The Nina (front) and Pinta at Guntersville, AL, October 12, 2010I thought I'd missed these ships this time on their visit to North Alabama. I saw the Nina at Guntersville about 12 years ago. This time, both the Nina and the Pinta were here in Huntsville at Ditto Landing and at Guntersville before heading on up to Chattanooga, Tennessee. Thinking they'd already left the area, I was enjoying the photos from a couple of fellow bloggers this morning when I decided to check the website and see what the schedule was. Turns out they are in Guntersville until 10/13, so we drove over for a quick look. It was neat to see replicas of two of the three ships that Columbus and his men used to cross the Atlantic and bump into North America.
The Nina and the Pinta and others of their era are such small vessels. If you click on the photo, you get a better idea of the size of the ships in comparison to the visitors on board. The Nina is a full-size replica, but the Pinta is a bit larger than the original. The beam (maximum width of the deck) of the Nina is only 18 feet. It is amazing to think of the early seafarers crossing vast expanses of ocean in ships narrower than my family room is wide. When I was 11 and and visited Plimouth Plantation, I saw the Mayflower II, the replica of the Mayflower that carried the Pilgrims to the New World. I could hardly believe those brave people had survived their voyage on such a tiny ship. It was so small that it seemed like a toy, especially when compared to the U.S.S. Constitution, "Old Ironsides," that I had seen earlier that summer at Boston Harbor. A few years ago I had the same feeling when we visited Jamestown and saw replicas of vessels that regularly crossed the Atlantic transporting food, animals, equipment, and other necessities for daily living for the folks living in the colonies.
I made a few more photos of the Nina and the Pinta, but I recommend visiting Giraffe Head Tree's post "The Nina and the Pinta" and "A Special Columbus Day Visit" at Sunny Side Up for some really neat photos.
The Nina and the Pinta will be in Guntersville until about 1:00 p.m. tomorrow before heading up to Chattanooga, so if you have time and are in the area, go take a look.
Sure small! There are replicas of a couple "tall ships" around here and it is amazing how far they could go with just sails!
ReplyDeleteWow, thanks for your post! I enjoyed reading about your day. I saw the ships in the replica Jamestown plantation in Williamsburg VA. It is awesome to see the craftmanship that went into building these ships! We also helped carve out a canoe out of a log with an oyster shell. The kids loved it!
ReplyDeleteI think your photo rounds up the group Bunnits!! It's perfect of the two of them together! Thanks for mentioning my blog and the great lesson on the ships!
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