Ships and Harbours Photos

Christopher Columbus’s galleon Santa Maria

A Magnificent replica of Christopher Columbus’s galleon “Santa Maria” was built on Madeira Island, city of Câmara de Lobos, of on the island living dutchman Robert Wijntje - together with seven local craftsmen. Thus a dream went into fulfilment. The construction work took 1 year (July 97 - July98) using a total of 320m3 of wood, and included a Caterpillar motor of 455hp, its final characteristics are: Length: 22 m, Beam: 7m, Tonnage: 102, Sales: 192m2 Draft: 2,74m.

The Santa Maria, representing “Madeira Wine”, was exhibited at the Expo 98 in Lisbon for a period of 25 days, during this time it received a total of 97.016 Visitors Anyone can "sail" on this replica for a small fee, it departures daily in mornings and afternoons, from the port of Funchal. You can actually get to see some dolphins and wales during the trips, the small carrack even has a bar on board and in summers it usually stops far from the shore, so tourists may enjoy some bathing in the clean atlantic waters.