The Juan Sebastian de Elcano is a full 4 masted top-sail schooner with square-rigged foremast. It was launched March 5th, 1927 and delivered to the Spanish Navy on August 17, 1928. It was built with an iron hull and rigging consisting of 20 sails and is currently used by the Spanish Navy as a sail-training vessel.

Ferdinand Magellan is usually credited with being the first man to circumnavigate the globe, but he was killed in the Moluccas in 1521 when his ship Victoria was only about halfway around the world. The pilot Juan Sebastian de Elcano took command of the vessel and arrived back in Spain with a crew of only nineteen men after a voyage of three years. Therefore, Juan Sebastian de Elcano is a fitting name for a Spanish sail-training vessel, and his four-masted namesake has served the officers and cadets of the Spanish Navy in that capacity for almost three-quarters of a century. Juan Sebastian de Elcano has served as both a training vessel and goodwill ambassador for Spain.