Chapter 238 Victory Port Shipyard (3)
The fabrics purchased by the Guangdong Office and "Furuifeng" from the mainland are definitely qualified for use as ordinary clothes, but when used as canvas, the strength is far from the requirements of the Ministry of Shipping. The trial production The sail is slightly larger and can be easily torn in strong winds. Although we have encountered relatively big troubles with the materials of the sails, the Ministry of Shipping believes that there is not no solution. A local tailor surnamed Wang who was involved in sail making came up with a very good idea. He used tougher multiple fabrics to make reinforcement ribs. After sewing a large number of reinforcement ribs on the larger sail width, the ship was indeed The strength of the sail has been significantly improved. Although the overall strength does not yet meet the technical requirements of the Ministry of Shipping, it can at least be used as a spare sail, and the weight of the sail has not increased significantly. Tailor Wang was also fortunate enough to receive an early promotion to the labor class with this small contribution.
The Executive Committee has sent the latest instructions to the Guangdong Office, asking them to try to mass-customize tougher and thicker fabrics from the cotton-rich Songjiang Prefecture area, and to see if they can hook up with the Spanish or Portuguese. I got some Indian canvas from the foreign devils. The Executive Committee has now included canvas in the list of strategic materials. In the absence of a textile industry, even if it means spending more money and taking more detours, it must find a canvas trade channel with stable supply as soon as possible.
The sail design based on hydrodynamics is the most obvious difference in appearance between the new sailboat developed by the Ministry of Shipping and existing ships. However, this most technical improvement is relatively easy to copy. Even those natives who do not understand what the "Bernoulli effect" is, will quickly imitate it out of practical considerations after knowing that the use effect of this new sail will be much better than the old sail.
Of course, such a sail with technical advantages must also have a large enough area to fully reflect its performance advantages. Therefore, the Ministry of Shipping will not hesitate to find ways to increase the sail area by raising the mast. According to the shipbuilding technology of this era, either a relatively low mast can be used like a Chinese sailboat, or a large number of stay ropes can be used to ensure its stability like a Western sailboat. If you want to be as direct as the Crossing Group Making a hollow steel pipe to serve as a mast is technically an impossible problem. Therefore, even if this new type of sail is secretly learned by others in the future, there will still be a big gap in the performance of the ship compared to the genuine products of the Cross-Travel Group.
Li Nai listened for a while, and he could basically understand what everyone said, but the meaning of many terms was unclear to him, and it was inconvenient for him to have people constantly explain to him, so after a while, he felt even more confused. . However, Li Nai noticed that it was not only the Haihan people who participated in the discussion, but also seven or eight Mingren shipwrights who would occasionally add a few words to express their own opinions. One of the shipwrights named Zhang seemed to stand out in particular. Even Yue Zhiyun and Sun Changmi would call this person "Master Zhang" from time to time.
Li Nai heard that Master Zhang spoke with a Fujian accent, so he turned to Jiang San and asked in a low voice: "What's the origin of this Master?"
Jiang San responded: "Zhang Tiangui, Master Zhang, is a good man in the shipyard. The chiefs promoted him to be a senior foreman. Now all the shipwrights in the shipyard are under his control. When Chief Yue and Chief Sun are not in the shipyard, they are Master Zhang has the final say... By the way, it seems that Master Zhang was recruited by your firm in Guangzhou and sent to Shengli Port.”
"Is this happening?" Li Nai didn't expect that the Haihan people's number one shipwright was recruited with his own help. "Fu Ruifeng" is also one of the most famous large-scale merchants in Guangzhou. Although the ships under its name are not as good as those of provincial-level merchants like Xu Xinsu, it still has 20 or 30 large and small ships, and they usually need to be repaired. There is a lot to make up for, and after establishing a relationship with the Haihan people, Li Jifeng is already considering whether to build a shipyard of his own and build a few more ships specifically to run the route to Victory Port. If he had known that there was a talent like Zhang Tiangui among the craftsmen he recruited, he should have stayed and worked for him.
