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| Synopsis: Most Americans learned
the rhyme in school: "In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue." Also familiar
are the names of the explorer's three ships, the Nina, the Pinta, and
the Santa Maria. But few know that only two of these historic ships ever
made it back to Spain. The Santa Maria ran aground while exploring the
New World, and a crew of 39 men was left behind while the Nina and the
Pinta returned home. By the time Columbus returned to the New World, the
crew was dead, and the details surrounding their last days remain a mystery.
Now two Discovery Quest scientists, one on land and the other on sea,
attempt to uncover the fate of the Santa Maria and her crew. QUEST FOR
COLUMBUS: In Search of the Santa Maria is a worldwide premiere Discovery
Quest airing Sunday, May 23, from 9-10 PM. Records indicate that on Christmas Eve, 1492, only two-and-a-half months after arriving in the Caribbean, the Santa Maria wrecked on a sandbar. Unable to take the extra men back on the two smaller ships, Columbus ordered a crew to build a small fort called La Villa de La Navidad (or "Christmas Town"). There they lived alongside the Taino natives while they awaited Columbus' return. Kathy Deagan, an archeologist at the University of Florida in Gainesville, has spent the last 20 years researching early European settlements in the Americas. Now, after discovering key clues on two digs in Haiti, she believes she may have found La Navidad. Remnants of pigs and rats - non-native animals - found on her first dig indicated an early European settlement, but nothing more concrete. So Deegan keeps searching for a more tangible trace of the fort. If Deagan's estimated location of La Navidad is correct, the Santa Maria should be fairly closeby: 4.2 nautical miles to be exact, according to Columbus' log. Barry Clifford, the underwater explorer believed to have discovered Captain Kidd's ship off the coast of Madagascar, has retraced the Santa Maria's route to try and discover where she went aground. Using the coordinates of Deagan's find as a starting point, Clifford discovers an offshore site littered with a ship's ballast stones and a few timbers, wreckage that he hopes was once the Santa Maria's hull. Carbon dating reveals that the wreck's timbers are too recent to be from the Santa Maria. But if that site doesn't hold the Santa Maria, where could the ship be? After five weeks of digging, Deagan hits pay dirt. Darkened stains in the soil indicated burn marks outlining the remains of a fort-like structure. After probing a layer of soil undisturbed for 500 years, she finds a solid chunk of charcoal, a piece from a wooden post. But it could be a much bigger find than that. Columbus' captain's log indicates that the Santa Maria's crew salvaged everything they could, including planks and timbers and used them to build La Navidad. Deagan takes the wood charcoal to be carbon dated and makes an exciting discovery. The lab confirms that the wood was harvested around 1472, near the time of the Santa Maria's creation. Chances are, the wreck of the Santa Maria didn't remain in water. She was transformed into the fort La Navidad and spent her last days on land in the New World. Production Credits: QUEST FOR COLUMBUS: In Search of the Santa Maria is produced by Engel Brothers Media for the Discovery Channel. For Engel Brothers, Mary Olive Smith is producer. For Discovery Channel, Tomi Bednar Landis is executive producer. |
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