Immortal Master Invincible

Chapter 1244 Alien World (155)

Pang Xiaonan got into the cockpit and asked Buenoski, "Has our course changed?"

"No?" Buenoski shook his head, he pointed to the watch on the bridge, and pointed to a star in the sky, "I have been paying attention to the direction, which is consistent with the direction when we came unanimous."

"Do you feel that something is wrong?" Pang Xiaonan still felt that something was wrong.

"I feel that the weather is a bit oppressive, and a storm is coming soon." Buenoski is an old captain who has been sailing for many years, and the climate change at sea cannot escape his feeling.

"Yes, that's what it means!" Pang Xiaonan finally found out that something was wrong, it was a sign before the storm, "I'm afraid this time the storm will be very big, are you sure you can avoid it?"

"I'll try my best." Buenoski also felt that the storm would be strong this time. The indescribable intensity was exactly the same as the feeling in New Blossom, but he couldn't judge how big the storm was. The sense of unknown danger is the most depressing.

"I think the storm is coming soon, do you want to take a rest first?" Pang Xiaonan knew that Buenoski was also very tired.

"You said that a storm is coming, so how can I rest?" Buenoski stared at the direction ahead, "Don't worry, I can still withstand it."

While the two were talking, the calm sea began to undulate, and the waves were like beating notes, rippling towards the flower of Blossom.

Pang Xiaonan and Buenoski, who were standing in the cockpit, felt a slight shock in the hull. Pang Xiaonan frowned and said, "The storm is coming."

"Well, this is the prelude to the storm." Buenoski agreed deeply, while holding the steering wheel with both hands.

As time went by, the vibration of the hull became more and more serious. Gradually, Pang Xiaonan had to hold onto a pipe in the cockpit to keep himself steady.

Just as Pang Xiaonan wanted to ask, "Won't the ship capsize?", he suddenly felt that something was wrong, and swallowed the sentence abruptly.At this time, in front of Blossom's Flower, a big wave with a height of four or five meters rolled over.

"Not good, it's dangerous." A voice sounded in Pang Xiaonan's heart, and the big wave had already reached his eyes.

I saw that the Flower of Blossom was like a boat climbing a hill, tilting at an angle of 45 degrees all of a sudden, lifting up everyone in the boat. Pang Xiaonan and Buenoski were tightly holding on to the fixed objects in the cockpit , keep from falling back.

Those who entered the cabin to sleep were all awakened by the big wave.

Someone rushed onto the deck and was terrified by the scene in front of him. Pang Xiaonan saw Li Yisi rushing onto the deck and shouted loudly: "Go in, it's dangerous on the deck! Tell everyone, don't come out!"

Li Yisi nodded, turned around and entered the cabin, and notified the others of the specific situation, and stood firmly at the door to prevent others from coming out.

There was a ten-meter-high wave coming, and Buenoski shouted: "Hold on!"

Pang Xiaonan firmly grasped a steel pipe next to him with all his strength, thinking, with such a big wave, the boat must capsize.

Before the huge wave arrived, Blossom's flower had already swung so high that everyone in the boat was shocked to the point of their throats.As soon as the huge wave fell, the deck hit by the water splashed, like hail hitting the steel plate.

The flower of Blossom is like a floating leaf, swinging wet and out of balance several times, but fortunately different forces are tearing it apart, and when the ship is about to capsize, the flower of Blossom turned over straight again .

A few people in the boat had been dazed for a long time, their stomachs were very uncomfortable, and they vomited. All the crab meat they ate at night was vomited on the floor, and a rotten smell wafted in the cabin, making them seasick People feel more uncomfortable and vomit more.

"It's really exciting!" Although Pang Xiaonan is very powerful, he was also caused by the big waves to swing around in the cockpit. Buenoski was almost thrown out of the cockpit. Fortunately, Pang Xiaonan closed the hatch in time. , just let Buenoski hit a big bag on his head.

"Captain, we are likely to break here this time." Buenoski looked at the huge waves and suddenly lost confidence. It was the first time he encountered such bad weather at sea.

"What do you call that? Impossible. We will definitely get through it safely." Although Pang Xiaonan also knew that this time he was close to death, he must not say anything in frustration, otherwise it will really come true.

The power of nature is much more terrifying than any beast's attack.

Because in a game with a beast, at least you know who your opponent is, but when nature gets angry, you don't even have the direction to exert your strength.

This is why Pang Xiaonan always felt uneasy even though he didn't encounter any monsters in the sea along the way. Sure enough, a few waves tossed a boat full of people.

Suddenly, a burst of lightning and thunder appeared in front of Blossom's Flower, and the sea surface was even more unpredictable, making people suspect that they had come to the devil world.

