Late Ming sea owl

Chapter 34 Hurricane
The Bowang did not leave the land too far, but basically sailed eastward along the coastline, and would not leave the land for more than 150 nautical miles.

The team leader relied on a compass and an hourglass for navigation, as well as the familiar needle route formula and the mountain shapes and water potentials of landmarks along the way.This is a geological navigation method formed by relying on previous experience. It relies on reaching the landmarks recorded in the needle road formula in order to finally reach the destination.

Most of these landmarks are islands, and a few are mountain peaks on the coastline. The local terrain, water depth, mud color, etc. are recorded in detail in the needle road formula for easy confirmation.Navigation from one landmark to another is also based on the needle positions and numbers recorded in the needle path formula.

The so-called needle position refers to the direction of the compass on the compass. There are 24 characters taken from the heavenly stems, earthly branches and eight trigrams evenly distributed around the circumference of the compass. The compass pointing directly at a certain character is called a single needle, and the compass pointing between two adjacent characters is called a single needle. Suture needles, which equates to a total of 48 needle positions.

As for the number of watches, it refers to the sailing time. An hourglass is used on the ship to measure the time, and one day and night is divided into ten watches.Under normal sea conditions and favorable winds, seagoing ships at that time could travel an average of sixty miles per watch, so the number of watches actually represented the distance.

The needle directions and navigational numbers between adjacent landmarks are recorded in detail in the needle route formula. The team leader can complete the navigation work by relying on this.Obviously, this navigation method follows a fixed route, which is why pirates can rob in the sea that extends in all directions, because everyone takes the same route.

That's why the Bowang cannot be too far from the coastline, otherwise there won't be enough dense landmarks.Whether it is the direction represented by the needle position or the distance represented by the counter, its accuracy is very limited. If the next landmark is too far away, it is likely to pass by it according to this navigation method.

In this way, under the guidance of several crew chiefs in turn, the Bowang sailed roughly along the coastline.The southwest monsoon blows steadily across the sea, and the weather is sunny and windy every day. As far as the eye can see, there is nothing but the sky and the sea. The days on the boat are very monotonous.

Except for the captain and the helmsman, who need to turn the helm at any time according to the deviation of the needle position, other sailors do not have a heavy workload when the wind is downwind, and they are prone to causing trouble when they are bored.On the second day after leaving the Pearl River Estuary, numerous quarrels broke out on the open deck, and a few frivolous ones even started fighting.

However, there was a daily limit on the amount of drinks on the ship. These people were afraid of the ship's regulations and did not dare to use the knife. Even so, they each received twenty whips and were tied to the mast and exposed to the sun for an hour.Lin Hai didn't care about these things, and with his prestige, he couldn't care about them at all now.

Fortunately, Shi Bi and Miguel are both old captains, so they are used to this kind of thing, and they handle it unambiguously, otherwise the ship will soon lose order.Each of these two people has his own inner circle, and whoever causes trouble will be punished according to the ship's regulations without any protection.

Lin Hai concentrated on training a few followers in the stern building hall, mainly in literacy and arithmetic. Zhu Niang and Qizai also reviewed along with them.

On this day, the Bowang sailed to the sea area where Guangdong and Fujian meet.Lin Hai was teaching Arabic numerals to several followers. Chen Yaozu looked at the sky outside the window boredly, thinking that this thing was the same thing as Suzhou code, but it was written more concisely. Is it necessary to create another one?

Suddenly, a dark cloud appeared in his sight, drifting from north to south at an extremely fast speed.Almost at the same time, during the battle at the top of the mainmast, the watchman in charge of the lookout shouted to the deck in horror: "Lower the sails! Lower the sails quickly!"

The continuous good weather made the sailors relax their vigilance. The man on duty under the mainmast was leaning against the mast with his eyes closed to relax. He was suddenly disturbed from his dream and had no good temper. He immediately raised his neck and shouted at Dou: "You Did the bastard Abban bump into General Wudao or something? What a scream?"

"A storm! It's a storm! The Sea Dragon King is showing off his power, lower the sails!" The sailors in the battle shouted while hurriedly furling the top sails.

Urgent shouts came from the eight-to-nine-foot-high Wangdou, and Xiaoshou below heard it clearly. Yigulu rolled up from the ground and shouted at the top of his voice: "Lower the sails! Lower the sails quickly! The storm is coming. !”

There was a sudden chaos on the deck, and the sailors on duty under the three masts hurriedly turned the winches and began lowering the sails.After just a few breaths, the wind direction suddenly changed. The original southwesterly wind turned into a northerly wind. The dark clouds in the distance grew rapidly in sight, and rushed towards the Bowang with an overwhelming momentum.

"What the hell!" Shibi kicked away the hand under the foremast, pulled out his knife and slashed several times, cutting off the sail rope, and the hard sail, which weighed several thousand kilograms, clattered down. down.

Before Shibi had time to dodge, he was hit by a bamboo stay on the head, and stars suddenly appeared in his eyes. Fortunately, the main body of the foremast had already landed on the ground, otherwise this blow would have been enough to kill him.The sailors on the mainmast and mizzenmast reacted and quickly cut off the sail ropes with their swords. All three hard sails fell down almost instantly.

This shows the advantages of hard sails. If it is a Western-style soft sail, you have to climb the mast to furl the sail. It takes a long time to make the day lily cold. If you encounter such a sudden storm, the ship will basically be destroyed and everyone will die.

Almost at the same time that the stone wall was drawing the sword and dropping the sail, Miguel and his men were quickly furling the sprit sail on the bowsprit.This is a square soft sail. Fortunately, it is not large and can be furled in time.

"Stand still, helmsman, hold the helm..." Shi Bi ignored the pain in his head and shouted at the top of his lungs.

Before he finished speaking, a wave hit, and the Bowang's hull tilted suddenly, and the stone wall hurriedly hugged the foremast tightly.The sailors on the mizzen mast had already rushed to the wheelhouse, and together with the helmsmen, they clung to the tiller, trying to stabilize the rudder blades while avoiding falling over.

The north wind became more and more violent, and soon thick dark clouds covered the entire sea surface, and the open-air deck, which was originally bright and bright, suddenly became dark.

With a roar, a dazzling lightning descended from the clouds, like the sharp blade of the god, cutting through the darkness, and the Bowang was as bright as daylight in an instant.

This bolt of lightning fell almost instantly, and the sailors almost thought they were about to be struck. For a moment, all of them looked ferocious, looking like ghosts in the momentary light, but they quickly disappeared into the darkness.

Fortunately, in the vast sea, the Bowang was like a drop in the ocean. Lightning seemed to be falling overhead, but in fact it was more than ten miles away. This time it was considered a near miss.

The lightning was followed by a torrential downpour, with large raindrops falling densely from the clouds, weaving into a huge rain curtain spanning hundreds of miles between the sky and the sea, connecting the dark sky and the gray-black sea.

The rain curtain swirled and fluttered in the roaring wind, splaying its teeth and claws like a living creature that chooses people to devour. The raindrops were carried by the strong wind and hit the face as painful as hail.

Suddenly, a huge wave hit, and the Bowang, which was more than ten feet long, was effortlessly thrown to the top of the wave like a dead leaf, and then fell to the bottom of the valley, helplessly drifting with the waves.

　Testing the waters and pushing for promotion failed, so the only way to relieve the worries is to update.Starting from tomorrow, there will be five updates every day, three updates after 0 am, and two updates after 12 noon, until next Tuesday.Please read the latest chapters every day during this period (especially next Tuesday) to help me revive.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)