La Santa María de la Inmaculada Concepción (Spanish for
The Saint Mary of the Immaculate Conception), was the largest of the three ships used by Christopher Columbus in his first voyage. Her master and owner was Juan de la Cosa. The
Santa María was probably a small carrack, about 70 feet long, used as the flagship for the expedition. The other ships of the Columbus expedition were the smaller caravel-type ships
Santa Clara, remembered as
La Niña ("
The Girl"), and
La Pinta ("
The Painted One"). All these ships were second-hand (if not third or more) and were never meant for exploration. The
Santa María was originally named
La Gallega ("The Galician), because she was built in Pontevedra, Galicia, in Spain's north-west. It seems the ship was known to her sailors as
Marigalante, Spanish for "Gallant Maria". Bartolomé de Las Casas never used
La Gallega,
Marigalante or
Santa María in his writings, preferring to use
la Capitana or
La Nao.
The
Santa María had a single deck and three masts. She was the slowest of Columbus's vessels but performed well in the Atlantic crossing. She ran aground off the present-day site of Cap Haitien, Haiti on December 25, 1492, and was lost. Realizing that the ship was beyond repair, Columbus ordered his men to strip the timbers from the ship. The timbers from the ship were later used to build Môle Saint-Nicolas, which was originally called
La Navidad (Christmas) because the wreck occurred on Christmas Day. Thank you
Maria for this nice historical card.
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