Amerigo Vespucci completes Quebec visit and sails to Montreal

By Monday morning the Amerigo Vespucci was on the St. Lawrence River, sailing from Quebec City toward Montreal. The Italian Navy's three-masted training ship is expected to dock later today, July 28, and will be open to the public from July 29 to August 3.

The ship spent four days at the Old Port in Quebec City for the Rendez-vous naval de Quebec, which drew six military tall ships from different navies. Public boarding days on July 25 and 26 brought visitors to the waterfront. The event ran its 7th edition this year.

This is the final Canadian stop on a North America campaign that started in Genoa in May. The ship called at Baltimore for the US 250th anniversary, then went to New York for the July 4 tall-ship parade, then to Boston for Sail Boston in mid-July. After Montreal, the Canadian leg is done.

The Amerigo Vespucci was launched in 1931 and is still in active service. It is one of the largest sailing vessels used by any navy. Italy sends officer cadets on the ship to train in traditional seamanship alongside modern navigation; the current voyage is most of those cadets' first time in North American waters.