It is a known fact that Christopher Columbus had three ships when he had set out on his very first expedition in the year 1492. Pinta was one of the three ships. This ship was also known as Caravel. A caravel was a ship that had a shallower draft as compared to a nao.


Pinta was a small vessel which had very little space for storing cargo. This enabled the ship to be very small, fast and lighter to move in the waters as compared to the Santa Maria.


Pinta, being a small vessel, had the capacity of carrying only a small number of crew members on board. As there was no space inside the ship for so many men to sleep, they would often sleep on the deck. They would go below the deck if the weather conditions were unfavorable to sleep on the top.


This ship was under the command of Martin Alonso Pinzon who was a very experienced mariner from Moguer in Andalucia. Nothing much was ever known about the ships of Christopher Columbus and much information had been gathered from the general pattern of ships seen in that century and from the little information available about the voyages.


It is a possibility that the Pinta weighted approximately around 150-300 tons or even 70 tons. Since there is no clue as to what the ships looked liked it is believed that the Pinta had three masts and could carry sails like Santa Maria or other big ships. However, the only exception with this ship was in regards to the topsail and the spritsail.

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