"This is the real storm." Pang Xiaonan exclaimed loudly. Compared with the scene in front of him, the previous big waves were pediatrics at best.

It's like sitting on a roller coaster and falling from a high place. You thought it was safe, but ended up entering a cave, where all kinds of monsters and ghosts are waiting for your arrival.

"What should we do, captain, our speed is too fast to escape." In fact, Buenoski had already turned off the power, because in front of the waves, no power could get rid of the natural speed of the sea water. With the speed of the ocean current, I will soon be exposed to lightning and thunder.

"If you can't escape it, it's fine, it's just a matter of coming to cross the catastrophe." Pang Xiaonan's words were right at all. The scene in front of him was like what a certain fellow Taoist would have experienced before crossing the catastrophe, but it was even worse than the legendary one. Be stronger.

Soon, the flower of Blossom reached the center of the storm. Although the waves were not so high, the ups and downs in the sea became more frequent. The flower of Blossom was thrown around by the sea without any resistance.

And the dark clouds above cover the night light and the stars, and the lightning and thunder are like a tearing universe, changing unpredictablely.Suddenly, a bolt of lightning hit the Blossom Flower, extending from the lightning rod to the hull, and then transmitted from the hull to the sea.

"Ah..." Everyone on board felt a numbness, as if there was a burning smell in the air.

"Did we get hit by lightning just now?" Pang Xiaonan grabbed the steel pipe tightly and asked Buenoski loudly.

At this moment, Buenoski was also like Pang Xiaonan, holding on to a steel pipe beside him, but looking left and right with his eyes, he was looking for any damage to the equipment on the ship.

Before the storm came, as an experienced sailor, Buenoski had already furled the sails, because he knew that in the face of a powerful storm, the sails were likely to be torn, so it was necessary to ensure the safety of the sails, otherwise It was difficult for them to return to Blossom Island.

After confirming that the equipment on the ship was not lost, Buenoski looked at Pang Xiaonan and replied loudly: "Yes, captain, we were struck by lightning just now."

"But we seem to be all right?" Pang Xiaonan felt strange, shouldn't he feel very strong after being hit by electricity, at least he would feel numb, not to mention the powerful lightning on the sea.

"We have lightning protection, captain, so nothing will happen." Buenoski was very calm, because lightning can't knock down modern ships.

Modern ships are made of steel, which conduct electricity by themselves, and seawater is a good conductor, so the people on board should be very safe.It is necessary to prevent the electronic equipment from being struck by lightning.As long as there is a lightning protection device at the height of the electronic equipment, it can be well protected against lightning.

The traditional habit of lightning rods on land is to protect buildings and prevent lightning damage to buildings.Therefore, the inertia of thinking also thought that the metal platform was not afraid of lightning strikes.

In fact, the lightning rods of ships at sea are mainly aimed at electronic equipment, such as; radio stations, satellite positioning antennas, radars, etc.

From the concept of multi-level energy-level lightning attenuation, lightning rods are not only lightning discharge, but more importantly, A-level protection against lightning to prevent lightning strikes directly on satellites, radio stations, walkie-talkies, and data transmission antennas. After all, they are also very good. Tip discharge medium.

And the electronic equipment of Blossom's Flower had already failed after entering the Blossom's disc, so even if the electronic equipment on board was damaged by lightning, it would not have much impact on Blossom's Flower.

But the impact of the waves had a great impact on Blossom's Flower.

The most important thing is whether Blossom's Flower can maintain its balance on the sea without capsizing.

If the Flower of Blossom couldn't hold back and capsized in the storm, then even God would be exhausted, and all the people on the boat would be buried in the bottom of the sea and become the rations of marine life.

Fortunately, the Blossom Flower has not touched any hidden reefs or glaciers floating on the sea for such a long time, otherwise, the Blossom Flower would have become ruins, and people on the sea would fall into the sea, life and death would be in jeopardy.

Pang Xiaonan remembered the famous sinking of the Titan Bismarck.

100 years ago, the world's largest cruise ship, the Titan Bismarck, embarked on its first and last voyage.

The Titan Bismarck divides passengers into three classes.The third-class cabin is also the cheapest on the lower deck of the ship. Most of the passengers in this category are immigrants who plan to build a new life on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean; the decoration of the second-class cabin and ordinary guest rooms is actually the same as that of other ordinary ships at that time. Many second-class passengers were originally assigned to first-class on other ships, but because of the voyage of the Titan Bismarck, the coal energy was transferred to the Titan Bismarck.The first class cabin was the most expensive and luxurious part of the entire ship, and several of the world's richest celebrities were on this journey at the time.

