"It's hard to believe they crossed the Atlantic in these."
GHOSTS OF HONOR: Sea Trials for Columbus's Ships by Randall Edwards
Three ghost ships emerged from the mists of maritime hi story to crash a party at the public dock in the Spanish port city of Huelva one evening last August. A hu ge crowd rocked and swayed to the rhythm of a salsa band while the ships stood sil ent at the quay , their rigging and masts bathed in spotli ghts. The three specters hadn ' t come uninvited. T hey were the "ghosts of honor. " The replicas of the Nina , the Pinta and the Santa Maria were to set sail the next day, August 3, 1990, for a shakedown crui se in the Mediterranean. The ships are be ing readied for a repri se, in 199 1, of Christopher Columbus's first Atlantic cross ing to the New World . The ships will spend 1992, the quincentenni al of that voyage, touring US ports. Huelva, a grim y industrial seaport given the lowest marks in the tour guides, was most exci ted. The Admiral has lost a little of hi s old World charm , hi s image tarni shed by recent publications that detail hi s grasping gold lust and treatment of native populations in the Americas. Butthathasn' t stopped Hue lva from giving him the hero treatment. All day long, for two days, people stood in long lines in the hot sun , waiting fo rfree tours of the ship 's decks. Many seemed to doubt that the shipyards had created these replicas to the proper scale. "It' s hard to believe they crossed the Atlantic in these. They are so small ," said visitor Isabel Horrill o. Indeed, it was hard to imagine men willing to face the fury of the North Atlantic in such ships . The hemp rigging seemed so frail and the ships so ungainly by today ' s standards, with so much freeboard for such small boats. At 77 feet in length , with 50 feet of mast above deck, the Santa Maria is the largest of the three, but she seemed tiny. Santiago Bolivar Pineiro , a descendant of South American liberator Simon Bo livar, has become, by hi s positi on as commander of this voyage, the successor of the Admiral of the Ocean Sea. The ta ll Spanish naval officer was casually confident and smiled eas il y through hi s thick beard while showing a group of reporters through the ships. He promi sed hi s crew would be safe. " What worries us least is cross ing the Atlantic; what worries us most is nav igating along the coas ts," Bolivar expla ined through an interpreter. He re20
the US when the ships arrive. It was from Palos, not Huelva, that Columbus sailed on August 3, 1492. He floated down the Rio Tinto to sea, but that river is now blocked by sedimentation and a low bridge, so this summer's departure took place at the mouth of the river. Thousands of Spaniards gathered on the shore and on the bridge to watch the crew drop flowers into the water at the base of a brooding statue of Co lumbus staring out to sea. It was well past noon and the sun was The new Santa Maria, latest in a long series hot over the Costa del Sol by the time the of replicas of the world' s most fam ous ship , fl eet finally got underway, and the scene makes sail in August 1990 on the waters by that time was just short of pandemowhere the original ship set sail in 1492. nium . He licopters buzzed overhead and watercraft of al I shapes and sizes crowded minded us that Columbus lost the Santa about the ships. The replicas left under Maria on the coast of Hi spano lia. Boli- the power of their modem motors, bevar does not want to lose hi s Santa cause maneuvering under sail would be Maria-she cost some $2.5 million. tricky in such a crush of boats. The ships, Bo livar said , have been There were a few ex hil arating mopainstakingly constructed to be as au- ments when the Nina loosed her sa il s thentic as possible, both in des ign and and wheeled qui ckly abo ut, heading out material s. Oak frames are planked in to sea to a cacaphonous farewell of boat pine taken from trees that were cut in the whistles, car horns and the clanging of Pryenees during a full moon in winter. church be ll s in Palos. The crews had Bolivar explained that this was on old little to do. They climbed the rigging, tradition based on the belief that the took photographs of one another and moon influences the fl ow of sap, and that waved to the bikini-clad women in the wood cut at the wrong time will split. pursuing boats. They didn't seem nervThe ships carry no names on their ous. stems because sailors of the period be"Of course, there is some apprehenlieved that, by changi ng the name of sion ," said Rafael Mazarrasa, President each ship for each voyage, they could of the Spain '92 Foundation. "B ut these thwart the "evi l eye." people are traditional Spaniards. We re ly Some of the gear, however, would on luck and God's he lp." And the comhave raised the eyebrows of a 15th pany of the Spanish Navy , which will century mariner. The Sa nta Maria 's accompany the ships across the Atlantic. eq uipment inc ludes inflatable lifeboats Since August the ships have been tucked away in cani sters, life jackets, visiting Spanish ports, inc luding Sevelectric bil ge pumps (wood and leather ille, where more that 400,000 visitors rep I icas of those Co lumbus used are also came over a five-day period to see the o n bo a rd ) , communi cat ion radios, ships docked in the Guadalquivir River. weather radar and a small jet propul sion They will set sai l from the mouth of the motor to he lp guide the ships through Tinto Ri ver again on October 12, 199 1, crowded harbors. Many of these items to trace Co lumbus ' s voyage to the New are required by the US Coast Guard, World. They will visit 12 to 15 of AmerBolivar said with the air of a schoolboy ica's princ ipal ports between landfall ex plaining to hi s friends that hi s mother and October 12, 1992, when they are made him wear galoshes to school. scheduled to visit San Francisco. The The Santa Maria will carry a crew of following two years will be spent tour26, the largest. The Nina' s crew is 16, ing more than 50 ports in the Americas and 17 will crew the Pinta. The ships are so that students of hi story-young and commanded by Spanish Navy officers old-can meet these ghosts from Spain's but the crews are volunteer, many com- golden age. D ing from Spain ' s amateur sailing clubs. The crews wi ll rotate, and the sponsors Mr. Edwards is a reporter for the Cowill probably accept volunteers from lumbus Di spatch. SEA HISTORY 56, WINTER 1990