• Albaola, the Basque Maritime Museum and UZEI have collaborated on this initiative, each contributing their knowledge and experience.
• The first results of the project can already be consulted at: https://baleontzia.uzei.eus

Donostia / San Sebastián, 11 March 2026

Albaola, the Basque Maritime Museum and the Centre for Terminology and Lexicography UZEI have jointly launched a new project. This initiative brings together Basque maritime heritage and the Basque language, with a clear objective: to recover, standardise and make available to the public the Basque lexicon related to shipbuilding and navigation.

The project is the result of collaboration between these three organisations, each contributing its knowledge and experience to the initiative. Albaola provides practical and documentary expertise related to maritime heritage and shipbuilding; the Basque Maritime Museum contributes the historical context and heritage perspective; and UZEI provides expertise in language and terminology. Thanks to this collaboration, the project is built on solid foundations and has a clear long-term outlook.

In this first phase, the dictionary brings together shipbuilding and navigation vocabulary related to the whaling ship San Juan: parts and components of the vessel, rigging, materials and concepts linked to manoeuvres. It includes equivalents in four languages (Basque, Spanish, French and English), definitions to clarify the concepts and, in some cases, complementary visual elements (photographs or illustrations).

The dictionary has been designed for online consultation, in a user-friendly format adapted for mobile devices. One of the aims of this resource is to be open and accessible to a wide audience: schools, museums, institutions working with maritime heritage and, more generally, anyone interested in the sea.

As a global and evolving initiative, the dictionary has been conceived as a resource that will grow over time and may be expanded to include other types of vessels, maritime activities and, in the future, other cultures and languages. This initiative therefore represents a pathway: a way of promoting and giving new value to an important part of our heritage through language, maritime culture and collaborative work.

The first results of this project, which has received support from the Provincial Council of Gipuzkoa, the Basque Governmen and the Kutxa Fundazioa, can already be consulted on the project’s website:
https://baleontzia.uzei.eus