ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. — Action News got a sneak peak at one of the centerpieces of St. Augustine's 450th birthday celebration.
Volunteers from the St. Augustine Maritime Heritage Foundation have been using traditional and modern tools to construct a tool shed, boat house and a ship called chalupa.
The ship is over 30 feet in length and will be used in the 450th celebration.
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“Not to be confused with a sandwich you buy at Taco Bell. It’s a generic term for a ship,” said Maury Keiser, president of St. Augustine Maritime Heritage Foundation.
The volunteers started building the chalupa, the boat house it sits in and a tool house, more than 2 1/2 years ago. The wood used was taken from nearby forests. Some of it has been chiseled and other pieces steamed.
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“The actual construction is based off an archeological find up in Red Bay Labrador,” Keiser said.
Slowly, month by month, the pieces have come together. Volunteers are working four days a week using modern and traditional tools.
“This is a spring pole lathe. It would be typical of the shops tools that would have been in a facility like this,” Keiser said.
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The ship, which is straight out of the 1500s, will be a key part of St. Augustine's 450th celebration.
“When Pedro Menendez steps ashore on the eighth of September for the reenactment of the landing, he will be on board this vessel,” Keiser said.
“It's going to be like being transported back in time 450 years,” said Kit Keating, with the Fountain of Youth.
The volunteers working on the chalupa hope to launch it into the water at the of March.