Santa Maria (ship)

The Santa María was the largest of the three ships that Christopher Columbus used on his first voyage to the New World in 1492. It was made with wood from Cantabria. She was owned by Juan de la Cosa.

In the original documents it is mentioned that there were three caravels. The Santa María, where the admiral was going, was the largest of the three ships. Some scholars have subsequently interpreted that it was a ship.

The other two ships of the expedition were the caravels Niña and Pinta. Unlike them, the Santa María did not return to Spain when it ran aground on the island of Hispaniola in December 1492 since its remains were used to build Fort Navidad, the first Castilian settlement in the New World..

Debate on the typology of the ship

Although in the On Board Diary of Christopher Columbus, compiled by Bartolomé de las Casas, it is said that the Santa María was a caravel and it is said of the "three caravels", however, it was the largest of them and in several days it was defined as a ship. This gave rise to a debate about the use of the word nao which can have two different meanings.

While a first meaning can simply define a ship, a second concept can refer to a carrack, which was a large ship with a high-board round sail that was dedicated to transporting large loads on long journeys.

But what there can be no discussion about is that the original order to the councils of "the sea of Andalusia" to rent three caravels to Columbus, given in Santa Fe on April 30, 1492 spoke unequivocally of three caravels, as well as the order to Diego Rodríguez Prieto and his companions from Palos, given in Granada on April 30, 1492. Also Francisco López de Gómara and Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo mentioned that the Santa María was a caravel.

There is also no discussion that the Santa María was the "nao capitana" during the First Voyage of Columbus, where Christopher Columbus was traveling and who, therefore, captained the expedition.

Participation in the Discovery of America

The owner of the Santa María was Juan de la Cosa. During the course of the first voyage to the New World, on December 25, 1492, the ship ran aground on the northeast coast of present-day Haiti, becoming useless or capsized and its wood was used to build a fort with a palisade that was called " Strong Christmas'.

Cesáreo Fernández Duro refers to it like this:

Nightlife on the Guarico (Santo Domingo) on December 25th and even though the sticks were bitten (disappearing) and completely relieved (empty) With the help of Indian canoes, he couldn't get out. He saved all the people and the dogs, Colon transferred to the girl's snail. Template:Cita harvard

It has been calculated that the Santa María could have been around 23 m in length and had three masts. A passage from Columbus's Diary lists the sails he hoisted: "master and two bonnets and foremast and çebadera and mezzanine and topsail". It was the ship with the greatest displacement of the three of the expedition.

The list of the crew of the Santa María on the first discovery voyage of 1492 is a subject of debate, since the exact crew that participated in said voyage is unknown, except for the most recent names. well-known, among them the admiral, Christopher Columbus, the master Juan de la Cosa, the interpreter Luis de Torres, and the one who was possibly the pilot of this ship, Pedro Alonso Niño. There are various lists proposed for the crew members who participated in the discovery voyage, however it is that of the North American historian Alice Bache Gould that, to date, is considered the most authoritative due to its exhaustive study of the original documentary sources. extracted from the various Spanish state archives. The following list of the possible crew members of this caravel is prepared following the data of Alice B. Gould, comparing them with those of various authors.

Frustrated discovery of his remains

On May 13, 2014, the American underwater archaeologist Barry Clifford publicly announced the discovery of what he believes are the remains of the Santa María at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean very close to the northern coasts. from Haiti. The identification is based on the proximity to some remains of what could have been Fort Navidad, found in 2003 by other archaeologists, and on data from Columbus's Diary compiled by Bartolomé de las Casas. Haitian Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe declared that they would take "all measures to protect the site, which is a World Heritage Site." In October 2014, UNESCO confirmed that the wreck found did not correspond to the < i>Santa María.

Other names and characteristics

According to Fernández de Oviedo, Columbus took "three caravels: the largest one called the Gallega; and the other two were from that town of Palos.

Some historians (among them Pedro de Medina in his Book of grandeurs and memorable things of Spain, Seville 1548) affirm that it was originally called La Gallega, because it was probably built in Galicia. There is another theory that says that it was built in the Royal Shipyards of Falgote, in the town of Colindres, in Cantabria, while other voices claim that it was built by the riverside carpenters of El Puerto de Santa María.

The Marigalante ship

There is a historicist confusion with the ship Santa María that seems to suggest that sailors called it Marigalante. According to Duchess Luisa Isabel Álvarez de Toledo y Maura, the Marigalante was registered in the Port of Santa María and was seized in Moguer and was the caravel that captained Columbus's first voyage, all of which are incorrect.

The confusion would be deemed non-existent when the senior chronicler Antonio de Herrera y Tordesillas wrote that Mari-Galante was the name of the ship that the admiral commanded on the second voyage. He designated the first island that he discovered on the second voyage Deseada and the second island Marigalante. The ship Marigalante added several discoveries to Spanish sovereignty although after different historical occupations the island Marigalante remained under French sovereignty and with the French-speaking voice Marie-Galante and the Desired as La Désirade.

Replicas

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  Replica of the Nao Santa Mariabuilt in 1892 and sent to the Chicago Colombina World Exhibition.

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  Motorized replica built in 1990 in Barcelona for the film “The Golden Country of Cipango” in the port of Osaka, Japan.

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  Replica of the Santa Mariabuilt in 1991 by Scarano Boatbuilding Inc. in Columbus, Ohio, United States of America.

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  Carabela "Santa Maria de Colombo", on the coast of Câmara de Lobos, Madeira, Portugal, built in 1998.

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  Replica built on the occasion of the 1992 Universal Exhibition of Seville, which is permanently exposed in the Pier of the Carabelas de Palos de la Frontera, Huelva.

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  Replica of the Santa Maria exhibited at the sea museum of Kobe, Japan.

In heraldry

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  Escudo de Palos de la Frontera

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  The Bahamas shield

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  Trinidad and Tobago Shield