La Niña, also known as "The Little One", was the famous Christopher Columbus cabin boat. In her early years, Niña was equipped with Latin sails. But after that, she was equipped with square sails. Since Niña was such a small vessel, she was very agile and maneuverable, but needed a strong ballast to withstand rough seas.

Columbus used Nina on his first voyage to the West Indies in 1492. At the time, it was traditional for Spanish ships to be named after female saints, so she was called Santa Clara. However, the ship is often referred to as La Nina, which may be an inside joke referring to the ship's owner, Juan Nino.

Along with La Niña throughout Columbus' explorations were the Pinta, a schooner-type ship much like La Niña, and the Carrack-type Santa Maria. The Carrack was usually an ocean-going vessel with three or four sails.

As mentioned earlier, Niña was originally equipped with Latin sails, but was later refitted with square sails to optimize performance in the ocean. While there is not much accurate documentation on the Niña's design, it is believed that the ship weighed about 60 tons and had a deck height of 15 meters. There are conflicting accounts of the number of sails Niña had, with some claiming three and others claiming four.

On Christopher Columbus' first voyage, the La Niña carried a crew of 26 and was captained by the famous Spanish navigator, Vincente Yanez Pinzon. He left Palos de la Frontera with his three ships and actually boarded the Santa Maria, the largest of the three.

On October 7, 1492, the crew spotted a flock of birds indicating that they were close to land, and a few days later, the captain of the Pinta, Martín Alonso Pinzón, confirmed the sighting and signaled Columbus. Columbus went on to say that he had discovered the land and that he would therefore receive the lifetime pension promised by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella to those who saw it for the first time.

Christopher Columbus named the island San Salvador, which is now known as the Bahamas. He called the natives Indians and was intrigued by their gold earrings. He later imprisoned the natives and forced them to guide him to the source of the gold. Columbus also noted how primitive they were in warfare, and is believed to have said, "The people here are simple in war ...... I could conquer them with fifty men and rule them as I pleased."

Thereafter, Columbus ventured to the northern coast of Cuba in late October and then to Hispaniola in December. The Santa Maria ran aground that Christmas and had no choice but to abandon her. Columbus decided to impress the natives by using the wreckage as a source of target practice for their cannons. A native chief, Guacanagari, accepted Columbus and allowed him to leave some of his men behind. Christopher Columbus then established the settlement of La Navidad in what is today Haiti.

The last stop on his voyage was at Rincon Bay, northeast of the island of Hispaniola. It was January 1493, and here he encountered the Ciguayos. the only group of natives who offered strong resistance to Columbus and his men.

Columbus then set sail for Spain, and in February 1493, La Niña nearly capsized east of the Azores. This is a small archipelago in the North Atlantic, about 900 miles west of Lisbon, the capital of Portugal. A storm capsized the ship over the waves, and Columbus then ordered his crew to fulfill a series of vows, such as religious pilgrimages, upon their return to Spain. A month later, on March 4, 1493, the phenomenon La Niña reached Lisbon.

Six months later, La Niña found herself joining a fleet of seventeen ships on a second voyage to Hispaniola in the Caribbean. She became the flagship for the exploration of Cuba's largest island, and subsequently the only ship able to withstand the hurricane of 1495. She later returned to Spain in 1496.

Nina's next journey was an unauthorized trip to Rome, the capital of Italy. The ship was hijacked by pirates while disembarking from Cagliari and taken to Sardinia. Nina's captain at the time, Alonso Medel, and a few of his men managed to escape the pirates. He stole a small boat and rowed back to La Nina, then he and the rest of the crew sailed to Cadiz.

The phenomenon of La Niña returned to Hispaniola in 1498 to serve as an advance guard for Christopher Columbus' third voyage. In 1500 she sailed from Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, and in 1501 she went on a trading voyage to the Pearl Coast on the Venezuelan island of Cubagua. After this ships and modern ship model kits. We offer fast order processing and worldwide shipping.

There are no records of La Niña's travels, but it is thought that she registered about 25,000 nautical miles under the command of Christopher Columbus.

Mayflower Modeling Offers a fantastic range of replicas of La Niña model ships. They are superb reproductions of their real-life counterparts and are wonderful conversation pieces for enthusiasts of historic ships, exploration and Christopher Columbus, among others.

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