Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 494 Ships and Shipping ([-])

"Woo..." Another whistle sounded, and a 72-ton inland river steamer slowly sailed into the Zhenhai Port Wharf.

"It took more than half an hour to get my turn, which is too inefficient." Captain Ventura came out of the cabin chattering, and now his 35-ton steamer has been officially decommissioned The transportation company resold it to a traveler.Now this new ship has been launched for just over a year, and it is numbered "Heyun-007".Captain Ventura loves it very much. Before each sailing, he will wipe the deck clean with the sailors, even the boiler room will be cleaned.

"There are not enough berths at the dock, and there are too many ships, so we have to queue up." A dock official skillfully wrote a few words on the delivery list handed over by Captain Ventura, and then began to call on the dock workers to start unloading and inventory.

"Zhenhai Port should have been expanded a long time ago. It's been almost ten years, and it's still the same as before. Even the last section of the wooden trestle bridge hasn't been demolished, and it's still in use every year. What. Deputy Section Chief Lin, if you want me to say that your Zhenhai Port Authority should collectively write a report to the top, requesting the expansion of new berths." Captain Ventura seemed to have inherited the whining and big-mouthed nature of the Italians, waving his arms exaggeratedly said.

"Hehe, you have a big mouth." Deputy Section Chief Lin, the dock official, glanced at him, and said with a smile, "How do you know that we didn't make this request to the higher-ups? Look over there, yes, it's the west side, isn't it there?" Are new berths being built?"

The area that Deputy Section Chief Lin was referring to was located on the west side of the old wharf in Zhenhai Port, where a large transport ship was parked at this time, and the sailors on board were using pulley booms to throw bags of gravel into the seabed .On the shore, there are more than a dozen heavy-duty freight carriages driving back and forth, dumping bags of broken bricks, broken tiles, gravel and other construction waste pulled from afar into the sea, it seems that they are preparing to fill A wharf trestle and breakwater (simultaneously anti-silting) comes out.

Undoubtedly, such a maritime project is extremely large, especially in the absence of the necessary manpower and tools.Ventura took a rough look and found that besides more than 1000 South African laborers carrying sandbags on the construction site on the shore, there were only about [-] or [-] Guarani and Italians with temporary IDs digging hard. The mud has been taken from the soil, and the manpower seems to be completely understaffed.

Perhaps seeing Ventura's doubts, Deputy Section Chief Lin immediately explained: "This is only the preliminary personnel. The county magistrate Bo has held a meeting, and in the next three months, about 5000 people will be transferred from other places. South African laborers, and by the end of the year and early next year, a large number of oriental immigrants will arrive, and a considerable part of them will supplement the construction site here. County Mayor Bo predicts that by the beginning of next year, there will be a total of more than [-] people at the same time Work here. At that time, the construction of the second phase of the expansion project of Zhenhai Port will be on track."

The second-phase expansion project of Zhenhai Port is a large-scale maritime project that consumes a lot of manpower and material resources. The project includes opening a new wharf area to the west of Zhenhai Port City, and then there are the administrative buildings of the port department and the wharf. The construction of warehouses, port dredging roads (railways), steam cranes, permanent trestle bridges (also breakwaters, sand embankments), lighting towers and other facilities.In addition, proposed by Zhenhai Shipyard and approved by the Executive Committee, Zhenhai Shipyard’s new dock (area 1.5 square kilometers, square) project was also added to this project, which is used to replace the already increasingly inadequate and heavily silted dock old dock.

Zhenhai Shipyard is so ambitious that they want to continue to more than double their current shipbuilding capacity.The completion date of the new dock is unknown, but part of it is expected to be ready for use within two years.As for the completion deadline of the entire large dock (including large sluices, drainage channels, dams, slipways, construction facilities, etc.), judging from the current shortage of domestic labor force, it is expected that this day will be difficult to see within ten years.There is no doubt that this is a plan with an eye towards the future.

"How is the construction of the lighthouse arranged? You know, I hate sailing in the dark night, but sometimes you have to do it when you encounter medium and long-distance transportation tasks. Every time I am careful, I am afraid that I will deviate from the channel and then It really sucks to be on the rocks or to be stranded."

"There are a lot of new lighthouses." Deputy Section Chief Lin recorded the number of cotton canvases unloaded from the cabin by his subordinates, and said without raising his head: "Bather Island and the town, seaport and land opposite to the waterway will be newly built. Add 2 lighthouses. The one on Bather Island has been completed and lit. There will also be a lighthouse on the island in the lake west of Zhenhai Port and on the northwest corner of Xiangshan Township on the opposite bank. Let’s put it this way, from There will be as many as 15 new lighthouses along the way from the mouth of the Yazi Lake to the southwest corner of the Yazi Lake and Hekou Township where the Lianghu Canal enters the lake. With so many lighthouses, this waterway and the four towns along the coast The night is completely lit, and the returning naval ships no longer have to be too nervous at night. They can even see our lighthouse from a long distance on the sea, which not only illuminates the route, but also warms the tired sailors mind."

