Late Ming sea owl

Chapter 219 Improvement of Galen’s Ship
The Newport ship model does have a strange beauty, which is unfamiliar to both Pan and his son. After all, the Baltimore clipper did not come out until two hundred years later, and even its ancestor, the North American schooner, is still in the womb of the Dutch schooner.

The elimination of the flat deck design of the bow and stern reduces the wind resistance of the Newport. The slender hull and streamlined V-shaped section give it lower water resistance. The downwardly inclined keel and backward inclined mast at the tail bring higher longitudinal height. stability.

In addition to the hull, what is more eye-catching is the simple and coordinated sail of the Baltimore clipper.

The main sails on both masts of the Newport are upper-edge gaff sails with sail poles. This type of sail can be said to be a great crystallization of human sailing art. It is more flexible than a Latin sail and lighter than a Chinese hard sail.

At the beginning of the 20th century, there was a 120-meter-long seven-masted schooner, the Thomas W. Lawson. The main sails of the seven masts were all upper-edge gaff sails. This huge ship with a displacement of more than tons has a crew of only sixteen people.

Of course, although ships such as the Newport are called Baltimore clippers, they can only be regarded as the predecessors of clippers, because the iconic hollow bow of the clipper ship has not yet appeared, and the long and slender hull of the clipper ship has not yet appeared. The comparison is not as exaggerated as the real clipper ship later.

However, although an exaggerated aspect ratio is beneficial to increasing the speed, it will have a negative impact on longitudinal strength and lateral stability, especially for side salvos.

Therefore, a real clipper ship is suitable as a fast cargo ship. As for a battleship, the aspect ratio of the Newport is more suitable.

Standing in Asia in the 17th century, to be able to tell at a glance that the Newport was a good ship undoubtedly required some spirituality. Lin Hai felt that the Pan Xuezhong in front of him was probably a genius, and the first type of genius.

"Dad Pan, how about you leave your son to me to train him?" Lin Hai then explained to Master Pan, "I recently plan to refit the Dingyuan myself, and I want your son to assist me. What do you think of Dad Pan?"

In this way, the jib becomes a trapezoidal sail with only the mast behind, which is the shape of the upper edge gaff sail. However, there is still a problem with the upper edge gaff sail at this time. It loses the balance brought by the gaff and sail surface in front of the mast. Although its steering is much faster and more flexible, it is easy to lose control.

Early the next morning, Lin Hai took Pan Xuezhong aboard the Dingyuan. This naval flagship is now in charge of Shibi and is mainly responsible for the function of a training ship.

After Lin's superficial knowledge of later generations is drained out, if he wants to improve and polish the details, he still has to rely on the genius of this era. This is why he is interested in Pan Xuezhong.

At the same time, he took Pan Xuezhong with him, intending to complete the modification of the Dingyuan first. This matter did not need to wait for the shipyard to be renovated. Although the hull of the Galen ship was lagging behind in many places compared to later battleships, it was obviously impossible to make major changes. The main things Lin Hai wanted to change were the sails and the rudder system.

This girder hanging diagonally on the mizzen mast is very long, almost catching up with the length of the lower girder of the main mast, so its weight is very heavy. What's even more terrible is that the girder has one section in front of the mast and one section behind the mast. The section in front of the mast is even slightly longer, which makes the operation of changing sides very troublesome.

The sailors on the open deck are performing their duties, operating more than ten sails at the same time through swivel ropes and slings. There are also a group of trainee sailors watching on the spot. Today, this group of trainee sailors have only been exposed to Western-style soft sails for a few days, and they are not allowed to practice it during the weather.

"I know a little bit, I know a little bit." Lin Hai chuckled.

Specifically, when it is necessary to change the yard from the windward side of the mast to the leeward side. The first thing to do is to retract the sail and tie it to the girder, and then put the girder up to move to the other side of the mast. This is a troublesome trip to grandma's house.

"Very good! What else?" Lin Hai then asked.

The triangular Latin sail can actually be regarded as a kind of gaff longitudinal sail. The upper leg of the sail is fixed by the girder, and the lower leg is fixed by the leg rope like the square sail.

Lin Hai is still self-aware. If he knows what kind of ship is good, then there must be no one on earth who knows better than him in the early 17th century. But when it comes to specific shipbuilding, he must be a layman.

In view of this, people later removed the part of the Latin sail in front of the mast, so that the rotation of the girder was not restricted, which greatly simplified the process. However, the part of the girder in front of the mast stubbornly remained for decades before it was finally cut off altogether.

