We only really know the fate of one of the three ships.
and former director of maritime heritage for NOAA. "It's a search veritably for three needles in a haystack," observes James Delgado, vice-president at Search Inc. Another important tool, the magnetometer, detects metallic remains underwater, but since ships of this period used little metal in their construction, they can "hide very well" in a search, he adds. Even then, what remains would be hard to find.Īrchaeologists use side-scan sonar as a primary tool to find shipwrecks on the sea bottom, but if a wreck is buried under feet of sediment, sonar can be "simply blind" to it, says Cook. "That bay has changed so much," he observes. Anne's Bay, Jamaica, describes coring though 20 feet of sediment to find evidence of the historic landscape. Greg Cook, an archaeologist who has searched for the remains of ships from Columbus's Fourth Fleet in St. "Ships lost in cold, dark, deep water have a much better chance of staying intact and maintaining their 'time capsule' value." The landscape has radically changed since Columbus's time.Ĭenturies of tropical storms, changes in land use, and deforestation have significantly altered the coastlines Columbus once navigated.
Also known as shipworms and "termites of the sea," these creatures can devour an exposed wooden wreck within a decade and are the arch-nemesis of underwater archaeologists working in the region.Īny wooden vessel that resisted the predations of shipworms would also have to survive five centuries of tropical storms and hurricanes in shallow waters, observes Donald Keith, an archaeologist who has searched for Gallega, a ship from Columbus's Fourth Fleet which disappeared in 1503. The warm waters of the Caribbean are paradise for teredo worms, which are actually mollusks with a voracious appetite for wood. Here are some of the reasons why finding the remains of the First Fleet is so difficult: The conditions are lousy for ship preservation. While generations of school children have sung of the adventures of the " Niña, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria too," the remains of Columbus' history-making First Fleet-as well as those of his subsequent three expeditions-remain undiscovered, despite decades of dedicated searching by archaeologists and shipwreck hunters alike.
#NINA PINTA AND SANTA MARIA SERIES#
Instead, his crew sighted land in the Caribbean on October 12, 1492, setting in motion a series of events that would lead to the European colonization of the New World. "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.This year marks the 525th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's first Transatlantic expedition, a voyage that the Italian explorer expected would take him to Asia. "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.
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