Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 415 Whaling ([-])

On the pier of the inner port of Luocha Port, a tall and broad motor sailboat slowly raised its sails, ready to sail towards the open sea.This ship is a whaling ship recently purchased and built by the Ministry of Agriculture. It was built by Hyundai Special Shipyard. Tilt and double deck design.

The upper deck of the ship is relatively wide and tidy, which is convenient for sailors to pull up the hunted whales for processing, such as cutting blubber, skinning and so on.Below the deck is a mini processing workshop. In order to process the captured whales in a timely manner, a steam refining furnace is installed in the workshop so that the most valuable oil part of the whales can be extracted in the first place.However, due to the small size of the ship, the processing capacity of the workshop is still relatively limited.But no matter what, at least this ship already has independent hunting, processing, refining and other one-stop capabilities.

The ship was delivered at the Hekoubao Wharf at the end of last month. Due to the large amount of fuel, water, whaling equipment, processing equipment, self-defense artillery and other items, its standard displacement has reached more than 1250 tons, and its full-load displacement is nearly 1700 tons. A 62.8-horsepower Popeye-2 steam unit, plus eight large and small schooners (all installed in the rear half of the ship), the standard speed is 10 knots.The captain is Zhang Yun, a graduate of the 36th class of the Nautical School and a former student of Jiangsu in the Ming Dynasty. There are a total of 60 crew members, including 24 gunners.

As the first whaling operation in the history of the East Coast Republic of China, the voyage of the whaling ship named "Hunter 1" was extremely low-key. Except for two officials from the Ministry of Agriculture on the pier, they came to see off Outside, there is no one else.After submitting the departure documents to the dock officials, the "Hunter 1" turned south by west, and headed for Baleen Whale Harbor along the coast of the South American mainland.

Baleen Whale Harbor is located in the westerly belt of the southern hemisphere, relatively close to the Southern Ocean, so whale resources are extremely rich.According to some information from later generations, about 80% of the world's whales live in the Southern Ocean surrounding Antarctica.And whenever the Southern Ocean begins to enter winter and the sea water freezes, a large number of whales leave their habitats and hunt north for warm water.At this time, it is a great opportunity for whaling. Spanish and east coast ships sailing along the coast of Falkland Islands and La Plata often see huge whales floating on the sea.

It's a pity that the people on the east coast lacked ships, equipment and sailors before, so they let these swimming "treasure houses" slip away in vain. This time, after the joint application of the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, the superiors finally decided to build the first domestic whaling ship The team went to hunt whales near the Falkland Islands.With the rapid development of domestic industry, there are more and more places that need to use lubricating oil. It is fine to use wax for general machines, but for some machines with higher requirements, such as machine tools and marine steam engines, it is necessary to use lubricating oil. Some advanced lubricating oil.In the past, oil made from animals such as seals and sea lions hunted by the residents of Baleen Whale Harbor in Mashima was used instead of lubricating oil in China. Unfortunately, although the quality of this lubricating oil is good, the output has always been very limited.Now, with the increasing number of machines, the seal oil is becoming less and less sufficient. Therefore, the Government Council has put whaling on the agenda.

In fact, to be honest, you are really blind if you don’t hunt whaling in the southern hemisphere. The whale resources here are several times that of the northern hemisphere. If the number of ships and equipment is sufficient, whaling alone can meet all the domestic demand for lubricants, and even It can also be exported in large quantities.Whales are almost full of treasures, such as oil, bones, viscera, meat, skin, fins, etc. can be used, and the value is extremely huge.

"Hunter" 1 sailed southward at full speed for more than ten days, and on September 9 it sailed through heavy waves and entered the Baleen Whale Harbor on the Falkland Islands.After years of development, Baleen Whale Harbor has a population of more than 20 people, and its economy is mainly based on animal husbandry.The residents of the island plant some hardy potatoes and vegetables on the barren and cold land here, and also raise large herds of sheep, llamas, pigs and cattle.

There is also a military horse farm on the island, where there are more than 150 military horses. Whenever there are more horses, they will be transported to the South African military horse farm, and when the number of horses in the South African military horse farm reaches a certain level, they will be sent to the Australian military horse farm.In addition to these, one of the few sideline jobs of the island residents is probably hunting seals and sea lions on nearby islands on a regular basis to obtain fur and refine lubricating oil; On the island, excavate the feces of albatrosses, seals, sea lions and other animals that have been accumulated over the years, and sell them back to the mainland in exchange for some cash income from Weibo.

All in all, although the location of Baleen Whale Port on Mashima Island is extremely important, she is still very inconspicuous in the territory of the East Coast Republic of China. It is still synonymous with poverty and remoteness. When local residents laugh at themselves, they always say that only sailors remember this place. They belong to the Forsaken.