However, after looking at the scale and operation of Haihanren's shipyard, Li Nai knew that even if he could afford a high enough commission, it would be difficult to give shipbuilders like Zhang Tiangui enough room to perform. First of all, if we really want to open a shipyard, it will definitely not be as big as Haihan's shipyard - if we need to feed and feed hundreds of workers, how many ships will we need to build this year to balance the books? As far as Li Nai knew, the Haihan people's investment in this shipyard was regardless of cost. What they wanted was results, not investment. This operating model certainly could not be applied to Furifeng.
Secondly, the respect and freedom given to Zhang Tiangui by the Haihan people is also very high. On many issues regarding the details of ship construction, the Haihan people actually rely on his opinions. Moreover, the shipyard is building experimental boats one after another, and they can be used seriously. The ship that comes for shipping has not been finalized for half a year. If it had been placed in another shipyard, the foreman responsible for the construction would have been fired long ago. How could the Haihan people still treat him as a guest of honor?
Li Nai finally made it to the end of the discussion. Everyone stood up, patted their butts, and went to work. Yue Zhiyun walked up to Li Nai and asked: "Mr. Li, do you want to go and see our new ship?"
"It's my wish, but I don't dare to ask my ears." Li Nai responded respectfully. In terms of his attitude towards craftsmen, Li Nai was different from quite a few Ming Dynasty scholars because he came from a merchant family, and the social status of merchants in this era was still not high. In fact, this merchant was still ranked behind the craftsmen. . Of course, after a businessman's wealth reaches a certain level, his status will still rise significantly, but if the children of businessmen want to become officials, the disadvantages of their birthplace will be magnified - after Li Nai passed the examination and was awarded the title of Juren, he gave up This is also the reason why he continued to take the imperial examination.
It is precisely because of this deep-rooted concept that Li Nai has always been relatively gentle and humble when dealing with craftsmen, not to mention that the shipbuilder in front of him is also a Haihan person. In Li Nai's view, although Yue Zhiyun and Sun Changmi did not have as high a status as Tao Donglai, Schneider and others, they were at least in charge of affairs, and they should be given enough respect by themselves.
Yue Zhiyun was also very satisfied with Li Nai's attitude. He stretched out his hand and said, "Then please, Mr. Li, come with me."
Due to the need for confidentiality, there is a bamboo fence as high as a person outside the slipway of the No. 1 test ship. It is difficult to see the working conditions inside from the outside. When Li Nai entered the port the day before, he only saw a small part of the hull exposed from the top of the fence. This time Yue Zhiyun took him into the fence, and he really saw clearly this experimental ship that the Haihan people attached great importance to.
This semi-finished ship, which is still on the slipway supported by many supports, is about ten feet long. Since the upper deck is still under construction, the width of the hull is not easy to determine. Li Nai estimated based on his own experience that the ship's width The width should be between two feet and two feet five. However, judging from most of the hulls that have been built so far, the depth of the hull is greater than that of the same level of Fuzhou or Guangzhou. Visual inspection is at least one foot or more. Judging from the hull size alone, Look, this ship should be slightly larger than the usual 400-material sea-going ships, especially in terms of draft, which is almost one-third larger than the average sea-going ship of the same level. The shape of the hull still basically maintains the pointed bottom shape of a Chinese sailboat with a wide top and narrow bottom. It can be imagined that the deeper draft hull will bring better seaworthiness to the ship.
There were obviously far fewer shipwrights working on this berth than on the other berths. Li Nai knew without asking that this must be due to the Haihan people's confidentiality considerations. But from what he has seen so far, Li Nai feels that there is nothing particularly outstanding about this ship. However, Li Nai feels that this is mostly a matter of his own knowledge. Otherwise, there would not have been so many people who listened to the seminar before. Don't understand the content.
