ARA Presidente Sarmiento, Naval museum ship in Puerto Madero, Argentina.
The ARA Presidente Sarmiento is a museum ship moored in the Puerto Madero docks, with three tall masts and dozens of sails that once powered it across the oceans. Visitors walk across the wooden decks, climb narrow stairways, and move through cabins, storage areas, and working spaces that still look much like they did during its active years.
The ship was built in the late 1800s to train Argentine naval cadets on long voyages around the world. After four decades of service, it was retired from active duty and later opened to the public as a floating museum.
The ship is named after Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, the seventh President of Argentina, who in 1872 authorised the founding of the first Nautical School, renamed the Naval Military School in 1873. On board, visitors see the dining room, kitchen, barbershop and classrooms fitted for 32 officers, 40 cadets and 275 sailors; only senior officers had cabins, while the crew slept in hammock-like cots. In port, the ship received Tsar Nicholas II of Russia, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany and US President William Taft.
Visitors should wear comfortable shoes as the decks and stairways can be uneven and steep in places. Photography is allowed on board, which helps capture the details of the restored rooms and equipment.
The ship's steering gear uses a three-wheel chain drive that let up to six helmsmen work the rudder at once, a training exercise though an electric servo-drive handled normal steering. A torpedo now hangs on the main deck above the welded-shut bow exit of the removed torpedo scuttle.
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