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This reconstruction of Sir Francis Drake's 16th century flag
ship can be viewed in its dry dock near London Bridge.
Launched in 1973, the Devon-built
replica ship came here in 1996, but for 20 years it toured
Britain and North America as a seaborne museum, the only replica
to have completed a circumnavigation of the globe.
In 1577 Drake set sail on a three-year
circumnavigation of the globe, on the way he accumulated so
much booty that the ship's ballast had to be replaced with
the plundered gold, becoming the only vessel whose ballast
was worth more that the ship itself.
It took years of research before
the replica was built and the interior has been recreated
in minute detail.
Visitors can see the small proportions
of the hold and gundeck and imagine the hard conditions endured
by the sailors who spent their lives either at work or asleep
on the bare decks.
To create an atmosphere on board
the ship is manned by a 'crew' in Elizabethan costume.
Admission charge
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London
Monument
