Vintage Silver Filigree & Enamel Boat Brooch

La Santa María, originally La Gallega, was the largest of the three small ships used by Christopher Columbus in his first expedition across the Atlantic Ocean in 1492. It had a single deck and three small masts.

 

On the return trip on 24 December 1492, not having slept for two days, Columbus went to sleep at 11pm. The night being calm, the steersman also decided to sleep, leaving only a cabin boy to steer the ship, a practice which the admiral had always strictly forbidden. The currents carried the ship onto a sandbank, running her aground off the present-day Cap-Haïtien, Haiti. It sank the next day. 

 

Little is definitively known about the actual dimensions of Santa María, because no documentation or illustration survived from that era. Since the 19th century, various replicas have been publicly commissioned or privately constructed. 

 

This mid-20th century miniature brooch was styled after Columbus’s fleet. It was made with silver filigree, gold plated on top, and enamel in the flags. Highly laborious and very elegant.