Friday, September 29, 2000

Columbus' Nina sails again, with bit of help from engine

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Replica arrives at Covington

By Chris Mayhew
The Cincinnati Enquirer

        COVINGTON — Flying the Spanish flag used when Christopher Columbus sailed, a replica of the Nina — one of Columbus' three original ships — docked Thursday on the banks of the Ohio River.

The Nina cruises the Ohio River as she prepares to dock at Mike Fink's Restaurant, where she will be based until Wednesday. (Patrick Reddy photo) | ZOOM |

        When most people see this Nina — operated by the Columbus Foundation in the British Virgin Islands and registered in Delaware — for the first time, they usually say they think it should be larger with a steering wheel, Captain Morgan Sanger said.

        “They've been watching too many Errol Flynn movies,” Capt. Sanger said. The ship is a caravel, with a Scandanavian-style bow, built in 1991 in Brazil by the Columbus Foundation for the 500th anniversary of Columbus' voyage to the New World. When Dianna Gibbons looked out the window of her home in Delhi Township, she said she thought a vintage pirate ship was sailing up the river, so she followed the Nina to its dock at Mike Fink's Restaurant in Covington to see what it was.

        “It's amazing someone could cross the ocean in something that small,” she said. “You would have to put your faith in God.”

        To navigate the ship without the benefit of wind there is an engine, allowing the Nina to travel at close to 6 mph.

        Under sail, its top speed is just over 11 mph.

Doc Kaiser, the Nina's first mate, lashes the mizzen sail to a yardarm after the ship docked at the foot of Greenup Street in Covington. (Patrick Reddy photo) | ZOOM |

        The Nina is required by the Columbus Foundation to be self-sufficient.

        Money is generated from tour admissions, sales of souvenirs, and money from the occasional movie appearance by the ship.

        Many area schools, including St. Agnes Elementary in Park Hills, Burlington Elementary, St. Henry in Elsmere, and Newport Middle School, have booked special group tours.

        When students tour the ship, they are told about how Columbus navigated by using a compass, the stars, and his sixth sense, said Capt. Sanger, who has been sailing since he was five and owned shipyards in the British Virgin Islands.

        One of the hardest jobs on the Nina is the use of the winch to lift things like the anchor. The anchor on the replica Nina is 500 pounds, the original Nina's anchor was more than 1,000 pounds.

        Capt. Sanger, 49, a resident of the British Virgin Islands, and originally of Westchester County, N.Y., has been with the Nina since 1985, when it was only an idea, and has been a member of the working crew full-time since 1992.

IF YOU GO

The Nina will be open to the public with 35-minute tours through Tuesday. The Nina will depart Wednesday morning. The cost is $4 for general admission, $3.50 for senior citizens and $3 for students.

        Capt. Sanger said the Nina will keep sailing as a traveling classroom and piece of history as long as people want to keep coming to see it.

        “Life is getting so complicated for people on shore, they come to the ship to travel to a different time and place,” Capt. Sanger said.

        The Nina has traveled overmore than 120,000 miles, and more than 1 million people in student groups, and 1 million more people not in groups have toured the ship, Capt. Sanger said.

        In most ways the crew of six lives and works the same way Columbus' crew of 27 did 500 years ago. Today at least, the crew can sleep below the open deck instead of on it, Capt. Sanger said.

        Captain Sanger said learning how to sail the Nina on the ocean has been a challenge.

        “It's wet and it rolls a lot, the motion is different than any other boat, and it takes a while to get used to,” Capt. Sanger said. “As they say, the technique was lost 500 years ago.”

        Many days are 20 hours long, and the hardest thing is working on the deck in bad weather, said John O'Meara, 35, of West Palm Beach, Fla., a crewmember for more than seven months.

        “Under sail, it's a lot more demanding, but a lot more fun,” said O'Meara, who until joining the Nina crew was in the yacht delivery business.

        The Nina was last in Louisville, and has most recently sailed from the Great Lakes by way of the Illinois River, Mississippi River, and now the Ohio River.

       

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