Dublin often plays host to some of the worlds most beautiful Tall Ships, and we have even regular festivals on the river which feature these magnificent crafts. I missed this years festivities earlier this month, however this weekend the city played host to what is apparently the the third largest tall ship in the world, the beautiful “Juan Sebastián de Elcano.” According to Wikipedia, the Juan Sebastián de Elcano is a training ship for the Royal Spanish Navy. She is named after Spanish explorer Juan Sebastián Elcano, captain of Ferdinand Magellan’s last exploratory fleet. The ship was built in 1927 in Cadiz, Spain. After the proclamation of the Second Spanish Republic in April 1931 it became part of the Spanish Republican Navy.

I headed into the Liffey to catch a glimpse of this beautiful ship on Sunday, and despite the looming clouds, I got some great shots of it. It’s shining white hull lit up the grey with its gleaming painted hull. There was a great atmosphere at the quayside too, and people were genuinely excited to see the ship. Shooting it was an interesting challenge as it was so large, and the quayside is relatively narrow where it was docked. I had taken my Canon 5D Mark II with me (mainly because it was charged) and luckily the 24–105 was just wide enough. In fact, I had almost brought my D700 with the 28–300 which would probably not have been wide enough, but fate intervened as the battery was dead (I really hadn’t planned this little photo excursion by the way, it was kind of a last minute thing!). After takings some shots by the side of the boat, we headed over to the far side of the river to get a full view of it in all its glory just in time for the heavens to open and the rain to start coming down.

Here are a selection of images from the shoot:

The Juan Sebastián de Elcano Docked on the River Liffey in Dublin

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