Chen Zuwang carefully controlled the steering wheel. Although he had learned theoretical knowledge, this was his first time to actually get started.
The control of the steering wheel is much more flexible than the steering gear lever.
It didn't take long for him to completely fall in love with this feeling.
Now that we have just left the coastline, there are still a lot of ice floes around, and we cannot let go of maneuver yet. Chen Zuwang carefully drove the world's first clipper ship towards the open sea.
The driving station of a sailboat is at the stern because the steering wheel is installed at the stern for easy maneuvering. The stern is generally made to be the highest point on the ship to obtain a good view.
This clipper ship has an arc stern, that is to say, the stern is arc-shaped. This stern is the best layout position of the whole ship. This position is generally arranged with three floors as the living area for the officers and captain.
, ordinary sailors are strictly prohibited from entering the stern.
The bottom of the three floors at the rear is the officer's room. It is close to the sea and the noise is relatively high. The waves sometimes hit the floor-to-ceiling windows at the back. The windows are generally not allowed to be opened.
The middle room is usually the residence of senior officers. It has floor-to-ceiling doors and windows that occupy the entire rear part, and there is also a balcony corridor. This corridor is generally called the Admiral's Corridor.
This corridor is used by senior officers to take a walk and enjoy the sea view and so on.
The top room belongs to the captain. The top of this room is the bridge, which is mainly for the convenience of the captain to get on and off the bridge.
In order to reduce windward resistance, flying shear ships are basically flat-deck ships, with only the bridge one level above the deck.
Although this clipper ship, the Star, is not big, it is a sailing ship with mixed sails. The so-called mixed sails are a sailing ship with both horizontal sails and fore-and-aft sails.
A square sail is the kind of trapezoidal sail we often see on a mast. It is usually hung horizontally on the beam of the mast. A square sail generally has three trapezoidal soft sails on each mast, the upper, middle and lower sides.
The fore-and-aft sail is a triangular sail, usually hung longitudinally on the mast. A mast hangs a fore-and-aft sail. It is narrow at the top and wide at the bottom. It is triangular in shape, and the beam is at the bottom of the sail. That is, the vertical direction of the mast and the horizontal direction of the bottom beam are used.
to fix the sail.
The advantage of a square sail is that it is most efficient when going downwind. However, it is very inefficient when going upwind.
On the contrary, the longitudinal sail is more efficient than the square sail when going upwind, but it is not as efficient as the square sail when going downwind.
There is currently no captain, so the helmsman can only serve as captain. After all, Ming Yan does not understand navigation, and Chen Liang is only a shipbuilding engineer. Instead, he wants to learn navigation knowledge from Chen Zuwang to use in future shipbuilding.
Chen Zuwang looked at the wind direction and anemometer next to him. This thing is a simple windmill structure. It is very primitive, but it can determine the current wind direction and speed based on the rotation speed and direction.
Because it is very simple, it will fail if the wind exceeds Level 6. Without instruments, the human eye cannot judge the speed of rapid rotation.
"Everyone is paying attention. Get ready to speed up. Hold on to things around you. Don't fall." Chen San, as Chen Zuwang's assistant, shouted loudly with a tin trumpet.
At present, his level is enough to serve as a shout-out, but the old uncle has promised to teach him to steer, because now Chen Zuwang has been informally appointed to be the first captain of the Star. In this way, the helmsman must train another person.
Chen San was so excited that he didn't sleep all night, and the couple cried at each other. Although he was not as good as his uncle and could not get such a high salary, he still had five taels of silver a month.
Sixty taels a year was a high salary that the couple could not even imagine. Once they settled down in Vladivostok and my wife found something to do, the family's life became prosperous.
The sailors quickly climbed up the mast and pulled up the sail ropes with a groan. The upper, lower and middle sails of the three masts were raised.
Chen Zuwang turned the steering wheel violently to the right, and the entire ship turned flexibly, instantly matching the direction of the northwest wind, and all the sails were bulging.
The ship shook violently, then suddenly accelerated.
The milky white hull broke through the waves like an arrow leaving the string.
Although Li Gouzi is only twenty-three years old, he has been running a boat for ten years. When he was thirteen years old, his uncle took him on the boat as an apprentice and a small laborer, and this is how he came all the way.
At this time, he was running to the bow of the ship, threw down a piece of wood with a cable attached to it, and then looked at his pocket watch. Then he quickly followed the piece of wood to the stern, then looked at his pocket watch. He lifted the piece of wood out of the water and ran again.
Go to the bow and continue repeating this action.
He was testing his speed.
Because the length of the ship is clearly known, as long as the time for the wooden block to travel from the bow to the stern is known, the ship's sailing speed at this time can be calculated.
At this time, the unit for calculating speed has been using modern standards at Yang Fan's request. Yang Fan mainly did it for his own convenience, otherwise the conversion would make his brain explode.
Fuzhou can reach 4.7 knots at full speed, which is the speed under the most ideal conditions, and is generally only three to four knots.
"Four knots!" Li Gouzi shouted after running to the stern of the boat. He then pulled up the wooden block, turned around, ran to the bow of the boat, and continued to measure the speed.
He has an oilcloth in his hand, and on it is a table with the speed corresponding to the time. Just take a look at it.
Although it is primitive to use human power to report the speed, it is better than nothing. The four people on the bridge heard the speed and continued driving.
"Full Sail" Chen Zuwang felt that the wind had become stronger, and the wind speed and direction meter next to him began to rotate at a high speed, and the arrow rotated and finally pointed to the southeast.
The wind is Category 5, and the wind direction is stable from the southeast.
As the sailors pulled the sail ropes, the upper sail was also raised. Viewed from behind, the outline of the entire sailboat seemed to become larger.
There was a loud bang, and as the jib of the forward mast was raised, the sails of the entire sailboat were completely inflated, and the ship's speed suddenly surged. The whole ship shook again, the bow lifted up, and the scissors-like bow cut open
Waves, rushing forward at high speed.
The wind has gotten stronger and the waves have gotten bigger.
The boat began to bump violently, and everyone grabbed hold of objects around them.
"Seven knots!" Li Gouzi yelled excitedly from under the bridge. This was the first time he measured this speed. Fuchuan was too exhausted to drive at this speed.
Ming Yan and Chen Liang looked at each other and became excited. It was indeed a high-speed ship. This speed was already twice the normal speed of the Fu Ship. Even at this speed, the voyage could be reduced by half.
However, the ship is still accelerating, and the bow directly breaks the waves, and a large amount of water mist rises. Since the bow is hollow in design, it is lighter in weight, which shows its advantage at this time.
When a ship sails at high speed, it is afraid of waves. When the waves surge onto the bow of the ship, it will push the bow down, directly increasing the resistance, affecting safety and easily causing accidents.
The sturdiness of the keel is also a test. If the keel is not strong enough, the bow will pick up a lot of waves, and under huge pressure, the ship may break into two pieces.
However, the Star with its hollow bow kept its bow raised high and never hit the waves. The ship continued to speed up.
"It's tenth festival," Li Gouzi shouted.
Suddenly the whole ship became excited. This speed was almost three times that of Fuzhou.