Santa Maria — Columbus's 1492 Flagship Model, Handcrafted Wood | Admiral Line
Santa Maria — Columbus's 1492 Flagship Model, Handcrafted Wood | Admiral Line
Model details
- Materials
- Mahogany, Western red cedar, Rosewood, Brass, Linen sails
- Construction
- Plank-on-frame, built by hand
- Condition
- Fully assembled, ready to display
- Display
- Wooden base with brass nameplate
- Collection
- Tall Ship Models - Admiral Line
- Item no.
- T306
The flagship of the 1492 crossing, built plank on frame in hardwood and delivered fully assembled.
The Santa Maria was a nao — a broad, deep-waisted merchant carrack, slower than her two consorts but able to carry the stores a transatlantic voyage demanded. Our model keeps that heavy, high-sterned profile rather than slimming it into something prettier and wrong.
Construction
- Plank-on-frame hull in western red cedar, rosewood and mahogany
- Hand-knotted standing and running rigging
- Hand-stitched linen sails, including the red cross on the mainsail
- Deck fittings, capstan, ship's boat and rudder detail
- Solid wood base with engraved brass nameplate
- Fully assembled — no kit, no glue, no tools
History
Roughly 62 feet on deck and about 100 tons burden, the Santa Maria sailed from Palos on 3 August 1492 with the Niña and the Pinta. She never sailed home. On Christmas morning 1492 she grounded on a reef off Hispaniola and could not be freed. Her timbers were salvaged to build La Navidad, the first Spanish settlement in the Americas, and Columbus returned aboard the Niña.