Shipbuilding: Sailing back to the glory days

THE GLORY days of Philippine shipbuilding were in the 16th and 17th centuries, when the country led the rest of the Orient in the seafaring trade. Three-masted Spanish galleons loaded with treasure, which swashbuckling English pirates plundered, were constructed in Cavite, Iloilo, Pangasinan, Sorsogon, Masbate, Albay, Mindoro and Cebu.