If Li Nai was more knowledgeable, he should have been able to see that the keel of this ship had a tendency to tilt downward towards the tail, which was not very obvious from the various existing sailboats. This structure can obtain a larger stern draft, and can move the transverse hydrodynamic center of the underwater hull greatly back, which is beneficial to windward sailing and reduces the lateral drift of the hull, effectively improving the stability of the ship at sea. sex and speed. This structure comes from the "Baltimore schooner" that only appeared in the 19th century. The North American schooner that appeared in the Chesapeake Bay of North America two hundred years later can be regarded as a prominent role in the history of world navigation. After the 19th century One of the best fast sailing ships, it represented the most advanced ship design ideas at the time, and also had a revolutionary impact on subsequent shipbuilding technology - the clipper sailboats that appeared later were advanced fast sailing ships developed on this basis. sailboat.
In terms of the design of the bow, the Ministry of Shipping did draw lessons from the design of the clipper ship. The shape of the underwater part is like a sharp axe, which is almost the shape of minimum resistance. There was also some debate about the design of the bow, and someone also proposed a design plan to use a bulbous bow, but it was later rejected by the Ministry of Shipping. Firstly, the technical difficulty of building a bulbous bow is relatively high. Secondly, the drag reduction and speed-increasing effect of installing a bulbous bow on small and medium-sized ships is not obvious, and the crossing group may not have enough in the past few years. conditions to build large ships with a displacement of several thousand tons.
The best parts of these excellent design plans were also adopted by the Ministry of Shipping and incorporated into the trial production of new sailboats. Of course, the Ministry of Shipping still insisted on its own opinions on the design of the sail rope system. After all, it was a black-tech work designed based on the principles of fluid mechanics. It has also been tested in practice by later generations. Its technical content is comparable to that of the foreign devils' diapers. The full sail is much higher. However, even if Li Nai saw such small technical details, he was not aware of its significance in promoting the advancement of navigation technology. At most, he only intuitively felt that the shape of the ship was very smooth and it looked more pleasing to the eye.
Yue Zhiyun said: "Mr. Li, you can look here as you like, but regarding the construction of this ship, please don't ask any more. As for the reason, I won't explain more, you understand."
Li Nai nodded, indicating that he understood. This was not the first time he had encountered this kind of thing in Victory Port. The last time he came here, he had asked many unanswered questions, such as how the iron ships moored at the port were built and why the output of the salt farm was so far away. Far exceeding the level of the Ming Dynasty, the glass production technology and so on. Every time the Haihan people are unwilling to answer these questions, they use the "confidentiality regulations" to excuse themselves. Li Nai didn't know what the Haihan people's "Confidentiality Regulations" specifically stipulated, but it was obvious that the manufacturing process of all the things they made was within the scope of this "Regulations", and now it was obvious that they were on the list. One item has been added.
Li Nai is not disgusted with the attitude of the Haihan people. Technical barriers are the magic weapon for craftsmen to make money in this era. Is it because the Haihan people's products can be sold at such high prices because they have mastered unique manufacturing technology? How can these special skills be revealed to outsiders so easily? It would be nice to have them. Li Nai secretly wondered if, after returning to Guangzhou this time, he should find a shipyard to supplement his knowledge on ship construction. In this way, he might be able to understand a little bit about the technical superiority of this new type of sailboat, Haihan. . Li Nai made up his mind and kept the appearance of the ship in his mind while looking at it, planning to seek professional consultation after returning.
But it is a pity that Li Nai came to visit a little early. The deck superstructure has just entered the construction stage. As one of the essence of the design of the No. 1 test ship, Li Nai did not have the chance to see the steering wheel steering system. .
Regardless of whether it is a Chinese or Western-style sailing ship, in this era, the helmsman still used the helmsman to directly operate the rudder stock at the stern of the ship to adjust the direction of the rudder. The disadvantages of this steering method are very obvious. First, on a ship with a slightly larger hull, the helmsman's sight will be blocked by the poop deck and he cannot observe the movement of the sails on the ship. In this way, he can only control the helm by indirectly conveying instructions. The manual operation affects the efficiency of navigation; secondly, this steering method almost relies on pure human power. If you encounter bad weather at sea, the human power may not be able to match the power of nature. If the wind and waves are too big, you may lose it. Initiative at the helm.
