The Most Historically Accurate Replica of a Columbus Ship Ever Built

See it at http://www.thenina.com/nina.html  The following text was taken from the site.

The Niña is a replica of the ship on which Columbus sailed across the Atlantic on his three voyages of discovery to the new world beginning in 1492. Columbus sailed the tiny ship over 25,000 miles and purchased a half share in the vessel. That ship was last heard of in 1501,

In 1988, the Columbus Foundation hired John Patrick Sarsfield (Click here for more info on John.), an American engineer, maritime historian, and expert on Portuguese caravels, to design and construct a replica of the Niña. John had lived in Brazil while working in the Peace Corps, and had learned of an archaic ship building process called Mediterranean Whole Moulding. This was a technique used by master ship builders in the 15th Century and likely used to build the original ships. Sarsfield discovered this technique in daily use in shipyards on the coast of Bahia in Brazil. In a sleepy little fishing village called Valenca, Sarsfield slowly gained the confidence of the Valencan shipwrights and they began to share with him the secrets of their techniques. Valenca was chosen as the building site for three reasons: shipwrights were using Mediterranean Whole Moulding in conjunction with mechanically generated geometric progressions known as graminhos, techniques that may be similar or identical to those used by the builders of discovery period ships.

Today, the Nina is a floating museum, visiting ports the world over.  I did not get a chance to go on her, but they let me take pictures of the ship.  Lucky me!