The wind blows from the South Sea

Chapter 119 Shipyard
a few days later

Surabaya Port
The port has expanded a lot compared to more than a year ago. Next to the new port pier, several sailing cargo ships docked are loading and unloading goods, making it a busy scene.

Hundreds of mules, horses and carts were coming and going, and there were many vendors and porters, as well as Chinese immigrants who had just disembarked, making it very lively.

Dozens of cargo ships are parked in the Surabaya port, and both the old and new terminals are operating at full capacity.

Only this one

It brings tens of thousands of job opportunities and high taxes of more than one million silver coins to Surabaya City every year.

Harbor Lane

The shore artillery firepower of the Seven-Star Fortress built on the top of seven hills of varying heights can control the entire Surabaya Strait. Echoing the two low-lying forts in the north and south of the strait, it can form a tight firepower network to deter invading enemy forces.

On the other side of the Seven Star Fortress

The tall factory buildings are vaguely visible. This is the new site of the shipyard that Feng Guohui attaches most importance to.

The slipway is the most basic facility for building a cargo ship, according to the design requirements.

"It seems that Mr. John Stone has made all the arrangements, so I'm relieved." Feng Guohui and John Stone said as they walked, and the two quickly reached the No. 2 and No. slipways under construction.

Therefore, the trial production of the first ship cannot be started until the factory building is completed. "

After the slipway factory building is completed, it can be put into trial production. "

"We should be almost ready. We are training more than 400 shipyard workers. When the first steel cargo ship starts construction next year, these workers can participate in practice with British masters and accumulate practical work experience."

It is necessary to build another factory building for No. 1 Slipway. There is a lot of rain here. Tropical torrential downpours will fall at any time, which will bring additional difficulties to the construction work.

Feng Guohui said;
"Mr. Johnstone, please rest assured that the construction work of the No. 1 slipway factory building has begun and will start in the near future. We will increase manpower to rush the construction.

John Stone said;
"Dear Mr. Feng

I hope that the first one to start construction will be a 600-ton iron cargo ship, which will be mainly used in offshore transportation routes to offshore islands. I also hope that the relevant ship design drawings will be completed as soon as possible.

He once participated in the construction of the iron ship "Great Western" and presided over the construction of more than 30 iron cargo ships of various sizes. His resume and experience are quite rich.

The shipbuilding industry is a highly industrialized collaborative industry that requires every worker to be highly skilled, and your manpower needs a lot of training before they can take up the job.

Next to the open-air slipway of the shipyard

The slipway is a gently sloping body with a downward slope. There is a factory building at the upper end, and it is composed of a series of facilities such as rails, bollards, reinforced concrete casted slipway base, and steel cranes from front to back.

For now

It is expected that the slipway workshop will be completed before the end of the year.

What cannot be ignored is
Rainwater can corrode iron plates and various imported shipbuilding tools, and have a serious impact on important riveting work.

"There is no problem, dear Mr. Feng. Once the steel crane is installed, the No. 1 slipway will have production capacity."

“This is great, what else is missing in terms of manpower?”

Feng Guohui, who is dressed in military uniform, is talking with British engineer John Stone. This person is a highly paid British engineer in charge and has rich experience in ship design and construction.

The difference between the two is the height of the factory buildings. The factory buildings of No. 3, No. 4 and No. 5 slipways are taller and wider, and the iron traveling cranes are also larger and stronger.

1号和2号船台可以满足建造3000吨铁质船舶以下的需求，3号，4号和五号船台满足1万吨铁质船舶的建造需求。

After the ship is built, it can slide freely into the water.

The concrete monolith and rails of No. 2 slipway have been constructed, but a series of facilities such as bollards, steel cranes, steam bending machines, steam shears, and high-temperature furnaces are not in place.

The high-temperature furnace is a necessary equipment for riveting. In particular, the steel rivets are heated until they are red, and then riveted manually. The sledgehammer and the backing plate cooperate with each other to complete the riveting process.

There is still a big hole dug at Slipway No. 3, which is deep and long and leads all the way to the seaside.

Work here has been suspended because it has just rained. There is still some obvious water accumulation in the big pit, but it is not deep.
Because the pit itself is sloping downward, gradually lowering, all the way to the seaside, it is conducive to draining the accumulated water.

The pit's floor has been poured with concrete and densely woven steel cages have begun to rust under the baptism of tropical rain.

Every year from October to February of the following year, it is the rainy season in the East Indies. During this period, the rain is abundant and frequent, accompanied by typhoons and heavy rains.

Not only does it bring great difficulties to project construction, but it is also very detrimental to military warfare.

The roads in the tropical jungle are muddy, heavy rains occur every once in a while, and flash floods occur frequently. This is a disaster for military operations.

Therefore, the Dutch colonists generally did not launch large-scale military operations during this period, but had to wait until after the rainy season. That is, March to April, that is the dangerous window period.

There are a large number of workers working in the shipyard, and a large number of tall factory buildings have been erected along the seaside. That area is the shipyard's warehouse, office building, and dormitory area.

