A find after 500 years: The Santa Maria, the largest ship in a fleet of three ships in which Christopher Columbus sailed from Spain to America, was found off the coast of Haiti by marine explorer Barry Clifford, the Israel Hayom newspaper reports.
""All the topographic and archaeological evidence points to the wreck we found being Columbus' flagship," Clifford said. "The Haitian government has been very helpful and we need to continue working with them to conduct an underwater archaeological excavation of the wreck." The Santa Maria sank after hitting a reef off the coast of Haiti around Christmas 1492, a few months after arriving in the area on a voyage from Spain. The British newspaper The Independent reported that Clifford located the Santa Maria by combining two separate historical sources. After archaeologists suggested searching near Columbus's fort, Clifford used information from Columbus's diary to arrive at the exact location of the sinking site.
It then emerged that Clifford's team had already located a shipwreck at the site in 2003, and the new evidence provided the identification of the flagship, which had set out from Spain with two other ships - the Pinta and the Nina. Final confirmation of the ship's identity will be more difficult than in 2003, when Clifford photographed the ship, as well as a cannon on board. The newspaper reported that since the discovery, looters have raided the ship and removed parts from it, including the missing cannon.
Professor Charles of Indiana University, who visited the ship with Clifford, said that "there is evidence that the shipwreck is the Santa Maria," but he said a full excavation must be carried out to reach absolute certainty.
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