THE CRISTOBAL COLON Built in 1923 by the Sociedad Espanola de Construccion Naval for the Transatlantic Spanish Line, this luxury cruise liner is the largest of Bermuda’s shipwrecks. The massive Spanish vessel, the Cristobal Colon, weighed over 10,000 tons, had three decks and was nearly 500 feet long with a 61-foot beam. She was one of the most luxurious cruise ships of her time. She mainly operated between New York and Central America, but at the time of her sinking, the Cristobal Colon and 160 exclusively male crew (with no passengers) were traveling from Cardiff, Wales to Vera Cruz, Mexico (reportedly to collect arms for the Royalists in the Spanish Civil War). On October 25, 1936, while steaming ahead at 15 knots, Captain Crescencia Navarro Delgado mistook an offshore communication tower for the Gibbs Hill Lighthouse (which had not been working while being repaired starting on October 10). The ship crashed into a coral reef just east of North Rock, eight miles north of Bermuda.