8/16/2023 0 Comments Pinta ship wreck![]() ![]() The actual original name of La Pinta is unknown. The Santa María's original nickname was La Gallega. Thus, La Pinta, like La Niña, was not the ship's actual name La Niña's actual name was the Santa Clara. By tradition Spanish ships were named after saints and usually given nicknames. The owner of the ship allowed Martín Alonso Pinzón to take over the ship so he could keep an eye on the ship. ![]() The Quintero brothers were ship owners from Palos. The owner of La Pinta was Cristóbal Quintero. The New World was first sighted by Rodrigo de Triana aboard La Pinta on 12 October 1492. La Pinta ( Spanish for The Painted One, The Look, or The Spotted One) was the fastest of the three Spanish ships used by Christopher Columbus in his first transatlantic voyage in 1492. Given its potential historic significance, let’s hope this wreck will finally receive the careful and responsible attention it deserves.įollow us on Twitter us on /CNNOpinion.Replica of La Pinta, in Palos de la Frontera Since 2006, it seems that little was done to secure or explore the site, and given its potential importance, I wonder why that is. There’s not much left to go on.Įxploration is all about finding something unknown, which often means shaking things up, disproving rather than confirming to arrive at something new. But now the lombards, if that’s what they were, are gone. That’s frustrating, especially because back in 2003, he was aware of the wreck and its probable lombards, if that’s what they were, and he was touting a visit to the site as part of an auction held by the Explorers Club. Just before his presentation at the Explorers Club in New York in 2006, Clifford discovered that these items were missing from the site, “looted,” he explained. But ships in those days probably didn’t have stone ballast to steady them heavy cargo such as wine casks served the same function.Īnd then there’s the intriguing “smoking gun,” as Clifford calls it, the lombard, or cannon, aboard Santa Maria. ![]() How can a shipwreck hunter make his claims stick?Ĭlifford has pointed to “ballast” in the form of stones from the ship as evidence to identify Santa Maria. ![]() How to tell one ancient wreck from another?Īll of these factors make finding Santa Maria difficult. Other ships have sailed through those same waters over the years, and perhaps collided with the reefs. Why? To prevent others from exploiting his discoveries.įinally, it’s unlikely that any of the wooden parts of the ship have survived after all these years. And, most frustrating of all, perhaps, Columbus occasionally fudged his navigational records. Again, it represents how things looked to him 500 years ago rather than in the present. Next, there’s the evidence in Columbus’ own hand: his map of the coastline where the ship supposedly sank. It’s entirely possible, indeed, likely that reefs encountered by Santa Maria have shifted significantly over time, altering or moving the wreck. … The planking opened.” Any discovery should be consistent with these descriptions, but so far no information about that is forthcoming.Īnd then we also have to account for erosion – tides and hurricanes – changing the shoreline and the reef over half a millennium. That’s a summary of what we know, and the wreck should take these factors into consideration to be considered authentic.įor starters, Columbus described in his log how the mainmast of the ship was cut away, and, as he wrote, “she lay on her beam ends. Columbus managed to rescue everyone – in fact, he never lost anyone at sea in his eight transatlantic crossings – and to gather valuable items from the ship before it sank into an estimated 15 to 25 feet of water. (The outward-bound trip had taken just 33 days, a testament, in part, to Columbus’ navigational genius.) Columbus said he stretched out for a nap at this time.Īs the fleet traversed the northern coast of what is now Haiti, the ship’s master turned over the tiller to a 14-year-old ship’s boy, and soon after Santa Maria ran into a reef and began to disintegrate. On Christmas Eve 1492, crew members of all three ships were celebrating, drinking and looking forward to a speedy voyage home to Spain. The story of this wreck is well-known, and documented by Columbus himself. No one doubts that he led some of the most important voyages of discovery ever undertaken, and that’s why the fate of Santa Maria matters today. Love him or hate him, Columbus made a difference. As the author of “Columbus: The Four Voyages,” which surveys the explorer’s career, I was naturally drawn to this remarkable find – if that’s what it is. ![]()
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