Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 309 The maiden voyage of the "Broken Wave" ([-])

After leaving Baleen Whale Harbor, under the westerly wind that blows all year round, the entire fleet turned east by north and headed for the southwestern waters of South Africa at a high speed of 6 knots.

In such a smooth environment, the graceful shape of the "Broken Wave" was perfectly reflected.After raising all the canvases, the "Breaking Wave" has reached a super high speed of 12-13 knots with sail alone, not to mention that she has a speed bonus of about 3 knots provided by the steam paddle wheel.In other words, the speed of the "Broken Wave" is unique in this sea area blowing strong westerly winds.Even if she goes to sea alone, those slow-moving Dutch pirate ships can only look at the sea and sigh in front of the full power and the maximum speed of 15-16 knots.

"In the future, the ship can be refitted, and it can also be used to hunt whales, hehe." Standing on the top deck of the stern, Zhang Xiao said vigorously, "Add a small cannon that uses gunpowder to fire a harpoon, and then you can Whaling is underway. With the rapid development of domestic industry, especially the rapid development of machinery industry, the demand for high-grade lubricating oil is also increasing. Whale is precisely an animal that can extract a large amount of oil, and the market prospect is quite promising. It is vast. After all, it is not suitable to use olive oil and wax to lubricate the machine now, and the production of oil from hunting sea lions and seals at the baleen whale port alone is not enough. Well, whaling is more cost-effective. It’s just our current manpower It’s not enough, otherwise, we can really set up some whaling fleets to hunt whales in the waters near the Maldives Island.”

Whales are migratory creatures that mainly inhabit the Southern Ocean, that is, the waters near Antarctica south of 60 degrees south latitude.The sea area is isolated from other sea areas due to the westerly drifting belt, and the water temperature is relatively cold, but the biological species is rich, so it has become the main habitat of whales.In this area, the density of whales is far higher than in other areas.Whenever the Southern Ocean enters winter and the sea water starts to freeze, whales will leave the sea area and turn north to find warm water.At this time, there will often be huge whales in the waters near the Falkland Islands. If there are some whaling ships operating in this waters, it will definitely be very rewarding.

Of course, as Zhang Xiao said, the East Coast Republic is currently too small in population and too weak in foundation. It really doesn't have extra manpower and boats to go fishing. This can only be a long-term goal.

Shortly after leaving Baleen Whale Harbor, the "Breaking Wave" lowered most of its sails, then turned on the steam engine, relying on the steam-driven paddle wheel to provide part of the power, and maintained a speed of 6 knots together with several other ships. hair.Zhang Xiao wanted to test the stability and reliability of the "Popeye-1" steam engine and its transmission equipment currently in use. After all, he had been at sea for so long, and he hadn't tried this steam power seriously yet.Although they have been able to achieve 120 hours of continuous trouble-free operation in the Duck Lake before, but that is in the calm inner lake, and now it is in the dangerous South Atlantic Ocean, it is hard to say what will happen.

The results of the trials can only be described as mixed.From the departure from Baleen Whale Harbor on August 8th to the arrival at River Fort in South Africa on September 12th, the steam engine operated continuously for a record 9 days.During these 7 days, the entire steam power system had many small faults and glitches, and almost half of the parts had been replaced.Moreover, in the last week, a spring coil in the cylinder failed, causing the airtightness of the cylinder to decline. The direct consequence was that the speed of the "Broken Wave" slowly dropped by about 26 knot.

Fortunately, there were no major failures, which already made Zhang Xiao quite satisfied.After all, when the "Breaking Wave" was on its first test voyage, it had just sailed a few hundred meters when the steam engine stopped suddenly, and the ship stopped on the river on the spot.A group of people from the Ministry of Communications and the Ministry of the Navy who came to participate in the maiden voyage ceremony with great enthusiasm were ashamed, and their modern special shipyards, from the factory director, engineers, down to technicians, craftsmen and apprentices, were even more embarrassed. There is no light.

Since then, the director of the factory, Wei Hua, has called everyone together for a meeting, raised the issue of strict quality control in a high-profile manner, and sent all the staff in charge of the quality inspection department to the No. [-] Machinery Factory, which supplies parts for steam engines. , to guide their machine tool operators how to better process various parts required by modern special shipyards. The parts used by the steam engine on the "Broken Wave" were processed at that time. Although they have been damaged a lot, the reason is more of a material problem than a problem of machining accuracy.

The reason is that the current metallurgical industry of Huaxia East Coast Republic lacks non-ferrous metals such as manganese, chromium, and tungsten, and the quality of various steel products produced is generally somewhat lacking.For this problem, everyone currently has no good solution. Who makes the east coast do not have these minerals, so let's make do with it.Parts are easily damaged, so produce more spare parts and put them there, and replace them as they break to minimize losses.

