Gets to Sea at Last the monarchs ' order, were a burden on the merchants of the town. But the men who worked on the ships and sailed them were paid by the royal treasury , which must have cheered people up more than a bit. Columbus chartered a third ship, the burdensome nao Santa Maria , which is now thought to have been about 100 tons and perhaps 77-ft long. She was in port on a voyage from Galicia in northern Spain, with her owner Juan de la Cosa aboard as master. He would sai l in her as master in Columbus's voyage. One of the caravels, a lithe and able vessel of some 55 tons, perhaps 67-ft long, was also sai led by 0 l&ia~~ her owner, Juan Nino, from whom she got the nickname she ~ was universall y known by, Nina. Her proper name was Santa ยง Clara, after the patron saint of the nearby port of Moguer, ~ ~~~~~ where she was built. Columbus ' s great biographer Samuel ~ El iot Morison notes that Ni1ia was Columbus ' s favorite ship, i :: and may have carried him as much as 25,000 salt-water miles, Almost five hundred years later, a new Pinta (foreground) in the three voyages he was to make in her. And Juan Nino, he and Santa Maria make sail in the Saltes River. notes, became Columbus's favorite shipmate. At least three Ninos went on this first voyage, Juan ' s younger brother Per- Columbus fai led to make what the Pinzon family regarded as alonso, aged about 24, sai ling as pilot with Columbus in the suitable acknow ledgement. " Santa Maria (he was to go on to do some distinguished And there, one feels , is the nub of it: local and familial pride voyaging of his own, later). Another brother, Francisco, aged aroused when the hometown hero is snubbed. Martin Alonso ' s abo ut 19, an apprentice on this voyage, became Nina's pilot on death immediately after hi s return from the voyage undoubtathe second, and was with Columbus on hi s fourth and final bly heaped fuel on this smoldering fire. voyage to the Americas . "In these Ninos," says Morison , "one Martin Alonso appears to have been a good seaman, despite recognizes that competent and loyal type of seaman and flouting hi s superior ' s orders on the voyage. His younger officer whose work is essential to the success of any voyage; brother Vicente Yafiez Pinzon, captain of the Nina (above her men who never," he adds , " lay claim to more than their just sailing master/owner Juan Nino), was first-class as a seaman desserts, or talk against their captain behind his back." and went on to di scover the Amazon River in South America Martin Alonso Pinzon who became master of the second on an independent voyage in 1499-1500. And, growls Moricaravel, the Pinta, was a more difficult case. A native of Palos, son, Vicente Yafiez, " unlike hi s brother, obeyed orders." his memory is honored in the town today- he may be said to And what of the crews to sail the ships under these proud reflect pride in the local seafaring tradition , whose followers officers? Because three of the 90 men embarked had to be seem to have shown some resentment that the venture was sprung out of jail, the story has gotten around that Columbus under command of the proud if not arrogant Genoese Colum- sailed with the sweepings of the seaport town. Not so. Of the bus. The men of Genoa were all over Spain and Portugal; their three "jailbirds," one had been locked up for killing a man in merchants gathered in enclaves in the big cities. And in a brawl , and the other two for conspiring to help their friend Columbus 's case, he brought with him court connections and escape. They were not jailbirds in any useful sense of the word, his self-taught book learning, which he did evidently not hide and they went on to successfu l careers at sea. For the most part these were hometown crews, with the addition of the continunder a bushel. He was not an easy man to get along with . And Martin Alonso had had ambitions of his own. Evi- gent that had come down from Galicia in the Santa Maria, and dently he had dreamed of a Westward voyage despite the four foreigners: a Portuguese and three men from the Italian fai lures of the Portuguese navigators who had tried punching peninsula-from Genoa, Calabria and Venice. out to the westward against the prevailing west winds. In * * * * * evidence given at the hearings over Columbus ' estate, which Fitting out for an ocean voyage is always time-consuming dragged on for decades after his death , members of the Pinzon beyond belief, and even with comparatively simple, modern fam ily testified that Martin Alonso had traveled to Rome and sailing vessels it is filled with a myriad of very particular, exthere uncovered an account of a voyage made by the legendary acting details which have to be perfectl y met or workable subQueen of Sheba to Japan- a voyage made to the westward. stitutes found . In Columbus's day, all the materials used had The claim was made that he had told Columbus of this nowhere near the tensile strength or toughness of modem documentary evidence of the feasibility of hi s voyage and Co- fittings, cordage and fabric . Each ship had to be a self-conlumbus had used it to secure the support of the Spani sh tained community including all the skill s and tools required to forge iron fittings, replace worn rigging, and sew new sai lsmonarchs. Such testimony was encouraged by the royal authority in as well as defending itse lf in case of hostile encounter, and the hearings, called pleitos, for the crown was working to feeding, clothing and maintaining itself in reasonable health reduce the claims of the Columbus heirs. Nevertheless , Mori- and sty le. Style was particularl y important, indeed. There were son feel s there was a substratum of truth in the Pinzon story. hymns to open and close the day, and morning prayers and Probably Pinzon had heard of a mythical westward voyage, other ceremonies, some of which are observed in the Spanish and this led him to adopt and support Columbus ' s case. And Navy today. In a facetio us account of shipboard life on a trans-Atlantic unquestionably hi s local standing helped Columbus. Morison notes: "No doubt his example and influence were useful in passage to Santo Domingo in 1573 , written by a government recruiting men , but his conduct on the voyage was such that functionary named Eugenio de Salazar to entertain a friend , SEA HISTORY 55, AUTUMN 1990
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