1200s

First posted on patreon. September 1290. Orkney, Kingdom of Norway. The child that arrived in Orkney was small, blonde and bereft by motion sickness. She was surrounded by Norwegian ladies, who dragged her stringy hair away from her sickly-looking face. Her skin had a green tinge to it, her...

The Byzantine Dromon had lateen sails which could sail against the wind. What if sometime from 900-1100, the dromon made it to Iberia and France, where it could be refined to work on the Atlantic coast, creating an earlier 'caravel'? Remove the oars, add another mast of sails (which could easily...