HISTORIAN Dan Snow has urged Newport to make the most of a "unique" tourism opportunity, coinciding with the return of a medieval ship's final timbers to the city.

Archaeologists have spent years drying and restoring the wooden skeleton of the 15th-century ship, which was uncovered in the muddy banks of the Usk in 2002.

The return of the ship to Newport offers the city a chance to bring in "generations" of tourists and money, capitalising on the historical importance of the ship which is believed to have carried out trade between Britain and the Iberian peninsula.

"There won't be anything like it in the world," Mr Snow told BBC Radio Wales on what he called a "really significant" day for the heritage project.

Archaeologists at the Mary Rose Museum in Portsmouth have used freeze-drying to restore the ship's timbers before their return to Newport today, Thursday.

South Wales Argus: Newport Ship just after it was discovered in the mud of the River Usk in Newport city centre.Newport Ship just after it was discovered in the mud of the River Usk in Newport city centre. (Image: File photo)

READ MORE: The history behind the Newport Medieval Ship

"What we’re seeing here are trees felled in northern Spain, [the] Basque Country, 600 years ago and then turned into this ship that plied its maritime trade up and down the Severn Estuary into Gwent, down back into Portugal, maybe, and into the Mediterranean," Mr Snow said.

"It’s unique, there’s nothing else in the world like it, and that’s so exciting for Newport because hopefully there’ll be a great visitor centre, a museum, you can go and look at these timbers but also... the augmented reality they’re going to build around it."

South Wales Argus: Excavation of the Newport Ship.Excavation of the Newport Ship.

If the city makes the most of the ship, it could be "up there" with other important maritime attractions such as the Mary Rose, in Portsmouth, or the Vasa, in Stockholm, Mr Snow said.

The Newport Ship was a "wonderful" discovery and dates from an important period of history, right at the dawn of a new age of exploration, commerce, and empire, he added.

"England and Wales are engulfed in the Wars of the Roses, the empire in France has gone, but what’s about to happen, what’s just around the corner, is exploring the New World, rounding Africa into the Indian Ocean, and so this ship is like the last gasp before a new generation comes and really spreads Britishness, trade, for better and for worse, all over the planet," he told Radio Wales. "It’s such an important missing link, this ship."

South Wales Argus: A painting showing the Newport ship docking in its final resting place on the banks of the Usk.A painting showing the Newport ship docking in its final resting place on the banks of the Usk.

Mr Snow has now urged the custodians of the ship to invest in the ship's success.

"You have to spend money, there are upfront costs of course to building museums, to building a world-class centre," he said. "But you’re going to see that paid back… over generations, the rewards will be there. Once it’s built it’ll be there forever and it’ll bring people to Newport."