Santa Catarina do Monte Sinai

The Portuguese carrack Santa Catarina do Monte Sinai and other Portuguese ships in a painting by Joachim Patinir.
History
Portugal
Name	Santa Catarina do Monte Sinai
Owner	Kingdom of Portugal
Builder	Shipyard of Kochi, Portuguese India
Laid down	1512
Launched	1520
Fate	Disappeared, April 1525, exact fate unknown
General characteristics
Class and type	Carrack
Displacement	800 tons
Length	38 m
Beam	13 m
Draught	4–4.5 m
Armament	140 cannons, mostly light swivel guns mounted on the railings[1]

Santa Catarina do Monte Sinai was a higher-castled Portuguese carrack with 140 guns, launched down in 1520 (800 t, length 38 m, width 13 m, draft 4–4.5 m). Built in Kochi, India around 1512 it had two square rig masts and is depicted on a painting attributed to Joachim Patinir.

In 1524, it was the flagship of Vasco da Gama, on his third voyage to India.^[2]

The ship disappeared somewhere along the route on the return journey to Portugal, which set out from India in April 1525. Its exact fate is uncertain. According to one rumor, D. Luis de Menezes, the dismissed captain of the India naval patrol and brother of the disgraced governor D. Duarte de Menezes (who was returning on another ship on that same fleet), engineered a mutiny and seized control of the ship, setting off with it for a career of piracy in the Indian Ocean. Another rumor relates that it was seized by French corsairs somewhere on the final Atlantic stretch between the Cape of Good Hope and Continental Portugal.^[3]