Read the excerpt from the article Challenging Explorations: The first challenge faced by many explorers was money. They needed financial backing to fund the ships, cargo, and crew required to make such a long journey. The solution was royalty, and explorers would approach kings and queens to convince them to invest in their voyages. If the king and queen agreed, then the explorer would have the money needed to fund an expedition. In return, any lands discovered during the voyage were claimed by that country.

The next step was to obtain a seaworthy ship. Many ships were built during the age of exploration, but not all could handle a trip across the Atlantic Ocean. New ship designs were meant to suit long voyages. One such type was called a caravel, which was a small ship created for exploration in the 1400s. This type of ship was equipped with cargo space for voyages up to one year. Caravels were also considered seaworthy because they could travel about 90–100 miles per day.

Why were ships of the time seen as suitable vessels for long voyages?

Caravels could not handle the long journey across the ocean, so they built new ships.
Kings and queens did not want to remain at sea for longer than one year.
The ships of the wealthy were comfortable, and people could be happy on them for a year.
They were equipped with enough cargo space to carry supplies for an entire year.