Navio Gil Eanes: Explorar um Navio Hospital

O Navio Gil Eanes, atualmente atracado na doca junto à avenida principal de Viana do Castelo, consiste num antigo navio hospital, sendo agora um navio museu da Fundação Gil Eanes.

This piece of history can be visited every day of the week from 10am to 6pm, with an entrance fee of €4.50. In total, the visit to this museum ship takes between 1 and 2 hours, depending on the pace of each person, and is carried out in a circuit along a route duly signposted.

Built in 1955 in the shipyards of Viana do Castelo, this ship replaced a previous ship with the same name, which had been seized from the Germans during World War I. Built with capacity for 72 crew members, 6 passengers and 74 patients, this ship started activities as a hospital ship, being called Misericórdia do Mar.

ao longo da sua história, o navio Gil Eanes teve várias funções

However, over the years, it has performed a wide range of functions: it was a mail ship (handling about one thousand packages and seventy to eighty thousand letters), a supply ship (providing other vessels with goods such as fuel, food, and nets), a tugboat (totaling more than three thousand miles - about five thousand kilometers - with ships in tow), and an icebreaker. Regardless of its mission, the Gil Eannes always tried to help those at sea.

Later it was sold for scrap, being rescued by what would become known as the Gil Eanes Foundation, which opened it to the public in 1998.

Estando atualmente completamente renovado, o Navio Gil Eanes é visitado através de um circuito que segue pelos vários andares. Assim, segue-se por todas as partes do navio, desde a casa das máquinas, a zona hospitalar, a barbearia e a cozinha.

In addition to the different rooms with their original appearance, there are areas where dummies have been placed in order to reproduce the layout of the room and the use of the instruments. This is especially true in the medical area.

Amongst all the visit is the engine room, which can be visited through a suspension bridge (with some stairs). Here it is possible to see the two grandiose engines that allowed this ship to move.

Additionally, information about the different divisions is presented throughout the circuit, complemented by various maps, blueprints, and schematics.

Com pouco mais de 98m de comprimento e quase 14m de largura, o Navio Gil Eanes consiste numa paragem obrigatória para quem se desloca à região.