A 378-foot, four-masted Peruvian naval ship pulled into downtown Miami on Friday, dropping anchor at Deepwater Slip No. 2 behind the Pérez Art Museum Miami and Frost Science Museum, where it's tall enough to be spotted from the MacArthur Causeway. The BAP Unión, described as the largest sailing vessel in Latin America, is docked at Maurice A. Ferré Park at 1075 Biscayne Blvd and is opening its decks to the public for free tours through Tuesday.
The ship's arrival in South Florida this week marks another stop on a deployment that began back in April, when BAP Unión departed Callao, Peru, on April 17 to begin its five-month Foreign Training Voyage 2026, according to Andina. The voyage is set to call at 13 ports across Curaçao, the United States, Canada, Panama, and Ecuador before the ship returns home in September. As reported by NewsRadio WFLA, whose reporter Nathalie Rodriguez covered the ship's Miami docking, BAP Unión acts as a floating embassy for Peru, and its crew is offering the free public tours to locals and visitors alike.
Free Tours Run Through Tuesday
Tour hours vary by day. The ship opened to visitors from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Saturday, and continues from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. on both Sunday and Monday. The final day of tours, Tuesday, runs on a shorter 8 a.m. to noon schedule, per the station's report.
Once aboard, visitors can expect more than just a walk around the deck. The ship is a Peruvian Navy training ship built to accommodate a crew of up to 250 naval officers, instructors, and cadets, complete with onboard classrooms, a library, and an auditorium, according to SAIL Amsterdam. Those educational spaces underscore the vessel's core mission: giving Peruvian naval cadets hands-on rigging and navigational instruction during voyages that can last months at a time.
A Floating Showcase for Peruvian Exports
Beyond naval training, the ship doubles as a marketing platform for Peru's economy. Set up onboard for the 2026 deployment, the Casa Perú exhibition, created by Peru's Ministry of Foreign Trade and Tourism, showcases national export brands including Alpaca del Perú, Cafés del Perú, Super Foods Peru, and Pisco Spirits of Peru, according to Andina. The exhibition traces back to a 2022 agreement between the Peruvian Navy and PROMPERÚ, giving tour visitors a direct look at Peruvian goods alongside the ship's rigging and sailing gear.
Miami is a fitting stop for that kind of cultural outreach. Miami-Dade County is home to the largest Peruvian population of any county in the United States, part of a Hispanic community that makes up more than 70% of the county's total population, according to U.S. Census Bureau data.
Built in Peru, Named for a War Hero
The ship itself carries a lot of history in its steel hull. Constructed between 2012 and 2015 by Shipyard Marine Industrial Services of Peru in Callao and commissioned in January 2016, the barque measures 115.5 meters long with a mainmast height of 53.5 meters and carries 34 sails covering 3,402 square meters, according to Wikipedia. It's built using 38 steel modules and stands as the largest naval sailing vessel ever constructed in Latin America.
Its bow features a bronze figurehead sculpted by Peruvian artist Pilar Martínez Woodman, depicting Sapa Inca emperor Tupac Yupanqui with his arm raised toward the sun god Inti, positioned above Cusco's twelve-angled stone and sacred puma heads. The ship's name honors the 19th-century Peruvian corvette Unión, which fought during the 1879-1883 War of the Pacific under Admiral Miguel Grau, a figure regarded as Peru's paramount naval hero, per the same Wikipedia entry.
A Record-Setting Sailing Résumé
BAP Unión isn't just a floating classroom and showroom — it has the racing pedigree to match its size. In October 2023, Sail Training International awarded the vessel the Boston Teapot Trophy after it covered 1,261 nautical miles at an average speed of 10.71 knots during 124 uninterrupted hours of sailing between Callao and Tahiti, according to Sail Training International. That trophy is awarded annually to the sail training ship that covers the farthest distance within a 124-hour window.
That same era saw the ship complete an even bigger feat. Between June 2023 and April 2024, BAP Unión finished a 10-month circumnavigation of the globe, covering more than 66,000 nautical miles and calling at 22 ports across 16 countries — the first global voyage by a Peruvian naval ship in 169 years, according to Andina reporting cited by Peru.Travel. That trip included a passage through the Suez Canal and stops across five continents.
This year's tour has already put BAP Unión in the middle of a bigger national celebration. During its 2026 voyage, the ship joined international tall ship fleets for America's Semiquincentennial, known as Sail 250, taking part in parades of sail in major U.S. ports including New Orleans and New York Harbor in May and July, as Hoodline reported in its earlier coverage of the New Orleans stop. Miami now joins that list of ports where the towering Peruvian ship has drawn crowds this year, with free tours available to anyone who wants to climb aboard before it sails on Tuesday.
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