they will have planks from which to build the whole fortress and supplies of bread and wine for more than a year.” Nonetheless, the agreement is reached quickly: “Now I have ordered a tower and fortress to be built, all in good order, with a large moat. One would think that the prospect of being left behind in an unknown place, while the ‘liaison ship’ may not survive the journey home, should have caused little enthusiasm. It is astonishing that no mutiny seems to have taken place. He decides to leave the Santa Maria crew behind. While some which he wanted to make available were emptied and everything couldĬolumbus realises that the crew cannot go home in its entirety with the Niña because she is too small. He ordered everything to be put next to the houses This was done and everything was offloaded from the holds inĪ very short space of time, so great was the expeditiousness and diligence that Wept, and he sent all his people from the town with many very large canoes to ![]() “As soon as he heard the news they say that he Taino chieftain, was very sorry for the loss. “First of all he sent the boat ashore with Diego de Arana, from Córdoba, the bailiff of the fleet, and Pero Gutiérrez, chamberlain of the royal household, to inform the chieftain, who had sent the invitation on Saturday to take the ships to his harbour and whose town was a matter of a league and a half beyond the sandbank.” The only indication we are given is the distance between the wreck site and a nearby Taìno village, which was the place Columbus wanted to travel to. Let’s see exactly where this mishap occured.Ĭhecking the wood of a wreck that once contained a bronze nail. Only the little Niña (the “little one”) remained to the sailors. In addition, the small fleet had lost itself before and the third ship, the Pinta, remained untraceable. In the middle of nowhere, on an unknown continent far away from any native waters, the ship was lost. The Santa Maria could no longer be moved. When this was noticed, everything was done to free it, but too late. The fact is that the ship ran onto a shallow coral reef and got stuck there. He admits that the rudder had been given to a child and everyone else had gone to sleep, but who knows how much rum he and his Spanish crew had drunk at that moment because it was Christmas Eve and they were happy to be near land after months of travelling. The rudder was left in the hands of a boy, and the currents which were running took the ship on to one of those banks.” “Sailing yesterday with little wind, from the sea of Santo Tomas to the Punta Santa, a league off of which he stood until the first quarter, which would be at eleven o’clock at night, he decided to get some sleep because he had not slept for two days and a night.” Columbus then reports that the prevailing current carried the ship onto a sandbank: “Our Lord willed that at twelve o’clock at night, seeing that the Admiral had gone to bed and that it was dead calm and the sea like water in a bowl, they all laid down to sleep. Historical pinting of the arrival of Columbus However, it tells (speaking of Columbus in the third person ) in detail the story of the fatal Christmas Eve when the Santa Maria was lost: ![]() Its original has been lost and only a copy of Cristobal de la Casas survives. The best document that could give us clues about the wreck is Christopher Columbus’ diary. So, where might the Santa Maria truly be? Please stay tuned, as I will now endeavor to shed light on potential locations for the elusive wreck. But the truth is that his claim was unsubstantiated. Clifford asserted that he had found the ship at Coque Vieille Reef in northern Haiti. However, let’s turn our attention to the question of the Santa Maria’s actual location. Contemplate the consequences if Columbus had not successfully completed his voyage (and the potential impact on the indigenous population). Just imagine the magnitude of finding the vessel that altered the course of world history. As no conclusive evidence regarding the fate of the other two ships has survived, the potential discovery of the Santa Maria wreck holds immense historical significance. The excitement surrounding the discovery is understandable, as the Santa Maria was the flagship of Christopher Columbus during his inaugural voyage to the Americas and one of only three vessels comprising his fleet.ĭuring Columbus’ exploration along the northern coast of Hispañola Island, which is now shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic, the Santa Maria ran aground and subsequently sank. This declaration garnered significant attention, despite the absence of concrete evidence to support his claim. In May 2014, American explorer Barry Clifford made a widely publicized announcement claiming to have found the wreckage of the Santa Maria.
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