VOYAGE OF DISCOVERY: AREA STUDENTS VIEW REPLICA OF CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS' FAMED NINA

Schoolchildren peered over the bow of the Nina during a tour.

The Nina moored off downtown Cape Girardeau has been overrun with interested area residents.

In 1492, Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue.

But it took another 505 years for area students to get a real feel for that voyage.

A replica of the famous explorer's ship, the Nina, docked at Cape Girardeau a week ago.

Since then, thousands of area schoolchildren have toured the vessel.

It will remain here through Thursday. It is open for tours from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Most students said they were surprised by the Nina's small size. The ship extends 93.6 feet from bow to stern, but the actual length of the deck is less than 70 feet.

"I thought it would be a tad bigger," said Charlie Meier, 8, after he and his fellow third-graders from St. Paul Lutheran School in Jackson walked across the deck of the Nina last week.

Still, Meier said he liked the ship because it was a lot bigger than his room at home.

But classmate Casey Reeves, 9, thought the ship would be smaller. Reeves said he liked the flags flying from the ship's masts.

Christopher Palisch, 8, said he would like to climb up the masts.

Andrew Lorenz, 9, said he would be willing to take a voyage on the ship "for a little bit."

Rachel Sprandel, 9, said she liked the ship's anchor.

The cannon was a big hit with some of the students.

When the original Nina made its famous voyage, it carried horses, cows, pigs and chickens in its cargo hold.

There are no animals on this voyage.

That didn't stop students from wishing there were some animals on board. "I want to lay on a cow," said 8-year-old Alex Jauch.

Columbus may have worried about a possible mutiny.

On the modern-day Nina, crew member Hank Biles deals with simpler matters, such as advising the students to make sure their shoes are tied before they go aboard.

"No running, jumping and all of that," Biles told students as they prepared to board the Nina.

Biles, who retired from the Canadian Navy in 1991, recently signed on as the Nina's shore coordinator.

"Not everyone can just walk away," he said of his decision to join the crew.

It is Biles' job to tell students about Columbus and the Nina.

The original Nina sailed with a crew of 27. Most of the crew slept on the deck, which was always awash because the ship was so heavily loaded with cargo.

A lucky few could sleep on the poop deck or find a coil of rope to sleep on, Biles said.

"Try to remember," he told a group of schoolchildren, "there is no TV, no Nintendo and no microwaves."

Nina was a nickname for Columbus' ship. Its official name was Santa Clara. But it was called Nina after the Nino family in Spain, which provided the ship.

Nina was the only one of Columbus' fleet of 17 ships to survive the hurricane of 1495.

The replica, which set sail from Brazil in December 1991, hasn't had that experience. But it has traveled 100,000 miles, docking at ports throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean.

It will cross the Atlantic Ocean to visit Genoa, Italy, Columbus' birth place in 1999. The ship is scheduled to return to Brazil in time for the New Year's celebration welcoming in the year 2000 and that country's 500th birthday.

The modern-day Nina was made by hand, Biles said. "They actually made the nails and the screws to go in there."

Unlike Columbus' sailing ship, which depended entirely on wind power, the current Nina primarily is powered by a diesel engine.

The 70 students of St. Henry's School in Charleston were among the steady stream of children who lined up to view the Nina last week. The students ranged in age from kindergarten through seventh grade.

Seventh-grader Jessica Harvell, 12, said she wouldn't want to hitch a ride aboard the Nina.

"I'd be afraid I would get sick and it was too cramped," she said.

"It's too little and always wet and everything," said 11-year-old Rabb Whitehead, who is in the sixth grade.

Fourth-grader Rebecca Rowling, 9, enjoyed seeing the ship.

But Rowling said she wouldn't have wanted to cross the ocean with Columbus because it would have been too cold and wet.

"I wouldn't like to sleep on the floor," she said.

For students like Rowling, a walk around the deck was adventure enough.