Monday, August 2, 2010

And ... And the Santa Maria

While on the Santa Maria we were able to learn a lot of things. Above are a few pictures... On top you can see a picture of Isabella listening to the speech about navigation in the 15th century. Which was very interesting that they could really only tell where they were North and South. East and West was completely a guess based on half-hour speed and compass readings. You will also see a picture of Isabella "fixing a leak". They informed us that it was one persons duty to fix leaks all day long. They did that by hammering in a tar covered piece of rope into the leaky area. (tar not included in presentation)

One bit of information that I thought was very interesting was that there were pirates when they sailed but they were not the "Pirates of the Caribbean" like we all think. They were viking long ships and that is one of the reasons why the Spanish made their ships very tall, then it was that much harder to board.

On the original Santa Maria there were over 40 people on board this small nao or carrack, only about 70 feet long. There wasn't a "below deck" for sleeping either, you were pretty much on deck at all times, night and day.

Food was dried and hung, while water was kept in barrels/kegs. Water was mixed with wine for taste. Unknowingly they actually killed off most of the bacteria with the wine mixture.


Santa Maria in Columbus, Ohio Did you know:

- World's most authentic, museum-quality replica of Christopher Columbus' flagship
- Originally it was sea worthy however with the lack of money the repairs have been been kept up to date

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

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