Chapter One Thousand and Fifty-Six: The lamentation of the gold shipwright, what a beast!…
"The Lord God bless you! One, two, three, four! The Lord God bless you! One, two, three, four!... Huh! Ha!... This busy work is finally here..."
Snow is falling, and the frozen Fawn Moss River has accumulated a thick layer of snow, which is connected with the snow-covered river bank next to it and is almost indistinguishable. However, at this moment, on the frozen glacier, a six or seventy-foot tall figure is revealed.
It was a boat-shaped deep pit that was more than ten feet long and wide. The five-masted ocean boat that was originally parked on the glacier had been pulled to the snow-covered river bank by dozens of people.
"Lord God! This five-masted ship looks about the same size as an ordinary longship in the kingdom. But it has three decks, a very high hull, and no oars on either side... Could it be that it relies entirely on wind power to move forward?
?...Hiss! The structure inside this ship looks really complicated!..."
Exploration captain Zuvalo boarded the Zheyang ship, with a curious face, observing the Zheyang ship that he had never seen before. Next to him was the shipwright Jin Shanshu, who was leaning carefully with his waist and wearing a gold charm around his neck.
It's a pity that the two of them don't understand each other. Zuwaro looked at him casually, while Jin Shanshu made gestures to explain a few words. At least he couldn't let the adults think that he was useless...
"Guide from the Lord God! There are five masts, some are long and some are short. What is the reason?..."
The most eye-catching symbol of this kind of ocean-covering ship that represents the navigation technology of the Song Dynasty is the five standing masts. The three in the middle are very high, and the two at the ends are very short. And look at the hooks of the masts, they are hung at an angle.
The sails, but the sails on the ship have all been furled and saved, and I don’t know how to hang them or how to use the wind.
"Sir?! These masts, with the main mast high and the fore and aft masts low, can not only hang straight sails and gaff sails, but also large and small square sails between each mast... To put it simply, the wind is always changing.
As things change, the sails also have to change. Only by hanging all kinds of sails can we take advantage of the wind in all directions! As for the specific sail shape, square, skip, or triangle, sailmaker Pu Shunfan is the one.
He is an expert, you can ask him..."
"Lord God! The rudder at the stern of the ship seems to be better than the one in the kingdom...much!..."
Zuvalo nodded as if he understood, and walked along the row of masts towards the stern of the seagoing ship. At the stern, there was a complicated-looking rudder, which was obviously larger than the simple rudder of the kingdom's longship.
More complicated. Under the rudder, a wooden pole several meters long is connected to an exquisite wooden fan to facilitate the adjustment of the heading.
"Sir?! This is a plank rudder! It's wooden, plank, straight, rudder!...Sir, look, just turn it like this, and the board below will also turn. It's easy to maneuver! But it must be made of good wood and strong.
Good wood!”
Seeing the goldsmith's signal, Zuvarro curiously turned the rudder at the stern. The rudder was indeed very flexible, as if it had borrowed a lever, and it was effortless at all. Then, he walked to the bow of the ship and looked at it.
I took a look at the two heavy trumpet-shaped anchors. These two anchors were actually wooden anchors embedded with rocks, and there were anchor wells specially designed to store anchor ropes next to them. There was more than one anchor position on the ship, and there were probably three in the front and rear.
"Interesting! It's actually a wooden anchor embedded with stone! I thought it was a bronze anchor like the Kingdom!..."
Zuvalo muttered something softly. Fortunately, the shipwright Jin Shanshu who followed him couldn't understand, otherwise he would have scolded the kingdom for its "inhumanity."
In this era, Li's North Korea naturally used copper coins from the Ming Dynasty, and the price of rice was similar to that in the north of the Ming Dynasty. However, the Ming Dynasty was short of copper for a long time, and its grain output was high, so the price of rice was very low compared to the Han Dynasty.
Copper coins, which are always of sufficient quality, can usually be bought for two or three shi meters in the north of the Ming Dynasty or North Korea. However, if a bronze anchor of one or two hundred kilograms is thrown into the water, it will cost more than a dozen copper coins.
You can buy dozens or hundreds of wooden anchors inlaid with stones!
