The Pint

The Pinta was one of the three caravels used by Christopher Columbus on his first voyage to the New World in 1492. The other ships were the Niña and the Santa María, which was the nao capitana (the ship that led the expedition when Columbus was on it).

Origin and characteristics

It is not known where or when the Pinta was built, although it has been assumed that it could have been in Palos.

The only sources of information about this ship are the History of the Admiral by Hernando Colón and the Diary of the first navigation compiled by Bartolomé de las Casas from writings of Christopher Columbus.

Its name made some historians think that it belonged to the Pinto family, but in reality it was rented to its owner, Cristóbal Quintero, who went with it to the Indies as a sailor. It was a Nordic caravel with square sails with a very simple sail. The foremast and mainmasts were rigged with a large square sail, while the stern mast, called the mizzen, carried a lateen sail.^{[citation required]}

The Pinta was very sailing, according to Columbus's Diary, so that, on October 8, in competition to be the first to discover the new lands, reached a speed of 15 miles per hour (one mile at the time is equivalent to 0.8 nautical miles today, so its speed would be about 12 miles per hour).

Participation in the discovery of America

It is stated that it was chosen by Martín Alonso Pinzón for its nautical qualities, since he himself had previously rented it. The expenses of the Pinta and the Niña for Columbus's trip was borne by the council of Palos, in payment of a penalty imposed by the Crown.

The list of the crew of the Pinta on the first discovery voyage of 1492 is a subject of debate, since the exact crew that participated in the first discovery voyage is unknown, except for the names. better known, among them its captain, Pinzón, co-discoverer of America, Francisco Martín Pinzón, who was as master, Cristóbal Quintero, co-owner of the boat or Rodrigo de Triana (actually Juan Rodríguez Bermejo), who first sighted the land of the New World, October 12. 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.

Return to Europe

The Pinta, separated from the Niña where Columbus was traveling on the return trip, was the first of the expedition to reach the Iberian Peninsula since around the 28th On February 1493, he reached Bayona, in Galicia. From there he headed to his port of origin, Palos. Since it was declared an official local holiday in 1974, the Arribada Festival has been celebrated annually in the town of Baiona, recreating a medieval market and dramatizing the arrival of the ship with the news of the Discovery of America.

Reconstructions

Various estimates have been made of the dimensions and shape of this caravel. According to Leopoldo Gorostiza, it weighed 40 tons (value deduced from a passage by Hernando Colón) and from there the following measurements are deduced: 14.9 m in length; 4.6 m beam; 2.3 m of prop; 10.3 m keel and 1.5 m plan.

On the occasion of the fifth centenary of the Discovery of America, a replica of the Pinta was built on Isla Cristina, which would be repeated, along with the replicas of the Niña and the Santa María, the original trip itinerary, was launched on August 8, 1989 in the port of Isla Cristina in an event presided over by Infanta Cristina. This replica is preserved in the Carabelas Dock, in Palos de la Frontera.

Another replica identical to this one can be visited on the Bayonne dock, in the Caravel Museum Pinta.