Niña Replica Sets Sail This Morning

By Chad Petri Reporter

If you see a 500-year-old-looking ship leaving Bayou La Batre this morning, here’s the explanation. After weeks of repair and maintenance a replica of one of the ships used by Christopher Columbus heads to Biloxi today. Niña Replica Sets Sail This Morning

Published: Tue, February 12, 2008 - 5:30 am Last Updated: Thu, July 31, 2008 - 12:46 am

Chad Petri

Deck hands and ship building hammer and saw the remaining bits of the Niña replica together before its return to the sea. On January third a fire nearly put the ship in Davey Jone's locker

“A generator caught fire at 4:30 in the morning,” says Captain Morgan Sanger. “We didn't notice the fire until 5 o’clock in the morning and when the whole aft deck was ablaze.” The fire just happened to coincide with the ship's annual trip to Bayou La Batre for maintenance. Crews were happy to get to work.

“It's a wonderful hull,” says President of Landry Boat Works Darrel Landry. “It was well constructed and when a boat's well constructed it's easy to work back to it.” Even though this place re-creates a place that's more than 500 years old it still shares a lot in common with modern ships. It still follows that basic formula of wood plus frame equals ship

“You still have a framing, put boards longitudinally on them and fasten them to it and try to keep them from leaking,” says Landry. Pieces are carefully molded into place. The six-member crew is anxious to get back in the water. The fire only set the ship's docking plans back by one week, but cost $100,000 dollars in damage

“They had a severe fire on the right hand side,” says Landry. “Mostly burnt decking and the aft mast and sails and rigging'.” The crew readies for a year-long stint in the Pacific Ocean. The fire was a close call for the tiny ship.

“It was extremely heartbreaking to see a one of a kind ship, I mean there's no other ship like this in the world and to see the damage,” says the Captain. “If we hadn't caught then we would have probably lost the ship.”