00:00For visitors to Liverpool's waterfront, the arrival of the now Santa Maria offers a chance to see a replica of
00:08one of the ships associated with Christopher Columbus' Atlantic voyage in 1492.
00:14The 180-ton vessel is berthed at the Royal Albert Dock.
00:18The project says it's open to visitors as part of a wiser effort to explain what life was like for
00:24sailors in the 15th century.
00:25Yes, we are proudly showing the people the history of Spain, the maritime history, and a great event that was
00:36the discovery of a new continent.
00:38And I think it's super interesting for the people to come on board and live exactly how it would have
00:44been.
00:45The ship has a crew of 14 and is travelling from its home port of Fruelva in Spain as part
00:51of a world tour involving 30 stops.
00:53Though the conditions faced by sailors in Columbus' voyage were far harsher than those experienced by the replica's modern crew.
01:01We can't complain nowadays, actually.
01:03Although we sleep in bunk beds in a tiny space all together, the conditions are much better than in the
01:11past.
01:11In the past there were 45 people living here, so it was crowded.
01:15And they slept over here in the main deck where we are right now, and the conditions, of course, were
01:21worse than today.
01:24The original sailors had no bathrooms, no kitchens, and no refrigeration, while food supplies could be limited.
01:30The ship provides an opportunity to examine the consequences of European expansion.
01:36The arrival of Europeans in the Americas was followed by the spread of diseases, including smallpox, influenza and measles, which
01:44had devastating consequences for indigenous populations.
01:48For us at the Maritime Museum and the International Slavery Museum, you know, you try to tell a sort of
01:54a more rounded story.
01:55So parts of that history are celebratory.
01:59They're kind of people's achievements and what they've been able to kind of make out of life.
02:02But also, you can't sort of tell that story and ignore the kind of, the sort of more troubling and
02:09kind of difficult sort of aspects of history.
02:12You know, they're all parts of the same story, and for it to mean anything, you have to tell all
02:16of those parts.
02:18While the replica demonstrates the skills and challenges of historic seafaring, its Liverpool visit also provides an opportunity to consider
02:25the wider consequences of the voyages it represents.
02:28When you talk about voyages of discovery, you forget that there were people living in the places you were heading
02:33to in the first place.
02:35And, you know, the effect on those kind of cultures and those indigenous peoples wasn't a positive one.
02:42You can look at the kind of the achievements of sailing that distance and what that meant, but also then
02:47the wider impact of that kind of colonial kind of project.
02:51It's not one that you kind of celebrate.
02:53The Santa Maria will be open for visitors until the 25th of August.
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