Santa Maria Steamship, 1492

[nönöbär]

Santa Maria Steamship, 1492

The ship

On each of the Canary Islands you are told that this island was the last stop of Christopher Columbus before he left on his journey west. The venerable volcanic eruption on La Palma in 2021 uncovered a cave in which several documents dating back to the late 15th century have been found.

It emerged in 1942 that Columbus had in fact made his last stop for provisions in Santa Cruz de La Palma. There he was contacted by a resident shipbuilder - Ramon del Abadin - who took Columbus to his small shipyard and showed him amazing things.
Abadin was in possession of ancient Roman documents - he would not comment on how he had obtained them. These were from the year 52 and were written by Marcus Thomasius the Younger. They described a "vapor machina" invented by him and the "vapor navis" built by him - a ship powered by a steam engine.

Columbus was enthusiastic about this invention, and even more so when Abadin took him to a hall of his shipyard, where there was something shining and smoking in brass and metal, which moved a wooden wheel under strong steam. A steam engine!
Columbus immediately realized that such an engine could be used to turn a water wheel, which could then move a ship forward when there was no wind. For his planned voyage, this would be a great improvement.

So it is not surprising that he immediately accepted Abadin's suggestion to install the engine on one of his ships. Only the largest of the three ships, the Santa Maria, had enough space for this construction and after three months Columbus was able to resume his voyage.
Ramon del Abadin demanded that he be able to participate in this voyage, and so his records end with the day the small fleet left for the west.

What happened to him is unknown; he did not return from the voyage. Likewise the Santa Maria, which was abandoned after running aground off Hispaniola. But what we know is that Columbus finally discovered America.

Thus, the documents now found are the only record that the Santa Maria had crossed the Atlantic as a steamship.

The model shows the Santa Maria at its time of departure.










The model

The basis of the model is a 1/260 scale kit from Mistercraft. The deck was modified to accommodate the steam engine.
The steam engine, boiler and paddle wheels were printed with a resin printer. The crew are 1/220 scale model railroad figures.
The model was painted with Revell Aqua Color.

[zenrat]

Brilliant.  Well done.
 

[Old Wombat]

Crazy, but in a good way!  

[NARSES2]

I love both the model and the backstory 

[PR19_Kit]

Outstanding modelling and writing too. I love it! 

[frank2056]

Fantastic model and back story! I was just reading some speculation that the Greeks, Romans (or both) were within decades to a century from creating useful steam engines. They just didn't feel the need.

[nönöbär]

Fantastic model and back story! I was just reading some speculation that the Greeks, Romans (or both) were within decades to a century from creating useful steam engines. They just didn't feel the need.

From what I have read, the Greek has some very simple "steam engines" but purly for curiosity. It was called the  Aeolipile (Wikipedia).

And this gave me idea of the "Vesuvio", which the Spansich ship builder referred to: Roman Steam Ship "Vesuvio", 52 AD

[NARSES2]

From what I have read, the Greek has some very simple "steam engines" but purly for curiosity. It was called the  Aeolipile (Wikipedia).

I remember reading very much the same in one of the old UK boys comics from the 50/60's ,probably the Eagle ? Then years later reading that whilst it was built as an example of what was possible it was, or would have been, extremely dangerous because of the materials and engineering capability available. I think the guy who wrote that meant it was highly likely to blow up 

[Joe C-P]

Very nice, a fine result. 

[buzzbomb]

Very nice work on that