Talk:Thirteenth Century (1210: The Discovery of America)

There is absolutely no way a sailing ship - not even in 1207 - would take three years to cross the Atlantic. They may have accidently come upon what would be called the Ilhas Afortunadas (Fortunate Islands, renamed Azores later) when they were discovered re-discovered in 1291. If not, they would have had to eat of their stores for no more than six months before coming upon land to the west. That would have, I suppose, have been the most they could have had on board anyway. The trip from England to Palestine was not supposed to take that long, especially since they had plenty of ports of call in between.

Let's say, for argument's sake, that they missed the Azores. The typhoon had blown them far to sea, and the captain remembers stories of Vikings reaching Newfoundland on the other side of the sea. Not being especially skilled at navigation, he estimates that Newfoundland is closer than England, so he orders the ship to set sail for the nearer land. However, the ship fails to spot Newfoundland and instead comes to land at Cape Cod, claiming the Outlands for England and calling them "New England" (believing the peninsular to be an island, and then going on to discover nearby Nanucket and Martha's Vinyard). The weather is similar to England, and they winter there. After an uprising among sailors wanting "civilsation," the captain is able to convince the crew that they could begin new lives in this new world. Eighteen months after landing, having in the meantime also discovered Long Island, the captain leaves a contingent there and sails back to England. They rest is (alternate) history. SouthWriter 19:48, April 27, 2010 (UTC)