Can't you uncheck the requires escort thingy for all the naval units after galley/junk then? Their stats are boosted now so they don't need as much escort.
I have a serious problem... The year is 1432, and whenever I end the turn the game gets caught up endlessly as though it's working hard on something (judging by the 100% CPU usage, and we're talking 2Ghz here), but nothing happens. I left the game that way for about twenty minutes and nothing changed. The nations nearby me did nothing in my range of view. The screen didn't even move to anyway, it just stayed where I left it (usually it centers on any movement seen). I tried reloading the autosave from 1424 (the turn before 1432), and the same thing happened when I ended 1432, even though I did things differently in those two turns to see if it's my fault.
Any clues? Will I have to restart?
Could it possibly have something to do with the enormous world war going on in the Turkey area, between all kinds of europeans and middle-easterners?