Columbus lead several other voyages of discovery to what became known as the Americas and the rest as they say is history.Ĭhristopher Columbus on Santa Maria in 1492 by Emanuel Leutze.Ī few days ago news broke in the maritime archaeology world that the wreck site of Columbus’s most famous ship the Santa Maria may have been discovered off the coast of Haiti by a well-known commercial salvage operator called Barry Clifford. These famous ships were, of course, the caravels Pinta and Nina and the larger Galician nao (ship) Santa Maria and with them Columbus discovered, although the Native Americans would have been a bit bemused by the term, not the Orient but in fact the Bahamas, Cuba and Haiti – before returning to Spain with the Pinta and the Nina – the Santa Maria having been wrecked in Caracol Bay, Haiti in on Christmas Day, 1492. These three vessels, sponsored by Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I Queen of Castile and Leon – made up a great voyage of exploration lead by Christopher Columbus – also known Cristofora Colombo in his native Genoa and as Christobal Colon in Spain – who had managed to convince the joint sovereigns of Spain that he had found a short cut to the famous spice islands of the Orient. He sailed through sunshine and he sailed through rain The opening stanzas of the poem went something like: Many years ago when I was attending primary school we were taught The Columbus Day poem in order to remember the momentous events of 1492. Source: United States Library of Congress via Wikimedia Commons Unfortunately, says The Independent, follow up work to confirm the identity of the ship have been hindered because “all the key visible diagnostic objects including the cannon ha been looted by illicit raiders.”Īn excavation of what's left of the wreck should hopefully follow soon, they say.1892 replica of Santa Maria photographed in 1904 possibly by Edward H Hart. And the massacre of its garrison gave excuse, if excuse were needed, for Spanish persecution of the native population of Espanola and the Antilles.”
It provided proof of occupation by Spain, necessary to gain the papal award of these new lands in the west. The fortress, says Davies, “lasted less than a year, but its brief existence had important consequences for American history. The museum says that, because of the lost ship, 39 crewmembers had to stay behind in Haiti while Columbus returned to Spain with the Nina and Pinta. That Columbus and his crew set up camp at Navidad, says Arthur Davies from the University College of the South West, was a direct consequence of the grounding of the Santa Maria. Rather, says the Santa Maria museum in Columbus, Ohio, the grounded ship was stripped down, the wood used “to build a fortress in what Columbus called La Navidad, the first Spanish settlement.”
#PINTA SHIP WRECK FULL#
The wreck of the Santa Maria is not, as one might think, a full boat resting on the sea floor. Now, The Independent is reporting that a team of archaeologists led by Barry Clifford think they've found the remains of the Santa Maria.ĭetermining whether or not the ship-first spotted by Clifford and his team in 2003-is actually the Santa Maria will take more work, but for now the evidence described by The Independent is compelling: the ship is where Clifford thought it should be, based on Columbus' journal the debris' footprint is about the right size and artifacts seen among the wreckage, like an old cannon, match those known to have been aboard the ship. In his journal Columbus recorded the location of the ship's wreck, and over many, many years researchers have worked to figure out how the famed explorer's descriptions and maps align with the coastline, and to pin down where, exactly, the ship ended its voyage. On Christmas Day of 1492 Christopher Columbus' flagship, the Santa Maria, ran aground off the northern coast of Haiti.
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