The Nina and Pinta Columbus Replica Ships v13

The Nina and Pinta Historically Accurate Columbus Replica Ship The Nina is a replica of the ship on which Columbus sailed across the Atlantic on his... more

by John Straton

Title

The Nina and Pinta Columbus Replica Ships v13

Artist

John Straton

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Photograph

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The Nina and Pinta Historically Accurate Columbus Replica Ship The Nina is a replica of the ship on which Columbus sailed across the Atlantic on his three voyages of discovery to the new world beginning in 1492. Columbus sailed the tiny ship over 25,000 miles. That ship was last heard of in 1501, but the new Nina has a different mission. We are a floating museum, and we visit ports all over the Western Hemisphere. Pinta was recently built in Brazil to accompany the Nina on all of her travels. She is a larger version of the archetypal caravel and offers larger deck space for walk-aboard tours and has a 40 ft air conditioned main cabin down below with seating. Pinta is available for private parties and charters.
La Nina (Spanish for The Girl) was one of the three Spanish ships used by Italian explorer Christopher Columbus in his first voyage to the West Indies in 1492. As was tradition for Spanish ships of the day, she bore a female saint's name, Santa Clara. However, she was commonly referred to by her nickname, La Nina, which was probably a pun on the name of her owner, Juan Nino of Moguer.[1] She was a standard caravel-type vessel.

The other ships of the Columbus expedition were the caravel-type Pinta and the carrack-type Santa Maria. The Nina was by far Columbus's favorite. She was originally lateen sail rigged caravela latina, but she was re-rigged as caravela redonda at Azores with square sails for better ocean performance. There is no authentic documentation on the specifics of the Nina's design, although Michele de Cuneo, who accompanied Columbus on his second voyage, mentioned that the Nina was "about 60 toneladas" (60 tons), which may indicate a medium sized Caravel of around 50 feet (15 m) in length on deck.[2] Often said to have had three masts, there is some evidence she may have had four masts.[3]

The Nina, like the Pinta and Santa Maria, was a smaller trade ship built to sail the Mediterranean sea, not the open ocean. It was greatly surpassed in size by ships like the Peter von Danzig of the Hanseatic League, built in 1462, 51 m (167 ft) in length, and the English carrack Grace Dieu, built during the period 1420 1439, 66.4 m (218 ft) in length and weighing between 1,400 tons and 2,750 tons.
On Columbus' first expedition, the Nina carried 24 men, captained by Vicente Yazez Pinzin. They left Palos de la Frontera on August 3, 1492, stopping at the Canary Islands on August 12, 1492, and continued westward. Landfall was made in the Bahamas at dawn on October 12, 1492.

On February 14, 1493, in the east of the Azores, a storm threatened to capsize the Nina, and at Columbus' instigation, he and the crew took a series of vows to perform certain acts including religious pilgrimages upon their return to Spain.[4] The Nina reached Lisbon, Portugal, on March 4, 1493, and arrived in Palos de la Frontera on March 15, 1493.[5] On the first voyage to America, the crew of the Nina slept on the deck but adopted the use of hammocks after seeing Native Americans utilizing them.[3]

In September 1493, the Nina joined a grand fleet of 17 ships for the second voyage to Hispaniola, becoming the flagship for an exploration of Cuba. She was the only ship to survive the 1495 hurricane, returning quickly to Spain in 1496.

The Nina was then chartered for an unauthorized voyage to Rome. She was captured by a pirate corsair when leaving the port of Cagliari and brought to Cape Pula, Sardinia. The Captain, Alonso Medel, escaped with a few men. He stole a boat, rowed back to the Nina, and made sail, returning to Cadiz.

In 1498, she returned to Hispaniola as advance guard of Columbus' Third Voyage. She was lying in wait at Santo Domingo in 1500. In 1501, she made a trading voyage to the Pearl Coast on the island of Cubagua, Venezuela, and no further log of her is found in historic archives.[6]

The Nina logged at least 25,000 nautical miles (46,000 km) under Columbus' command.
La Pinta (Spanish for The Pint (liquid measure), The Look, or The Spotted One ) was the fastest of the three ships used by Christopher Columbus in his first transatlantic voyage in 1492. The New World was first sighted by Rodrigo de Triana on the Pinta on October 12, 1492. The owner of the Pinta was Cristobal Quintero. The Quintero brothers were ship owners from Palos. The owner of the ship allowed Martin Alonso Pinzon to take over the ship so he could keep an eye on the ship.

The Pinta was a caravel-type vessel. By tradition Spanish ships were named after saints and usually given nicknames. Thus, the Pinta, like the Nina, was not the ship's actual name. The actual name of the Pinta is unknown. The origin of the ship is disputed but is believed to have been built in Spain in the year 1441. It was later rebuilt for use by Christopher Columbus.
The Pinta was square rigged and smaller than the Santa Maria. The ship weighed approximately 60 tons with an estimated deck length of 17 meters (56 ft) and a width of 5.36 meters (17.6 ft).[1][2] The crew size was 26 men under Captain Martin Alonso Pinzin.

The other ships of the Columbus expedition were the Nina and the Santa Maria. There are no known contemporary likenesses of Columbus's ships.

The Santa Maria (aka the Gallega) was the largest, of a type known as a carrack (carraca in Spanish), or by the Portuguese term nau. The Nina and the Pinta were smaller. They were called caravels, a name then given to the smallest three-masted vessels. Columbus once used it for a vessel of forty tons, but it generally applied in Portuguese or Spanish use to a vessel ranging one hundred and twenty to one hundred and forty Spanish "toneles". This word represents a capacity about one-tenth larger than that expressed by the modern English "ton".
The Nina, Pinta, and the Santa Maria were not the largest ships in Europe at the time. They were small trade ships surpassed in size by ships like the Great Michael, built in Scotland in 1511 with a length of 73.2 m (240 ft), and a crew of 300 sailors, 120 gunners, and up to 1,000 soldiers. The Peter von Danzig of the Hanseatic League was built in 1462 and was 51 m (167.3 ft) long. Another large ship, the English carrack Grace Dieu, was built during the period 1420 1439, was 66.4 m (218 ft) long, and weighed between 1,400 tons and 2,750 tons. Ships built in Europe in the fifteenth century were designed to sail the Mediterranean sea and the Atlantic ocean coastlines. Columbus' smaller-sized ships were considered riskier on the open ocean than larger ships. This made it difficult to recruit crew members, and a small number were jailed prisoners given a lighter sentence if they would sail with Columbus.[3]

Most of the commerce of the time was the coastal commerce of the Mediterranean, so it was better if ships did not draw much water. The fleet of Columbus, as it sailed, consisted of the Gallega (the Galician), which he changed the name to the Santa Maria, and of the Pinta and the Nina. Of these the first two were of a tonnage that should be rated as about one hundred and thirty tons. The Nina was much smaller, not more than fifty tons. One writer says that they were all without full decks, that is, that such decks as they had did not extend from stem to stern. Other authorities, however, speak as if the Nina was only an open vessel, and the two larger were decked. Columbus himself took command of the Santa Maria, Martin Alonso Pinzon of the Pinta, and his brothers, Francis Martin and Vicente Yanez, of the Nina. The whole company in all three ships numbered one hundred and twenty men

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November 25th, 2014