COLUMBUS SHIPS AND NAVIGATION LOG






 


Christopher Columbus' voyage:
ships and log book


Modern replica of Columbus ships
Modern replica of Christopher Columbus' ships




Ships and Navigation
Christopher Columbus' Ships and Navigation
Christopher Columbus' titles   The Santa Maria  
Reason for the name Santa Maria 
Santa Maria de la Rabida   The Pinta The Nina   Santa Maria Picture

Log Book: The Westward Voyage
Prologue Muslims and Jews
Leaving Grenada Columbus titles Beginning of log The land Fall
Cuba Hispagnola
Sinking of Santa Maria
Return voyage

 

 

The Ships and their Navigation

The Three ships, the Pinta, the Nina and the Santa Maria, were acquired in a small seaport town called Palos de la Frontera.  As a punishment for something the town or its citizens had done against the Crown of Spain, it had to provide two caravels whenever commanded to so.  This kind of levy, which also included the payment of all the costs of equipment, was to stay in effect for a maximum of 12 months.  On April 30 1492, the Crown put this levy into effect and, through an order of the Royal Council, the two caravels were placed under the command of Columbus.  The payment of four months' wages to those who participate in the voyage and a decree of amnesty to any criminal who volunteered were also authorized by the Council.  Four people only took advantage of the decree of amnesty.
Most of the crewmembers came from the immediate area or its vicinity: Palos, Huelva, and Moguer.  The northerner's members of the crew were mainly on Juan de la Costa's ship, la Callega.   Columbus retained most of its sailor and made her the flagship and changed its name to Santa Maria .

To understand the reason why he changed the name to Santa Maria we have to look in a place in Spain called La Rabida.  It is the location of the Monasterio de Santa Maria de la Rabida in Huelva. 

Cristóbal Colón arrived to this monastery in 1485 and, after many long hours of conversation with Father Juan Perez de Marchena, great humanist and expert in Astrology and Cosmography, found the scientific arguments that supported his project.

The Monastery is still standing today.   It is a beautiful building from the 15th century that keeps intact the memory of the "El Almirante".  At its feet, the visitor can see the Caravels Wharf, whose waters hold the exact replicas of the vessels that took Cristóbal Colón to America.

The  three ships were: la Santa Maria/Gallega, la Pinta and la Santa Clara also known as la Nina the feminine form of its owner surname, Nino.


 

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The Santa Maria/la Gallega, _Juan de la Costa's Ship
 

A replica of the Santa Maria

 

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 to see a larger version
 

She was a three-masted , square rig ship.  She carried a crew of about 40 men.  Some maritime historians doing the retrospective analysis of the fact have concluded that the ship displaced around 200 tons, with a length 77.4 feet, a beam of 26 feet, and draft of 6.9 feet.
The Santa Maria was lost on Christmas Eve, 1492, when she ran aground off the north coast of Haiti( near Cap Haitien)



The Crew of The Santa Maria

Cristobal Colon (Christopher Columbus), captain-general
Juan de la Cosa, owner and master
Diego de Arana, master-at-arms
Pedro de Gutierrez, royal steward
Rodrigo de Escobedo, secretary of the fleet
Rodrigo Sanchez, comptroller
Diego de Salcedo, servant of Columbus
Luis de Torres, interpreter
Rodrigo de Jerez
Alonso Chocero
Alonso Clavijo
Andres de Yruenes
Antonia de Cuellar, carpenter
Bartolome Biues
Bartolome de Torres
Bartolome Garcia, boatswain
Chachu, boatswain
Cristobal Caro, goldsmith
Diego Bermudez
Diego Perez, painter
Domingo de Lequeitio
Domingo Vizcaino, cooper
Gonzalo Franco
Jacomel Rico
Juan, servant
Juan de Jerez
Juan de la Placa
Juan Martines de Acoque
Juan de Medina
Juan de Moguer
Juan Ruiz de la Pena
Juan Sanchez, physician
Lope, joiner
Maestre Juan
Marin de Urtubia
Pedro de Terreros, cabin boy
Pero Nino, pilot
Pedro Yzquierdo
Pedro de Lepe
Rodrigo Gallego, servant