In view of this, decades later, people added a bottom girder under the sail. By controlling the upper diagonal girder and the lower bottom girder at the same time, this problem was completely solved. This newly added bottom girder is called a sail pole, and it was not used on battleships until the end of the 19th century.

After Lin Hai returned from Master Pan's home, he signed and sealed it in his office in Guandu City on the same day, approving the construction of the shipyard, and designated Master Pan to be solely responsible. If anything happened, he could report directly to him.

The weather was fine that day, and the wind was from the northeast by north. The first half of the journey from Tamsui to Keelung required wind-proof sailing.

"Maintain, I think the jib on the mizzen mast can be replaced by the main sail on that ship." The ship Pan Xuezhong was talking about was naturally the Xingang, and its main sail was the upper sail with the sail pole. Edgesprit sail.

"Quinzi is naturally lucky to be supported by the chief executive." Master Pan couldn't help being happy when he heard this, but he was also a little confused, "Does the chief commander also know how to build ships?"

Except for bad weather and routine maintenance, the Dingyuan now basically sails back and forth between Tamsui and Keelung. By the way, some supplies were also transported from Tamsui to Keelung. The logistical supplies for tens of thousands of people in the navy and army there were all transported from Tamsui.

But in this era without steering wheels, the steering of a sailing battleship is highly dependent on the triangular Latin sail on the mizzen mast. Because of this, its turning radius must be quite large. During the Dongshan naval battle, the Dingyuan suffered this loss and was almost defeated by Liu Xiang's fire attack ship.

"Boy, what do you think would be a better way to change the sails of this ship?" Lin Hai asked Pan Xuezhong standing on the poop deck.

And he knows what kind of ship is good, but only in broad terms, and there are definitely still many details that are unclear.

"I think the sail rigging on the bowsprit can be changed to be similar to that of that ship." Pan Xuezhong said purely based on his feelings. Of course, the current bowsprit sail rigging of the Dingyuan is indeed hard to describe.

At this time, the top of the foresprit was connected to a vertical section of the foresprit topmast. A square sail was hung on each of the two sections of mast, which are called the foresprit sail and the foresprit topsail respectively. They are mainly responsible for lifting the ship. First of all, it has the function of preventing surfing and assisting in steering.

Of course, these two sails are more troublesome to operate than the Latin sail on the mizzen mast, and they are more dangerous. Generally speaking, they will not be moved, so the role of auxiliary steering can basically be ignored.

Later, probably influenced by the North American schooner, the upper mast of the bowsprit was removed, and the square sail on the beam was changed to a triangular sail on the stays, which can also play the role of raising the bow and assisting steering. , not only the effect is better, but the operation is also much simpler.

In order to hang more stay sails on the bow of the ship, a section of the jib pole was extended along the direction of the bowsprit, and then a section of the jib fly pole was extended. The fore-and-aft sails hung on the corresponding stays are called jib sails and jib sails. In addition to the fore-and-aft sails hung on the stays that support the bowsprit, the bow of the ship usually has three or four stay sails.

"Do you have any other ideas?" Lin Hai continued to ask Pan Xuezhong. He wanted to see if this guy could think of hanging a longitudinal sail on the backstay, which was not available on the Xingang model ship. "No more for now, seat manager." After thinking for a while, Pan Xuezhong finally shook his head.

"Then let me tell you, in addition to the stay ropes connected to the bowsprit, the stay ropes connected between the masts at the back can also be used to hang the fore and aft sail. This can make better use of the wind, and can adjust the course and increase the speed. There are benefits, especially in windward performance, which can be greatly improved. ”

Lin Hai then laughed and said: "In order to hang more stay sails, I even plan to add another section to the three masts. Each section will be added with a corresponding stay rope to provide support, so that I can hang a few more stays." Sailed.”

The Dingyuan's foremast and mainmast are spliced ​​into three sections, and the mizzen mast is into two sections. In fact, it can be spliced ​​into another section and hung with a soft top sail, so that it can catch the strong winds at high altitudes.

The height of the top sail can reach more than fifty meters, and the wind speed can generally reach four times that of the sea surface wind. This is determined by the principle of laminar flow. The airflow closer to the sea surface suffers greater friction.

In addition, the wind direction is more stable at high altitudes because waves and cables on the ship can cause turbulence. Therefore, when the weather is fine and the wind is moderate, you only need to hang the top sail and the top sail to obtain a higher speed.

However, the influence of sails at high places on rolling, heeling and bowing is more obvious, and the masts, beams, sail surfaces and stay ropes at high places are required to be lighter and generally cannot withstand strong winds, so high winds and high sea conditions These need to be folded or lowered.

