Notes: Nina was part of the squadron, also containing Pinta and Santa Maria, led by Christopher Columbus on the initial voyage of discovery to America. Nina was captained by Vincente Yanez Pinzon. The squadron departed the southern Spanish port of Los Palos on 3 August 1492, stopped at Las Palmas in the Canary Islands for repairs to Pinta, then continued on westward 6 September. Land was sighted from Pinta on 12 October 1492; the island which Columbus named San Salvador is not now known, but was somewhere in the present-day Bahamas. The squadron explored the Bahamas for two weeks, then went south to Cuba on 27 October, which they coasted along for the next six weeks. Heading back toward the Bahamas on 20 November, the Pinta split off to investigate Great Inagua Island and was gone until after the New Year. Meanwhile, on 5 December, Santa Maria and Nina found the northwest tip of Hispaniola, in present-day Haiti. Just after midnight on Christmas day, Santa Maria grounded on a reef; although no one was killed, the ship was ruined. Because the Nina could not transport both ships' companies, some 39 crew volunteered to stay at La Navidad, in a fort built from the flagship's timbers. Columbus departed with the Nina on 4 January 1493, rejoining the Pinta at Isla Cabra two days later. They proceeded down the east coast of present-day Dominican Republic, before turning for home on 16 January. On the way they were hit by several large storms and separated; Nina had to stop in the Portuguese Azores. They reached Lisbon on 3 March 1493, and then finally returned to Los Palos on 15 March, after a voyage of 32 weeks.
Nina sailed as part of Columbus' second fleet of 17 ships, departing Cadiz on 25 September 1493 and reaching Dominica on 3 November. After many explorations, she returned with Columbus to Spain in June 1496. After a trading trip in the Mediterranean and encounter with Sardinian pirates, she returned to Cadiz, then sailed again for the Caribbean on 23 January 1498, shortly before the departure of the main fleet for Columbus' third voyage. Her subsequent career is unknown, the last written record of her from 1501.
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