How big were Christopher Columbus’ ships?

When we think about Columbus’ ships, we think of big huge ships.  But in reality, the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria are all fairly small ships.  So small they fit quite easily in my cul-de-sac when we measured out the ships for our history lesson, it then turned into a homeschool math lesson.

It’s hard to think of crossing the ocean in those ships with a couple dozen other people in the ship.

 

The question is why did the dog think this was a good idea. #dogsofinstgram

A photo posted by Ticia (@ticiam) on Sep 30, 2016 at 1:17pm PDT

My dog keeps trying to “help” me type by sticking his head on my laptop keyboard.  In case you’re wondering that is not in the least bit helpful.  Not at all.  I keep having to delete random letters.  Also, I’m watching Sharknado with the boys right now, and it is the most ridiculous thing you have ever seen.

So, back to the lesson, and how big were Christopher Columbus’ ships.

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First, we learned the names of Columbus’ ships

We’ve all heard the saying “Columbus sailed the ocean blue in the year 1492,” and I had the kids take some time to write out that rhyme three times each in chalk.  Which meant by the end my sidewalk was covered in that rhyme.  Then I had them write out the names of Columbus’ ships several times.

Sigh, I did a quick check, and the boys have forgotten this, I guess it’s time to get writing again.

Editing to add: Thanks to Carrie for letting me know about The Nina and Pinta, a website all about recreations of these two ships.  I’ll have to show my kids.

Then we dug into:

How big were Columbus’ ships?

Next, we headed out into the cul-de-sac and measured out the size of the smallest ship.  I pulled up “Christopher Columbus’ ships” and used our handy dandy measuring tape.

• The Santa Maria was 18 meters, roughly translating that into yards, it’s about 20 23 yards (I decided being lazy was bad and did the math).
• The Pinta was 17 meters, roughly translating that to 18 yards.
• The Nina was 15 meters, roughly translating to 16 yards.

(Seriously how many people are going to die in this movie in ridiculous ways?  I just saw someone pulled from a helicopter by a shark.  Uh oh, looks like the last remaining main character is going to die, he just said, “I’m going to finish this,” that’s a virtual death sentence.)

We measured out the 15 meters of length, which got us most of the way across the cul-de-sac, and 5 meters across.  It sounds bigger when I  write it, but it looked so small as I looked at it.

Then we grabbed a brand new color of sidewalk chalk and measured out the Pinta, 17 meters by 5 meters.

Finally, we measured out the flagship, Santa Maria, a whopping 18 meters by 5 meters.

We noticed something in the process of this measuring.  They talk about the difference in the size of the ships, but if you notice, there is really only 3 meters difference between the smallest ship, the Nina and the Santa Maria.

Extending the learning for How big were Columbus’ Ships?

While at the time we did this lesson, at the beginning of the school year.  If it had been two months later, we would have learned about the volume of the ships, and how much it was possible for them to carry.

For elementary students, I would have them imagine the ship was a rectangular prism because figuring out the volume of a semi-ovoid shape is a little complicated.

For middle and high school students, it would be worth figuring out a more exact volume of the ships.

See the entire series at The Age of Exploration Unit.

Or check out the mini Christopher Columbus Unit

• Christopher Columbus mini unit
• Christopher Columbus booklist
• Christopher Columbus, make the case for finding India
• Christopher Columbus, hero or villain?
• Age of Exploration dice game

“Christopher Columbus’s fleet” by bravenewtraveler is marked with CC BY 2.0.

“Christopher Columbus Glazed Tile Painting – 11” by Whiskeygonebad is marked with CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.