By James Heinz
Actually, it was a replica of his flagship, the SANTA MARIA. And there are actually several replicas.
I wrote a previous story about when a replica Viking ship sailed the Great Lakes: https://wmhs.org/when-a-viking-ship-sailed-the-great-lakes/ And just like the Viking ship, the first SANTA MARIA replica was built to appear at the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago, which commemorated the 400th anniversary of Columbus arriving in America.
Photo at top of page: The SANTA MARIA at sea. Courtesy of Detroit Free Press, Library of Congress
The website www.connectingthewindycity.com reports that the U.S. Congress gave the government of Spain $50,000 to build a replica of the SANTA MARIA and of Columbus’ other two ships, the NINA and the PINTA. The website northwindheritageconsulting.com states that the SANTA MARIA was constructed without problems but the NINA and PINTA rebuilds had difficulties, so the Spanish appropriated two hulks to imitate them.
The SANTA MARIA in Chicago 1893 courtesy of worldsfairchicago1893.com
Part of the problem building a replica of the SANTA MARIA is that no one knows the dimensions of the original. We know she was a three masted ship of a type called a “Carrack”. She was carvel built of oak and had three masts. Examination of contemporaneous shipwrecks estimate that she was 62 feet long, about 18 feet wide and displaced about 100-150 tons. The 1893 SANTA MARIA was described as being 71 feet long and 25 feet wide.
The PINTA and NINA in Chicago 1893 courtesy of worldsfairchicago1893.com
The three ships took 147 days to sail and be towed across the Atlantic to Chicago. On Columbus Day 1893, the final day of the exposition, they participated in a re-enactment of Columbus’ landing.
And after that, just like the Viking ship, the city of Chicago simply ignored them, allowing them to fall into disrepair. In 1913 an effort was made to take the ships out of the Great Lakes, but they returned to Chicago. In 1918 the PINTA sank and in 1918 the NINA burned to the waterline. Repairs were made to the SANTA MARIA and she floated in the Jackson Park lagoon until 1951 when she was broken up.
But this was not the only SANTA MARIA replica to sail the Great Lakes. WMHS files show that in 1933 boatbuilder Andrew Cuthbertson and his son Tom launched a SANTA MARIA replica at Algonac, Michigan, on the St. Clair River. They named it SANTA MARIA II.
It was built of white oak, which the Cuthbertson’s cut and shaped themselves. It displaced 50 tons and was 50 feet long and 15 feet wide. It had two compartments, three masts, a full set of sails, and an auxiliary engine. WMHS files show that the SANTA MARIA II was still afloat in 1941 when it was reported that the Cuthbertson family was on a summer cruise on it in the western end of Lake Erie.
The original SANTA MARIA was wrecked off the coast of Haiti in 1492 after the helmsman fell asleep and let the cabin boy steer it. What happened to SANTA MARIA II?
The website https://radiotvpix.blogspot.com/ displays a 16 second film clip of SANTA MARIA II off Hansen’s Island in the St. Clair River in the 1940s. It says that “The Cuthbertson’s … sailed it until the late 1940’s when it was sold and sailed to St. Augustine, Florida, for use as a theme restaurant. A tropical storm sank the SANTA MARIA II in the mid-1950’s and the ship is believed to have been dismantled sometime after that.”
A video on You Tube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bC-zI-GYBVk has additional film footage, and shows that the ship had a stripe painted down the side. It tells the same story as above.
The final replica of the SANTA MARIA did not sail the Great Lakes, although it did sail the Scioto River in Columbus, Ohio. Like the 1893 replica, it was built to commemorate the 500th anniversary of Christopher Columbus arriving in America.
The SANTA MARIA of Columbus Ohio, courtesy of Wikipedia
In 1991, it was built in Albany, New York, cut in half, and trucked to Columbus, Ohio, where it was reassembled and launched into the Scioto River. It remained afloat in the river until 2014 when, to make room for waterfront development, it was cut into ten pieces which were moved to a vacant lot next to a sewage treatment plant and then reassembled, where the ship remains today.
The SANTA MARIA of Columbus Ohio, courtesy of Wikipedia
She is 97 feet long and 53 feet wide. A Spanish naval historian said that the Columbus replica is the most accurate of the current reconstructions, although it was built of white cedar instead of oak like the original.
WMHS files show that in 1976 another SANTA MARIA replica was built in Tampa, Florida. In 1978, it toured the Great Lakes, stopping in Milwaukee in September. It apparently left the Great Lakes via the Illinois River to the Mississippi until November 5, 1978, when she caught fire in the river off Point Pleasant, Missouri, where she “burned like a book of matches.” The crew took to the lifeboats and no one was injured, although the ship was a total loss except for her anchors.
And finally, in 2017 replicas of the NINA and the PINTA toured the Great Lakes, returning to the Mississippi via the Illinois River.
____________________________________
James Heinz is the Wisconsin Marine Historical Society’s acquisitions director. He became interested in maritime history as a kid watching Jacques Cousteau’s adventures on TV. He was a Great Lakes wreck diver until three episodes of the bends forced him to retire from diving. He was a University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee police officer for thirty years. He regularly flies either a Cessna 152 or 172.
