If Mike Griffin Had Been Columbus

Toledo, New Castille. March 1492.

Today Don Miguel de Grifo, the head of the Royal Transatlantic
Exploring Administration made the eagerly awaited announcement as to
how the Administration would pursue Their Majesties’ Vision for
Transatlantic Exploration. To the disappointment of some, he turned
down the suggestion of the Italian explorer Columbus that the program
utilize already-existing, commercially-available caravels staged from
the Canary Islands. "The Administration has no means of
Atlantic-rating these craft safely. Spanish lives are too precious to
be wasted in this endeavor." Furthermore," he added, "the idea of
staging the voyages in the Canary Islands is too complicated, and I
fear that constructing the necessary docks and shipyards in the
Canaries might become too expensive, even though they would then
enable further voyages more cheaply."

Advocates protested, saying "If you’re in the Canaries, you’re halfway
to anywhere in the Atlantic," citing the favorable winds prevailing
from that spot. de Grifo responded "That is true, and someday we will
build docks in the Canaries. But for now, we must sail directly from
Spain to China, and the ships must be large enough to carry all
supplies needed for the entire voyage."

Rather than going with the commercially-available caravels, de Grifo
announced that the Royal Galley Arsenal of Barcelona would build an
existing design of a large war galley. "Galleys are a tried-and-true
technology that has worked for centuries." He denied that the Count of
Barcelona had demanded that the Arsenal be used to provide the ships
for the expedition as a price of political support for the plan in the
Cortes. "We are doing this because it is technologically the right
thing to do. Simple. Safe. Soon."

Barcelona, Aragon. July 1494.

Administrator Don Miguel de Grifo announced today that the Erís
transatlantic vehicle program was in fine shape, but that some
revisions would have to be made. It is now apparent that the galley
design selected, although effective in its original role in
Mediterranean warfare, would be too small to carry the needed supplies
for crew and galley slaves for a full transatlantic voyage to China.
Therefore, the shipyard workers would be instructed to cut the hull in
half and insert a new, lengthy section equal to a fourth of the
galley’s original weight. According to de Grifo, it was an easy
modification and would not affect the ship’s seaworthiness. It would,
however, delay the start of the program by several years, and increase
the cost by several hundred million maravedis.

Barcelona, Aragon. August 1498.

The troubled transatlantic program of Ferdinand and Isabella ran into
further problems as Administrator Don Miguel de Grifo announced that
the agency would require more time and money to fix several minor
problems that had arisen in the development of its China galley.
Simulations have suggested that the galley, originally designed for
Mediterranean seas, would be shaken to pieces by the heavier waves of
the Atlantic. Also, the insertion of the extra hull section has
altered the seaworthiness of the whole design, leading to fears that
the craft would snap in half in heavy seas. "Nothing a little more
time and money would not cure," said de Griffo.

Toledo, March 1500.

The Spanish court was today shaken by news arriving from Lisbon that a
Portuguese navigator had accidentally discovered a vast new land in
the Western ocean, when his ship had made an unexpectedly wide turn in
rounding the horn of Africa. The land, which he dubbed "Brazil" after
the island of mythology, appeared to be a new continent. Additionally,
word arriving from Rome suggested that the Pope was about to issue a
bull declaring this new continent exclusive property of Portugal, and
off limits to other nations without a license from the Portuguese
king.

Toledo. April 1500.

Today Their Majesties formally terminated their transatlantic program,
which was now pointless in the wake of the Pope’s monopoly on Atlantic
voyaging. The galley under construction in Barcelona is to be broken
up for firewood, as it was in any case unlikely to be seaworthy for
any purpose.

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