Lu Ming

Chapter 177 Shipyard
The Taijiang Inland Sea in 1628 was 5 kilometers wide and 12 kilometers long.A large number of beautiful lagoons are distributed along the north and south ends of the Taijiang River. This situation will continue until later generations. The lagoons will eventually become wetland parks and fishing grounds for tourists to take pictures.

Today, the Taijiang River under the rule of the crossing public already has the demeanor of a future port.

First is the route.

In the early Taijiang River, due to sedimentation, the water depth in many places was only 1-3 meters, and cargo ships could not pass through it.Since the crossing people got their dredgers, they first cleared out a main route from Chikan Wharf to the entrance of the Dayuan Channel, and then set up buoys along the way.

As for other areas, the dredgers are currently widening the waterway, and there is no time to clean it up.Despite this, the Port Authority still uses various buoys with different appearances to plan functional blocks for the sea surface of the Taijiang River. Shallow-draft small boats, including offshore freight and short-distance passenger transport, now have dedicated waterways.

And these neat and smooth special-purpose small boats have been the main works of Taijiang Shipyard since its establishment.

The shipyard located in the northeast corner of Taijiang River has been at full capacity since its establishment in view of the surge in demand for ships from all parties.With the increase in manpower, the factory area has been extended to the north one after another, and the scale is getting bigger and bigger: on the various berths that are hundreds of meters long, ant-like shipyard workers are busy around some ship frames every day, the machines are roaring, noisy and noisy, and the scene warm.

Of course, a large scale does not mean high technical content. Currently, most of the shipyard is occupied by the small boat work section.

These workshops for manufacturing small boats are quite simple, in fact, they just dug a shallow pit in the sand.Novices usually have to build two or three small boats before they can talk about entering the industry, and then specialize in a certain skill.

And the master craftsman, who is called the project manager by the people across time, is a scarce item, and usually one person is responsible for two or three small boat workshops.

After Jiajing in the Ming Dynasty, the traditional "shift" system was actually bankrupt due to too many craftsmen fleeing, and it was changed to a conversion system for the government to collect labor service silver.During the reign of Chongzhen, truly skilled craftsmen, including shipwrights, although these people were of low social status, they were actually middle class, and it was difficult to become refugees.

Many of the craftsmen collected in Moyun Temple are hired, bought, or redeemed from prisons with lavish money, such as criminals in custody, gamblers, and the like.

After these people are recruited, the first thing to do is to learn Chinese and mathematics.

Traditional craftsmen have an extremely troublesome problem: Most of these people are illiterate, and their production depends on memorizing a few fixed templates by rote, without creativity.

After learning basic language and numbers in Moyunguan for a period of time, these people have to continue their studies when they come to Dayuan—learning while producing.The learning content will gradually focus on some unit conversions, simple geometry, and measurement. Shipwrights and carpenters will come into contact with specialized content such as the expansion coefficient table of wood.

Some people who are good at learning soon become the best craftsmen.These people armed with theoretical knowledge are now "project managers" in Taijiang Shipyard.This position is not given for nothing, the minimum requirement: they must be able to understand the blueprints of the ships given by the cross-travelers, and guide the workers to make the real objects.

"Taijiang Freight Type I" and "Taijiang Passenger Type I", the two most built small boats, are the basic ship types independently developed by Taijiang Shipyard.

It is said to be self-developed, but in fact the shipyard only provided requirements and various environmental parameters.The detailed drawings of the two hulls were brought back to Mr. Cao on a hard disk after he found a professional ship design company from later generations.

At present, there is no such thing as "design" at all with the crude industrial capabilities.Whether it is the equipment in the kiln area or the ships in the shipyard, they are actually "imported"-directly import complete sets of equipment, or import key parts, and then crudely imitate other parts.

The shipyard masters headed by Qiao Zhengtai are also facing the same problem: they can come up with hundreds of existing drawings and data of small boats, but the key is, which one is most suitable for the current conditions?Or make them all and experiment one by one?
Society is constantly progressing.Those classic ship types in history, ranging from small wooden sailboats to large steel warships, if these blueprints and data are reviewed with the industrial design standards of the 21st century, there must be a lot of room for improvement.

It is impossible to complete the ship design work with such simple manpower and equipment.The design is not that simple. The finalization of various drawings requires an experienced design team, supplemented by a large number of calculations and simulation equipment.

In the not-too-distant future, a certain force will successively build various wooden sail warships, transport ships, iron-ribbed wood-hull warships, iron-clad ships, and battleships.
Cao Chuan has already placed orders for the above-mentioned ships with various types and functions in later ship design companies.These fully-improved ships will gallop across the seven seas across the plane with the highest navigation efficiency, the best structural layout, and the most beautiful line shape, spreading their weapons all over the world.

