The 15th century explorer landed in the present-day Bahamas on Oct. “Ships lost in cold, dark, deep water have a much better chance of staying intact and maintaining their ‘time capsule’ value,” he said. Bettmann ArchiveĪnd 500 years of hurricanes would be no friend to a beached hulk, either archaeologist Donald Keith told the magazine. A chromolithograph by Louis Prang and Company. If Columbus’ ships sunk in a region like the Caribbean, they would have easily been consumed by a species of wood-eating mollusk, known as “termites of the sea,” the magazine reported. No one knows whether the vessels, two of which eventually returned to Europe, ended up, if they even survived or were eventually wrecked. 12, 1492, ending the pre-Columbian era in the New World.ĭespite being the find of a lifetime for curious archaeologists and shipwreck chasers - the three ocean-going sailing ships have never been found, according to National Geographic. More than half a millennium after Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue, the physical remains of his three ships - the Niña, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria - remain lost to history. We must rescue America’s heroes from those who tear them down Vandals spray-paint ‘Murderer’ on Central Park Columbus statue Photos show pair who scrawled ‘Murderer’ on Christopher Columbus statue: NYPD Finally, Pedro de Terreros – one of the cabin boys – was left steering the Santa Maria while the rest of the crew celebrated on the fateful night it ran onto a reef off Haiti.Vikings were in the Americas 500 years before Christopher Columbus: study Academics, craftsmen, a physician and even a painter also made up the roster. As the flagship of the fleet, Christopher Columbus was its captain, Spanish navigator and cartographer Juan de la Cosa was its owner and Diego de Arana was the master-at-arms.ĭe Arana was left behind at the new settlement of La Navidad as governor, where Haitian natives later killed him. The Santa Maria’s roll-call is very well known. A few of the crew members were convicted criminals too they were offered amnesty by the crown if they signed up to what, at the time, was considered a perilous voyage. The crew of the entire fleet consisted mostly of experienced seamen from Andaluci’a, a southern region of Spain, as well as from Galicia in the north. However, the parrots, captured natives plus cargo brimming with plundered gold and spices were more than enough to convince the crown that not only was he not a traitor, but a much bigger second expedition was needed as soon as possible. He returned to Spain minus the flagship of his small fleet and many of his original crew on 15 March 1493, long overdue and having stopped in Portugal due to a storm, which also raised suspicions over his loyalty. Needless to say, that was a huge sum of money, although not as much as Columbus would have liked for an expedition of his lofty ambitions. It’s estimated that he would have needed a minimum of 1.14 million maravedi’s -the medieval Iberian currency – to secure ships, supplies and fund crew salaries. The first voyage of Christopher Columbus was funded partly by the Spanish crown and Sevillian bankers, with only a fraction of the total investment that went into the second expedition. It was damaged beyond repair and Columbus ordered it to be stripped then used to build the new settlement of Villa de la Navidad, while the Nina and Pinta began the voyage home to Spain. After a night of celebration, the Santa Maria ran aground near what’s now the city of Cap-Haitien on Haiti. It was an inspirational piece of navigational prowess that paid off, even if it took many weeks longer than anticipated to reach what Columbus thought was the other side of the world and the country of Cipango (Japan) on 28 October it was in fact Cuba. The idea was to take advantage of the north-east trade winds off Africa, then use the westerlies that prevail across the Azores on the way back. Santa Maria and its two sister ships left on 3 August 1492 and headed south of the Canary Islands. The ships were secondhand at best and, though carracks were built for extended sailing, the fleet was never designed for such intrepid exploration. All survived the voyage from Spain to what is modern-day Haiti but, despite being the largest of the trio, the Santa Maria never made the journey back. They were relatively small ships: the Santa Maria was a medium-sized carrack (a three or four-masted vessel) around 36 metres (117 feet) long with a burden of 100 or so tons, while both the Nina and the Pinta were caravels (a more lightweight ship) of around half that size. The Nina, Pinta and flagship Santa Maria were the three vessels that made up the small fleet Christopher Columbus took on his first voyage across the Atlantic to the New World.
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