Historically, the steering wheel, a black navigation technology, was only invented in the early 18th century. The arrival of the Time Travel Group brought its emergence nearly a hundred years earlier. The technical advantages of the steering wheel are as obvious as the disadvantages of the old rudder. This thing is installed on the poop deck, and the operation is light and flexible. The user can also intuitively see the movement of the sail and adapt to changes. The steering operation of the rudder is compared with The old way can be described as an epoch-making progress. The most important thing is that although this thing is not high-tech to Chuanchuanzhong, it is not something that can be copied just by looking at it from the outside like a new sail. Its main transmission structure is hidden inside the hull. , even if non-professionals have seen the operation of the steering wheel, they cannot imagine how such a small wooden wheel can turn the entire ship.
In addition to the steering wheel system, the black navigation technology was also invented in the 18th century in history, as well as the sextant and marine astronomical clock. The sextant underwent many improvements in the 18th century. From the original octant, which measured an angle of only 90 degrees, it was gradually transformed into a sextant that measured an angle of 120 degrees. This instrument is more convenient to use than the astrolabes, right-angle quadrants and other tools used to measure latitude in the past, and its accuracy has also been greatly improved.
The marine chronometer is no less necessary in ocean navigation than the sextant. In order to use the speed to estimate its relative position, the ocean-going ship needs a stable and reliable chronograph to calculate the speed. In this era The accuracy of chronographs that can be carried on ships is far from meeting navigation requirements. Once there are wind and waves, the pendulum of the mechanical structure will have errors. In 1656, Dutch scientist Huygens invented a spiral balance spring to replace a pendulum, but such a marine clock still had poor time accuracy. It wasn't until 1736 that a British clockmaker built the first truly nautical clock for a reward from the British Parliament.
However, the early marine clocks were large, and the Maritime Department had no intention of using such cumbersome navigation devices. Whether it is a sextant or a navigational clock, they were all included in the list of strategic materials during the material procurement before traveling. Of course, the organizing committee, which had limited funds at the time, did not buy any high-end goods. Instead, it purchased a batch of marine quartz navigation clocks directly from the Internet, and has now been put into use on the Black Earth Port route. The technical department did not forget to purchase a few mechanical marine clocks as backups. In the future, when the level of metal processing technology improves, they can be copied to avoid everyone being blinded when the batteries of the quartz clocks run out in a few years.
It is worth mentioning that in terms of navigation, the leading expert in the crossing group is still Wang Tom. The professional level he demonstrated was not only in terms of navigation theory and experience, but also in terms of equipment level. The marine clock used by this guy is a super limited edition in the Villeret 1858 series produced by Montblanc - a set consisting of an analog dual time zone chronograph and a large analog marine clock. In particular, the 120-kilogram luxury navigation clock made of ruby, granite, brass, aviation aluminum and carbon fiber is enough to dazzle every visitor. It is said that this set of nautical clocks is limited to 16 sets worldwide. It can become an epic piece of equipment in any sailing game. I don’t know how much it cost to get it.
Tao Donglai was considered a well-informed and wealthy man in the Time Travel Group, but he was also surprised when he saw this outfit. According to what he said afterwards, the average price of Montblanc watches in this series is more than seven figures in RMB. Based on this calculation, Wang Tom’s equipment is probably worth much more than the two catamarans combined. There were actually quite a few members who had six or seven figures worth before time travel, but as the saying goes, the poor play with cars and the rich play with watches. It seems like Tom Wang is the real rich man who hides deeply. If Wang Tom had not been at sea all day and few people knew his details, I am afraid that a large group of ladies who wanted to give birth to Wang Tom's children would have appeared in Victory Port.
(End of chapter)