As Last Dance approached a lock on the Erie Canal early one morning, the lock doors opened and two dark, very different-looking boats began to emerge. As they left the lock, it became apparent that they were demasted caravels, the Nina and the Pinta, two of Columbus' ships sailed on his original voyage to the world on the west side of the Atlantic, unknown to Europeans. Coincidentally, Glen just finished reading a history of Columbus' voyages - Columbus in the Americas, William Least Heat Moon.
In Columbus' day, the caravels could not move without their masts and sails. These recreations have an iron jib (a diesel engine) in the bilges to move the boat forward. The 20' high bridges on the Erie Canal require many boats to lower masts, antennas, radar arches, and other items normally carried high on a boat.
As is taught to every elementary school child in America, Columbus sailed across the Atlantic and landed in America - well actually some islands in the Caribbean, he never set foot on any of the mainland of North and South America. His first voyage included exploration of the island he named Hispaniola, now the countries of Haiti and Dominican Republic. There he encountered the native people of the island, the Tainos, which helped the Europeans with food, sources of drinking water, and navigation. Their assistance was a key to the success of Columbus' first journey.
It is appropriate that only the Nina and Pinta are on this voyage, as the Santa Maria never returned to Spain from that first voyage. She sank after hitting a reef at night off Hispaniola. Not having enough room on just two boats to transport all of the sailors back to Spain, and wanting to establish a colony in this new-to-the-Europeans land, the broken Santa Maria was dismantled and the wood used to build a fort on land.
While Columbus and the rest of the crew returned to Spain, the sailors in the colony entertained themselves by capturing and holding 4 or more of the Taino women for each sailor. By the time Columbus returned on his second voyage in 1493, the native Caribbeans had attempted to get their people returned, resulting in fighting among the natives and the Columbus crew. Even though they enjoyed a huge advantage in weapons, and killed large numbers of the Tainos, none of the Europeans survived. This conflict did not stop the newly arriving Europeans from capturing indigenous people for their own use.
"The policies and acts of Columbus . . . began the depopulation of the paradise that was Hispaniola in 1492. Of the original natives, estimated by modern ethnologist at 300,000 in number, a third were killed off between 1494-1496. By 1508 an enumeration showed only 60,000 alive." (pg 128-129) A report issued in 1548 doubted if 500 of the native people remained.
When Columbus first arrived in the Caribbean Islands, over 4 million people lived on the islands and coastal mainland. In a few decades, Columbus and later arriving Europeans had eliminated over 90% of the population through violence, slavery, and imported diseases.
One of the missions of Columbus' five voyages was to bring Christianity to the indigenous people.
The history of Columbus bringing sex slavery, work slavery and genocide to the Americas is probably not part of the history program the docents on the replica ships will be sharing.
