The original Galveztown was built by the British in New England and christened as the West Florida. Its duties as a sloop were to guard the approaches to New Orleans and British Colonial holdings along the Gulf of Mexico.
Bernardo de Galvez, Spanish Governor of Louisiana, paid an American captain, William Pickles, who captured the ship from the British. Once in possession, Galvez changed the name of the ship to Galveztown and converted the ship from sloop rig to a square-rigged brig.
Glvez was credited with winning one of the key naval battles of the American War of Independence when he captured Pensacola in 1781. As governor of Spanish Louisiana, he requested the assistance of the Spanish fleet in the war against the British. The fleet was commanded by Jos Calvo, who kept the Spanish fleet anchored off the Bay of Pensacola after the San Ramn, the fleet's flag ship, had grounded on the sands off the island of Santa Rosa.
Galvez shunned the orders of his naval colleague and entered the bay, reckoning that the British forces had stationed their artillery too high to cause serious damage to his ship.
Galvez went in alone, causing concern among the Spanish sailors, who thought Calvo was acting cowardly for not having done the same. The rest of the ships then joined Glvez. Following a siege of the fortress, they captured it.
Although Spain was not a formal ally of the United States, the victory at Pensacola made a significant contribution to the success of the American Revolution.
Spanish King Carlos III rewarded Glvez with the title of count and allowed him to inscribe the image of the Galveztown and the words 'I alone' on his new coat of arms.
As to the actual size of the Galveztown, "We don't really know exactly what her original dimensions were, since she disappeared from the records," said Burke. "But her length (on deck) would have been about 68 feet thereabouts, approximately 22 feet in breadth, around 10 feet depth of hold, and two masts."
The replica Galveztown will not carry auxiliary power but will have modern communications and GPS.