They were the space shuttles of the fifteenth century—small wooden ships called caravels, built to reach, explore, and return from the unknown. Documents of the time tell us something about their construction and about those who built and sailed them. A handful of artistic depictions provides a little more information. But what did these ships whose voyages expanded the map of the world really look like? How were they designed and built to accomplish their extraordinary feats? Only the ships themselves can answer these questions, and until this century their remains lay silent and unreachable beneath the seas . . .
In Ship we join a group of underwater archaeologists as they search for a long-lost caravel in the reefs of the Caribbean Sea. A combination of drawings, maps, and diagrams details the ship's recovery, and as clues to the past are pieced together, a story emerges—of the triumphant birth of the ship Magdalena from Spain, and its tragic voyage to a far-away continent.
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