 

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The Pinta
 

A picture of the Pinta

 

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The Pinta was the second in size. She was a three-masted, square rigged caravel aproximately 70 feet long, with a beam of 26 feet, and a draft just over 7 feet. She carried 26 men. The captain was Martin Alonso Pinzon who deserted Colombus and discovered the island of Babeque (Great Inagua )   The Pinta made several more voyages across the Atlantic until 1500. Vincente Yanez Pinzon commanded the Pinta when she as the flagship for the discovery of the Amzon river.   In July 1500, la Pinta was caught in a hurricane and went down in the vicinity of the Turks and Caicos Islands.

 

Crew of the Pinta:

Martin Alonso Pinzon, captain
Francisco Martin Pinzon, master
Cristobal Garcia Xalmiento, pilot
Cristobal Quintero, ship's owner
Francisco Garcia Vallejo
Garcia Hernandez, steward
Gomez Rascon
Juan Bermudez
Juan Quintero
Juan Rodriquez Bermejo
Pedro de Arcos
Alonso de Palos
Alvaro Perez
Anton Calabres
Bernal, servant
Diego Martin Pinzon
Fernando Mendes
Francisco Mendes
Gil Perez
Juan Quadrado
Juan Reynal
Juan Verde de Triana
Juan Vecano
Maestre Diego, surgeon
Pedro Tegero
Sancho de Rama

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The Nina

 A replica of the Nina

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The Nina/Santa Clara carried about 58 to 60 tons cargo.  She was 67 feet long. The beam was 23 feet and the draft 5.8 feet. The normal crew size was 23 men but on the second voyage, she carried about 40 colonist to America.  Although it was the smallest of the three caravels, la Nina was a four-masted ship.  Originally lateen-ridged, she was squared-ridge by Columbus during a stopover in the Canary Islands on the first voyage. The Libro de Armadas in the Archivo Generale de Indias in Seville mentioned that the ship carried 10 breech-loading swivel guns, called bombardas.  The Nina made 4 more voyages to the new world after the 1492/93 trip. The original Captain, during the first voyage, was Vincente Yanez Pinzon, but after the lost of the Santa Maria, Columbus became the captain.  She was  with Colombus on his second and third voyage, and carried some cargo to Espagnola/Hispagnola on two other occasion.  In 1499, the historical caravel was sold.

 

Crew of the Niña:

Vincente Yanez Pinzon, captain
Juan Nino, owner and master
Francisco Nino
Bartolome Roldan, apprentice pilot
Alonso de Morales, carpenter
Andres de Huelva
Bartolome Garcia, boatswain
Diego Lorenzo
Fernando de Triana
Garcia Alonso
Juan Arias, cabin boy
Juan Arraes
Juan Romero
Maestre Alonso, phyiscian
Miguel de Soria, servant
Pedro de Soria
Pero Arraes
Pero Sanches
Rodrigo Monge
Sancho Ruiz, pilot

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The log of Columbus


Columbus Picture
Click on the picture to see the Columbus Voyages Map




Log Prologue
(an excerpt)


In The Name of Our Lord Jesus Christ

Most Christian, exalted, excellent, and powerful princes, King and Queen od Spain and of the islands of the sea, our Sovereigns:

It was this year of 1492 that your Highnesses concluded the war with the Moors who reigned in Europe....................................
Afterwards, in the same month, based on the information that I had given to your Highnesses about the land of India and about a prince called the Great Khan, which in our language means"Kings of Kings,"Your Highnesses decided to send me Christopher Columbus, to the region of India, to see the princes there and the people and the lands, and to learn of their disposition, and of everything,and the measures which could be taken for their conversion to our Holy Faith.......................................
 

