UN investigators have found proof that a shipwreck found off northern Haiti could not be the Santa Maria, the lost flagship from Christopher Columbus' first voyage to the Western Hemisphere, as a U.S. explorer had claimed. Uncesco said a team of experts who explored the site at the request of the Haitian government determined the wreckage was from a more recent vessel for reasons that included the discovery of copper nails and spikes at the site. The Santa Maria would have used components of iron or wood, the agency said. Christopher Columbus on Santa Maria in 1492, in a paiting by Emanuel Leutze from 1855. Experts now believe they have discovered the wreck of the ship off the coast of Haiti.
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U.S. explorer Barry Clifford had announced in May that he believed that he may have found the Santa Maria
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Rival historians claim ship was run aground and used as accommodation
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New UN report proves wreck uses technology too modern for it to be the Santa Maria
The ship struck a reef and was abandoned by C@placeholderin December 1492 and about two dozen crew members were left behind.