A FLOATING ship should become a permanent attraction at the end of Southend Pier to capitalise on the success of El Galeon, residents have insisted. 

In 2020, then-deputy leader of Southend Council, Ron Woodley, announced his ambition to see a warship similar to HMS Belfast in London to be moored next to Southend Pier. 

The plan never came to fruition, but the success of the replica 17th Spanish warship last week has seen residents back calls for a permanent attraction alongside the pier. 

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Lorna Swindell, a mum-of-three from Rayleigh, said they absolutely loved their visit to El Galeon, and said it would be “fabulous” to have something similar permanently situated at the pier.

She said: “We visited El Galeon on Saturday with our three children. It was a gloriously sunny day for a stroll along the pier and what a wonderful sight to be greeted with at the end.

“El Galeon was simply magnificent, and we were also fortunate to meet the Blackwater Pirates on the pier too - this made my daughters’ day.

“My children said it was just like Pirates of the Caribbean. They had a wonderful time exploring the ship.

“I think they were overwhelmed by the positive response as the queue times were somewhat frustrating. But it didn’t ruin the day for us.

“It would be fabulous to have something like this situated permanently at the pier to draw in visitors.”

Southend resident Christine Perrott took her granddaughter to El Galeon.

She added: “My granddaughter loved it as I did. Having something like this was fantastic as it is so different, and you could see that by the amount of people that came too.

“I think Southend should do more like this to bring back visitors and make our pier a bigger landmark so the city can thrive.”

Council leader Tony Cox responded cautiously.

He said: “If you put on good quality events, people will come.

“We have had that in the past with the women’s cycling tour, LuminoCity, and now El Galeon. If we have events on, people will attend.

“It has been very, very successful, and I think proven more popular than people expected. With the limited time period it has been there, and it being half-term, it has been really positive.

“It is about having events on at the right time, that is when people will want to come.”