Your Highnesses as Catholic Christians and Princes devoted to our Holy Christian faith and to the spreading of it, and as ennemies of the Muslim sect and of all idolatries and heresies, ordered that I should go est, but not by land as it is customary. I was to go by the way of the west, whence until today we do not know with certainty anyone that has gone. Therefore, after having ban all the Jews from your Kingdoms and realms, during the same month of January Your Highnesses ordered me to go with a sufficient fleet to the said region of India.

 For that purpose I was granted great favors and ennobled; from then hencefoward I might entitle my self Don and be High Admiral of the Ocean Sea and Vice-roy and perpetual Governor of all the Islands and continental land that I might discover and acquire, as well as any other future discoveries in the Ocean Sea. Further, my eldest son shall succeed to the same position, and so on from generation to generation for ever after.

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I left Grenada on Saturday, the 12th day of May in the same year of 1492 and went to the town of Palos, which is a seaport.  There I fitted out three vessels, very suited to such undertaking,  I left the said port well supplied with a large quantity of provisions and with many seamen on the third day of the month of August in the said year, on a Friday, half an hour before sunrise. I set my course to the Canary Islands of your Highnesses, which are on the Ocena Sea, from there to embark on a voyage thast will last until I arrive in the Indies and deliver the letter of your Highnesses to those Princes, and do all that your Highnesses have commanded me to do.
To this end I decided to write down everything I might do and see and experience, from day to day, and very carefully......................

 



The beginning of the Voyage
Friday,  August 3 1492
Departs From Palos, Spain( near Huelva)
"We sailed on this third day of Agust, 1492, at 8 o'clock in the morning, from the bar of Saltes. The wind is strong and variable, and we had gone 45 miles to the south by sunset. After dark I entered the course for the Cnary Islands, to the SW and south by west."

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Thursday, September 6 1492
Departs Gomera (Canary Islands) after repair and refit.
"

The Log of Thursday, October 11 1492 combined with the log of Friday, October 12 1492 
The land Discovery (somewhere in the Bahamas)
"The moon, in its third quarter, rose shortly before midnight. I estimate that we were making about 9 knots and had gone 67 !/2 miles between the beginning of the night and 2.00 o'clock in the morning. At two hours after midnight, the Pinta fired its canon, my prearranged signal for the sight of land.............
When we caught up with the Pinta, which was always running ahead because she was a swift sailer, I learned that the first man to sight land was Rodrigo de Triana, a seaman of Lepe..........."

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Sunday,  October 28 and Monday October 29 1492
Arrives at Cuba.
"......................
The Island is filled with very beautiful mountains , althought they are not very long, only high. All the other land is high like Sicily.  According to what I can understand from the indians of Guananini that are with me, this land is full of rivers.
They told me by sign that there are 10 large rivers and that the island is so large that they cannot circumnavigate it with their canoes in 20 days."
 

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Thursday, November 22 1492

Martín Alonso Pinzón, captain of the Pinta, deserts the expedition off Cuba.



Thursday, December 6 1492

Columbus arrives at Kyskeya which he renamed La Isla Espagnola.
"At the hour of vespers, we enterd a harbor that I named Puerto de de San Nicholas, in honor of St.Nicholas beacause it was his feast day.  
As I approached the entrance of this harbor, I marveled at its beauty and
excellence.............................................................
I hope to God that I can have some good trade in gold before I return to Spain"

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Tuesday, December 25 1492 (Christmas day)
The Flagship Santa Maria sinks off Hispaniola ( possibly near Cap Haitien which is the second city in Haiti). Columbus used the remains of the ship to build  the first europeen settlement in the new world.  He named it La Navidad.because it was Christmas Day.

Sunday,  January 6 1493
Pinzón rejoins Columbus.

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Wednesday,  January 16 1493
C
olumbus departs Hispaniola for Spain in the Niña.

Thursday, February 14 1493
Niña and Pinta are separated again in a fierce storm.
 

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Friday, February 15 1493
Sighting of the Santa Maria Island in the Azores.

Monday, March 4 1493
Arrival  at Lisbon, Portugal.

Friday, March 15 1493
Niña and Pinta return separately to Palos, Spain.

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