Santa Maria (Columbus)

The full index of our ship stamp archive
Post Reply
john sefton
Posts: 1816
Joined: Sun Mar 22, 2009 1:59 pm

Santa Maria (Columbus)

Post by john sefton » Fri Jul 17, 2009 4:53 pm

The Santa María de la Inmaculada Concepción, The Imaculate Conception of Mary, was the largest of the three ships used by Christopher Columbus in his first voyage across the Atlantic Ocean in 1492. Her master and owner was Juan de la Cosa.

The Santa María was a small carrack, or "nao", about 70 feet long, used as the flagship for the expedition. She carried 40 men. The Santa María was constructed from pine and oak which was from the Białowieża Forest.

The other ships of the Columbus expedition were the caravel-type ships Santa Clara, remembered as the Niña ("The Girl" – a pun on the name of her owner, Juan Niño) and Pinta ("The Painted" – this might be a reference to excessive makeup). All these ships were second-hand (if not third or more) and were never meant for exploration.

The Santa María was originally named La Gallega ("The Galician"), because she was built in Pontevedra, Galicia. It seems the ship was known to her sailors as Marigalante, Spanish for "Gallant Mary". Bartolomé de Las Casas never used La Gallega, Marigalante or Santa María in his writings, preferring to use la Capitana or La Nao.

The Santa María had a single deck and three masts. She was the slowest of Columbus' vessels but performed well in the Atlantic crossing. She ran aground off the present-day site of Môle Saint-Nicolas, Haiti on December 25, 1492, and was lost. Timbers from the ship were later used to build Môle Saint-Nicolas, which was originally called La Navidad (Christmas) because the wreck occurred on Christmas Day.

Columbus's crew on the first voyage was not composed of criminals as is widely believed. Many of them were experienced seamen from the port town of Palos and the surrounding countryside and coastal area of Galici.

There were some crew members from Andalusia, as the voyage was financed by a syndicate of seven noble Genovese bankers resident in Seville (the group was linked to Américo Vespucci and funds belonging to Lorenzo di Pier Francesco de Medici ). Hence all the accounting and recording of the voyage was kept in Seville. This also applies for the Second voyage even though the syndicate had by then disbanded. This fact partially demyths the romantic story that the Queen of Spain is alleged to have used a necklace she had received from her husband the King, as collateral for a loan.

It is a fact that the Spanish Sovereigns offered amnesty to convicts who would sign up for the voyage, but only four men took up the offer: one who had killed a man in a fight, and three of his friends who then helped him escape from jail.

Of the four voyages of Columbus, only the crew of the first voyage is completely known.

Santamariagalante. The stamp design, SG241, is based on a woodcut by Erhart Reuwich, of Utrecht, made by him in 1483. The woodcut was apparently used to decorate the printed copy of the letter of Columbus to his King and Queen after his famous voyage.

Various sites.

Too many stamps to list.
Attachments
SG241
SG241
2009
2009
Columbus (Small).jpg

aukepalmhof
Posts: 7771
Joined: Thu Apr 02, 2009 1:28 am

Re: Santa Maria (Columbus)

Post by aukepalmhof » Sun Mar 01, 2015 8:58 pm

Maldives 2015 sgMS?, scott? in margin of sheet
Navicula gives that the SANTA MARIA Columbus ship is depict on this stamp of Argentina. 1981 1300p sg1719, scott?
Ivory Coast 2016 1000F sgMS?, scott?
Palau 1992 29c sg526, scott302g
Grenada Grenadines 1992 $5 sg?, scott?
Gambia 1998 5d sg2907 scott?
Attachments
2015.1.13 MLD15205b.jpg
Image (12).jpg
2016 Santa Maria.jpg
Image (14).jpg
1992 Santa Maria.jpg
1998 Santa-Maria.jpg
Last edited by aukepalmhof on Tue May 05, 2020 3:55 am, edited 2 times in total.

aukepalmhof
Posts: 7771
Joined: Thu Apr 02, 2009 1:28 am

Re: Santa Maria (Columbus)

Post by aukepalmhof » Mon Sep 23, 2019 9:38 pm

The ships of Columbus are depicted on many stamps, most are purely imaginative drawings, and while others are based on the replica’s built later.
There does not exist any plan of the SANTA MARIA.
The SANTA MARIA depict as given on the stamp of Qatar issued in 1976 is made after a woodcarving on a letter written by Columbus on board the NINA after his first voyage, the SANTA MARIA was lost during the voyage on the coast of Haiti in 1492. During this voyage Columbus wrote many letters about his discoveries, the letter sends from Lisbon in March 1493 to his friend Gabriel Sanchez was widely diffused in several European towns, among them Basel, where the printed text of the letter was accompanied by the wood-carved drawing of a ship with the legend “Oceanica Classis”.
For a long time, it was believed that this legend corresponded to the SANTA MARIA, but later on it was ascertained that the drawing was of a crusade ship off Rhodes, taken from the book “Peregrinationis in Terra Sancta published by Bernhard von Breydenbach in Maguncia six years before the trip of Columbus.

