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Posted on 10/31/2001 7:55:28 PM PST by Mr. Mulliner

Columbus ship found?

PANAMA CITY - Researchers are trying to determine if the remains of an old ship unearthed on Panama's Atlantic coast may have been one of the vessels used by Christopher Columbus on his fourth and final voyage to the New World.

Director Rafael Ruiloba, of the National Institute of Culture, said on Tuesday there were indications that the remains could be those of the Vizcaina, scuttled in 1503.

The ship had been stripped of rigging and any weapons and then scuttled after it began leaking.

However, Mr Ruiloba said that stone cannonballs found in the wreck matched the type of cannon that would have been carried aboard a vessel such as Vizcaina, one of the larger types of ships then in use.

'The armament discovered in the ship lend support to the hypothesis that this could be one of the earliest ships of the discoverers,' he said.

This type of stone balls were fired by small, swivelling ship-mounted cannon known as 'versos'.

The wreck was apparently dragged into shallow water, where sand and coral later covered it. The wreck, which lies off the port of Portabelo, was discovered last week by workmen filling trucks with beach sand for construction projects.

Mr Ruiloba said researchers would be able to confirm the hypothesis 'once we clean the coral and encrusted material' from the artifacts. --AP

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