Two of the three ships used by Christopher Columbus to sail the Atlantic Ocean in 1492 are docked in Peoria for the weekend.
They are actually replicas or floating museums.
Eric Shangraw has more on the two boats and the need for more crew members if you need a job.
The Nina and The Pinta attracted a crowd of nautical enthusiast along the banks of the Illinois River Thursday. The boats spent the morning docked in Chillicothe before a three hour cruise to Peoria.
The Nina is a full scale replica of the one used by Columbus during his first trip across the Atlantic. The Pinta is one and a half times the size of the original. In the 15th Century these ships where the equivalent of the space shuttle today.
"They were large for their time. They were caravels. Which is a Portuguese design. The Portuguese were the great ship builders. The mariners of their time. Very successful vessels but not large enough to carry cargo when the intercontinental commerce started. So they went out after about 80 years and then they had the big galleons which you see in the movies," said Senior Captain Morgan Sanger.
"My husband come and got me and said you are never going to believe what is down here. And he goes The Nina and Pinta. And I said, take me down there, quick!" said Ruth Medearis, a Chillicothe resident.
"I'm thinking my gosh, I don't know how they had the courage to do that (sail the ocean). I don't know if it is either courage or stupid. I don't know which," said local historian Gary Fyke.
The Santa Maria is the third boat used by Columbus. It was apparently not Columbus favorite. It sank on Christmas Eve, 1492. It is not replicated in this collection.
The two ships will be docked on Peoria's Riverfront Friday, Saturday and Sunday and opened for tours 9am to 6pm. The captain says he needs to hire at least four new crew members while he's in the River City. He says no experience necessary.
The ships sail the Western Hemisphere 42 weeks out of the year educating the public on what it was like to be on an ocean going vessel, more than 500 years ago.
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