Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 722 Across the Ocean ([-])

On November 1648, 11, a few nautical miles away from Dongfang Port, Captain Given, who had just been promoted to lieutenant for completing a circumnavigation of the world, stood on the bow deck of the "Explorer" which had been renovated, looking at it with slightly surprised eyes. They were accompanied by a four-masted ship flying the English flag.

The ship was sailing on the port side of the "Discovery", and its speed was very fast, obviously surpassing the "Discovery" which was not powered by steam.Of course, even if the steam power of the "Discovery" is turned on, its speed may not be faster than this English ship, because according to Lieutenant Ji Wen's observation, the opponent's ship obviously did not raise all its sails, and its speed should be considerably improved. space.

"This is a new ship purchased from the Netherlands. The hull is slender and extremely beautiful, with an astonishing aspect ratio of 7:1. It has a hollow bow and a typical flying scissor design. It was copied from our country's Zhenhai Shipyard." The first mate on the ship did not know when he came to Ji Wen's side. He raised the binoculars hanging on his chest, looked carefully at the other party's ship, and said: "The Polish oak hull, the interior may be The fir was purchased from Finland. As for the mast, it should be from Norway! The Dutch like to match materials like this, and I have to say that their shipbuilding technology has advanced rapidly, and they are not far away from us."

Ji Wen, who grew up in a nautical school, was very satisfied with the adjutant's words "we". He had always been worried that this middle-aged man who was born as a pirate would not serve the East Coast wholeheartedly, but now it seems that he has successfully substituted his own The role-especially after he has bought real estate in Qingdao Port with his savings for many years and married a wife.

However, Captain Ji Wen also expressed concern about the adjutant's blind optimism, because facing reality is the basic quality of a naval officer.In terms of speed, the ship purchased from the Netherlands clearly surpassed any ship produced by the East Coast itself.

The East Coast Republic has also built a few fast cruisers of the clipper design (six) and large clipper cargo ships (twelve, "Scud" class) in recent years, but the speed of any of the twenty ships is There was no overtaking the English ship.Although part of the reason for this is that the people on the east coast are not willing to sacrifice the overall life and safety of the ship for the ultimate speed, and at the same time they are not willing to sacrifice the cargo capacity of the ship in pursuit of commercial interests (the people on the east coast generally do not participate in the highly hyped The tight commodity trade, such as spices), so it is normal to be surpassed in some respects by the Dutch with strong shipbuilding capabilities.

After all, such ships were very important to the Dutch East India Company.With these extremely fast flying scissor cargo ships, Dutch ships can easily transport spices from the East Indies, gemstone perfume pepper from India, porcelain silk from China, and copper from Japan , sugar from the Caribbean, and tobacco from North America were shipped back to Europe.These are commodities in short supply, and the profits are quite high. It is not surprising that the Dutch took the trouble to study the clipper-style boats that the East Coasters first invented.Businessmen always pursue extreme profits.

"You are wrong, Sergeant Esposito." Lieutenant Ji Wen turned his head and said seriously to his adjutant: "With the wind and the water going smoothly, I bet that our country does not currently have a ship with a displacement of more than 16 tons. Boats are able to outrun her. The boat can easily run 18-16 knots in this state, we don't have any boats that fast in this country, not even one! Even the fastest 'sprint champion' class immigrant carriers, though It can occasionally reach a high speed of more than 12 knots when the power is fully turned on, but that is not a normal speed. The normal speed of the "Sprint Champion" class is about [-] knots, and it will not be faster. Therefore, I think These Dutch people are really terrible, they just imitated our country's ship design at first, but now they have been able to design and build such a fast ship by analogy, it is really amazing."

In fact, the Dutch are not only in the field of shipbuilding.In the field of textiles, they have also made great progress. In recent years, Dutch businessmen from Zeeland have hired a large number of scholars to help them develop new textile machines to counter the increasingly fierce competition from textiles on the east coast.After all, even though a series of policies that hinder free trade, such as tariff barriers, local protectionism, and mercantilism, provide shelter and respite for Dutch textiles, more and more textiles from the east coast are still smuggled to Western Europe through various channels. In the region, the commercial interests of the Dutch have still been greatly violated.Therefore, the Dutch and the English who controlled the woolen industry had every reason to improve their product quality and production efficiency, otherwise they would be bankrupt sooner or later, and mercantilism could not protect them for a lifetime.

