810-LancMtor Faming, Saturday, October 25,1986
Nina: Columbus's Favorite Ship
WASHINGTON - Her name,
rarely mentioned apart from Santa
Maria and Pinta, is immortal in
the annuals of exploration; Nina -
Little Girl.
She was Christopher Columbus’s
favorite ship. Among the most
advanced of her day, she proved
sea-kindly and swift on his first
voyage to the New World. And,
after his flagship, Santa Maria,
ran aground on Christmas Day,
1492, she carried the discoverer
through a fierce mid-Atlantic
winter storm safely and trium
phantly home to Spain.
What happened to Nina after
that famous first voyage? What did
she look like? For nearly 500 years,
her appearance has been assumed
from early 16th-century drawings.
Little is known about the Spanish
caravels of discovery.
Information in Seville
Searching for information on the
early Spanish shipping system in
Spain’s Archive of the Indies in
Seville, historian Eugene Lyon
examined a 400-page bundle of
documents called the Libro de
Armadas. It described the sending
of several caravel fleets to the New
World between 1495 and 1500.
“When I saw her name on the
aged paper before me, I did not
immediately grasp its
significance,” Lyon, an expert in
old Spanish documents, reports in
the November National
Geographic.
“Nina, also known as Santa
Clara.” Could this be Columbus’s
Little Girl? She was nicknamed
Nina because she was first the
property of Juan Nino. She was
formally Santa Clara, after the
patron saint of the town (Moguer)
where she was built.
The bundle of documents in
cluded details of her cargo, sails,
rigging, and other equipment in
1498, the year of Columbus’s third
voyage to the New World. Nina, the
papers revealed, had four masts,
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instead of two or three as has
always been depicted.
Most historians, including Lyon,
believe the first- and second
voyage Ninas were one and the
same. A five-year investigation by
National Geographic magazine,
also reported in its November
issue, has concluded that Nina,
Pinta and Santa Maria first an
chored in the New World at
Samana Cay in the Bahamas in
1492.
On the second voyage, which left
Spain in September 1493, Nina was
among the flotilla of 17 vessels.
Convinced that Cuba was the Asia
he sought, Columbus “aboard the
caravel Nina, also known as Santa
Clara,” on June 12,1494, required
all his crews to swear to their
belief about reaching the Asian
mainland.
Damaged Off Hispaniola
In August 1495, sturdy Nina was
badly damaged in a hurricane off
the island of Hispaniola (now Haiti
and the Dominican Republic). The
documents mention “Nina, which
was remade in the Indies.” On her
return to Spain in 1496, Nina
brought back New World goods:
gold, wood, cotton, and a barrel of
saifi. Columbus thought the sand
was a precious ore.
Next, apparently without
Columbus’s approval, Nina was
sent to Rome on a commercial
voyage in 1497 and was hijacked off
the coast of Sardinia by a French
pirate. The crew, through bribery,
escaped and returned Nina safely
to Spain. An angry Columbus
recovered her.
Finally preparing for his third
voyage ,to the New World,
Columbus decided to send Nina
and sister ship Santa Cruz ahead to
Hispaniola in early February 1498
with much-needed supplies. To pay
his seamen, the documents
disclose, Columbus used funds he
was to have taken to Hispaniola,
hoping to balance the books with
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gold to be found there.
Nina received new sails, a new
200-pound anchor, and cartloads of
planking. Caulkers worked 40 days
on her deck and hull.
Finally, the documents say, she
was refitted and fully laden: 18
tons of wheat, 17 tons of wine in
great pipe barrels, some 7 tons of
sea biscuit, almost 2 tons of flour,
more than 2,000 pounds of cheese,
and a ton of salt pork. Also aboard
for the colonists were olive oil,
sardines, raisins, and garlic.
From a ship’s loaded cargo, it is
Nina, Columbus's favorite ship, is depicted as she looked on his third voyage to the
New World in 1498. Details of Nina's sails, rigging and other equipment were discovered
by historian Eugene Lyon in a 15th century document on early Spanish fleets -- providing
the first authentic look at a caravel of discovery. Nina had four masts, not three as
previously thought. Until now. her style was assumed from early 16th-century drawings.
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possible to estimate the dimen
sions of her hold, and thus her hull.
Lyon calculated Nina’s 1498 Indies
lading at just over 52 tons. She
appears, therefore, to have been 67
feet long, with a beam of 21 feet
and a draft of just under 7 feet. Her
total carrying capacity was 58 to 60
tons.
For this third voyage, Columbus
had received permission to take as
many as 330 persons to the Indies ,
on royal salary. Nina and Santa
Cruz carried more than 90 of them,
including farmers and stockmen,
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crossbowmen, a priest, locksmith,
miner, and surgeon.
Gypsy Women Aboard
Two of the four women aboard
were Gypsies named Catalina and
Maria, convicted murderers freed
by the crown on condition that they
emigrate.
Nina was armed with 10 bom
bardas with their breechlocks,
turning yokes, bolts, and wedges,
as well as 80 lead balls, 34 short
and 20 long lances, and 100 pounds
of gunpowder.
/
(Turn to Page B 13)
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