Saturday, May 19, 2012
Santa Maria Ship Tour
On Saturday the 12th, I went with a small group to visit the replica of Christopher Columbus' Santa Maria. I was really surprised by how small the ship was, considering it was the ship Columbus himself sailed on and chose as the lead ship. We were led through the deck and the hull of the ship as our guide explained how the sailors would have lived and sailed across the Atlantic to discover the new world. Returning to the size of the ship, it turns out the Santa Maria was actually the smallest of the three ships and wasn't even actually designed for exploration, and had to be torn apart on Christmas Eve when it hit land and was damaged beyond repair. The 39 people who Columbus had to leave behind before returning for them a year later disappeared and I found that interesting, because I never knew (or simply didn't remember) that such a tragedy occurred. Overall, this was a great experience and it definitely taught me I won't be exploring the seas any time soon!
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I too went to the Santa Maria tour. It was really interesting. I thought it was great history on how the boat was built and what it was like to live on the ship. It was a beautiful replica and I learned a lot. I thought it was interesting how when Columbus returned to his crew a year later from the voyage, all of them were missing and the village was burned down. Another Roanoke perhaps? Meaning, they could have abandoned their place because of danger or something. Or perhaps they didn't want to wait for Columbus and found something better. Either way, it was very interesting and bonus I didn't fall down the steep steps. :)
ReplyDeleteI also went on the Santa Maria ship tour. It was very educational and it was nice just to be off campus. I plan on switching my major to Anthropological Sciences with a special interest in marine archaeology; so being able to see a replica of one of the most famous boats in the history of the America's was very interesting to me. There where tons of facts that I learned on our tour. Like did you know that none of the ship's crew survived? The Santa Maria crash landed on Haiti on Christmas and Columbus had his crew stay there while he boarded the Pinta to continue his journey. When Columbus returned to pick up his crew, their fort was burnt to the ground and there was no evidence of his crew. If you like boats and history I would definitely recommend heading over to the Santa Maria.
ReplyDeleteThe Santa Maria Ship tour was really neat. I enjoyed being aboard a replica of the original ship. It was shocking to me that so many people would sleep in such a small area (but they took shifts sleeping of course). Even the captain's area was much smaller than I had imagined. I think being introduced to movies like "Pirates of the Caribbean" makes me have a tendency to overdramatize what I think real life events were like. One of the most interesting parts of the story of the Santa Maria was the disappearance of the entire crew after Columbus left ship. It makes me wonder what exactly happened, and if any ship members were lucky enough to survive!
ReplyDeleteI loved the tour of the Santa Maria! I felt it was really relevant since I'm taking a History of Colonial Latin America class this quarter, and Columbus was a pretty big unit in the class. It was really cool to see an exact replica of the ship, too. It's amazing that anyone could have survived months in such a tiny space! I don't think I personally could have made it to America under those conditions lol.
ReplyDeleteOur tour guide was great; she really knew her stuff! As a history major, I hope to get into a similar profession. I love historical tours and museums, so I was very excited to experience this tour. I had such a great time!