The Search For Columbus' Santa Maria Off Haiti

Please register or login

Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.

Benefits of registering include

  • Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
  • A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
  • You can make this box go away

Joining is quick and easy. Log in or Register now!

RickI

Contributor
Messages
694
Reaction score
168
Location
SE Florida
# of dives
I just don't log dives
We returned from Cap Haitian, Haiti one day last week, 35 years ago from a diving expedition to find what was thought to be Christopher Columbus' vessel the Santa Maria entombed beneath a finger coral mound on the barrier reef five miles offshore from Le Cap. The location was uncertain from what records existed for many reasons. Many efforts had been expended over the years including extensive towed magnatometer surveys. Trouble is this is a wreck rich environment, I recall a large sunken steel vessel near the mouth of the harbor and lots of wrecks fromalmost five centuries salted over the barrier reef in the area.


santa_maria_grounding.jpg

A depiction of the grounding of the Santa Maria. The vessel was later salvaged with components used to construct Navidad.


Haiti38.jpg

Colonial Williamsburg Official History Site
Columbus' own sketch of the location of Navidad or the temporary fortification constructed within a reported lombard cannon shot from the
wreck of the Santa Maria. Part of the trouble is Haiti has been an tectonically active area for a very long time. There have been major sea level changes related to tectonics altering coastal contours in 500 years. I recall Le Cap suffered one major rock slide covering most of the town and another partial one triggered through earthquakes a couple of centuries back.


Cap_haitian_vicinity_map.jpg

We were working on the barrier reef outside the harbor east of Pointe Picolet. I was impressed with the major winds that came
in sideshore from the east each afternoon. We almost struck the reef in roiling waves awash over a poor passage through the reef.
We were heading back to harbor and the strong winds and subsequent waves pretty much came out of nowhere. Little did I realize
what a boon these thermal winds would be for some next door in Cabarete, DR in windsurfing in a decade or so and almost
twenty-five years later in kitesurfing.


Rick_Coring_s.jpg

I am extracting the coral barrel to then run it over to the support boat where it can be opened and the contents inspected and classified.
Had more hair in those days, thinner too! You can see the diver operated hydraulic core head on the bottom to the right and the dreaded
"monkey-on-a-stick" hand hammer on the left. Lots of memories of driving rebar stakes into the bottom with the 35 pound hand hammer
is all seas and conditions on a few projects. It is sort of a consensual torture device. Papa Doc would have loved it.


Continued at:
The Search For Columbus' Santa Maria Off Haiti - FKA Kiteboarding Forums
 
Thanks, this and the FKA site bring back a lot of memories of similar expeditions. I don't think I've heard anyone speak of an Ivanoff corrector or Rebikoff's Pegasus in decades.
 
Thanks for commenting! So much has gone on undersea, it is a shame to let it slip away. I never used a Pegasus, couldn't afford the Ag-Zn battery pack. We did set up two Remoras to drag around 220 V 40 A diesel generators in Whalers on umbilicals though. They made nice camera platforms for surveys. Rebikoff was way ahead of his time with some of his concepts. They did require some reengineering at times to improve reliability still the base systems were often inspired. We used one of his 70 mm photogrammetric cameras for some UW photomosaic surveys with 480 ft. of thin base film. Big camera but it got the job done. It would be good to learn about of some of your UW projects.
 
The following video on the search for Columbus' Santa Maria in Haiti by Ocean Research and Survey in 1977 was presented at the Broward Maritime Meeting last night in Ft. Lauderdale.


[vimeo]140262686[/vimeo]




IMG_8756%20s-463714892.jpg

Just before the start of the meeting in the City Commission Chamber


IMG_8759%20s-354948942.jpg

The speakers


IMG_8758%20s-364626547.jpg

Here is Ed Stevens, a treasure salvor. He took my one and only graduate course which I have ever taught, "Coastal Zone Assessment" at Nova Ocean Sciences in 1982. He dropped out about halfway through the course and became a captain for Mel Fisher. Ed's fiancé at the time found the mother load on the Atocha while Ed was organizing things on deck. Who says higher education pays?!

.
 
While I am not looking for the Santa Maria... I am Diving North Haiti and would like to have anyone coming this way give me a holler. I should be here another year or two. Regards all!

Wandersome
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/swift/

Back
Top Bottom