[Bordermarch] "The Nina" - Tomorrows Fighter Practice

[Richard and Debra]

   Look what we have docked at our own Riverfront Park in Beaumont! 
  Here is a great opportunity for us to go to visit this replica and do some PR for our group.
   
     Malcom and Nikolai have reschedule fighter practice to be at Riverfront Park tomorrow from 1pm - 3 pm. Please come out in garb. If you so wish, you can bring a project that you have been working on. Lets try to keep modern world out of sight if possible. Please bring your mugs to drink from, your cloaks to keep warm and something to cover your coolers.
   
     I have called the Columbus Foundation and got the group rate for 15+ people with a guided tour and the price is $3.00 a head, that is a $2.00 savings per person.  This will make great photos. Phocas asks for you to please bring your cameras and take pictures for him, he will be out of town tomorrow and will not be able to attend.
   
  Hope to see you there,
   
  Caitrin de Lacy
  Baroness of Bordermarch
   
   
  "The Nina" (A replica of Columbus' favorite ship)
   
  February 2, 2007 - February 11, 2007
9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. daily

Visit website
Name:  Riverfront Park
Event Address:  Downtown
Location:  Beaumont, TX
Phone:  (787) 421-0402
Riverfront Park 
$5.00 - Adults / $4.00 - Seniors (60+) / $3.00 - Students 
Children ages 4 and under free 
Groups (15+) - 30 minute guided tours. Teachers or groups wishing to schedule a tour can call 
the ship at (787) 421-0402 or email columfnd at surfbvi.com. 
General public tours are "walk aboard" and self guided. No reservations necessary. 
Presented By: Columbus Foundation Inc. 
   
  Replica of Columbus' 'Niña' coming ashore in Beaumont 
   
  By JAMIE REID
The Enterprise
   
  While explorer Christopher Columbus' popularity soared 14 years ago - during the 500th anniversary of his "discovery" of the Americas in 1492 - his reputation has taken a tumble in recent years, according to one historian. 
   
  Perhaps it's because people overdosed on Columbus in 1992, when the explorer was all over the media and the basis of a movie, "1492: Conquest of Paradise" directed by Ridley Scott and starring French actor Gérard Depardieu, Columbus expert Eugene Lyon of Florida said in a telephone interview from his Florida home. 
   
  The film, which depicted the explorer's journey to the New World, used a replica of the Niña in filming, according to a press kit from The Columbus Foundation. That replica, which was built in Brazil and finished in 1991, will arrive in Beaumont starting next weekend for tours. 
  Lyon, who has been aboard this Niña replica, describes it as the most authentic Columbus-era replica. (There are at least four other Columbus ships that have been built in recent years, and three of them are docked in Corpus Christi, he said.) 
  I really felt it was as they claimed," he said, "an authentic replica." 
  This ship is the most accurate because it has four masts, like the original Niña, he said. Other replicas were built with three, he said. 
  This Niña, which was built entirely by hand using designs and construction techniques dating back to the 15th-century, is 93.6 feet long and has a 7-foot draft, according to a press kit. The ship holds a crew of five, while the original ship had a 27-man crew, according to the press kit. 
   
  Lyon doubts many other replicas will be constructed due to lack of interest, he said. 
  Part of that apathy, or even contempt, for Columbus may stem from the subsequent treatment of American Indians after the "discovery" of the New World, Lyon said. During the 500th-anniversary, many Native Americans demonstrated against the celebrations, he said.