The Voyage of the Vizcaina

by: Klaus Brinkbaumer and Clemens Hogues

Published by: Harvest House Publishers

Reviewed By Michele E. Davis

Subtitled: The Mystery of Christopher Columbus’s Last Ship

In the mid-1990s, divers discovered the wreck of a large ship just off the coast of Panama, feeding the rumors that this might be the remains of one of the ships from Columbus’s final voyage. Columbus was able to persuade Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castille to give him a fleet of four ships in 1502 to return to the New World in search of more riches. Although he reached the Americas, his ships, all victims of shipworms eating through the hulls’ wood, began to sink one by one. Columbus reported abandoning the fourth ship, the Vizcaina near Portobelo.

It was said that this ship has three masts and a loading capacity of fifty tons. But when divers went searching, they couldn’t immediately determine that the abandoned ship off the bay in Playa Damas was the Vizcaina because of the contents of the ship and the relative integrity of the ships structure.

The authors combine Columbus’s history, and the discovery of the ship buried beneath the ocean for decades. Divers and archeology experts are quoted throughout the book, which makes it a bit of a hybrid historical read. The past and present converge by finding the Vizcaina. Yet, it’s a true adventure whether you like history or archeology. The history of the man who founded the New World is fascinating as he was a true adventurer.

Armchair Interviews says: Thrilling historical, yet scientific reading that leaves you satiated with a host of historical facts and awe about modern archeology.