The Nina and the Santa Cruz carried more than 90 of them, including farmers and stockmen, crossbowmen, a priest, locksmith, miner and surgeon. Its total carrying capacity was 58 to 60 tons.įor this third voyage, Columbus had received permission to take as many as 330 persons to the Indies on royal salary. The ship appears, therefore, to have been 67 feet long, with a beam of 21 feet and a draft of just under 7 feet.

Lyon calculated the Nina’s 1498 Indies lading at just over 52 tons. Also aboard for the colonists were olive oil, sardines, raisins and garlic.įrom a ship’s loaded cargo, it is possible to estimate the dimensions of its hold, and thus its hull. Caulkers worked 40 days on its deck and hull.įinally, the documents say, it was refitted and fully laden: 18 tons of wheat, 17 tons of wine in great pipe barrels, about 7 tons of sea biscuit, almost 2 tons of flour, more than 2,000 pounds of cheese and a ton of salt pork. The Nina received new sails, a new 200-pound anchor, and cartloads of planking. To pay his seamen, the documents disclose, Columbus used funds he was to have taken to Hispaniola, hoping to balance the books with gold to be found there. An angry Columbus recovered it.įinally preparing for his third voyage to the New World, Columbus decided to send the Nina and its companion ship Santa Cruz ahead to Hispaniola in early February, 1498, with much-needed supplies. The crew, through bribery, escaped and returned the ship safely to Spain. 'Ideally, if excavations go well and depending on the state of preservation of any buried timber, it may ultimately be possible to lift any surviving remains of the vessel, fully conserve them and then put them on permanent public exhibition in a museum in Haiti,' he said, adding that 'the wreck has the potential to play a major role in helping to further develop Haiti's tourism industry in the future.Next, apparently without Columbus’ approval, the Nina was sent to Rome on a commercial voyage in 1497 and was hijacked off the coast of Sardinia by a French pirate. 'It would be very exciting but I remain skeptical because people make claims all the time.'Ĭlifford said that if the shipwreck was indeed confirmed to be Columbus' Santa Maria, it should remain in Haiti. 'If whoever finds the Santa Maria can confirm that it's the Santa Maria, that's kind of like the Holy Grail,' Crisman said. The Santa Maria sank slowly in 1492 and the crew had time to remove valuable items, such as a cannon, that might have helped confirm the identity of the wreckage centuries later. However, there are reasons to be skeptical that this is indeed the Santa Maria, said Kevin Crisman, director of the Center for Maritime Archaeology and Conservation at Texas A&M University.Ĭrisman told the Associated Press that many Spanish ships sunk off Haiti and the neighboring Dominican Republic during that era. Replicas of Columbus' ships, the Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria, sail past the Statue of Liberty June 26, 1992, to celebrate the 500th anniversary of Columbus' landing in the Americas. It will be a wonderful opportunity to work with the Haitian authorities to preserve the evidence and artifacts of the ship that changed the world,' Clifford told The Independent. 'We've informed the Haitian government of our discovery - and we are looking forward to working with them and other Haitian colleagues to ensure that the site is fully protected and preserved.

Over the last several years, Clifford and his team investigated over 400 possible locations, narrowing down a tiny area where the shipwreck, which could be the Santa Maria, was found. Clifford then used the explorer's diary to try to determine where the location of the shipwreck could be, according to the British newspaper. Clifford's discovery was made possible by the work of other archaeologists, which suggested the probable location of Columbus' fort.

La crosse wi nina pinta and santa maria