MIAMI - On Aug. 3, 1492, Christopher Columbus sailed to the New World.

Three ships went with him. They were named La Nina, La Pinta and La Santa Maria. Only two of them made it back home. On Tuesday, explorer Barry Clifford said he found the missing ship near Haiti.

"It was precisely where Christopher Columbus said it would be," Clifford said.

If Clifford is right, he has solved one of the great mysteries of history.

Columbus wrote about the shipwreck in his journal. His journal has become a treasure map for explorers. On Christmas Day 1492, the Santa Maria became stuck on a reef. It sank the next day. Columbus ordered his sailors to take apart the ship. They built a fort with the materials. Then he sailed his remaining two ships back to Spain.

Shipwreck Near Fort

Clifford thinks he found Santa Maria because of a picture. Years earlier, Clifford explored a shipwreck. He took pictures. In them was a 500-year-old cannon. It is called a lombard.

"There are only seven lombards that have been found in the Western world," Clifford said. "We found the eighth."

Cliffords' claim hasn't been proven. And the cannon is missing.

Not everyone thinks Clifford found the ship. One of the doubters is another explorer. His name is Daniel Koski-Karell. Koski-Karell also thought he discovered the Santa Maria. But he was wrong.

Many ships sank near Haiti, Koski-Karell said. He also doesn't think Columbus would leave the cannon behind.

Clifford won't say where the ship is. But he did say it's on a shallow reef. It is located almost 5 miles from what he believes is Columbus' fort.

This summer, archaeologists will explore the ship. They will run tests on it. The tests will discover if the ship really is 500 years old. ]]>