In short, because the Western-style square sailing ship has more sail surfaces, it is not only more fault-tolerant in naval battles, but also can combine different sail modes under different sea conditions, making it more adaptable.

That night, after arriving in Keelung, Lin Hai drew pictures in the army commander's office, but it was for the navy's warships.

What he drew was a schematic sketch of the steering wheel design. The change of the sail rig was only one aspect. The rudder control system was more critical to the ship's steering performance.

In fact, the improvement of the sail rigging on the mizzen mast and bowsprit is largely due to the fact that the steering wheel appeared first, so it looks so stretched. Otherwise, we can turn slowly anyway, so we can just do it slowly.

This so-called design sketch is quite hasty. I am afraid that after it is handed over to the craftsmen, others will immediately shout "Fuck!"

Lin Hai drew a vertical wheel on the paper, and then drew a rudder pole underneath, and then wrote which way the wheel turned and which way the rudder pole deflected...

Then, there is no more... How exactly does the steering wheel drive the rudder stock? Talin didn't know, but he believed that someone in the Construction Department could build it.

This thing is not complicated. To be honest, Lin Hai can figure out a transmission mechanism himself, but he believes that it is definitely not as good as those master craftsmen in the Construction Department who are good at mechanical manufacturing, so he just draws the effect he wants to achieve.

Although shipbuilding is more complicated than firearms, it does not involve difficult technical problems such as material performance and processing accuracy. As long as the time traveler knows what the ships of later generations will look like, it will be easy to realize it. Therefore, in this field, Lin Hai can easily create something that is more than two hundred years ahead of the times.

"Chief, I drew two pictures. Please help me see if the sails of the Dingyuan need to be modified like this?" Pan Xuezhong suddenly came to Lin Hai, holding two pictures he drew, one of which is the modification. The former Dingyuan and the modified Dingyuan were painted with the emphasis on the sails.

These two pictures are also relatively freehand, but it can be seen that Pan Xuezhong has certain painting skills. Although there are no shipbuilding drawings with various dimensions marked in this era, there are still drawings, which only contain information about the main functional components and their positions, without dimensional information.

"That's it." Lin Hai nodded approvingly after reading it. It seemed that this kid completely understood what he said during the day.

"However, I would like to add a few more sails." Lin Hai said, picking up the pen and extending the bottom girder and center girder of the mainmast to the left and right sides respectively. "These two cross girder, add one to both ends. Cut the retractable crossbar so you can hang two more square sails when the wind is light.”

This is the wing sail that Lin Hai is talking about, which is also something that does not exist in this era. As for how to realize the expansion and contraction of the crossbar, that is also left to the craftsmen of the Construction Department to design.

More than two months have passed by in a hurry, and in the blink of an eye, the brand new Dingyuan has made its debut! Looking around, there are more than ten sails installed on the ship than before, most of which are added or improved longitudinal sails.

Correspondingly, the rigging on the ship is also more complicated. Black static support ropes and light yellow moving ropes are densely packed everywhere, making it dazzling.

In addition to the fact that the hull structure is still as backward as the Galen ships of this era, the Dingyuan's masts, girder, sails, cables and other outfitting are already the ultimate form of a sailing battleship more than two hundred years later. As far as the power system is concerned, it is Armed to the teeth.

The steering wheel has also been installed. It is actually just a pulley and a few ropes. It can pull the rudder stock to turn left and right. The new rudder stock has been shortened a lot and can swing at a larger angle, which will give the Dingyuan more flexible maneuverability.

Looking at this ultra-era battleship that appeared in the early 17th century, Lin Hai, a sailing battleship enthusiast, couldn't help but feel excited. He proudly asked Pan Xuezhong: "Boy, how about the Dingyuan that your master modified himself?"

"Okay! Great!" Pan Xuezhong has also been forgetting sleep and food these days. He is not as restless as his father said. It seems that he just doesn't like to follow the routine, and new things are still very attractive to him.

"However, I still prefer the Xingang." Pan Xuezhong continued, and he followed Lin Hai in calling the ship model the Xingang.

"Huh? Isn't the Dingyuan more powerful and majestic?" Lin Hai was a little surprised. Giant ships and cannons are a man's romance.

"But the Xingang is more flexible, can run faster, and has good sailing capabilities no matter what the wind direction is. Driving it will make it easier for me to travel around the seven seas and explore the treasures of overseas countries!"

"Huh? Xuezhong, do you want to go on overseas adventures in the future?"

"In this life, the boy only wishes to die at sea, and eventually his soul will return to the sea!"

Well, this is indeed a middle-aged boy, and Lin Hai can finally understand Master Pan's mood.

(End of this chapter)