After resting in Baleen Whale Harbor for a few days and replenishing some potatoes, onions and oranges, on September 9th, "Hunter 25" picked a fine day with fine weather, pulled anchor and left the port, heading towards the southern sea Go, because it is said that there are often large whales.However, although the whale is big, it is still an inconspicuous little spot in the vast sea, so the work of finding the whale has been very difficult and boring.

After floating in the sea for five or six days, on October 10st, maybe it was a coincidence, the lookout post on the "Killer 1" screamed excitedly: "Whale water column! I saw the water column ejected by the whale." ! Just ahead on the left!"

The watchman’s shout immediately reached the ears of everyone on the deck. Zhang Yun, who had just had lunch and was drowsy, was shocked immediately. He walked quickly to the poop deck and held up the binoculars I took a closer look in the direction pointed out by the watchman.

"It's a sperm whale!" Zhang Yun put down the binoculars, recalled the whale illustrated book he had trained before departure, and said, "The body is less than 20 meters long, and most of its body is exposed on the sea. It's a big guy! Luciano, turn around." The bow, chase after it! Ricardo, are the whaling cannons ready?"

Navigator Luciano commanded the sailors, and with the assistance of the steam engine, they desperately turned the yard. At the same time, the propeller at the stern also spun at high speed, heading towards the huge sperm whale.At the same time, Ricardo, the boatswain on the deck, also shouted to the gunners operating the whaling guns to prepare for firing.The whaling cannon is not so much a cannon as it is a large-caliber gun. A metal harpoon is inserted into the barrel, and a thick fishing line is fixed on the harpoon. The rope passes through the hole in the side of the ship, and the other end is wound around a wooden drum on the boat.

"Hunter 1" quickly approached the sea surface about ten meters away from the adult sperm whale. The gunner operating the whaling gun took aim and aim, and then looked expectantly at the boatswain.Boatswain Ricardo looked at the captain Zhang Yun who had already walked on the deck. Zhang Yun quietly wiped his sweaty palms and said firmly, "Shoot!"

"Huh..." The sharp barbed harpoon, pushed by the high-pressure gas generated by the burning gunpowder in the barrel, pierced straight into the body of the sperm whale not far away.

"I've hit it!" the gunner shouted excitedly, but no one paid attention to him at this time, and everyone's attention was on the whale, which was shaking violently because of the pain.The sperm whale's tail flipped violently, and the surrounding sea water was also stirred violently.

"Lay out the fishing line!" Zhang Yun ordered loudly.Several sailors quickly rushed to the wooden drum with the fishing line wrapped around it. At this time, the drum was already rolling quickly under the action of the whale. While turning the handle to put the fishing line into the sea, the sailors lifted a bucket of sea water to pour on the fishing line , to prevent the fishing line from heating and catching fire due to rapid friction.

"Bosun, take someone down on a whaling boat, and give this big guy another shot!" Zhang Yun looked at the churning whale and continued to order.The boatswain saluted, and then picked out a dozen sailors, and with the assistance of a steam boom, lowered a small boat to the surface of the sea.The skiff carried a harpooned lance with a lance attached to the stern by a rope, which could likewise be fired from the musket.

The vitality of the sperm whale is tenacious. Although a sharp harpoon was inserted into its body, it was still churning on the sea surface, tensing the fishing line on the "Killer 1".Fortunately, the roll problem was considered when the ship was designed. There are bottom irons on both sides of the ship's side, so this big guy weighing dozens of tons can't do anything to the big ship, at most it can make it shake slightly Just a moment.

After tossing back and forth for a while, the sperm whale suddenly sank head first, and its huge tail fin suddenly rose above the water.

"It's going to dive!" Ricardo, the boatswain who had just descended to the surface, couldn't help roaring, and then ordered the sailors to quickly row towards the place where the whale dived.And when they rowed nearby, the sperm whale's huge tail fin had already split the water and disappeared on the surface of the sea.But at this time, the straight fishing line in the rope hole on the ship's side of the "Hunter 1" was still telling everyone that the whale still hadn't escaped.

"Take up the line slowly." Zhang Yun ordered to the sailor operating the fishing line reel.Impeded by the harpoon, the sperm whale was unable to dive freely, so it quickly surfaced again.Maybe the sprinting dive just now consumed too much energy, but now it was slowly swimming on the surface of the sea, spewing out a jet of water from time to time.

"call"!The sharp sound of piercing the air sounded again, and the whaling spear fired from the whaling boat also slammed into the back of the sperm whale's eye. A broken fire hose spewed out like a broken fire hose, dyeing the nearby seawater red.

(End of this chapter)