One of the most beautiful tall ships left. I have had the good fortune to see her in several places around the world. It is used by the Chilean Armada to train cadets in seamanship and navigation. It is rigged square on the first mast and fore and aft on the other three, making it a Barqantine rig. I understand that it was rigged as a topsail schooner earlier in its life. The square front rig makes for faster sailing at sea, but the fore and aft is much more forgiving and navigable in coastal waters. If it were fully rigged, that is, square sails on all four masts, it would be very fast indeed, but it would need twice as many crew to handle the sheets and it would only be practical for long distances in the trades. The Esmeralda originally belonged to Spain but was given to Chile to settle a debt. It has a sister ship, the Spanish Royal Armada Juan Sebastian Elcano which was built in 1927. The Esmeralda was built between 1947 and 1953 in Cadiz Spain, from the same plans.