War in the form of manufactured products, including the not yet completedEsmeralda. Chile accepted the offer, and the ship was formally transferred to the ownership of Chile in 1951. Work then continued on the ship. She was finally launched on 12 May 1953 before an audience of 5,000 people. She was christened by Mrs. Raquel Vicuña de Orrego using a bottle wrapped in the national colors of Spain and Chile. She was delivered as a four-masted topsailschooner to the Government of Chile on 15 June 1954, Captain Horacio Cornejo Tagle in command.
Her sister ship is the training ship for the Spanish Navy, the four-masted topsail schoonerJuan Sebastián de Elcano. Sometime in the 1970s,Esmeralda's rigging was changed to a four-masted barquentine by replacing the foregaffsail by two mainstaysails. The third (top) main staysail is still in place. She has now five staysails, three gafftopsails, six jibs, three gaff sails, foursquare sails, 21 all in all.
Her first voyage was to theCanary Islands and then on toNew Orleans, where a distillation plant was installed. She then proceeded through thePanama Canal and arrived atValparaíso on 1 September 1954 to much fanfare.
Since her commissioning,Esmeralda has been a training ship for the Chilean Navy. She has visited more than 300 ports worldwide, acting as a floating embassy for Chile. She participated inOperation Sail atNew York City in 1964, 1976 and 1986, and theOsaka World Sail in 1983. She also participated in International Regattas of Sail in 1964, 1976, 1982 and 1990 winning theCutty Sark Trophy in the last two participations.
In 2016,Esmeralda visited New Zealand to participate in the 75th Anniversary Celebrations of the foundation of theRoyal New Zealand Navy.
In 2019,Esmeralda visited Singapore in light of theAPEC Chile 2019.
Reports fromAmnesty International, theUS Senate andChilean Truth and Reconciliation Commission[2] describe the ship as a kind of floating jail andtorture chamber for political prisoners of theAugusto Pinochet regime from 1973 to 1990. It is claimed that probably over a hundred persons were kept there at times and subjected to hideous treatment,[3] among them British priest Michael Woodward, who later died as a result of torture.[4]
Due to this dark part of its history, the international voyages of theEsmeralda are often highly controversial - especially at the time when Pinochet was still in power but even after the restoration of Chilean democracy. The ship's arrival in various ports is accompanied by protests and demonstrations by local political groups and Chilean left-wing political exiles. Such protest actions were recorded, among other places, atAmsterdam,[5][6]Dartmouth,[7]Quebec,[8]Vancouver andVictoria, British Columbia,[9]Sydney,[10]Wellington,[11]Piraeus andHaifa,[12] as well as atSantiago in Chile itself.[13]
The Dark Side of the White Lady (El lado obscuro de la dama blanca), a documentary film by Chilean-Canadian filmmakerPatricio Henríquez, portrays this history.[14]
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
