Measuring around 70 feet in length, it carried a crew of 40 men. The three-masted vessel Santa Maria was the largest of Columbus’s expeditionary vessels and his flagship. Before his voyages, Chinese and Indian luxuries for European markets were transported over the long and hazardous overland route through Arabia.

In 1492, Christopher Columbus sailed a small fleet of three small ships west from Spain across the Atlantic Ocean, hoping to find a shorter route to the riches of Asia.