History Lesson

Peoria was fortunate to have life size replicas of Christopher Columbus' ships the Nina and the Pinta. We toured them today. Wow, it's hard to believe they made it across the ocean in those ships. The Nina is the same size as the original and the Pinta was 50% larger that the original. They were surprisingly small. The Nina had 27 crew members, they slept on the deck which was constantly wet because of the heavy load they carried. The waves constantly crashed onto the deck. The only person with a bed was the Captain. The Hold held the food and animals. The animals hung from slings so they didn't break their legs. We didn't get to go into the Hold or the Captain's quarters. There was no enclosed space, everything and everyone was exposed to the elements. On the way back to Europe they used hammocks to sleep in, one of their discoveries in the new world, an idea from the Native Americans.