At 7 o'clock that evening, the Titan Bismarck arrived at the port of Cherbourg.Another batch of passengers and cargo boarded the Titan Bismarck on the two special ferry boats "Nomad" and "Communication", including the Chinese rich man Astor and Mrs. Margaret Brown - later said by the newspaper For "The Unsinkable Honorable Mrs. Brown".In addition, more than 20 passengers disembarked after a short journey, and were lucky to have a brush with death.

At noon the next day, the Titan Bismarck arrived at Corb, and a group of Eland immigrants boarded the ship full of longing and hope for the new world.A passenger disembarked here, and the photo he took later became an out-of-print photo of the Titan Bismarck, and is invaluable in the eyes of collectors today.

Following Captain Smith's orders, the Titan Bismarck accelerated to 23 knots the next day.Nothing major happened on the Titan Bismarck along the way.Philip, the telegraph operator on board, was busy sending expensive private telegrams for the first-class passengers, most of which were instructions for safety and stock trading.

Sunday night, a calm night, not even a wind.If anything, the crew would have spotted the specks of scale the waves lapped on the iceberg.The Titan Bismarck sailed at a speed of 22.3 knots (about 45 kilometers per hour) on this dark and icy ocean.

After receiving ice reports from many nearby ships, Captain Smith ordered the lookouts to observe carefully.Because of the warm winter this year, the icebergs have drifted farther south than in previous years.However, the crew of the Titan Bismarck failed to find the telescope, because the only pair of binoculars on board was locked in a cabinet by the second officer, and the second officer who kept the key to the cabinet did not board the ship in the end. Had to observe with the naked eye.

Lookout Fleet noticed a black shadow "the size of two tables" in the distance, which grew in size at a rapid speed.He rang the alarm bell on the bridge three times and grabbed the phone: "There is an iceberg directly ahead!".Moody, the sixth mate who answered the phone, notified the first mate Murdoch next to him.Murdoch immediately ordered to ring the bell: "Slow down all engines! Full left rudder! Reverse the No. 3 propeller!" It took only 37 seconds for the lookout to find the iceberg to hit the iceberg on the starboard side of the ship. At that time, the Titan Bismarck left The iceberg is less than 400 meters away.

The chief mate immediately ordered two orders of full left rudder and emergency backing of the whole ship's thrusters. It was later confirmed that this order was a fatal mistake. Just 37 seconds after he gave the order, the Titan Bismarck lost control because of its large hull and too small rudder. Coupled with the fact that the forward speed was too fast to stop and turn in time, the starboard side of the ship slammed into the side of the iceberg.

Due to the violent impact, the rivet at the bottom of the starboard side of the bow was knocked loose and broken, and the waterproof bulkhead was partially cracked. Numerous small but narrow cracks appeared in the first five bilges, and there was a small crack in the front of the sixth watertight compartment. , sea water poured in continuously.Then the waterproof gates were closed in time, and all the bilges became 5 independent watertight warehouses.

In the first 10 minutes after the hull hit the iceberg, the water level rose 14 feet from the keel, and the first five cabins in the bow began to be flooded, and boiler room No. 8 was covered by 4000 feet of water.At this time, more than [-] tons of seawater had poured into the bow of the ship, but the seawater was blocked by waterproof boards. The situation seemed to be fine, and everything seemed to be under control.Captain Smith walked in from the crew cab and asked the crew what happened. After learning what had happened, the captain immediately ordered all the engines in the ship to stop operating, and the Titan Bismarck slowly stopped in the middle of a silent North Atlantic Ocean. , The captain then summoned engineers to overhaul the damaged part.

The results of this collision were later known.But the passengers and crew in the cabin had mixed reactions.Some sleepy passengers in the first and second class cabins were awakened by a slight metal-like scraping sound, and the ship shook slightly.Some thought it was a big wave, some thought it was hitting a rock, and some thought it was a propeller failure.

But the vibrations felt by passengers in the cabin below were far more severe.Some passengers saw milky white icebergs passing by the starboard porthole.Some of the ice that had been struck by the ship and wiped off the side of the iceberg fell onto the starboard bow deck.The immigrant passengers in the steerage on the bottom floor were even more horrified to find that the icy sea water was overflowing through the crack of the door and pouring into the bedroom from nowhere, and the ship stopped quickly.

After familiarizing themselves with the matter, some passengers in the cabin put on their coats and brought their belongings, left the steerage and came to the deck.Under the dark sky, the windows of the Titan Bismarck glowed with a warm yellowish light.All the boilers in the ship stopped working, and the four tall yellow and black smoke pipes and chimneys on the ship exhausted a lot, making a loud noise.Three of them suddenly let out a deafening roar and hiss.Passengers who understand steam engines know that this is the boiler safety valve on the ship releasing excess superheated high-pressure steam.After a while, the passengers on board and in the ship resumed their respective activities.

