PICTURESQUE WORLD’S FAIR. AN ELABORATE COLLECTION OF COLORED VIEWS
Page 66 – THE SANTA MARIA
THE SANTA MARIA.—The duplicate of the flagship of Columbus, the famous “Santa Maria,” had many thousands of visitors as she lay in Lake Michigan, just in front of the grounds, one of the most interesting of all the Exposition’s attractions. The hosts who boarded her and examined her every part, accustomed as they were to the big ships of today, were surprised at her comparatively small dimensions, though, as a matter of fact, a stancher or safer craft it would be hard to imagine. With her sides built out from her hull so that a veritable platform overhung the water, and built high at bow and stern, it must have been a heavy sea indeed by which the decks of the “Santa Maria” were ever wetted. Her sailing qualities, on the other hand, could not have been remarkable. Her model was not that of a craft designed for speed, and she must have wallowed comfortably along at a rate which would not have satisfied a sailor of today. Her length was seventy-one feet and three inches, beam twenty-five feet and eight inches, and depth of hold twelve feet and five inches. She would hardly be classed as a racer, but she was at least reliable. How she was selected has often been told in story the at one time rebellious city of Palos being compelled to furnish three ships for the expedition as an act of expiation for past misdeeds. The equipment of the vessel was, like its model, in as perfect an imitation of the original as could be produced. The “Santa Maria ” was built at the expense of the Spanish government, a graceful recognition of the honors to be paid Spain and the great navigator.