Chapter 1445 Difficulties and dangers on the way home
The vast ocean is... a maze.
The kind that can be caught and hidden and hard to find.
In the vast ocean, once a merchant ship deviates from the normal commercial route, even in the 21st century, it is extremely difficult to find a merchant ship on the ocean. It is almost as difficult as finding a needle in a haystack.
Moreover, this was still an era without satellite positioning and radar, so the difficulty... was almost impossible to find.
How many of the merchant ships that fled like birds and beasts could escape, Croun didn't know. Two days after leaving the encounter point, everyone finally breathed a sigh of relief. After all, it was finally safe now.
In the past two days, the "Mason" has been running all the way north. Until now, they finally felt relieved.
"Okay, God bless, now the Ming warships can never find us again."
Crown took a puff of his pipe and then said to the sailor beside him.
"Our captain is very experienced and he will definitely not take the merchant shipping route."
As long as they don't follow the merchant ship route, they will definitely not be discovered. After all, the sea is so big that pursuit or interception is impossible.
Two days later, the "Mason" began to slowly sail northwest toward New York.
"Captain, we are still 150 nautical miles from New York."
Captain Johnson, who was standing in the bridge, had a smile on his face after listening to the first mate's report.
"Okay, tell all the crew members that when we sail into New York Harbor, everyone can get a bonus of $500!"
After learning the news, Crown, like all the crew members, shouted excitedly, and even shouted loudly.
"Thank you Mr. Dupont!"
The reason why they thank DuPont is because the bonus was paid by DuPont.
On the "Mason", which carried 12,000 tons of cargo, the most valuable item was more than 6,000 tons of Indian saltpeter. This batch of saltpeter was produced from DuPont's saltpeter mine in India.
More than ten years ago, Henry, the president of DuPont, and his brother Ramon realized that the supply of saltpeter was related to the national defense security of the United States. Saltpeter was the main raw material for the production of gunpowder, and almost all of it came from the Ming Dynasty. Once the war broke out, the Ming Dynasty cut off the supply of saltpeter.
Without the supply of saltpeter, the gunpowder factories in the United States would be in a dilemma of having no rice to cook.
For the DuPont brothers, who had monopolized saltpeter and then the supply of gunpowder during the Civil War, they naturally knew the importance of saltpeter. So they built large warehouses, and while stockpiling saltpeter, they also sold and acquired it.
Saltpeter mines in India.
When the war broke out, DuPont became the only American company that did not have to worry about saltpeter. However, this did not mean that the company could sit back and relax. They owned the Indian saltpeter mines and naturally had to solve the transportation problem of saltpeter.
The "Mason" loaded with saltpeter was an attempt by DuPont.
In order to encourage the crew to safely transport the saltpeter back to New York, DuPont promised them a bonus of US$3 per ton of saltpeter as long as they could reach New York safely.
Even after the captain and officers deduct a portion of the bonus, the rank and file still receive a $500 bonus.
$500!
In this era, it is undoubtedly a huge sum of money, almost more than 800 grams of gold!
For the sailors who had made a fortune, during the next voyage, they were all excited and nervously observing the sea surface, fearing that any accident would happen at the last pass.
While the sailors were vigilantly observing the sea, a submarine was sailing at full speed on the sea dozens of kilometers away among the waves. The waves kept beating on the bow of the boat. In many cases, the waves kept covering it.
On the deck, only the low bridge is completely exposed to the sea.
Standing on the bridge, Lin Qingyuan held a telescope and kept searching the sea. They had been cruising merchant ships off New York for half a month. In the past half month, although they discovered merchant ships time and time again, those merchant ships
They are all...neutral ships.
According to the rules of engagement... they cannot attack neutral ships.
The reason why there are such rules of engagement is because "unrestricted submarine warfare" is still in the plan of the Naval Staff. At least for now, for the Imperial Navy, there is no need to use this method to kill a thousand enemies and cause self-destruction.
Eight hundred tactics, after all, the Imperial Navy also needs to use "neutral country" merchant ships to transport supplies and even immigrants.
Suddenly, a trail of smoke from the skyline attracted Lin Qingyuan's attention. It was a merchant ship!
As soon as it encountered the merchant ship, the submarine made an emergency dive, and soon the captain Xu Bokun spotted the merchant ship that broke into the sea area through the periscope.
"Norwegian ship..."
Staring at the "Mason" flying the Norwegian merchant ship flag, Xu Bokun said to himself.
"This ship is not taking a normal route. Nineteen Eighty-Nine is a fake. Follow it..."
After making the judgment, the S83 submarine quietly followed the "Mason". The sailors on the ship still knew nothing about all this. They had no idea that the danger had come.
In the cabin of the boat, which was lit with dim red light, the crew nervously and expectantly followed the "Norwegian" merchant ship.
They were like cheetahs hiding in the jungle, stalking their prey silently, waiting for the right opportunity. Because the tracking time was so frequent that after nightfall, their batteries were about to run out and they had to surface.
Keep a certain distance and continue to follow and pursue.
This tracking lasted for almost sixteen hours. In the early morning of the next day, when they were less than twenty nautical miles away from New York, the officers and soldiers on the S83 submarine, which had re-submerged to the bottom of the sea, all became a little anxious. After all, they had already tracked the submarine.
After such a long time, they have even reached the New York coast, and even the Hudson River is right in front of them.
"Here we are!"
When the ship was about to enter the Hudson River and the "Statue of Liberty" broke into the sight of the sailors on the "Mason", the captain standing with his pipe in his mouth looked at the "Statue of Liberty" that came into view and said,
"Okay, gentlemen, we are finally home, let's raise our flag!"
If he could regret in life, he would definitely regret this decision...
For the sailors on the USS Matson, who finally returned home after many twists and turns, raising the American flag not only shows their identity, they also want to tell New York in this way that they have overcome all kinds of tests and have overcome all kinds of challenges.
Returned to the United States successfully.
When the Stars and Stripes flag was hoisted, some sailors even sang the national anthem excitedly. Even an old sailor, Crown, looked at the Stars and Stripes flag flying on the ship with a hint of excitement.
After all, this is a very special time. The sea is now full of all kinds of dangers, and they have overcome many obstacles and finally transported back the supplies that the United States needs in this war.
Under such circumstances, how could they not be excited when they saw the flying Stars and Stripes?
Standing on the side of the ship's side, he muttered to himself.
"Okay, we're finally home!"
At this moment, he was filled with excitement and saw two white bubbles churning on the sea, heading straight towards the "Mason"...