Ju­ly 31 will mark the 515th An­niver­sary of the ar­rival of Christo­pher Colum­bus to Trinidad in 1498.Un­for­tu­nate­ly, such an im­por­tant his­tor­i­cal event is no longer cel­e­brat­ed in this coun­try of nu­mer­ous pub­lic hol­i­days.The me­dia, on that day, may not even car­ry a two-line re­minder of the ar­rival of Colum­bus. Colum­bus Day has long been rel­e­gat­ed to the lim­bo of for­got­ten things.But that is not all. De­spite pub­lished in­for­ma­tion to the con­trary, gov­ern­ment Web sites and pub­lish­ing hous­es, even those pub­lish­ing school text­books, con­tin­ue to state that the three ships used by Colum­bus on his vis­it to Trinidad were the San­ta Maria, the Ni­na and the Pin­ta.

These were the ships used by him dur­ing his first voy­age in 1492 but not dur­ing his third voy­age in 1498, six years lat­er.Here is some in­for­ma­tion on the ar­rival of Christo­pher Colum­bus which has been pub­lished in books by re­spect­ed his­to­ri­ans:Colum­bus, be­fore his de­par­ture from Spain on his third voy­age, had de­cid­ed that the first land which he en­coun­tered was to be named for the Holy Trin­i­ty. Hence the name Trinidad was giv­en to our is­land (not la Tri­nite which is French).The sight­ing of what is known as the the Trin­i­ty Hills was the ic­ing on the cake since he had al­ready named the land Trinidad.

Here­un­der are the names of the three ships used by him when he ar­rived in Trinidad Ju­ly 31:

1. The sto­ry of Trinidad 1498-1797 by Dou­glas Archibald (p 16): Guia (el Nao), Los Vaque­nos and El Correo.

2. La Mag­dale­na the Sto­ry of To­ba­go 1498 - 1898 by D Phillips: San­ta Maria de Guia, La Castil­la nick­named Vaque­nos and La Gar­da, nick­named Correo.

3. The Book of Trinidad by Ger­ard Besson and Brid­get Br­ere­ton (2010, p 14): San­ta Maria de Guia, La Castil­la, La Gor­da, al­so known as Correo.

4. Ad­mi­ral of the Ocean Sea: A life of Christo­pher Colum­bus by Samuel Eliot Mori­son (1942, p 513): La Nao (San­ta Maria de Guia), La Vaque­nos and El Correo.

5. Christo­pher Colum­bus : A close look at the man and his voy­ages by Michael An­tho­ny (2012): The au­thor states that Vaque­nos was the name of his flag­ship on this voy­age.

I am not an his­to­ri­an and the above are ex­tracts of some of the in­for­ma­tion pub­lished in the re­spec­tive books.

It is my wish that Rodger Samuel, Min­is­ter in the Of­fice of the Prime Min­is­ter and Chair­man of the Na­tion­al Em­blems Com­mit­tee, will read this let­ter since re­ceipt of let­ters which I have writ­ten to him dur­ing the past two years have not been ac­knowl­edged.

Ian Lam­bie

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