Nevertheless, this drawing has been the model for the engraving of many stamps representing the SANTA MARIA and other ships of Columbus.
Poland 1964 1.35z, Virgin Islands 1970 1c, Grenade 1898 2½p shows simplify, invert or otherwise transform this design.

Source: Watercraft Philately May-June 1979 page 69, the article written by Mr. Juan M. Martinez-Moreno. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbus% ... rst_voyage
Qatar 1976 2d sg 223, scott 117.
Attachments
ColumbusLetter_Basel_1.jpg
Image (8).jpg
1964 Caravel-of-Columbus.jpg
1970 santa maria.jpg
1898 Grenada.jpg

aukepalmhof
Posts: 7771
Joined: Thu Apr 02, 2009 1:28 am

Re: Santa Maria (Columbus)

Post by aukepalmhof » Wed Sep 25, 2019 8:55 pm

Spain issued in 1964 a stamp of 40c which shows us the SANTA MARIA the flagship of Columbus, the stamp is designed after the full-size model of the ship, and the most accurate model of the SANTA MARIA designed by Jose M. Martinez Hidalge a naval architect and Director of the Maritime Museum of Barcelona.
This was the result of a 10-year research on the subject described in Martinez Hidalgo’s book “Columbus Ships”.
The ship was built at Cardona shipyard, near Barcelona, by contract with Lawrence H. Vineburg, to be exhibited at the New York World’s Fair in 1964.
It was carried to the USA on board the German merchant ship NEIDENFELS.
After the World Fair, she was sold to St Louis, Missouri arrived 29 March 1969 and moored on the Mississippi River. During a storm she broke her mooring lines and drifted in the river, she sank 28 June 1969. See” https://www.stltoday.com/news/archives/ ... 600.html#1

The 40c stamp of the naval set of Spain in 1964 is an artistic drawing which reproduces this model in every detail.

Spain 1964 40c sg 1662, scott1250.
Source (Watercraft Philately 1979 page 70, and internet.
Attachments
Image (11).jpg

aukepalmhof
Posts: 7771
Joined: Thu Apr 02, 2009 1:28 am

Re: Santa Maria (Columbus)

Post by aukepalmhof » Sun Sep 29, 2019 8:08 pm

The SANTA MARIA depicted on the Bahama issues of 1967 is designed after a model of the ship made by R.C. Anderson, and now in the Addisson Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy, Andover, Mass.
The model was constructed in 1930. It was also the result of a sound study of the subject and reflects the criteria prevailing at that time.

Source: Watercraft Philately May/June 1979 page 70.

SANTA MARIA
The Flagship of Christopher Columbus
Built in Spain about 1480
Length 81 ft.; Beam 27 ft.;
Depth 13-1/2 ft.; Tonnage 200 tons
The Santa Maria was a Spanish merchant ship chartered by Columbus and used as his flagship on his first voyage to America. No plans, pictures, or actual data remain of the original ship, but this model, as well as many other models of that famous vessel, has been reconstructed from information culled from Columbus' journals as well as from data which is available on ships of that time. The Santa Maria left Palosk, Spain, August 3, 1492, and on October 12, 1492, arrived off San Salvador in the Bahamas. Columbus then cruised along the coast of Cuba and Haiti until Christmas Eve, when he, unfortunately, ran the Santa Maria onto a coral reef off the coast of Haiti and she became a total loss. Columbus returned to Spain with the news of his discoveries in the Nina, a much smaller ship of no more than forty tons.
Model by R. C. ANDERSON
Gift of WILLIAM COCHRAN

http://www.pa59ers.com/library/Addison/ships.html#1
Bahamas 1965 $1 sg 261 scott 218 1966 $3 on $1 sg287, scott 218 and 1967 $3 sg 309, scott 218.
Attachments
Santa maria model.jpg
1965 santa maria £1.png
1966 santa maria $3 on £1.jpg
1967 santa maria $3.jpg

Post Reply