| In
August of 1492, Christopher Columbus left the port of Palos
de la Frontera aboard the Santa Maria, with a crew
of 52 men. Close behind followed the Nina, captained
by one Martin Alonso Pinzon, and crewed by 18 men; and the
Pinta, captained by his brother Anes Pinzon, and
also crewed by 18 men. The Nina and the Pinta
were relatively small, quick vessels (called “caravels”),
each about 50 feet or so long, and 25 or so wide. The flagship
Santa Maria, on the other hand, was a much larger
boat. Historians are not certain about its dimensions but
guess that it was about 100 feet long, and about 25 feet wide.
So. Do the math. Altogether, you had 88 men who were going
to spend a couple months out at sea together in less than
10,000 or so square feet (and that’s assuming that each
ship had nearly as much room down below as it did topside
-- which they probably didn’t. But you get my point:
not a whole lot of space here).
Your schoolbooks will tell you that after 34 days at sea,
these guys got SO bored that they were ready to mutiny, and
told Chris that if they didn’t fall off the edge of
the earth (highly likely), or reach land (hardy-har-har there,
buddy) SOON, they were going to stick it to him and his mission
and head back home. Chris told them to wait just three more
days before they put his head on a pike. They grumblingly
agreed and, miraculously, they did reach land before the three
days were up.
However: 34 days??? What I want to know is, how the
hell did it take THAT long before these guys went nuts? I
mean, the two days last year when we were housebound due to
a freak ice storm, I get so bored that by dinnertime on the
second day I was ready to kill my housemate, try skating to
the grocery, or both! -- And I had books, DVDs, CDs, and the
Internet!! What in the world did these guys have
for entertainment aboard three 15th century boats?
Martin: Hola, Manuel, what you doing tonight?
Wanna hop over to the Pinta and play some poker with
Anes and the guys?
Manuel:
No, Martin, we did that yesterday, and besides, Julio always
cheats. Which isn’t hard since we lost the Ace of Diamonds
and half of the Spades.
Martin:
I thought Julio found the Ace of Diamonds under the sardines.
Manuel: If he said that, he’s a liar.
We finished the sardines two weeks ago.
Martin:
Maybe it was under the anchovies, then.
Manuel:
No thanks.
Martin:
Well it beats staying here and mapping constellations again.
The Nina is so lame. At least they have half a deck
of cards on the Pinta. All we’ve got is an
astrolabe.
Manuel:
I like the astrolabe.
Martin:
You are so lame.
[enter Jose]
Jose: Oye, chicos, Pablo says there’s
a party on the Santa Maria tonight. You want to come?
Martin:
The Santa Maria? Hell yea! She’s got TWO decks!
And a lute-player! I even heard that Chris was trying to make
a zither…
Manuel:
A what?
Martin:
I have no idea; but it sounds interesting…
Manuel:
(rolling his eyes) A party on the Santa Maria?
Get real. Chris is way too square to allow that. It sounds
like just another way of conning us into listening to another
one of his pep talks.
Jose:
Me and Pablo, we already thought of that. So we were going
to sneak over there at dusk and tell him that Anes needed
to see him aboard the Pinta right away.
Manuel:
Jose, you did that last week.
Jose:
(pause) Well, it worked, didn’t it?
Come to think of it, perhaps life aboard Chris’s three
sailing vessels wasn’t so vastly different from life
in your average all-male high school. Except maybe without
the books and uniforms. And, you know, the classes and stuff.
And there wasn’t an all-girl boat down the street for
Saturday night mischief. Okay, probably it was totally and
altogether different. But either way, both still make me grateful
that I’m 28 and living in the 21st century. With my
own car. And the Internet. And no curfew. But it might be
cool to have an astrolabe… |