The Dutch and the English started their arduous and tragic process of catching up with the East Coast almost from scratch, just relying on a few words about the textile machines on the East Coast.

Their efforts were not in vain.Beginning in 1642, Dutch textile merchants in Zeeland introduced several new weaving machines, each of which proved to be a significant improvement over the previous generation.In particular, a spinning machine launched in the middle of last year has almost reached the limit of the existing technology, and people on the east coast can even get some reference from it.Today the Dutch are only short of piercing a layer of window paper to progress to the spinning jenny with infinite potential for improvement.With continuous research investment and huge rewards, I believe this is only a matter of time.Maybe one day a certain textile worker on the east coast will secretly flee because of the huge reward offered.

"The Dutch are sensitive vampires. They are as virtuous as the Jews, and they will not let go of every opportunity to make money." Sergeant Esposito shrugged and said indifferently: "Let the Dutch go to hell." , their boat is fast enough, but the hull cannot withstand the resistance of the waves at high speed. I expect they will have to overhaul at least every two months, otherwise they will definitely not be able to go to sea. I remember their boat After the ship departs from Batavia, it will be overhauled in Cape Town, and then at Fort Elmina in the Gulf of Guinea, otherwise it will not be able to maintain the voyage for several months."

"They can now get from Batavia to Amsterdam in four months, and it used to be a terrible six months. The closer the East India Company is to Amsterdam, the smoother it will be to develop there, perhaps with Before long, the East Indies will be completely occupied by the Dutch, then Ceylon Island, and then the Malabar coast of India." Captain Shay sighed inaudibly, the manpower on the east coast is really lacking Ah, I can only sit back and watch the Netherlands make troubles and make money in the rich Indian region.Not only can the people on the east coast not make any money, but they have to open their own ports to repair ships, supply fresh water, resell overseas goods, etc. I am really envious and jealous.

In fact, Lieutenant Ji Wen said that the Dutch clipper ship arrived in Amsterdam in four months, which is not too fast.In real history, in 1855, the "Donald McCann" made by the British sailed from Liverpool to Melbourne six times in a row, spending an average of 83 days each time; the "Jewish Maid" of the Aberdeen White Star Company sailed from London to Sydney It only takes 78 days.And all of these ships are nothing more than 1500-ton sailing ships, but it takes surprisingly little time to travel half the world.

Improvements in means of transportation must have had a great impact on the productivity of European society.After discovering that the clipper ship is not resistant to wind and waves and has a short lifespan, wouldn't the Dutch and even the Europeans think of a solution?Wouldn't they consider making iron ships?If the technology needed for the iron ship is not enough, then take your time and solve the difficulties one by one. This is how technological progress comes...

"Sign to the English, tell them to reduce their speed and keep it at 6 knots. If they show off their speed any more, I will go after them with full power and sink them with a cannonball." Captain Given also lowered his chest. After a pause, he hesitated again, and then added: "There is no need to send the last sentence. In addition, inform the expedition ship 'Curiosity' and let them follow it as soon as possible. Keep in line."

There are two other ships following the "Discovery" this time, one is the clipper ship "East India Envoy" from the United Kingdom, and the other is the expedition ship "Curiosity" from the east coast. "Curiosity" and "Discovery" are sister ships of the same class. They are large sailing ships specially designed for ocean exploration on the east coast. The standard displacement is 1250 tons, and the twin-shaft sculls are propelled by 170 horsepower. The whole ship has a total of 92 crew members.

This time the three ships sailed in a team, and their destination was Persia.Among them, the brand new English clipper ship is the key, because the owner of their ship and most of the sailors on board have arrived in Persia several times.In this era, the relationship between the British and the Persians was relatively harmonious, because they had helped the Persians fight against the Portuguese and the Dutch from afar, and helped them retake some ports and small islands along the coast of the Persian Gulf. Enjoy special benefits in Persia.

The British ship that was traveling with the people on the east bank had some contacts in Bandar Abbas, so the people on the east bank spent a lot of time to get in touch with them and asked them to be the introducers between the republic of the east coast and Persia. In order to allow people on the east bank to develop trade links with Persia (mainly to buy raw silk and develop silk weaving).At the same time, the people on the east coast also promised these Englishmen that no matter whether they succeed or not this time, they will be given ten years of preferential prices for buying goods on the east coast in the future.

So, the two sides almost hit it off.After gathering at Dongfang Port, the three ships formed a formation and then headed for Bandar Abbas on the coast of the Persian Gulf.

(End of this chapter)