![]() ![]() “Take five groups of 25 or 30 middle school or high school kids in a social studies classroom for 45 minutes - where you’ve attempted to decorate walls according to whatever era you’re studying. “For me, given my background in sailing and history teaching, it’s a perfect combination of living history and sailing and far and away the best classroom I’ve ever had,” Zenk said. After Hartford, the flotilla will travel to Newport, Rhode Island, then Bridgeport, Connecticut. The Nina and Pinta tour 11 months of the year, making 30 to 40 stops along the way, he said. “They get the audible - where they’re hearing the wind in the flags and in the lines, hearing the water lapping on the hull - they’ve got an olfactory sense, where they’re able to get the scent of pine tar that these ships used to be covered in to waterproof and preserve the wood,” Zenk said. Students, he said, “get a tactile sense feeling all the lines, the wood of the ship, and to a certain extent, the sails different pieces of equipment that we operate the ship with. But nothing, he said, compares to the immediate understanding of, and immersion in, history that happens when young people step aboard what Archaeology magazine called “the most historically correct Columbus replica ever built.” Zenk, a 64-year-old Hudson, Wisconsin, history teacher and senior deckhand, who goes by “DZ” on board ship, is just about at the halfway point, after putting the boats in March 1 at Perdido Key, Florida.ĭuring the school year, Zenk spends his time in the classroom, teaching teenagers about the world through hands-on projects. “It amazed me how tiny these were and you think of them sailing 400 years ago and not knowing what the heck you’re going to run into.” “I was impressed how small these vessels are and could not imagine that they crossed the ocean from Spain to the New World,” the city resident said. ![]() ![]() and waited until 11:30, when they came along. Sylvester learned about the event from the Whofish website, but couldn’t find information about when the pair would be sailing past Middletown, he said, so he went to the river around 8 a.m. She hopes the ship will be restored and able to sail again in the future.ĬNN’s Nicole Williams contributed to this report.This week, the vessels made their way up the Connecticut River from New Rochelle, New York, on their way to Mortensen Riverfront Plaza in Hartford, where they become docked floating museums through June 14.Īs the tiniest of flotillas made its way by Harborpark in Middletown, photographer Rich Sylvester stood along the boardwalk, taking in the magnificence of the Nina and Pinta - and capturing their voyage on camera. During that time, she learned and now teaches 15th century sailing techniques. Mrazek first started working on the ship in 1995 when it was in sailing condition. When the ship was in its prime, people were able to sail around the Corpus Christi bay in it. While it’s unknown how long the repair process will take, the ship was set to embark on a journey to Aransas Pass, a city about 20 miles away, later this month to undergo some needed restoration. “She stayed that way for three months until we had the funds to bring her back up.” “The pumps were electric and the electricity was off due to the hurricane,” said Mrazek. ![]() After Hurricane Harvey hit the area in 2017, the ship took on water and partially sank because its water pumps were off. This isn’t the first time the 75-foot-long and 20-foot-wide ship sank in the marina. The ship now sits on the bottom of the marina. ![]()
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