Footage of the partially submerged, 75-foot-long and 20-foot-wide ship was captured by Courtney Sacco, a photojournalist for local outlet Corpus Christi Caller-Times. According to the outlet, the more than 25-year-old vessel had been in poor condition for quite some time.
— courtney sacco (@Caller_Courtney) April 23, 2019
Kim Mrazek, president of the Columbus Sailing Association (CSA), told the Caller-Times that while it's still unclear what caused the ship to sink, she suspects it might've been an impacted board. "It was something very quick. She was dry. She had all her leaks patched; she was doing just [fine]," she said.
Divers are expected to inspect the ship later this week to determine the cause and how to best to raise the vessel.
"Good things will continue to happen to her even though this may be a little minor setback," Gina Sanchez, a marina superintendent, told the Caller-Times. "I think we'll proceed forward."
This isn't the first time that the vessel has run into trouble. In August 2017, she partially sank three days after Hurricane Harvey struck the area. It took roughly three months and some $20,000 in donated funds to raise the ship and repair the damage.
Prior to the Tuesday incident, the CSA was planning to rework the bottom portion of the vessel by the end of the month as city officials continued their search for new owners for the replica. The Caller-Times reported that the city has been trying to gift the ship for educational purposes since June 2018, an initiative which Mrazek speculates will see results by the end of this year.
The troubled vessel was originally built by the Columbus Foundation in the late 1980s. She toured the world, alongside replicas of La Pinta and La Santa María, to Corpus Christi in 1992 to commemorate the 500th anniversary of Columbus' first voyage.
All three ships were given to the city as a gift in 2006. Although La Niña was kept around, the two others were scrapped for parts in 2014 after city officials concluded that it was too costly to repair all three vessels, according to local media outlets.
