The "Santa Maria", the original vessel used by explorer Christopher Columbus to discover the Americas in 1492, has finally not been located in the depths near Haiti, UNESCO's World Heritage Office confirmed Monday.
After much excitement last spring, and a scurrying of experts to the supposed site of the wreckage of the Santa Maria off Cape Haiti, hopes were deflated Monday with the announcement that the vessel being combed over by experts was a much more recent shipwreck.
The "Santa Maria" had gone down in the same area on December 25, 1492, after four months at sea. But the vessel discovered and pored over for months by UNESCO and other experts dates from the 17th or 18th century and not the 15th, according to fixtures and equipment examined.
The experts now believe the flagship that carried Christopher Columbus to the Americas has probably been covered by sediment which could mean it is many layers under the sea bed.