Santa Maria
The Santa Maria, of course, is well-known to schoolkids--she was the flagship of Christopher Columbus' first expedition to the New World...even if he was looking for China.
Not much is known about the Santa Maria, as few records have survived of her, but she was a carrack (also known as a nau) that served as merchant ships and occasionally warships in the Late Middle Ages. It was not a large ship at all, only 58 feet long, which is shorter than many yachts and fishing boats today. However, its three masts, triangular sails, and hull design made it a good oceangoing ship, which was why Columbus chose it as his flagship, along with the smaller caravels, the Nina and Pinta.
The Santa Maria carried Columbus to the Western Hemisphere, but not home; on the night of Christmas Eve, an inexperienced helmsman put her on a sandbar in what is today Haiti. Unable to extricate the ship, Columbus dismantled most of it and turned it into a fort. He would take the Nina back home to Spain. Only her anchor survives to modern times, on display at Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
Dad built this model (I believe from an old Lindberg kit) for the local Knights of Columbus chapter. The quote reads "And the sea will grant each man new hope, as sleep brings dreams of home," was attributed to Columbus; moviegoers might recognize it as the quote Marko Ramius uses in the movie version of "The Hunt for Red October." This is a scan from an old picture, so I don't know what happened to the model.
Santa Maria
The Santa Maria, of course, is well-known to schoolkids--she was the flagship of Christopher Columbus' first expedition to the New World...even if he was looking for China.
Not much is known about the Santa Maria, as few records have survived of her, but she was a carrack (also known as a nau) that served as merchant ships and occasionally warships in the Late Middle Ages. It was not a large ship at all, only 58 feet long, which is shorter than many yachts and fishing boats today. However, its three masts, triangular sails, and hull design made it a good oceangoing ship, which was why Columbus chose it as his flagship, along with the smaller caravels, the Nina and Pinta.
The Santa Maria carried Columbus to the Western Hemisphere, but not home; on the night of Christmas Eve, an inexperienced helmsman put her on a sandbar in what is today Haiti. Unable to extricate the ship, Columbus dismantled most of it and turned it into a fort. He would take the Nina back home to Spain. Only her anchor survives to modern times, on display at Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
Dad built this model (I believe from an old Lindberg kit) for the local Knights of Columbus chapter. The quote reads "And the sea will grant each man new hope, as sleep brings dreams of home," was attributed to Columbus; moviegoers might recognize it as the quote Marko Ramius uses in the movie version of "The Hunt for Red October." This is a scan from an old picture, so I don't know what happened to the model.