Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 493 Ships and Shipping ([-])

"Woo..." A short siren sounded, and the No. 2 dredger of Qingtang Army slowly drove into the wharf of the Modern Special Shipyard, ready for routine maintenance.

The shipyard now has five berths, among which there is a semi-finished ship under construction on berths 1-4, and berth 5 is a dedicated maintenance berth, which is regularly maintained for ships that have reached the working hours, or for Damaged ships undergo emergency repairs.

Qingtang Jun No. 2 is the second dredger produced by the factory, and it is currently dredging the canal between the two lakes.The Two Lakes Canal is the only waterway that connects the Yihe-Milin Lake water system in the south and the Yazi Lake Basin water system in the north, and its role is extremely critical.However, the flow of this waterway, including the two connected lakes, is relatively gentle, and the sediment is easy to deposit, so it must be dredged regularly.

At present, the dredging work of the river is coming to an end, and the water depth of the central channel has reached more than four meters, which is enough for any domestic ship to pass.After the dredging of this key channel connecting the two lagoons, the next step is to clear a channel in the northern duck lake that can navigate large transport ships.Due to the special structural relationship, the western half of Duck Lake is a shallow water area, full of reeds, crocodiles and other animals and plants, which can only be navigated by inland steamboats or small gunboats; and the water depth of the eastern half has basically been measured clearly through the efforts of the past few years. Yes, the water depth in most places is more than 5 meters, but there are still a lot of intermittent shallow water areas, many of which are only two meters deep, which makes it easy for large ships to run aground when sailing, so it needs to continue to deepen.

Fortunately, the bottom of this lake is full of silt and pebbles, and the dredgers produced by Hyundai can complete this task.However, considering that there are only two dredgers in China today, and one of them (Qingtangjun No. 1) is still dredging the extremely important Yihe waterway, only Qingtangjun No. 2 can be mobilized. The lake is navigable for large ships.

It is not without comforting news. It is already September, and in two more months, the third dredger, Qingtangjun No. 9, will be completed.At that time, two dredgers will be able to work simultaneously, one south and one north, and the dredging work will be greatly accelerated.When it comes to dredgers, we have to talk about the heavy shipbuilding tasks of today's modern factories.

Of the five existing slipways in the factory, except No. 5, which is dedicated to maintenance, the other four slipways are producing all kinds of ships throughout the year.After each batch of ships is completed, the competition between various units (mainly ship-using units) for these slipways will become fiercer.In view of the extreme importance of immigrants from the Far East today, two of the berths have been fixed for the construction of 4-ton displacement "Dash Champion" class immigration ships.The other two berths not only have to accept the task of steaming some ships, but also need to build special ships such as whaling ships and dredgers. All employees are busy going to the sky.

"The demand for ships is high, and the demand for skilled sailors is even greater." Wei Hua, the director of the Modern Special Shipyard, stood in front of his office on the second floor of the factory, looking at the busy berth outside, and said: "United Front The Ministry recruits pirates in the Caribbean every year, but the number is not as good as every year. This year, there are only a few dozen, too few! I think the Spaniards over there should be extremely grateful to us, because we made Tortuga Island peak The number of gathered 2000 pirates has successfully dropped to just over [-] within ten years, and various incidents of vicious pirates attacking transport ships have also been reduced by [-]%. The island is full of drunkenness and dreams!"

At present, the only institution that trains sailors in China, the Seafarer Training School in Luocha Port, has opened two phases, and it can provide about 200 trainee sailors for various units every year.This number may seem like a lot, but compared to the demand of nearly 18 sailors required to launch 20-400 ships a year, it can only fill half of the gap.Even with the addition of dozens of pirates from the United Front and a small number of qualified Malay sailors after long-term inspections, the gap is still as many as 100.As a last resort, the Ministry of Communications can only arrange skilled sailors on important ships as much as possible, and at the same time delegate power to let those unimportant merchant ship captains recruit trainee sailors themselves.

Therefore, it can be said that the 17 flute-shaped transport ships (belonging to the South China Sea Transport Company) sailing in the Atlantic Ocean and the 4 flute-shaped transport ships (belonging to the East African Transport Company) sailing on the Indian Ocean in the Eastern Republic of China are full of With a large number of unqualified young sailors.In June this year, a flute-shaped ship of the South China Sea Transportation Company sank accidentally off the coast of Dongfang Port.

After this tragedy happened, the Ministry of Transportation immediately squeezed out some funds, and at the same time went to the Union Industrial Credit Bank to make a fuss, asked them to allocate some loans, and then used the money to order a special ship at the Big Fish River Naval Shipyard. A small training ship.They plan to double the enrollment scale of the Luocha Seafarer Training College, and strive to provide 400 regular trainee sailors every year.As the enrollment scale increases, the number of training ships will naturally increase accordingly. At present, the school only has one 250-ton "East Coast Eagle" transferred to them by the Navy as a training ship. After the enrollment scale expands, it will naturally not be enough. Desperately need a new one.

