17. Myth: Queen Isabella Pawned her Jewels to Fund the Voyage of Christopher Columbus
Fact: The names of the ships used in the expedition were not actually named the Pinta, Nina, and Santa Maria…
The longstanding myth of Queen Isabella pawning her jewelry in order to provide Columbus the financial backing for his voyage to the New World has been bandied about for decades but is probably untrue. The Catholic Monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella held control of a wealthy treasury and financed the voyage through the collection of debts. Very little of the Spanish treasury was used to finance the voyage, which Columbus thought was to be to China and the Indies, unaware of the New World which stood in the way. Isabella not only did not pawn her jewels to pay for the voyage, she turned Columbus down, on the advice of her confessor.
A despondent Columbus, who had already been turned away by the Portuguese and the French, was preparing to leave when the intervention of Ferdinand brought him back to the Royal presence. The Spanish town of Palos, in disfavor with Ferdinand, was ordered to build and supply the ships of the expedition as payment for a longstanding debt. The town complied and Columbus recruited crews for his expedition. His flagship, named La Gallicia, was nicknamed Santa Maria by its crew. The smallest of the three ships was nicknamed Nina, though its real name was Santa Clara. The real name of the ship known as Pinta, another nickname, is lost to history.