By Celia Palmer Curtis In 1522, when Captain Juan Sebastion de Elcano sailed the Victoria into the harbour at Seville, Spain, he completed the first circumnavigation of the world. It was an achievement as significant and as mind-altering to the 16th century as landing on the moon was to the 20th century.

The proud four-masted, top-sail schooner, Juan Sebastian de Elcarno now sailing in Tall Ships 2000 is one of Spain's most famous ships, was named after the man who proved the world is round.

In September 1519, Charles I of Spain sent Magellan to the West Indies with a fleet of five galleons to search for a route to the East and all its riches.

Elcano was appointed navigation officer of the galleon, Conception . Only one galleon and 17 people returned.

Off South America the San Antonio abandoned the expedition and the Santiago was lost off the desolate coast of Patagonia.

Magellan led the remaining three galleons, searching for a way through the roughest seas in the world strewn with treacherous, rocky islands. The path he discovered between the Atlantic and Pacific at the bottom of the world are now named the Straits of Magellan.

In an even more incredible feat, these three primitive ships made a long, long voyage across the vast Pacific Ocean. The starving explorers, their teeth falling out from scurvy, eventually made landfall in the Phillipines.

In 1512, Magellan was killed in a skirmish with natives. Captain Mendoza took over command and was killed by native inhabitants of Cebu. Through various other misfortunes and illnesses, two more galleons, including the Conception , had to be abandoned and Elcano was left senior of the survivors.

He took command of the Victoria and set out for the Moluccas with 47 Spanish survivors and 13 islanders. He took on a cargo of spices and headed for the Cape of Good Hope.

On September 8, 1522, the Victoria limped into Seville with 17 survivors aboard. Elcano had completed the first circumnavigation of the world! The Spanish Navy Training ship, Juan Sebastion de Elcano was commissioned as a sail training vessel for midshipmen in 1927. She has sailed over 1.5 million miles since then, with two major modernisation refits in 1956 and 1978.

King Juan Carlos of Spain served as a midshipman aboard this famous ship, which has to date completed 77 training voyages, most of them long, including nine circumnavigations.

The Juan Sebastian de Elcano is a venerable sailing vessel and training ship for Spanish Midshipmen. The Elcano, as they call her, is everything that is no longer found in the austere grey vessels of present day naval warfare.