Columbus's troubled fourth voyage: 524 years since the May 1502 departure

Columbus took his young son Fernando along on the voyage. The fleet reached the coasts that would later be Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama. The search for a passage to the Pacific instead ended in hurricanes and a long stranding on Jamaica.

Spain's National Museum of Underwater Archaeology (ARQUA) said radiocarbon testing on wooden remains spotted in 2024 off Panama's Veraguas Province had concluded, with the timing consistent with La Capitana. Panama's government wants the artefacts displayed in a joint museum with Madrid.

Columbus was finally stranded for a year in Jamaica. He returned to Spain in 1504 and died in poverty two years later. Historians of science await fresh papers on the fourth voyage's role in clarifying Europe's understanding of New World geography.