On the wide flat land in the middle, a material storage area, a transfer area and several workshops have been planned, all of which are under construction.

The I-shaped steel beams, X-shaped steel beams, shaped steel pipes, ship plates, etc. required for ship construction must be processed and formed in the workshop to form ship components, and finally assembled on the iron freighter on the slipway.

600-ton and 2000-ton freighters require different sizes of components and different thicknesses of steel plates, so they need to be built separately.

The steel plate for the construction of a 600-ton cargo ship only needs 8mm, while the steel plate for a two-thousand-ton cargo ship needs at least 12mm, otherwise the strength will not meet the requirements.

Feng Guohui and Mr. John Stone walked and chatted all the way. It can be seen that Mr. John Stone is very responsible for the progress of the shipyard construction and has a tight grasp. He is a ship engineer with a very rigorous attitude.

"Dear Mr. Feng, I am amazed at the obedience and execution ability of these Eastern workers. It reminds me of the German workers, who are equally restrained and rigorous."

"Mr. John Stone, your observation skills are very keen. Easterners have the potential to become the best workers."

"Maybe, but they are very shy and not good at communicating, which is not a good thing in complex industrial production."

"Hehehe... We are preparing an engineering school to provide Mr. John Stone and your engineers with an additional job requirement and can become part-time teachers. In terms of salary, it should be satisfactory."

"Oh... that's great. To be honest, everyone wants to make more money when they come to this place in the Far East."

"Those British workers should also have opportunities. For those British workers who have completed high school education or above, we can hire them as English teachers, or take physics and mathematics courses, and provide them with more favorable remuneration than workers. Of course, this is subject to assessment."

"Well, that's good. I know that most of these British workers have received five to seven years of systematic education, and they should have no problem taking on this responsibility. I just hope it won't conflict with their own jobs and affect the progress of the shipyard construction."

"This aspect will be coordinated and arranged. British workers will try their best to train new employees. After the shipyard is on the right track, the focus will gradually shift to engineering schools."

"Haha... As long as the salary is suitable, I think it's okay."

The two of them walked to the shipyard office and stopped. It was a row of bungalows, all built of red bricks. It is now also a dormitory and classroom for British workers and engineers.

There are thirty or forty workers receiving training in each room, with interpreters and a blackboard at the front.

Fortunately, in the Nanyang region, there are many Chinese people who are proficient in English, French and Dutch. It is not difficult to find interpreters to meet the training needs.

Hundreds of shipyard workers are taking classes, while on the other side, more than 2,000 workers are busy under construction.

Mules, horses and carts are constantly transporting stones, sand, steel bars, red bricks and other building materials, and buildings are being erected one after another.

In the open space in front, there are more than 20 large open-air pots and stoves in a row, with only a simple straw shed at the top to cover the rain.

This is the large kitchen of the shipyard. More than 20 large pots and stoves are steaming with steam, some are cooking hot soup, and some are cooking meals.

The hot soup is the kelp soup on the seaside. A large pot of hot soup is sprinkled with a large amount of salt. Pot after pot is cooked from morning to night every day. When it is cooked, it is put into a large bucket for the workers to take as they please.

It can be used as a cushion when you are hungry, it can quench your thirst when you are thirsty, and it can also solve diarrhea and other problems caused by drinking unboiled water.

Ordinary indigenous workers eat kelp rice balls, which are made from crushed kelp and mixed with cooked rice. They are a large, dark ball that is nutritious and relieves hunger.

The kelp is harvested from nearby by small boats. By adding a sickle in front of a long bamboo pole, a large amount of kelp can be harvested, filling the boat and cabin, and it is impossible to finish it.

There are five or six small boats at the construction site, and they go to harvest kelp every day. When they come back, the pile of kelp is as high as a person, which is one of the staple foods of the indigenous workers.

Shipyard workers eat better. Their rice is not mixed with kelp, but as one of the main dishes, kelp is indispensable.

For example, if you roast pork with kelp, three or four kilograms of meat can be used to cook a large pot of kelp. Basically, you only see the kelp but not the meat.

It's better if you eat it for a short period of time. If you eat it for a long time, the color will change if you just smell the kelp.

The staple food of British workers and engineers is bread. These British people are not used to eating rice, so the special food is bread, pickles and various meats, which can be regarded as the highest level of food standards.

British engineers are given a standard meal of two taels of meat per day, and workers are given a standard meal of one tael of meat, with some vegetables and potatoes, which is considered relatively good.

The logistics expenditure for the entire shipyard construction is not large, because these indigenous hard laborers do not need to pay wages, and the staple food is also the grain paid by the farmers and the kelp caught in the sea, so the additional expenditure is very little.

The key is that the Nanyang Army did not treat these indigenous hard laborers harshly, and they basically had enough to eat, which was very rare.

Even if these natives are at home, how can they not go hungry?

This eliminates the biggest source of trouble, and the progress of various project construction can be guaranteed, giving the entire Nanyang Military Territory a thriving construction scene.

(End of this chapter)