Christopher Columbus’ explorations have for centuries been
intriguing a large audience. It is one of the key things you learn
about during history classes in school. So it is no wonder that the quest of
finding the wreck of the Santa Maria, caught the interest
of an international audience.
The Santa Maria was the biggest of the three vessels that Columbus
used during his first voyage to the west in 1492, with the mission of finding a
safe westerly trading route to India. Unexpectedly for him, he encountered the
Americas (although he didn’t reach the actual mainland until his third journey
in 1498), more specifically some Caribbean isles such as modern day Bahamas and
Haiti. It was outside Haiti that the Santa Maria ran aground and had to be left
behind.
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| Columbus' first journey west in 1492 - Source |
Earlier this year in May, Barry Clifford announced that he
had found the Santa Maria outside the coast of Haiti. This discovery was
reported in many newspapers across the world and following this announcement
the Ministry of Culture of Haiti asked for assistance in researching the site
from the UNESCO Scientific and Technical Advisory Body (STAB). Subsequently a
team of researchers was put together and sent out in September 2014 to
investigate the site.
After conducting dives over the site, the team could
conclude that this was in fact a shipwreck due to the mound of ballast found on
the location. They also recovered a small number of artefacts from the site,
such as copper nails and possible copper sheathing. The presence of the copper
sheathing suggests that this wreck was in fact a much later wreck than the 15th
century Santa Maria, and is more likely to be from the 18th and 19th
century. The copper sheathing of the hull was first adapted on ships by the
British Royal Navy in the 1760s, which for example was used on the famous HMS
Victory (flagship of Lord Nelson during the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805) that
was completed in 1765.
Although further investigations now conclude that this
shipwreck could not possibly be the Santa Maria, the question of where she lies
still remains unanswered. Another question that also emerges is the identity of
the found ship. Could this be a lost ship of the British Royal Navy or is it
something completely different?
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| Copper sheathing found on the site - Source |
In the beginning of the UNESCO report, there is a mentioning
of the difficult situation concerning archaeology on Haiti. Although the government
has signed the UNESCO 2001 convention of protection of underwater heritage,
they released a public notice in 2006 stating that all archaeological research
(both terrestrial and submerged) would be suspended until further notice. This
comes from the issue that the Haitian State University currently doesn’t offer
any sort of archaeological training, and most of the previously conducted
research in the area has been done by foreign researchers. Perhaps the quest
for finding the Santa Maria, which has been a lot international attention,
could help with making the Haitian government attracted to the idea of
researching the Island’s archaeological heritage? The key thing would be to
help spread the knowledge of the archaeological research in order to provide an
understanding of the importance of conducting proper scientific surveys of
archaeological sites. In the UNESCO report for the shipwreck thought to be the
Santa Maria there is also a mentioning of looting of the said site. With no
stately bodies concerned with investigating the archaeological sites, it is impossible
to keep a constant eye on the state of these sites, which makes them very
attractive to be looted. Again, a more public awareness could help with this
issue, and what better way to do it than to use an already internationally
recognised project?
I’ve included the reference to the online document of the
UNESCO report below if you are interested in reading it.
L
UNESCO.2014. The Mission of the Scientific and Technical Advisory Body to Haiti. [online], Available from: http://www.unesco.org/new/fileadmin/MULTIMEDIA/HQ/CLT/images/Haiti-STAB-en.pdf [Accessed on: 7th October 2014]
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