"The problem of sailors can't be solved in a short while." Xiao Bailang, who was sitting in his office smoking a pipe, said, "Now experienced sailors are arranged to travel to Australia and the Far East, and they even set up their homes. After going to New China and Heishui, the rest of the country is naturally crooked. Don't worry, the problem has to be solved slowly. The number of sailors cannot increase in a short while, there must be a process. "

"I'm in a hurry." Wei Hua smiled, spit out a round smoke ring, turned to Xiao Bailang and said, "I'm only in charge of building the ship, as for where the sailors come from, that's none of my business." Huh? It’s the Ministry of Communications and the Executive Committee that should be in a hurry, why should I be so fussy! I only get a salary of more than 100 yuan a month, and I’m tired of taking care of so many things!”

"Hey." Xiao Bailang smiled, "I heard that the country has now relaxed the production restrictions on small steamboats in inland rivers, and has allowed private capital to gradually enter this industry. I think it is also because of the large demand in this market? I think Your small 72-ton inland river steamboats are built directly on the tidal flats, and when they are almost built, they are pulled to the berth for power system installation and final outfitting procedures. The technical content is just that, and ordinary people It can be built, I see that the workers on the No. 5 berth are relatively free on weekdays, how are you thinking about what you said last time? Are you interested?"

What Xiao Bailang said was very simple, he was trying to find a way to start his own shipyard.For this reason, he has even inspected the terrain and hydrological information near Hekou Township, and preliminarily selected the future site of the plant.What is currently lacking is personnel and funds. The problem of funds is easy to solve. The savings of himself and a few like-minded friends for many years, plus some loans from the United Industrial Credit Bank, are almost enough.But the technical staff is more difficult. The domestic illiteracy rate is too high, and there are few technical staff, and they are all concentrated in major state-owned enterprises.And the shipyard they want to build is an enterprise with certain technical requirements. It is not something that can be done by just bringing in a few illiterate farmers.

Xiao Bailang had a good personal relationship with Wei Hua, the director of the Modern Factory, so he was the first person he approached.Wei Hua himself is quite tempted by this, but it is a sensitive matter to set up a factory by yourself among the people across the world. If he digs through the factories where he is the factory manager and harms the public and private interests, Wei Hua is really afraid that he will be shot by the lunatics in the military department. On the top of the head.However, the idea of ​​starting my own shipyard has been lingering in my mind. I have worked for the country for several years. Although the salary is very high, the dividends of the East Coast Company are also a lot every year. It is reasonable to say that I should not be short of money. But it's not a problem not to have a career of your own.It just so happened that Xiao Bailang came to find him to start a joint venture factory, saying that the site and capital of the factory could be settled, and the agent had already been found (state cadres were not allowed to do business directly), only experienced technicians were needed, which made Wei Hua realize that this was indeed a It's a great opportunity.

"At present, there are only more than 35 domestic 72-ton old steamships and 50-ton new steamships, and the demand is at least 35. And with the gradual retirement of 1200-ton small ships, the next few The annual demand will be even greater. According to our current ex-factory price, a ship is 20 yuan, and the profit margin is at least 5%. Seeing that the market is so hot, even if it is sold at a higher price, the supply will definitely exceed the demand. The market prospect is really excellent. Yes." Wei Hua took a deep breath, and then said: "But wait, let's talk about it after this year. The No. [-] berth is also very busy this year, and two 'Amur River' class ships were just completed a few months ago. The inland river shallow water support gunboat, just went with the last batch of fleets going to the Far East. I will continue to build a few more in the second half of the year. There is a rush there, and I have to do maintenance for other ships. I don’t have so much free time. I see you Let’s speed up the recruitment of technicians in Europe. Isn’t the government always recruiting? You can join us. The Ministry of Communications picks up the rest and you pull them back. What are you afraid of building some civilian ships?”

The "Amur" class inland river shallow-water gunboat that Wei Hua mentioned was designed and produced by Hyundai Factory. The ship is about 55 meters long, 8.2 meters wide, with a draft of 0.8 meters and a standard displacement of 250 tons.The power system uses 2 Popeye-2 improved (70 horsepower) steam engines, 2 coal-fired boilers, and a speed of 9-10 knots. It is the fastest pure steam-powered ship designed in China, thanks to her powerful Power (140 hp) and propulsion system design with twin shafts and double propellers.

The ship is equipped with two 8-pound short-barreled howitzers on the bow and eight 4-pound howitzers on both sides. The firepower can only be said to be so-so.Originally, the Navy was planning to design a rotating iron-clad turret similar to the structure of the Coles turret. Later, considering the shallow draft and small tonnage of the ship, this impractical and novel design was abandoned and changed to a traditional firepower arrangement.This kind of ship is extremely powerful in close support operations on inland rivers, and it is fully steam-powered. It has fast speed, shallow draft, flexible maneuverability, and strong seaworthiness. It is an ideal accompanying support gunboat for inland rivers.The Hyundai factory produced a total of 2 ships in the first batch, namely the "Amur River" and the "Liaohe", and they are currently heading to the East.

"That's right, there's no rush right now." Xiao Bailang nodded when he saw what Wei Hua said, and began to think about how to entrust someone to recruit shipbuilding technicians in Europe.

(End of this chapter)