Mexican Navy tall ship Cuauhtémoc carries goodwill to Korea during training cruise

Commander Victor Hugo Molina Perez, who helms the Cuauhtémoc, a training ship of the Mexican Navy, sat down for an interview with the Korea JoongAng Daily on Friday.

Commander Victor Hugo Molina Perez, who helms the Mexican Navy's training ship Cuauhtemoc, speaks during an interview with the Korea JoongAng Daily at Incheon Port's Pier 1 on Friday. [PARK SANG-MOON]

Evoking the iconic Black Pearl from the “Pirates of the Caribbean” film series with her tall masts and figurehead on her bow, the ARM Cuauhtémoc has been docked in Incheon for the past week. But this training ship from the Mexican Navy is the furthest thing from a pirate ship. Instead, its nickname is the “Gentleman of the Sea.”

“I visited Incheon in 2009 and have very fond memories from that trip,” said Commander Victor Hugo Molina Perez, who helms the Cuauhtémoc, in an interview with the Korea JoongAng Daily on Friday. “I wanted to return once I became a commander and am very happy to be back here.”

The Cuauhtémoc arrived at Incheon Port’s Pier 1 on Thursday, carrying 261 crew members, including 96 cadets, for a training cruise. The training ship carries cadets to friendly countries for training every year, and this year, it will cruise for 222 days, visiting 10 countries, including Korea, the United States and Japan.

The 90.5-meter-long, 12-meter-wide Cuauhtémoc has one 11,000-horsepower engine and three propellers, and it can reach a maximum speed of 11 knots.

One of Commander Molina's main tasks is deciding which destinations to travel to during the exercise and what training to provide.

“Creating the pre-training program is both challenging and rewarding,” said Molina. “Once training begins, safety issues and human resource development are our primary concerns. It is always nerve-wracking to conduct exercises during bad weather, and during our visit to Incheon this time, heavy rains delayed our arrival at Incheon Port for about 11 hours, but fortunately, the waves were not too high, so we didn’t have any difficulties with training.”

The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.

The Cuauhtemoc, a training ship of the Mexican Navy, is seen docking at Incheon Port's Pier 1 on Friday. [PARK SANG-MOON]

Q: Tell us about the primary mission of the Cuauhtémoc’s visit to Korea. A: We are a training ship from the Mexican Naval Academy that travels to different countries. We departed from Mexico on May 6 and will return on Dec. 14. Our primary mission is to bring goodwill from Mexico to every country we visit. It’s a message of peace and goodwill from the Mexican people.

How long have you been commander of the Cuauhtémoc, and what makes this ship special compared to others in the Mexican Navy? I have been a commander officer since February, which has been quite a short period, but before I became commander, I was the second commander on board this ship. The Cuauhtémoc is the main ship from the Mexican Navy where the cadets of the Mexican Naval Academy [practice their seafaring skills].

What operations or exercises will you be conducting during your stay in Incheon? Are any joint exercises with the Korean Navy planned? We don’t have any plans for joint exercises, but when we were sailing close to the coast of Korea, a warship from the [Korean] Navy came to greet us. After we arrived, I visited the Admiral Commander of the naval sector of Korea.

What have been some of the visit's highlights or most significant outcomes so far? For the cadets, traveling through the Pacific Ocean was a very good experience. In the middle of the ocean, there is a line called the international date line, and we have to change the day when we cross that line. If you are sailing from Mexico to Russia, you go to the next day after crossing the international date line. That was a very good experience for the cadets and the crew members, as it was their first challenge.

Crew members and cadets of the Mexican Navy's training ship Cuauhtemoc are seen meeting with members of the Korean Navy aboard the ship docked at Incheon Port's Pier 1 on Friday. [PARK SANG-MOON]

On a personal note, what motivated you to pursue a career in the Navy? And what have been some of the most rewarding experiences in your career? My uncle was an admiral in the Mexican Navy, so I was interested in pursuing the same kind of career from early on. The most rewarding experience of my career has been, without a doubt, being the commander officer of this training ship, the Cuauhtémoc.

How do you see the future of naval cooperation between Mexico and other countries, including Korea? It would be an excellent experience for the Mexican Navy to have good relationships with other countries and neighbors, especially Korea, because Korea has very developed naval technologies. We can learn very good ideas from developed navies such as Korea’s.

Do you have any cultural or social activities planned for your crew during this visit? Yes, right now, we have visitors from warships in Korea here on the Cuauhtémoc, and my crew members are socializing with the visitors. My crew members will also visit the Seoul City government soon, and they are very excited to go around the city and see the main plaza around the city hall.

BY LIM JEONG-WON [lim.jeongwon@joongang.co.kr]