The Santa Maria
The name Santa Maria probably rings a bell from your history lessons during your school days. Christopher Columbus’ fleet of three ships when he “discovered” the New World in 1492 were the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria. Columbus ended up losing nearly a dozen ships to the sea throughout his career, but by far, the Santa Maria was his most famous loss.
On Christmas Eve 1492, Christopher Columbus went to bed and left a cabin boy in charge of steering his ship. The Santa Maria marooned in present-day Haiti, and Columbus concluded it was beyond repair. Both the Nina and Pinta made it home to Spain.
The vessel remains missing, and while an archeological explorer claimed to have found it in 2014, experts dismissed this theory. The ship and its invaluable historic riches remain lost at sea somewhere off the coast of Haiti.
