Columbus and the blurred merchant-warship boundary

Did Columbus sail on military ships?

Not in the modern sense, but the large merchant ships of his era could readily be commissioned and armed for war.

A modern administrative divide fits the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries poorly. Columbus's ships were not standing naval warships in the later sense, and Santa Maria was privately owned. Yet substantial merchant hulls could be commissioned in wartime, loaded with troops, and armed more heavily. Early naval power worked as a mobilized maritime system rather than a fleet composed only of permanently specialized state vessels.