"Hey! How come the main keel of this ship is made up of several sections? Huh? The supports on the side are section by section, like the legs of a centipede. What are they?..."
Zuvallo slowly and leisurely descended to the bottom of the cabin. He knocked around and looked around. Soon, his eyes opened wider and wider, the expression on his face was full of disbelief, and finally he couldn't help but exclaim!
"O God! The keel structure at the bottom of this ship is like a sophisticated spider web, so complicated! Compared with it, the Kingdom's longship is like a branch next to a spider web..."
This ocean-covering ship, which is similar in size to the kingdom's longship, has an extremely complex keel structure. Its central axis is a spliced central keel, which is actually made of three short keels, closely connected diagonally!
Around the central keel, there are sections of short-circuited side keels and ribs. The side keels are longitudinal and the ribs are transverse, with one every other step. All the frames are densely packed and made of precise wooden tenons.
, connected by iron nails. If you look carefully, these dense keel structures support each other, and they seem to comply with some kind of divine law, like a complex and regular spider web!
"Guide from the Lord God! Such a complicated structure!...Why don't you use a whole big wood to make a central keel? Then use a few big woods to replace the small keels on the side?...Use one to replace all of these.
...They all use big wood! ...Would it be much easier to build a ship that way?!"
Seeing Zuvalo's gestures, shipwright Jin Shanshu opened his eyes wide and thought for a long time before he couldn't help shaking his head and laughing.
"Sir?! You have never built a ship, so you don't know. These central keels and side keels are the bones of the ship! And the bones of the ship are just like human bones. They have to withstand wind and waves, and they have to be able to withstand pressure.
It can also be carried and pulled...that is not something ordinary wood can do, you have to use good hardwood, such as teak and elm that are hundreds of years old!..."
"Like this ship, with three keel sections, each section only needs hardwoods that are 180 years old! And the dozen or so side keels next to it only need hardwoods that are several decades old. If it goes according to what you said, use
A whole piece of good wood that is seven to eight feet long must be at least hundreds of years old! But such old good wood is so expensive, and how can it be so easy to find? No one would be willing to find it.
It’s used to make this kind of sea-going ship with two to three hundred ingredients!…”
"Haha! The keel of your ship is too complicated... Witness the Lord God! Our long ship has only three keels! One in the center and two on both sides. Each keel has been chopped down, enough to make this
The ship is made of a spruce tree twice as long as a whole tree!...Praise to Your Majesty! This is Your Majesty's divine inspiration, allowing us to build a giant ship that has never been seen before!..."
Zuvalo showed a confident smile, made gestures again, and proudly told shipwright Jin Shanshu.
"As long as three keels are used as the bottom! So long! So thick! ... Then use large plates to surround the keels and drive them full of copper nails, which can withstand the big waves in the extreme North Sea! The keels are strong
Yes, even if such big and high winds and waves hit us, there won’t be any cracks!…”
"Blessed by Bodhisattva! Sir, what did you say?! Two? Two lengths of this length? From here to here?...Ah! A giant tree that is thirteen feet long and one foot wide? How many did you use? One?
Three?!...Three huge logs to build this kind of ship? To build this kind of sea-going ship that costs two to three hundred materials?!"
After finally understanding Zuwaro's meaning, shipwright Jin Shanshu's eyes turned red instantly. The corners of his eyes trembled violently, his ricket waist straightened up suddenly, and he almost jumped up on the spot!
"Thirteen feet long giant tree that is hundreds of years old! It took three to build this kind of ship!!"
Shipwright Jin Shanshu yelled and stared at Zuvalo. At this moment, the instinct of a senior shipwright suppressed all his awe and fear. His face first showed unbelievable shock, and then his mind went blank.
He felt confused, then felt anger from the bottom of his heart, and finally turned into deep-rooted regret. He couldn't help shouting loudly, and even his eyes were wet, and he couldn't help but shed tears!
"Ah, Guanyin Bodhisattva! These prodigal beasts! ... That is, that is a big wood that can be used to build a ship with thousands of materials, and can be used as the keel of a treasure ship! ... Beasts! Such a big wood of this grade can be used to build such a ship.
, three sticks at a time?!... I have never seen one in my life!... Wuwuwu! What a beast, a beast!!..."