At this time, more than 7000 tons of seawater had poured into the bow of the ship, and the water had flooded a forward peak tank, three bow cargo holds and No. 3 boiler room. The other cabins flooded in, further covering the upper H deck, and the bow began to sink slowly. The fate of sinking was actually doomed, because the watertight cabin of the Titan Bismarck at that time could withstand the maximum limit of 4 watertight cabins. , and the water ingress in the cabin was 5 beyond the bearing limit.

6号锅炉室内大量工作人员正努力排除积水。船员向身处控制塔的史密斯船长报告：水已浸没船头前舱、第1、2、3号货舱及6号锅炉室，他立即找设计师托马斯安德鲁评估损毁情况。

After some evaluation and calculation, Andrew then concluded in the captain's room that "the ship is hopeless" and said that the ship could only last for 1-2 hours. The captain asked all crew members to do a good job of releasing the lifeboat immediately.At that time, the position where the ship stopped was 41 degrees 46 minutes north latitude and 50 degrees 14 minutes west longitude.

The sea water has submerged the 10-meter-high bow part, and all the lifeboats on board can only be used by 1178 people, while the total number of people on board reaches 2224.

The crew of the Titan Bismarck began to use distress rockets to call for help.The crew of the Californian, who were about 10 to 19 miles away from the Titan Bismarck, could even see the light on the chimney of her steam engine. They tried to communicate with her in Morse, but the Morse code malfunctioned and could not be contacted. .And more than one crew member of the Californian witnessed the white distress rocket launched by the Titan Bismarck, but the captain of the Californian, Rhodes, believed that this was not a distress signal.

The Titan Bismarck sent out a distress signal, and then switched to the latest "SOS" signal to continue calling for help.It was later confirmed that most of the ships that received the signal only received the SOS distress signal, but the closest Californian (SSCalifornian) failed to receive the distress telegram in time because the telegraph operator turned off the telegraph.

Of all the ships that could receive the telegram, the Carpathia was the closest to the Titan Bismarck, which then sailed towards the Titan Bismarck at the fastest speed, but even this would take at least 4 hours to get to the Titan Bismarck. rush to the scene.The crew on the Titan Bismarck began preparations to release the lifeboats.

The band on deck A for first-class passengers continued to play for passengers near the stairs leading to the lifeboat entrance to avoid panic.

Seawater has submerged the 15-meter-high seaman’s cabin, and the ship has sunk 6 meters. Two rows of portholes on the left and right are submerged underwater, and some of them are open, resulting in increasing water inlets. Don't give up here, and the pump still pumps water with all its strength, but this can only slightly slow down the sinking speed of the bow.

The captain ordered that women and children should be given priority in the lifeboats.At this time, the Carpathia was located about 58 nautical miles southeast of the Titan Bismarck, and was rushing towards it.

Boiler Room No. 6 and the entire Watertight Compartment No. 6 were flooded.The water has overflowed from the top of the No. 6 flashing board into the E-deck, and there is no waterproof facility here, and the water pours in from the top.The sixth compartment water tank began to flood, and the hull gradually tilted.The frightening muffled sound of the forward flashing can be heard from boiler room No. 5.

The crew members who were salvaging mail in the mail room became the first casualties of the Titan Bismarck.All lifeboat preparations completed.The crew began to persuade the first-class passengers to board the lifeboats. Boat No. 7 was the first lifeboat to be lowered, but only a dozen passengers were carried on the lifeboat with a maximum capacity of 65 people.

The water barrier between No. 6 and No. 5 boiler rooms was deformed by the high temperature of a small fire a few days ago. Now the water pressure caused the water barrier to collapse suddenly, and the water rushed over like a wall. The bottom of No. 6 water proof tank Being instantly filled with seawater became the first link in this devastating chain reaction.The first distress rocket was launched, and a sheet of bright white sparks slowly fell.

The lower half of the Titan Bismarck's promenade deck is submerged.The work around the lifeboats gradually became chaotic, and although the virtue of women and children boarding the lifeboats was observed, many lifeboats were launched in a half-empty state.The No. 28 lifeboat only carried [-] people, but the crew could not be blamed for this. At that time, the nautical industry believed that if the lifeboat was loaded with too many people and lowered, the lifeboat would be damaged or even capsized.

The lifeboat of the Titan Bismarck was actually designed to be very strong and can bear the weight of 70 people, but the crew did not know this.In fact, only 1178 people went on the lifeboat that could have carried 651 people in total, and some people were rescued on the lifeboat after jumping into the sea.

On the port side of the ship, the rescue boats carry women and children.On the starboard side, men are allowed to board after women have priority to escape.Therefore, more people are rescued on the starboard side than on the port side.

(End of this chapter)