Martín Alonso Pinzón, in an anonymous portrait in the Naval Museum of Madrid.

Martín Alonso Pinzón was a skilled sailor who, with his indisputable prestige in the area of Huelva and Palos, succeeded in overcoming doubts, superstitions, and fears to collect a good number of sailors to complete the crews for the enterprise. Contrary to what legend says, there were only four convicts who took part in the great discovery and were pardoned.