Nao

In his diary Columbus always refers to the Santa Maria as a "nao" and the Pinta and Nina as "caravels". We have no reason to believe otherwise. We also know from the diary that the Santa Maria was of a different type than the Nina and Pinta. She could only sail 7 points into the wind, while the caravels were able to reach 5 - 5½ points. A "nao" was usually larger than a "caravel" and a "carrack" usually larger than a "nao". From a mention in passing we know that the Santa Maria was equipped with a forecastle.

In his report on Columbus' first voyage, Bartolome de las Casas stated that the Santa Maria was a nao of about 100 tons.

Most experts, including R.C. Anderson, Jose Maria Martinez Hidalgo, Bjorn Landstrom, and Heinrich Winter, agree that Santa Maria was a "nao", while the other two ships were "caravels". The Pinta was probably rigged with a square mainsail and the smaller Nina with latin sails only. Santa Maria is only known to have been a nao of little more than a 100 tons. However we do not even know which "ton" of the many in use at the time that was referred to here. The general shipbuilding instructions of the day specified that a nao should have the proportions 1:2:3, but the various instructions differed in which dimensions should be used. The best illustration of what a contemporary nao would look like is found in the Maritiem Museum "Prins Hendrik" in Rotterdam where the Matero model is preserved. Of the smaller caravels even less is known today.

There has been three earlier reconstructions of the Santa Maria and the other two ships of Columbus' fleet. The first reconstruction was done by Fernandez Duro for the 400th anniversary of the discovery of America in 1892. Duro's reconstruction shows the Santa Maria as a "nao". The ship was built by the Arsenal de la Carraca, Cadiz, for the Chicago International Exhibition. In the summer of 1892 this ship sailed over the Atlantic and arrived in Puerto Rico after 36 days.

In 1927 a study for a new reconstruction was published by Julien Guillen Tato. This reconstruction was intended for the Exposicion Ibero-America at Seville in 1929. For rather obscure reasons Guillen Tato choose to base his reconstruction on the caravel.

Of the 1992 reconstructions, the nao Santa Maria has been built by Astilleros Viudes, Barcelona, the caravel Pinta by Astilleros Reunidos at Isla Cristina, Huelva, and the caravel Nina by the Naval Dockyard of Cartagena. These ships have all been based on results from the research conducted by Jose Maria Martinez Hidalgo.

In the Basque provinces a ton of 2250 Castillian lbs and a volume of two pipes (tonelas) or eight cubic codos was used. At that time the length of the codo seems to have varied from shipyard to shipyard. The average length of the Castillian codo was about 56-57 cm.

Lawrence Wineberg suggested that a full size reconstruction of Santa Maria should be built for exhibition at the New York fair in 1964-1965.

Updated 1996-06-09 by Lars Bruzelius

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