Leaves on this Family Tree

Withering Away

Monday, July 25, 2011

Nina and Pinta . . . No Santa Maria


We have been lucky enough to have replicas of Christopher Columbus' Nina and Pinta in our little section of the Niagara River.

The NINA . . .Columbus' Ship
The Nina was built for the movie/documentary 1492. It was built in Brazil using a scale model and tools like the original would have been built with. The model is built first and then they transpose that info to size . . no computers or moder drafting equipment . . just their own hands, tools and skill.

The PINTA . . so much larger than the Nina . . yet smaller than I thought.





Looking at the NINA from the PINTA.

I always thought the back of these ships was higher so the captain had a better look out into the sea. Come to find out, the pole that controlled the rudder takes up almost all of this space so they needed room for the men to control/handle it. On the right you will see a small hatch. This is where the captain went down to his cabin . . and how he came out. To the left . . . looks like a black old steel coffin . . is the top of the storage hatch. The crew all slept on the deck . . only important supplies were kept in the hold . . or the items they were taking to trade or sell.
See the Stars and Stripes . . it is not the highest flag on the ship . . it is in the MOST IMPORTANT POINT on the ship.

The husband "posing" . . NOT . . .check that rudder out! The home port for these ships is Wilmington, Delaware.

Now we on the PINTA taking pictures.

Large "wench" used for loading and off-loading,  pulling the ship to the dock and getting it off sand bars.



Okay fans, let's here a chorus of "Anchors Aweigh."
They were in New York for the "Tall Ships" and then sailed up the Hudson River to Lake Champlain, through the St, Lawrence Seaway, then, I am sure they took the Welland Canal through Canada, entering Lake Erie around Detroit and then sailed east to our tiny town.

I am AMAZED at how tiny they actually are . . and to think, there was a captains cabin but the rest of the crew slept on deck . . the hold was for supplies.  Columbus took the Nina as his flag-ship and slept there. He was close to 6 feet tall and the cabin is 4 feet in height . . . give or take. I am sure the only time he was there is when he had to be there.

This is the Captains Cabin hatch on the Nina. If the pictures is enlarged, you can see what is inside this cabin.

2 comments:

  1. Wow...much smaller than one would think huh? Cool!

    Me and the Mr. are hanging in there. I so wish I could quit work and live the life of leisure like you do! :o) I seriously could do retirement real easy. Only the money isn't right right now. :o( The Mr. is having hearing and seeing problems...his age. I realized it last weekend when I went outside the gate and he didn't hear me go outside the gate, and when he turned back around and saw me he didn't recognize me because I had changed my shirt and he didn't know it. His fur came up on the back of his neck and he barked his head off at me. I was sad to realize how bad he really is getting. He's peeing in the house really bad every day when I leave. Sigh.....I love him though. I took a pic of him last night right after the sky pic when he was breathing real hard cuz it was so hot out. Poor fella. xoxo

    ReplyDelete
  2. How interesting! I always thought those boats were huge, but the look so small in your photos. I cannot imagine going across the ocean in such little things. That just goes to show you what a miracle it is the men made it at all!

    ReplyDelete

Reading your comments inspires me to blog more.