Replica of the Pinta, in Palos de la Frontera. |
|
| Career (Castile) | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Unknown |
| Launched: | 1441(?) |
| Nickname: | Pinta |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Caravel |
| Tons burthen: | 60 |
| Length: | 20 m (66 ft) |
| Beam: | 7 m (23 ft) |
| Propulsion: | sail |
| Complement: | 26 |
La Pinta (Spanish for The Painted One or The Spotted One) was the fastest of the three ships used by Christopher Columbus in his first transatlantic voyage in 1492. The New World was first sighted by Rodrigo de Triana on the Pinta on October 12, 1492.
The Pinta was a caravel-type vessel. By tradition Spanish ships were named after saints and usually given nicknames. Thus, the Pinta, like the Niña, was not the ship's actual name. The actual name of the Pinta is unknown. The origin of the ship is disputed but is believed to have been built in Spain in the year 1441. It was later rebuilt for use by Christopher Columbus.
The Pinta was square rigged and smaller than the Santa María. the ship weighed approximately 60 tons with a length of 20 meters (66 ft) and a width of 7 meters (23 ft). The crew size was 26 men under Captain Martín Alonso Pinzón.
A replica of the Pinta was built by the Columbus Foundation, as well as one of the Niña. This ship weighs 101 tons and often sails alongside the Niña.
The other ships of the Columbus expedition were the Niña and the Santa María. There are no known contemporary likenesses of Columbus's ships. Replicas of each of all three ships exist, the best known of which is the "sailing museum" Niña, built in 1992, which has toured the world continuously since then.[1]
The Santa María (aka the Gallega) was the largest, of a type known as a carrack. The Niña and the Pinta were smaller. They were called caravels, a name then given to the smallest three-masted vessels. Columbus once uses it for a vessel of forty tons, but it generally applied in Portuguese or Spanish use to a vessel ranging one hundred and twenty to one hundred and forty Spanish "toneles." This word represents a capacity about one-tenth larger than that expressed by our English "ton". The Niña, Pinta, and the Santa María were not the largest ships in Europe at the time. They were smaller trade ships surpassed in size by ships like the Great Michael, built in Scotland in 1511 with a length of 73.2 m (240 ft), and a crew of 300 sailors, 120 gunners, and up to 1,000 soldiers. The Peter von Danzig of the Hanseatic League was built in 1462 and was 51 m (167.3 ft) long. Another large ship, the English carrack Grace Dieu, was built during the period 1420-1439, was 66.4 m (218 ft) long, and weighed between 1,400 tons and 2,750 tons. The reason size is mentioned is that Columbus' three ships were built to sail the Mediterranean sea, not the open ocean. This says a great deal about the courage of Columbus and his crew.
Most of the commerce of the time was the coastal commerce of the Mediterranean, so it was better if ships did not draw much water. The fleet of Columbus, as it sailed, consisted of the Gallega (the Galician), which he changed the name to the Santa María, and of the Pinta and the Niña. Of these the first two were of a tonnage that should be rated as about one hundred and thirty tons. The Niña was much smaller, not more than fifty tons. One writer says that they were all without full decks, that is, that such decks as they had did not extend from stem to stern. Other authorities, however, speak as if the Niña was only an open vessel, and the two larger were decked. Columbus himself took command of the Santa María, Martin Alonso Pinzon of the Pinta, and his brothers, Francis Martin and Vicente Yanez, of the Niña. The whole company in all three ships numbered one hundred and twenty men.[2]
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