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French Frigate Visits Havana

Cuba, 31 March 2011.- The French vessel Ventôse (F 733), a light monitoring frigate of the French Marine Nationale, arrived in the shores of Havana on Tuesday, March 29, on a friendly visit to Cuba.

The City Historian, Eusebio Leal Spengler, welcomed the ship and its crew in a ceremony with the attendance of high-rank officers of the Cuban Revolutionary Navy.

The sailors attended the re-opening of the Napoleonic Museum and visited the Museum Castillo de la Real Fuerza, where they exchanged with specialists of the facility and talked about naval construction in Cuba, especially in Havana, which hosted the most important shipyard in Latin America during the Spanish rule.

The Ventôse, built in Saint-Nazaire and assembled in Lorient, is in service since 1993. It navigates through the Caribbean Sea and its homeport is located in Fort de France, Martinique, in the Lesser Antilles.

After its stay in Havana, where its crew is carrying out a series of cultural, sports, and exchange activities with the Naval Academy of Cuba, it will set sail to Cozumel, Mexico, and later on to Panama. (Cubaminrex-AIN)