Although there are many problems, the multi-purpose ship "Polang" still created many records in the history of the East Coast Republic of China.One is that the ship set a record for the longest continuous operation of a steam-powered ship for 26 days (it was stopped for one day for maintenance); the other is that the ship sailed a total of about 4500 nautical miles, the longest voyage of a steam-powered ship The third is that the ship has challenged a variety of different sea conditions, verifying the reliability of the steam paddle steamer in the westerly windy sea area of ​​the Falkland Islands.All in all, this test voyage has gained a lot, and it has provided extremely important first-hand information for the improvement of steam-powered ships in the future.

After a thorough overhaul of the "Popeye-1" steam engine in Hezhong Harbor, on September 9, the multipurpose ship "Broken Wave" and the fast cruiser "Yangwu" escorted two ships loaded with 9 A number of Eight Banners slaves and a flute-shaped transport ship with a large number of weapons, ammunition, food and other supplies left the South African River Port, turned south, and headed for the New China Colony.

On October 10, driven by the strong southeast wind, the four ships going upstream finally arrived at the Xinhuabao Wharf in Xinhuaxia Bay at the northern tip of Madagascar.Thankfully, the Xinhua region is still at the end of the dry season, and the sailors who are used to coming to Fort Xinhua on rainy days breathed a sigh of relief.

With the increasing domestic demand for high-quality hardwood resources, the New China Colony is becoming more and more important in the eyes of the big bosses of the Executive Committee, not to mention that Xinhua Fort is now responsible for opening up the bridgehead and the eastern route. The important task of the port of origin.The Irish foremen on the pier commanded a group of Eight Banners slaves with ease to unload the ships moored by the trestle bridge. It was obviously the first time they saw a ship like the "Breaker Wave" with a flat chimney installed. However, they didn't dare to ask more questions, they just buried their heads and began to unload the goods.

The 100 million silver coins at the bottom of the cabin of the "Breaking Wave" were the most important shipments escorted on this trip.Shi Qinjie, the chief executive of the New China Colony, finally breathed a sigh of relief after seeing the money coming. In two or three months, the first batch of Ming immigrants from the east might arrive.Moreover, the place of the transaction has been clearly stated as the New China Colony. If Shi Qinjie has no money on hand to pay the immigration fee, he really can't imagine what to do when he arrives?Will those angry Portuguese captains demolish Fort Xinhua?

Fortunately, the first tranche of money from the mainland has already been in place, and it turned out to be as much as 100 million yuan, which is enough for him to pay for the first batch of immigrants.I heard that the mainland is still raising follow-up funds, so the problem of money for immigrants this time should not be a big problem.

More than 400 newly arrived Eight Banners overseers and slaves were led by the administrators to the residential area, where they will undergo an emergency training on how to survive in the tropics, so as to avoid the mistakes of some of their predecessors.After the training, they will be sent to the fort construction site at the mouth of the bay here, and begin to install some coastal defense heavy artillery brought over from the mainland this time.

A lot of foundations, emplacements, and underground storage facilities for the fort have been built, and now it's time to install the artillery.There are three forts, which are located at the top of the North Cape of the Strait, the small island next to the North Cape, and the top of the South Cape from north to south. They are called Forts 36, 36, and [-] respectively.The three forts are made of mixed stone and bricks. So far, less than [-] artillery positions have been built. According to the plan, the final total number of coastal defense positions is [-], which means that [-] coastal defense heavy artillery will eventually be installed here. .

Thirty of the 36 coastal defense guns were installed on Fort No. 36 and No. [-] respectively. As for the No. [-] Fort on the small island, only six artillery pieces were allocated.Similar to the layout of the four major forts in Dongfang Port, the [-] cannons form horns with each other, forming crossfire, and there are basically no dead spots for shooting.If the enemy starts to land and attack a certain fort, they will soon be caught in the fire of some artillery on the other two forts, and the enemy will suffer from the enemy, and the loss will be considerable.

There is no doubt that when all the 36 coastal defense heavy artillery are installed in place and a large number of skilled gunners are trained, any enemy fleet will have to carefully weigh it when it comes to attack here.After all, such a fort lineup is too luxurious.In this era, no country can cast so many high-quality steel cannons in one go like the East Coast, and it is the existence of these large-caliber heavy artillery that makes every port of the East Coast people impregnable.

After the construction of the coastal defense fort is completed, the construction of the more massive land defense fortification will also be included in the official schedule.The coastal defense forts without the protection of the army are fragile. After the construction of these land defense fortresses, the local army garrison will move the barracks here, and the defense of Fort Xinhua will be handed over to the militia in the city.

(End of this chapter)