Sixty-five years before the first English settlement on the North American continent, eighty years before Mayflower crossed a much smaller ocean to New England; Spanish seafarers sighted, charted, and made first contact with the native inhabitants of what would one day be the west coast of the United States. When the small San Salvador entered the harbor now called San Diego, the galleon was perhaps the most powerful vessel in the Pacific Ocean.
The Maritime Museum of San Diego is building a full-sized, fully functional, and historically accurate replica of Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo's San Salvador capitana or flagship of the Spanish expedition which first explored what is now the West Coast of the United States.
The vessel is being constructed in full public view at a prominent waterfront site, giving viewers the opportunity to watch from a close perspective as an example of the first modern industrial activity in the Americas comes to life before their eyes.
