Model of the Santa Maria. (Credit: SPL/Getty Images)
Santa Maria
Christopher Columbus famously set sail on his first voyage to the New World with three ships—the Niña, the Pinta and the Santa Maria—but only two returned to Spain. On Christmas Eve 1492, the sailor charged with steering the flagship Santa Maria handed the wheel over to an inexperienced cabin boy, who promptly ran the vessel onto a coral reef near modern day Haiti. Crewmen managed to empty the ship of its cargo with the help of local natives, but it sank the following day and may have later been buried by sediment. Its precise location has since been lost to history. Underwater explorer Barry Clifford made headlines in 2014 after he claimed to have found the Santa Maria using information from Columbus’ journals, but an examination by UNESCO experts later found proof that the wreck belonged to a different ship from the 17th or 18th centuries.
