Cuba's Technological Innovation: The Arab Lateen Sailboat and the First Matchlock Musket

Dry wind rose from the Iberian Peninsula in the dry season, crossed the entire Atlantic Ocean, brewed within the Azores High, and finally turned into the moist Northeast Trade Winds, blowing west in a mighty sweep. And when the trade winds of May arrived at the sweltering Caribbean islands, heavy water vapor fell from the clouds in the sky, bringing the rainy season to the great island of Cuba.

"Whoosh... splash!..."

The wind blew the spray, and oars cut through the waves. The Kingdom's Iron Bay Town had already become the busiest place on the great island of Cuba for thousands of li around. Hundreds of canoes fished inside and outside the harbor, while even more tribes paddled small boats in from every part of Cuba to trade. There were even quite a few large dugout boats that came from the distant Great Island of Haiti, carrying tobacco, fruit, and cotton thread packed to the brim, to exchange for a few useful pieces of ironware and a small pouch of pretty glass beads.

"Put your backs into it, all of you! Raise the sail! Good! That's it!..."

In the crude shipbuilding yard by the harbor, the carpenter Antonio waved his arms, directing several apprentices as they raised a brand-new triangular sail onto the longship's newly added middle mast. And after this round of modifications, the originally Viking-style longship had instead become an Arab-style dual-purpose lateen sailboat, with three masts and both square and fore-and-aft sails.

"May the divine child of Huitzilopochtli bless us! With this improvement, the efficiency of using the wind should increase by a lot. The oarsmen needed for ordinary sailing can also be greatly reduced, maybe even done away with entirely... Come on, board her and take her out for a sea trial..."

Very soon, several Kingdom