"Proprietor, our Baoxing Shipyard, uh, is Xinghe Shipyard. Although our Xinghe Shipyard is not big, it still has a complete range of work types." Chen Liang said.
"When I first entered the shipyard as an apprentice, it was still the time of the previous owner. At that time, our shipyard was prosperous, with more than 1,300 people. It could build a big fortune ship with two to three thousand materials, one thousand
Guangzhou Shipyard, which only costs 500 materials, can also build Siamese ships. Every year, we receive thousands of orders for the construction of watercraft!"
When the old man said this, his eyes shone, his cheeks were rosy, and his expression of excitement was palpable.
Yang Fan was a little moved. He didn't expect that this broken shipyard had a glorious time. The Siamese ship was much more advanced than the Fu ship and absorbed a lot of Western technology. It was created by Ming craftsmen who went south to Bangkok and combined the advantages of Ming and Western shipbuilding technology.
Ship type.
"Then how did it end up in this situation?" Yang Fan also asked a little strangely.
"Alas! It wasn't because of the three major conquests of the temple that our shipyard was assigned thirty ships of fortune. In the end, the accounts were all settled with treasure money. The old owner fell ill in a fit of anger, and he was so frustrated that he sold the shipyard to
Southerner."
"In the past few decades, scholars have become more and more powerful. Not only do they not pay land taxes, but they also do not pay taxes when doing business. They do not need to pay for using public boats to transport goods. They intervene in business, and the cost is shockingly low. Local merchants
They were all bankrupted. Merchant shipping also declined. The work of repairing merchant ships became less and less. Since Li Sancai became the governor of water transportation, water ship repair was monopolized by Li Sancai and others, and later it was never released to local governments.
's shipyard."
Yang Fan frowned. If scholars take advantage of their privileges, they will have to get involved in any profitable business, advance it, and destroy it. Over time, all businesses in the world will wither.
"In recent years, the sea has been banned, and there are very few orders for Fuchuan. Until now, we can only take on the repair work of fishing boats. There are less than ten fishing boats this year, and they are idle for half the year. We support the current family of more than 70 people.
It’s all barely done.”
Yang Fan comforted him and said, "After I took over, we will no longer take on the work of repairing fishing boats. We will build sea-going ships from scratch. We will build small ones first. After building the small ones, we will slowly build bigger ones and restore the technology bit by bit."
Get up. There is no need to worry about orders. I will use the built ships to build an ocean-going fleet."
Hearing what Yang Fan said, the shipbuilders and shipwrights became excited. As long as the orders are full, the shipyard will surely be able to survive.
"But the ship I need is not a Fuzhou ship, nor a Guangzhou ship, nor a Siam ship. These ships are too slow. What I need is a fast ship, which can quickly travel between Nagasaki and Tianjin. This kind of ship is called a clipper ship."
The craftsmen all looked at each other and found that they had never heard the name of this kind of ship.
"Bring me the drawings," Yang Fan said. "Let all the masters take a look."
Mingyan took out a blueprint of a flying shear ship that was one meter wide and two meters long from her backpack, opened it and hung it on the wooden board.
Colorful drawings, against the background of blue sky and blue sea, a slender white sailboat is moored on the sea. The sharp bow cuts through the waves like scissors. The slender hull shows very little resistance at a glance.
The most admirable thing is the horizontal sails hung on the five tall masts, which are as white as clouds. There is also a foremast diagonally extending forward at the bow. Several sail ropes pull the main mast diagonally, and it is hung with
The spinnaker.
This is the ultimate achievement of sailing ships, the German square-rigged ship "Deutsche Wehrzeit".
"Owner, my name is Zhang Tieyi, and I am in charge of the rigging. Is this ship a Western ship? The sails look like Western sails, but the old man has never seen the hull. Western ships have chubby hulls, and
Short and thick."
"This is a type of ship that has not yet appeared. There is no such ship in the West now. We can try to build a 100-material ship first, test the relevant technology, and then gradually improve it. Each one will make some progress. Wait for this
When the ship type is mature, we will enlarge it and try to build one with 300 materials." Yang Fan said
"The owner, I am Chen Qi, I am responsible for the installation and construction of the keel. Looking at the shape of this ship, I estimate that the ribs and keel of the ship need wood that is naturally curved in shape and consistent with the design. Such wood is not
Easy to find, but without enough wood such a ship would be difficult to build on a large scale."
"Isn't it possible to cut the wood into a suitable curvature? Why must it be naturally curved? And the curved shape must be consistent with the design drawing." Yang Fan asked puzzledly.
"Proprietor, the strength of wood comes from the fiber of the wood, which is the smooth ballast we see when we split the firewood. Only the whole wood has the greatest strength. The strength of the cutting and bending or assembly is not strong enough. If
Forcibly bending the wood will break the fibers and make the wood less strong."
Yang Fan understood that it was difficult to find naturally shaped wood, let alone wood that conformed to the curvature of the design.
"I have a way to do this." Yang Fan had just gained knowledge on sailboat construction in the past two days. "I have a way to bend the wood while minimizing the possibility of breaking fibers."
"In addition, I also have an iron factory. The ribs and keel of the ship do not have to be made of wood. They can also be cast in the required shape with iron. You can cast it in any shape you want."
The craftsmen were all shocked that it could still be done like this, but after thinking about it carefully after the shock, it didn't seem unreasonable.
Everyone tries to make the ship as boxy as possible just to make it easier to find wood. If iron is used to cast the keels and ship ribs, which require special shapes, the problem of insufficient wood of special shapes can indeed be greatly alleviated.
"Proprietor, if the keel is made of iron, it must be cast into sections one by one. How do you connect these small sections?" asked a craftsman.
"This can be riveted, that is, a hole is reserved in the component, the iron rod is heated, and while it is red and soft, it is inserted into the joint, and the two sides are hammered into nail heads with a hammer. After cooling, they are connected into one piece. There is no blacksmith in the shipyard, so I
A group of blacksmiths will be dispatched to establish the iron factory." Yang Fan explained.
"Proprietor, I am Li Changdong, the person in charge of the mast. I see that the mast in this picture is very high, exceeding the captain." Li Changdong pointed to the mast in the picture and continued, "It is true that the power of a sailboat comes from the area of the sail. The mast
The higher it is, the bigger and more sails are hung, and the greater the propulsion force, but in fact the mast cannot be so high."
Yang Fan nodded and motioned for him to continue. These people were very professional and what they said was on point.
"The mast must be fixed to effectively utilize the thrust from the wind, so it usually has to penetrate several layers of decks and connect to the keel."
Yang Fan nodded, that's right. Only by fixing it in this way can the mast be the most stable, otherwise it will swing around and waste all the wind power.
Li Changdong continued: "But the strength of the keel made of hardwood has an upper limit. The force transmitted from the mast cannot exceed the upper limit of the keel, otherwise the keel will tilt up and cause water leakage. So the higher the mast, the better, but
In fact, there are limitations. The masts in the picture are too high. One is because the wood cannot be that high and is not strong enough and will be blown off by the wind. The other is a mast that is really that high and is transmitted through the sail.
The force is too great. The keels and deck beams cannot withstand such a large thrust and will break."
"What you said is very good, but there is a way to solve this problem. If the keel and mast are made of steel, the strength will be greatly strengthened. I have good steel here and it will be shipped later."