Living history: Replicas of Columbus' ships the Nina and the Pinta dock at Cape Girardeau

When Mayor Harry Rediger dedicated the upcoming week to the visiting historical replica Nina and Pinta, Capt. Stephen Sanger re-dedicated it to the man who made them a reality: Capt. Morgan Sanger, who died Thursday.

His father, Sanger later explained, loved all things nautical.

"Since he was 5, he'd been sailing," he said. "It was in his blood to be on the water."

And Sanger said his father especially admired the Portugese caravels Christopher Columbus -- and other explorers -- used.

"They were used for a 200-year period throughout the age of exploration," Sanger said.

Crew members adjust the rigging on the Nina replica ship Thursday at the Cape Girardeau riverfront.Fred Lynch

In a video on the Columbus Foundation's website, Morgan Sanger called the ship style "the space shuttle of the 15th century."

In 1986, he set out to build working models of Columbus' ships.

Funding restrictions at first allowed for only one to be commissioned, the younger Sanger explained, so his father decided on the Nina.

"It was Columbus' favorite," he said.

The ship was built by a group of Brazilian shipwrights using period-accurate shipbuilding techniques, Sanger said.

"And three years later," he said, "without the use of electricity, the Nina was built. It's considered the most historically accurate replica in the world."

It's so period-accurate, director Ridley Scott used it in his 1992 Columbus historical epic "1492: Conquest of Paradise."

Cape Girardeau residents will have the opportunity to tour the boat and its sister, the Pinta, beginning at 9 a.m. today.

Attendees will be able to walk the swaying decks, touch the rigging and imagine what it must have been like to strike out across the sea with a crew of about two dozen shipmates looking for adventure.

The exhibits will be open until 6 p.m. each day until Oct. 8. Admission is $8 for adults, $7 for seniors and $6 for ages 5 to 16. Children younger than 4 are free.

Sanger said he hopes people will visit him and his crew on the riverfront and enjoy what the ships represent and how they came to be.

"Everything I do is in his honor," Sanger said of his father. "And I hope people come away with an appreciation for the marine architecture and for what these ships were."

tgraef@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3627

Pertinent address:

Riverfront, Cape Girardeau, Mo.