December 2021 issue correction

Good afternoon!

In the December 2021 issue, on pg. 25, there’s a short article about a medieval ship cover, and in it, Phil Schreiber mentions that the famous “Nina” and “Pinta” were similar to the cog depicted on the ship cover.  I don’t mean to be picky, but they were not cogs.  Cogs were a northern medieval type of ship, sturdy and common throughout the medieval period, but the “Nina” and the “Pinta” were caravels, a type of ship first developed by the Portuguese, and by the late 15th century, were being used by most European maritime nations.  They carried multiple masts and sails, both square and lateen sails, and were much better suited for sailing across the Atlantic Ocean than cogs, which had been phased out for the most part by then.   Both the “Nina” and the “Pinta” were likely three-masted caravels, with square sails on the main and fore masts and lateen on the mizzen.  For what it’s worth, most scholars believe that the “Santa Maria” was a small carrack, but we can’t be sure, as there were no contemporary depictions of her, as she was lost on a reef off the coast of what’s now Haiti.