This replica of Christopher Columbus’s flag ship “The Santa Maria“ was built on Madeira in 1998 in the fishing village of Camara de Lobos, by Robert Wijntje, a Dutch local craftsmen, to celebrate Columbus’s month long journey across the Atlantic to discover “ The Indies” in Asia - as he thought they were. In fact, he discovered the Caribbean and was the first European to set foot on the Americas.
Columbus was born in 1451. He spent many years in the Portuguese Merchant navy, often calling into Madeira, and married the daughter of the first governor of Madeira.
The vessel takes tourists on a 3 hour circular trip from Funchal.