Uruguayan tall ship due in New London in two weeks
New London — A Uruguayan Navy training ship, the 210-foot Capitán Miranda, will dock for several days this month at City Pier, where it will be open for free tours, maritime officials said Friday.
“It puts New London on the map. It’s a pretty big deal,” said John Johnson, chairman of the Connecticut Maritime Heritage Festival's executive committee.
The Capitán Miranda is scheduled to arrive Friday, Aug. 16, and depart the following Monday, dock master Barbara Neff said.
A by-invitation-only reception is planned on board the ship the night of its arrival, with free tours taking place Saturday and Sunday, Aug. 17-18, according to Johnson. The ship will dock on the south side of City Pier, the space the Eagle, the Coast Guard Academy’s training barque, typically occupies.
The Capitán Miranda’s visit has been planned for months and involved the U.S. and Uruguayan state departments, Johnson said.
Such visits benefit the city and the maritime heritage festival’s ability to attract tall ships.
“If one ship comes here and has a good experience, it helps,” Johnson said. “These captains all talk. When we had the Cuauhtémoc from Mexico here in 2016, it left with a ton of praise (for New London).”
The Cuauhtémoc, also a naval training vessel, docked at City Pier for several days in May 2016.
Kristin Von Wald, executive director of the Newport-based Tall Ships America organization, made a presentation this week to the maritime heritage festival’s executive committee, expressing interest in New London as a site for a tall ships event in 2020. She said budgets for “mid-market” cities that host such events run to $800,000, an amount some board members considered to be beyond New London’s reach.
Johnson said the executive committee would consider its options for 2020 after the conclusion of this year’s festival, set for Sept. 12-15.
“We may well be able to pull it off,” he said of participation in the 2020 Tall Ships Challenge race series. “We may have to go back to the DECD (state Department of Economic and Community Development) and see if we can get some money.”
The Capitán Miranda is scheduled to visit Baltimore Aug. 9-14, prior to putting in to New London. Johnson said the selection of the two cities has to do with the presence of the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., near Baltimore, and the Coast Guard Academy in New London. The Capitán Miranda crew is expected to tour the Coast Guard Academy during the ship’s New London visit, though most of the academy’s cadets will be away at the time, an academy spokesman said.
“Currently, there are no events planned,” the spokesman, David Santos, wrote in an email.
A three-mast schooner built in Spain in 1930, the Capitán Miranda underwent a major refit in 1977 and was rededicated as a sail training vessel. It left its homeport of Montevideo, the Uruguayan capital, in May, embarking on a five-month cruise.
The Capitán Miranda’s visit will coincide with the second annual Basque Festival at Parade Plaza in New London on Aug. 17. Hosted by the New England Basque Club, the festival will celebrate “all things Basque,” including sports, dance and food. State Street between Bank Street and Eugene O’Neill Drive will be closed from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m., the duration of the festival.
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