USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -Columbus set sail from Spain in three ships: the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria. On August 3, 1492, Italian explorer Christopher Columbus started his voyage across the Atlantic Ocean. With a crew of 90 men and three ships-the Niña, Pinta, and Santa Maria-he left from Palos de la Frontera, Spain.

Detailed explanation-2: -For Columbus’s maiden journey, he used a Spanish update to the caravel known as the caravela redonda, a three-masted ship where the first two masts were rigged with conventional square sails for open-ocean speed, and a third was rigged with a lateen sail for coastal maneuverability.

Detailed explanation-3: -There are no known contemporary likenesses of Columbus’s ships. Santa María (also known as the Gallega) was the largest, of a type known as a carrack (carraca in Spanish), or by the Portuguese term nau. La Niña and La Pinta were smaller. They were called caravels, a name then given to the smallest three-masted vessels.

Detailed explanation-4: -The Niña & Pinta-Sanger Ships LLC. The original Niña, Pinta, and Santa Maria used by Christopher Columbus on his first voyage across the Atlantic were common trading vessels. The Santa Maria which Columbus never liked, ran aground and sank on Christmas Eve 1492 in Hispaniola (now Cap Haitien).