Pinta

(Johann Wolkersdorfer JW 47)

Notes: Pinta was part of the squadron, also containing Nina and Santa Maria, led by Christopher Columbus on the initial voyage of discovery to America. Pinta was captained by Martin Alonso Pinzon. The squadron departed the southern Spanish port of Los Palos on 3 August 1492, stopped at Las Palmas in the Canary Islands for repairs to Pinta, then continued on westward 6 September. Land was sighted from Pinta on 12 October 1492; the island which Columbus named San Salvador is not now known, but was somewhere in the present-day Bahamas. The squadron explored the Bahamas for two weeks, then went south to Cuba on 27 October, which they coasted along for the next six weeks. Heading back toward the Bahamas on 20 November, the Pinta split off to investigate Great Inagua Island and then independently explored Hispaniola. She rejoined the Nina on 6 January 1493 at Isla Cabra, after the wreck of the Santa Maria. Separated from Nina during big storms on the way home, she made landfall at Bayona in northern Spain, and then eventually arrived back at Los Palos just hours after Columbus on 15 March 1493. Pinzon died shortly after his return, and the subsequent fate of Pinta is unknown.