Opening game, American Tycoon

Chapter 150 Whaling and the Navy (First update, please subscribe)
It's like heaven!

For the vast majority of people, life in Nanhua is like heaven.

Of course, the premise is to adapt to the life here, for example, from eating rice to getting used to eating staple foods such as steamed buns and potatoes. In addition, you can eat meat every day. For some people, this day is naturally like a paradise.

The reason why they can eat meat is not because there are many cows here, but because of whales. Nanhua has several whaling ships specializing in whaling. With whales, there will naturally be enough meat.

For Wang Dahai, who is a fisherman in his hometown in Zhejiang, he enjoys his current life very much, especially the life on a whaling ship. He likes the days of sailing on the sea. Besides, he is still learning the seamanship of Westerners .

In the early morning, when a ray of sunlight shone into the cabin through the grill window on the deck, he, who was sleeping on the hammock, turned over and jumped off.

"Okay, guys get to work!"

As soon as it was dawn, the whaling ship "Freder" became lively. Captain Henrys was smoking a pipe, watching the crew members busy there. Although the deck had been washed countless times, the deck was still full of air. A faint smell of blood.

This is the peculiar smell of a whaler.

"Captain, I went down to check just now. The ice in the compartment has begun to melt. It's almost time for us to return."

Standing in front of the captain, the second officer Wang Dahai spoke to the captain in blunt English.

Fishing boats in this era did not have refrigeration devices, so they could only rely on ice to cool down the whale meat to ensure that the whale meat would not rot. The ice began to melt, indicating that it was time to return, otherwise the trip would have been in vain.

"Well, I know, we're going back today to see if we can catch another whale. We only have less than 200 tons of whale meat in our cabin."

Whale meat!

Henrys, who has been on a whaling ship for half his life, never imagined that one day he would go out to sea to hunt whales for whale meat instead of whale oil. In the past, things like whale meat were even thrown into the sea directly— — Even if it is used to refine oil, it is a waste of fuel.

But now?
The American company's whaling ships went out to sea to obtain whale meat. If it weren't for the whale meat, the whaling ships might have been eliminated.

"At least not yet unemployed!"

Henrys, smoking a pipe, said to himself.

In fact, he was destined to be unemployed.In the past ten years or so, whales in Europe and the Americas have almost been caught. In order to obtain whales, they can only go to Antarctica to hunt for whales. Even so, whales are still being caught less and less.A few years ago, when oil was discovered, it was followed by a severe blow to the whaling industry-the kerosene extracted from the oil was better than whale oil in terms of brightness and cleanliness, and an oil well It can produce 3000 barrels of crude oil every day.Compared with the ocean-going whaling ships that can bring back 400 barrels of whale oil from Antarctica in two years, this gap in production is difficult to make up.

What was even more terrible was the outbreak of the Civil War. A large number of strong and powerful adult men were recruited into the army by the Federation and the Confederacy. There was a serious shortage of manpower on the whaling ship!While the whaling industry in the United States was in rapid decline, Henrys, like many others, was facing a crisis of unemployment.

Of course, he can accept the employment of the navy and participate in the blockade of the south, but that is a war that will kill people.At this time, the employment of the company made him leave the United States, where he was engaged in the whaling industry he was most familiar with, but it was no longer to obtain whale oil, but to obtain whale meat.

Whale meat is the most common meat in Nanhua, and it is also the cheapest and most abundant meat.

"Go back!"

Following the captain's order, the sailors on the [-]-ton whaling ship "Fred" got busy. They either skillfully climbed the mast, or lifted and lowered the rigging, and manipulated the ship. Return to Nanhua.

In fact, Henrys didn't know that the greatest significance of whaling to Nanhua was not to obtain meat, but to train the crew, or to prepare for the training of sailors.

After all, the first step towards the sea is to get familiar with the sea, and whaling is the first step to become familiar with the sea.

"Different from ordinary merchant ships following a fixed route, the sailing route of a whaler is not fixed, and it often encounters various sea conditions at sea. Its sailing status is closer to that of the navy. At present, we have seven whalers of about 7 tons. There are about 600 crew members, and after a year of training, they will be able to go to the training ship to learn navigation and gun control..."

Steve Harry, a naval consultant hired by the company, was a retired officer in the Royal Navy and it was he who developed the plan to train sailors with whaling ships.

The core of this plan is to go from understanding the ocean to the sea step by step.

"And what about naval officer training?"

Zhu Xianhai asked.

"Sir, I think it can be divided into two steps. While establishing a naval academy to train cadets, you can also send some young people to Britain to study the navy,"

"To England? Will the British Naval Academy accept our cadets?"

Zhu Xianhai asked.

"The British government will definitely not accept the students of the company to enter the Naval Academy, but they can go to the Merchant Marine School, which is said to be a Merchant Marine School. In fact, a considerable number of students will enter the Navy for internship after graduation, and all the merchant marine schools in the UK are Merchant mariners are trained according to the standards of naval officers, because they may be recruited by the navy at any time, so there is not much difference between them.”

When he said this, Zhu Xianhai thought about one thing, like the Japanese Togo Heihachiro, when he was studying in the UK, he was transferred to the Merchant Marine School because the British government refused to enter the Naval Academy, but the British did not bully the Japanese. At that time, I also practiced from the lowest rank of sailors on warships.In the end, it didn't affect them to command naval battles and build a navy!
Steve Harry emphasized again.

"Sir, the soul of a warship is officers. Without officers, sailors will not be able to use their strengths; if sailors cannot make use of their strengths, the ship will become a pile of scrap iron. Educating naval officers is the top priority in building a navy. Therefore, my The suggestion is that if you want to build a navy, the training of naval officers is the most important thing. If conditions permit, I hope you can select 20-30 students to study in the UK, and then send 10-15 people to study abroad every year Navy, with locally trained officers, and in ten years, maybe ten years, you'll have a fleet capable of sailing the oceans!"

ten years!

It is only possible to sail in the ocean...

"Ten years, isn't it too long?"

"Sir, do you know how long it takes to train a qualified capital ship captain?"

Steve Harry emphasized.

"Twenty years! Ten years...but it's just the beginning!"

A captain needs to be trained for twenty years!

Sure enough, it is worthy of "an army of ten years, and a navy of a hundred years." The navy is really different from the army. The training of officers and soldiers can only be done step by step. There are no shortcuts. With such a sigh in his heart, Zhu Xianhai nodded and said .

"Just do as you said, apprenticeship training, selection of foreign students, you do it, ten years..."

After a pause, Zhu Xianhai smiled.

"Come on step by step, we will always have a strong navy..."

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(End of this chapter)