Back to the dinghy.The "Taiwan cargo type I" for freight transportation is designed and manufactured according to the current transportation environment in Taijiang.

This type of boat has a flat bottom, uses a Chinese-style hard sail, and lifts the sail surface with a pulley block. It has a load of 2 tons and can be easily operated by 2-3 people.

As a small boat dedicated to transportation between Chikan and Yaoqu bases, this boat has a shallow draft, fast speed, stable cargo, and is quite practical.The Chinese-style hard sail raised and lowered by the pulley block not only saves manpower, but also ensures that the ship can work normally in most wind directions.

The good maneuverability allows some old boatmen to enter the Newport Creek without going around the North Line Weidao when the tide is high.These people drove the unloaded empty boat from the Chikan Wharf directly into the Xiehu area on the north side of the Taijiang River. Relying on their familiarity with the road, they attracted thousands of water birds along the way, and then took a shortcut into the Xingang River.

Different from the wide and flat small cargo ships, the 10 passenger boats specially used for carrying people use white canvas schooners.This kind of small boat has a slender hull, beautiful lines, and fast speed. It carries people back and forth across the Taijiang River every day.

However, this kind of small boat has a shortcoming at the moment: the number cannot be built too much.

The reason is simple: lack of canvas.

Although the kiln area used imported parts to DIY the loom and the welding machine used to bridge large canvas pieces, the raw materials could not keep up with the consumption.

Travelers do not have enough transport capacity to import cotton from the south of the Yangtze River, and Taiwan is not suitable for growing cotton, and the fiber crops such as flax and ramie that are planted in large quantities in the agricultural sector have not yet reached maturity, and the limited canvas must be given priority to guarantee the main sails such as Chengfeng It is used by warships, so it can only run offshore small boats, and will not build too many for the time being.

In addition to the largest number of small boat workshops in Taijiang Shipyard, sloops and brigantines with higher technical content are also under construction.

Both of these ships are derived from the two-masted schooner that appeared in the Dutch in the 16th century.Great speed, gaff sails, and the signature long bowsprit are the hallmarks of this boat.

In North America in the 18th century, schooners began to be widely used in occasions requiring speed and tack ability, such as slave trade and pirate ships.And this kind of sail is also common on fishing boats and expedition ships. By the late 19th century, more than 2000 two-masted schooners transported goods in the Great Lakes region.

Therefore, the schooner is an all-rounder vessel.Except that it is not as good as a slow, big-bellied cargo ship in terms of cargo capacity, it is perfect in other aspects, and it is a real all-rounder.

What is currently being built on the berth are two schooners, one with a single mast and the other with a double mast, that have been improved by later designs.

The length of the sloop is 22 meters, and the length of the two masts is 30 meters. The appearance of the two ships is similar.In the future, after the completion of these two ships, they will be equipped with artillery and soldiers. The navy will test the cruise, combat and transportation capabilities of the ships in the strait. use.

Since these two ships are medium-sized ships with a length of more than 20 meters for the first time in the shipyard, the senior management in the shipyard also attaches great importance to them. Recently, a large number of skilled workers and four project managers gathered on the berth, and every day There will be two people who will travel through the high-rises to participate in the construction of the project.

At the northernmost end of the shipyard, it is the only dry dock in the world.

The dock was newly built not long ago, and was used to maintain the Chengfeng, a special ship equipped with electronic instruments and power equipment.

Recently, the real technical force of the shipyard, including the factory director Qiao Zhengtai and several people from the mechanical department, has gathered in the dock.

Parked in the middle of the dock is a big blessing boat.

This 800 ship named "Ruian" was bought from Fuzhou.

Some time ago, the colleagues at Fuzhou station who were sent to Fuzhou for layout, purchased the Ruian and a ship of iron materials as soon as they arrived in Fuzhou, and quickly sailed back to Dayuan.

After the staff unloaded the cargo, the Ryan was locked in the dock and a series of transformations began.

The Xibei product "Cao Chuan" will go to Fuzhou to meet Xiong Wencan in the near future, and the Rui'an will just be refitted and serve as an envoy.

Neither the old Xiong himself nor the time-traveling forces wanted to leak the news before the formal appeasement.Moreover, the mission this time may have to do some shady things. Therefore, "Cao Chuan", played by Zhang Dongdong, went to Fuzhou this time, which was essentially a secret operation.

Since it was a secret operation, the plywood boats parked on the wharf outside Fuzhou City would not be the Sand Chuan Canton Boats. The only unobtrusive ones could only be Fu Chuan.

Therefore, the material used for the Rui'an ship is not bad, and the 8% new blessing ship was put on the transformation platform of the crossing crowd.

There are still many projects that need to be renovated on the Ryan.

The hull structure needs to be strengthened, the cabin needs to be re-divided, and electronic equipment, power systems, and some hidden parts including machine gun nests must be reserved.

(End of this chapter)