Late Ming sea owl

Chapter 244: Finally Started Building a Large Ship

The debate about the U-shaped bottom and the V-shaped bottom lasted for half an hour. In the end, no one could convince anyone else. However, Director Pan still looked like he was sitting on the Diaoyutai. All the craftsmen in the Ship Bureau did not express any opinions on this.

Lin Hai also heard that most people still tended to agree with Lao Song's opinion, that is, the cruise ship should be built fatter.

Seeing that the meeting was somewhat off topic and that almost everyone had expressed their opinions, Lin Hai began to control the rhythm of the meeting: "Everyone, I don't think this issue is black and white. What is fat and what is thin, everyone has different standards. Just like the figure of a woman, if I think she is fat, maybe Old Song will like her..."

Everyone burst into laughter when they heard this. No one expected him to come up with such a metaphor. But this was very natural for Lin Hai. Warships and beauties were both men's romance.

"Boss, you are wrong. I, Old Song, also like thin girls. If you don't believe me, you can go to the Tamsui Flower Boat and ask." Old Song laughed and said, "I heard that the prostitutes in Yangzhou are called Shou Ma. I wonder if they are particularly thin?"

"That's easy to say. I'll take you for a ride later, and then you'll know whether the skinny horse is really skinny or not. Okay, let's get back to the topic..."

Lin Hai cleared his throat, turned to the silent Director Pan and said, "Old Pan, the topic of today's meeting is whether the Ship Bureau can build a cruiser. You, the director, have not yet expressed your opinion. Everyone has different opinions, and it is difficult for me to make a final conclusion. Please make the decision for me."

Lao Pan didn't say anything because he knew that sometimes the leader really wanted to ask you a question, and sometimes he was just pretending. He only observed for a while and was basically sure that Lin Hai had made up his mind about this matter. The reason why he wanted to use him to announce it was mainly to show respect for technology, and technical personnel were quite sensitive to this.

Another reason is that Lin Hai is endorsing Pan and strengthening his authority in the Ship Bureau. After all, if we only talk about technical level, Director Pan is not necessarily better than the other masters from Krabi. It is not because of this that Pan became the director. He cleared his throat and said, "What you said just now is very reasonable. Pan has also taken note of it..."

As he spoke, he raised the rice paper in front of him that was covered with tiny calligraphy and shook it, then continued, "There are definitely some difficulties, but it seems that there is nothing insurmountable. So Pan thinks that as long as the company needs it, the Ship Bureau can start building the cruiser now. However, there is a problem that no one has mentioned just now, and Pan thinks it is necessary to mention it..."

"Director Pan, please speak." Lin Hai was very satisfied with Lao Pan's speech. This person was worthy of being promoted by him. He was indeed both red and professional. Not only did he have strong technical skills, but he was also good at understanding people's intentions.

"It's mainly about the wood. The wood currently in stock at the Ship Bureau has not been dried for more than two years. The ships built with this can only be used for seven or eight years at most. The cost of building a cruiser is relatively high, and I think this point cannot be ignored..."

"This is not a problem. The company is currently in a period of rapid development, and time is the biggest cost. The sooner the cruiser is built, the sooner the company can conquer more territory. Isn't this more profitable than anything else? The more the company earns, the more dividends everyone here will get." Lin Hai took the opportunity to give him another round of chicken soup, but this was indeed what he thought in his heart.

For Huiyou Company, the life span of warships is indeed not something that should be considered too much at present. Compared with overthrowing the VOC and ruling the waters east of Malacca as soon as possible, the depreciation rate of warships is naturally not worth mentioning.

"Great idea, Chief!" Director Pan applauded. In fact, he knew that Lin Hai was clear about this problem, and he raised it to leave room for maneuver. After all, no matter how good you are at guessing your superiors' intentions, you can't guarantee that you will occasionally make mistakes. The safest way is to keep a hand before the leader expresses his opinion.

However, this reminded Lin Hai to consider two other issues: how long should the first batch of wood be dried in the shade, and how big a cruiser should be built?
"How much timber is left from the fifth year of the Tianqi reign?" Lin Hai asked. The earliest logging work in Tamsui started in October of the fifth year of the Tianqi reign, and it has been exactly two years now.

However, there were few people at that time, and the stockpile of wood was not much. But the quality of this batch of wood was very good, because in the early days, it was cut along the river, where there was plenty of sunshine. Later, when the trees along the river were cut down, they could only go to the dense forest to cut wood. This kind of wood was not used by the Western European navy when building battleships in later generations. "The wood from the fifth year of Tianqi has not been used yet, and it should be no problem to build two cruisers." Director Pan replied that the wood used for the frigates is currently dried for one year, and the wood used for the frigates and the Calais ships is dried for half a year, and the life expectancy is not expected to be long.

Lin Hai asked again: "How big are the two cruisers?"

Director Pan said: "Seven or eight hundred tons is definitely no problem, and it may be enough to build two thousand-ton class ships. The details still need to be carefully verified."

After several master craftsmen from the Cavite Shipyard arrived, Lin Hai personally decided to use displacement instead of material consumption to measure the size of the ship, and also adopted tons, a unit of measurement that did not exist in the Ming Dynasty. Of course, the displacement was actually estimated, mainly based on some size parameters and then applying empirical formulas.

"How much wood is left that has been shade-dried for about a year?"

"That's a lot, enough to build at least ten cruisers of 700 to 800 tons."

Lin Hai pondered for a while, and finally made the decision: "That's it. For the first batch of cruisers, we will build two ships of about 700 tons, and start construction at the same time. Both ships will use wood that has been dried in the shade for a year..."

Pan Xuezhong was a little surprised when he heard this, and couldn't help but say, "Boss, in this case, the service life is estimated to be only three to five years!"

"Three years will be enough. After three years, the company's development will exceed all of your expectations." Lin Hai laughed out loud when he heard this, as if he didn't feel sorry for the short-lived battleship at all.

In fact, he made this decision not entirely because of his optimism about the company's development prospects, but also partly because of his caution in building a cruise ship for the first time.

Shipbuilding is a huge systematic project. A few experienced craftsmen alone cannot solve all problems. The difficulties mentioned by everyone cannot be ignored. These two ships are still experimental in nature, so it is not cost-effective to bet on the earliest batch of the best quality wood for this purpose.

"Master craftsmen, I will give you ten days to come up with a design drawing. After ten days, the company will select one or two of them as the blueprints for the first two cruisers!"

After saying this, Lin Hai's eyes were inexplicably moist...

It’s been three years. I have been in this world for three years, and I have finally started to build my own ship!

In a trance, he seemed to see the small Tanka boat at the mouth of the Pearl River three years ago.

(End of this chapter)