Found -- Perhaps -- Columbus's Santa Maria

From the UK Guardian, an announcement that perhaps the wreck of Columbus's flag ship, the Santa Maria, has been discovered in the waters off the coast of Haiti.

Shipwreck found off coast of Haiti thought to be one of the most significant underwater discoveries in history by David Keys:

The Santa Maria was built at some stage in the second half of the 15 century in northern Spain’s Basque Country. In 1492, Columbus hired the ship and sailed in it from southern Spain’s Atlantic coast via the Canary Islands in search of a new western route to Asia.

After 37 days, Columbus reached the Bahamas – but, just over ten weeks later, his flagship, the Santa Maria, with Columbus on board, drifted at night onto a reef off the northern coast of Haiti and had to be abandoned. Then, in a native village nearby, Columbus began building his first fort – and,  a week later, leaving many of his men behind in the fort, he used  his two remaining vessels to sail back to Spain in order to report his discovery of what he perceived as a new westerly route to Asia  to his royal patrons  - King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain.

Tragically, many of the signifying objects, such as the cannon, that would help investigators definitively identify the ship have already been looted since it was first looked at in 2003.

"The investigation into the wreck is being supported by the American TV network, the History channel, which has secured the exclusive rights to produce a major television programme on the subject."