Santa Maria

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SANTA MARIA

SANTA MARIA. The Santa Maria, the flagship of Christopher Columbus, headed the fleet of three vessels that reached the New World on 12 October 1492. Two months later, on Christmas Eve, it ran aground off the coast of Hispaniola, in the present-day Dominican Republic. From the ship's wreckage Columbus had a fort erected at La Navidad before he left for Spain. He found the fort destroyed and its garrison murdered when he returned in November 1493. Although the colony established there faltered and Columbus soon lost the favor of his patron, Queen Isabella of Castile, the voyage of the Santa Maria inaugurated European imperialism in the New World.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Pastor, Xavier. The Ships of Christopher Columbus: Santa Maria, Niña, Pinta. Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute Press; London: Conway Maritime Press, 1992.

Wilford, John N. The Mysterious History of Columbus: An Exploration of the Man, the Myth, the Legacy. New York: Knopf, 1991.

Francis BorgiaSteck/a. r.

See alsoExpeditions and Explorations: Spanish .

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