One of the three ships used by Christopher Columbus in his first voyage towards the Indies in 1492. Said to be Columbus' favorite, the Nina was a Caravel - a small highly maneuverable sailing vessel designed for Mediterranean and coastal African trading, not open ocean passages. 

There are no authentic surviving documents on Nina's specific design, but researchers agree that she was a medium sized Caravel, which would put her around 50 feet in length on deck, about 60 tons displacement, with a beam of 16 feet and a draft of 7 feet.  

The Pinta was said to be the fastest of the three ships used by Christopher Columbus in his first transatlantic voyage in 1492. The New World was first sighted by Rodrigo de Triana on the Pinta on October 12, 1492.   

The Pinta was also a Caravel type vessel displacing an estimated 60 tons with a 56 foot deck length and beam of 17.6 feet. Her crew size during Columbus' first voyage was 26 men. A working replica of the Pinta, and Nina, were build by the Columbus Foundation and weighs 101 tons.   

The Santa Maria was the largest of the three ships used by Christopher Columbus in his first voyage. She was a Carrack - a three or four masted sailing ship developed for use in the Atlantic Ocean, able to handle the rolling seas and hold sufficient crew and provisions. She was about 60 feet long and 108 tons with a crew of 40. She was used as the flagship for the first exploration voyage, although she was the slowest of Columbus' fleet.

She ran aground off Haiti on Christmas Day, 1492. Columbus realized the ship was beyond repair and had his men strip the timbers from the ship, which were later used to build another vessel. The anchor of the Santa Maria can be found at the Musee du Pantheon National Haitien in Port-au-Prince Haiti.