"Is this canvas a blend of hemp and cotton threads? It's another cheap canvas bought by poor fishermen." Deputy Section Chief Lin touched a corner of the unloaded canvas, and then noted it on his cargo entry record.After finishing writing, he looked up and smiled at Ventura, and continued the topic just now: "Not only the new lighthouse, I heard that Hyundai Factory is in trouble again, and the higher-ups gave them an order to develop the lighthouse ship. They are required to complete the design as soon as possible. Then come up with a sample ship. We need this kind of lighthouse ship in many places in China, such as some shoal areas off the sea estuary of Duck Lake, some areas with many reefs off Dongfang Port, and some shallow waters in Duck Lake that are easy to run aground Areas, etc. It is too difficult and costly to build lighthouses in these places, so there is an urgent need for some large lighthouse ships that can withstand wind and waves to guide the course and mark the channel to improve navigation safety.”

"This is really great news." Captain Ventura said with a smile on his face: "If all these can be realized, Zhenhai Port will definitely become the most beautiful, safest and most modern in China—no, the whole world— port."

"I dare not say how the ports in other places are, but Zhenhai Port is already the best among the three large sea ports in China." Deputy Section Chief Lin said in a slightly boastful tone.As the early settlers of Zhenhai Port, they all grew up together with Zhenhai Port, and their children grew up watching the tall naval battleships in the harbor every day, so they are very interested in this town. The prosperous emerging port is very emotional, and there is a faint sense of pride in his tone all the time.

"According to the data as of June this year, the total tonnage of various large merchant ships in my country (excluding fishing boats, warships, immigration ships and some special ships) has reached 3.69 tons. Among them, the total tonnage of merchant ships registered in Zhenhai Port It is 2.51 tons, accounting for 68%, far exceeding the 2% of No.25 Dongfang Port. This figure is not made up by me, but written in black and white on the document issued by the Ministry of Communications." Deputy Section Chief Lin proudly Said.

说到如今华夏东岸共和国的航运，那么我们不妨来统计一下如今国内各大小船只的数量。截止到今年六月份（1645年），全国（包括海外殖民地）共拥有各类大小舰船152艘，其中中小型渔船24艘、内河小汽船（包括35吨和72吨两种规格）55艘、特种船舶（挖泥船、捕鲸船、移民专用船）9艘、商船（笛型船）34艘、蒸汽机帆船10艘，剩下的20艘则都是军舰。

The number of registered official seamen has also exceeded 1800 (not including the navy), which can be regarded as the number one in the New World, and it can even be said to be second to none.It’s just that it’s not enough compared to the size of the 1.6 ships in the Netherlands. Fortunately, the people on the east coast currently have 4 powerful battleships that have been transformed by steam technology, and there are also a bunch of fast cruisers, escort gunboats, etc. Coupled with the key geographical location, ordinary enemies really dare not provoke them easily, otherwise their sea routes are likely to be blown up by the people on the east coast.

As the government pays more and more attention to shipping and invests more and more, the domestic shipbuilding, port and shipping, canal, wharf, seaman training and other industries will surely usher in a period of rapid development.For many people, this is indeed a very rare opportunity.

After handing over the transshipment canvas, Captain Ventura asked his crew members not to leave the pier too far, and then he himself calmly walked through the pier industrial area and headed for the urban area.Near the wharf are basically factories of supporting factories, including an anchor chain factory with tall chimneys, a cooper workshop full of sawing sounds, a labor-intensive rope workshop, and high-density cotton cloth made of special textile machines. There are even some glass canning workshops that provide various types of voyage food for the navy. In short, it is a scene of prosperity.

These supporting manufacturers relying on the Zhenhai Shipyard to survive have been rectified with iron fists by the current Yazihu ​​District Commissioner and the former Prime Minister of the Government Administration Council, and they have become much more standardized.Some small workshop owners with insufficient funds, insufficient technical force or tax evasion were dismissed or even sentenced, which greatly avoided disorderly competition.The remaining private workshop owners with relatively standardized management, good product quality, and no illegal records received high-quality low-interest loans from the United Industrial Credit Bank for them to update machines, train workers, and recruit some technical personnel.

Supporting manufacturers are not successful, and Zhenhai Shipyard will not be able to do much after all.This is an entire industrial chain, and none of them can be dispensed with.There are more than a dozen factories upstream and downstream, and thousands of industrial workers must ensure that they are qualified to complete their jobs, so that this shipbuilding industry agglomeration belt can usher in real rapid development.At present, Zhenhai Shipyard and its series of supporting manufacturers are undoubtedly on the right path.

(End of this chapter)