Replicas of Columbus' ships to visit Cape Girardeau

Replicas of two of Christopher Columbus’ historic ships will dock at Riverfront Park in Cape Girardeau later this month.

The Pinta and Nina are scheduled to arrive Sept. 28 and will be open for public tours from Sept. 29 through Oct. 2, Cape Girardeau Convention and Visitors Bureau officials said Wednesday.

The ships will depart from Cape Girardeau on Oct. 3, officials said.

Cape Girardeau’s CVB “is thrilled to bring another historic touring ship to the riverfront,” said Stacy Dohogne Lane, the bureau’s director of public relations.

The Nina was built by hand without power tools, Lane said in a news release.

Archaeology magazine called the ship “the most historically correct Columbus replica ever built.”

In 2005, the Pinta was launched in Brazil.

The Pinta and the Nina tour together as a new, self-contained “sailing museum” to educate the public and schoolchildren about the caravel, a Portuguese ship used by Columbus and many early explorers, Lane said.

“Historians consider the caravel the space shuttle of the 15th century,” Lane said in the release.

Before Columbus, “the Old World and the new World remained separate and distinct continents, and ever since their fates have been bound together,” she said.

Visitors to the replica ships can take a self-guided tour. Admission charges are $8 for adults, $7 for senior citizens and $6 for students, ages 5 to 16.

Children 4 years old and younger will be admitted free, CVB officials said.

The ships will be open for tours from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. each day. No reservations are required for individual tours, Lane said.

The Columbus Foundation, which operates the ships, requests groups make reservations online for a 30-minute guided tour with a crew member, she said.

Online information is available at VisitCape.com/HistoricWeekend2017, she said.

mbliss@semissourian.com

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