A bord du Voilier Santa Maria Manuela

Rouen is actively preparing for the arrival of boats for the Armada. All of them left their respective home ports to reach the Norman capital. Some will make direct route and others have planned stopovers. A team from France 3 Normandy was able to embark between Lisbon and Madeira.

The Santa Maria Manuela sailboat is a four-masted schooner built in 1936 in Portugal. With his eleven white sails, he is one of the survivors of the great Portuguese fishery with his sister ship the Créoula. Indeed the Santa Maria Manuela is one of the last sailboats to have participated in the Newfoundland campaigns and in the big fishing until 1963. At the time, more than seventy men embarked on board to live for several months in more than difficult conditions.