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The '''Santa María''' was the largest of the three ships used by Christopher Columbus in his first voyage across the Atlantic Ocean in 1492. Her master and owner was Juan de la Cosa.
The ''Santa María'' was a small carrack, or "Nao" around 70 feet, and was used as the flagship for the expedition. She carried 40 men. In 1492, in the middle of the expedition, the ship ran aground and was abandoned.

The other ships of the Columbus expedition were the caravel-type ships ''Santa Clara'', remembered as the ''Niña'' ("The Girl" – a pun on the name of her owner, Juan Niño) and ''Pinta'' ("The Painted" – this might be a reference to excessive makeup or perhaps prostitution). All these ships were second-hand (if not third or more) vessels and were never meant for exploration.
The ''Santa María'' was originally named ''La Gallega'' ("The Gallician"), probably because she was built in Galicia, (but it was also a euphemism to designate a prostitute, it seems the ship was known to her sailors as ''Marigalante'', literally "Dirty Mary"). Bartolomé de Las Casas never used ''La Gallega, Marigalante'' or ''Santa María'' in his writings, preferring to use ''la Capitana'' or ''La Nao''.
The ship was about 82 ft long, had a deck and three masts. She was the slowest of Columbus' vessels but performed well in the Atlantic crossing. The ship ran aground off the present-day site of Môle Saint-Nicolas, Haiti on December 25, 1492, and was lost. Timbers from the ship were later used to build Môle Saint-Nicolas, which was originally called ''La Navidad'' (Christmas) because of the fact that the wreck occurred on Christmas Day.
No authentic contemporary likeness of any of the three ships of the Columbus expedition is known to exist. Several replicas of the ''Santa Maria'' have been built, all based solely on conjecture.

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Reconstructing

Reconstructing

Interest in reconstructing the Santa Maria started in the 1890s for the 400th anniversary of Columbus' voyage. The 1892 reconstruction depicted the ship as a Nao. A subsequent replica built in the 20th century (pictured above) depicts the Santa Maria as a Caraval. The Caraval didn't have the high forward structure of the Nao... Aparently Columbus himself referred to the Santa Maria as both a Nao and Caraval in his own journal. The 1992 reconstruction of the Santa Maria is also as a Nao, which is the most commonly accepted type of ship. The Ships of Christopher Columbus, by Xavier Pastor, Naval Institute Press, 1992, is a good reference on reconstructions of the Santa Maria (along with the Pinta and Niña).
; See also

★ Ship replica (including a list of ship replicas)