SAILING MUSEUM RETURNS TO CAPE DOCK

The Nina is coming back to Cape Girardeau and Debbie Gattis is so excited, she's taking 70 people with her to see it.

Actually those 70 are fifth-graders at Jefferson School were Gattis teaches, but she's sure they will love seeing this replica of Christopher Columbus' ship as much as she did when it was here two years ago.

The replica of the Nina, which was Columbus' favorite of the three ships that sailed westward from Spain in August 1492, will dock at Riverfront Park in Cape Girardeau and be open for group and individual tours Wednesday through Oct. 11.

"It's fascinating to think about the explorers who set off on this little ship," said Gattis, whose students will tour the ship on its first day in Cape Girardeau.

The new Nina was constructed completely by hand in Brazil and has been touring since 1992 as a sailing museum. It's traveled through oceans and rivers throughout the United States, Canada, Central and South America and Europe.

Morgan P. Sanger, who has been captain of the Nina since it first set sail, said he's traveled more than 110,000 miles on the ship.

"When you consider that most of that was traveling about six miles per hour, that's a long time," Sanger said.

Sanger was part of a group of marine archaeologists and marine historians in the British Virgin Islands who in 1986 formed the Columbus Foundation. They wanted to organize a fleet of replicas of Columbus' ships to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the explorer's voyage to the New World.

Seven years of research, fund-raising, planning and labor went into the effort and in the end only one ship, the Nina, was built. But it was Columbus' favorite, Sanger said.

There were no authentic pictures of the Pinta, Nina or Santa Maria. Researchers based their ideas for the Nina on written records from the 15th and 16th centuries and recent underwater explorations of shipwrecked boats of that period that have been found in the Caribbean.

Once the research was completed, Sanger said the Foundation was fortunate to find shipbuilders near Valenca, Brazil, who were still using techniques of 15th century ship builders. They used naturally shaped timbers from the nearby tropical forests and traditional tools, such as axes, handsaws and chisels.

The Nina was the last new ship built by these workmen, who went out of business shortly after the Nina was completed, Sanger said.

"In all the world that we know of, there is no place to reproduce what we've done," he said.

The original Nina, a caravel ship (one used as a cargo carrier, warship, patrol boat and even a pirate ship), made many voyages, much of them across open oceans. With Columbus at the helm, the original Nina made trips from Spain to San Salvador, Hispaniola and Cuba. The Nina was last heard of in 1501, when she embarked on a trading voyage to the Pearl Coast.

Sanger said the first thing that usually strikes those seeing the replica Nina for the first time is its size. The replica is, as researcher believe the original was, about 93 feet from the tip of the bow sprint to the end of the boomkin, with a deck about 66 feet long.

"People expect it to be much larger," he said.

Next they begin to appreciate the courage of those who set sail in such a small vessel over open ocean into the unknown.

"You realize how brave they were and how desperate for a new life," Sanger said.

That's something Gattis wants her students to see.

"It's good for students to see the hardships these sailors had to endure. When they can see what it was like then, they learn how much better we have it now," Gattis said.

Lin W. Jones, sales-marketing manager with the Cape Girardeau Convention and Visitors Bureau, said groups can still schedule tours on the Nina. Most school tours are scheduled from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., with tours for groups like Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, senior centers and civic groups usually scheduled for later in the afternoon. From 5 to 7 p.m. weekdays and on weekends, it's mostly families and leisure travelers, Jones said.

Gattis said when the Nina was here two years ago, she went with her husband, not with a school group, and learned a lot.

"I was impressed with how knowledgeable the crew was," she said.

"It's educational for all ages," Sanger said. "I've seen people come on thinking they are wasting their time. But they come off saying, 'Hey, I really learned something.'"