Zhang Mingcheng chose an auspicious day to start work, on which day Chen Qiming and Zhang Mingcheng led craftsmen and students to worship the gods with incense and burn paper money. The scene was smoky, and everyone knelt down. At the groundbreaking ceremony, at this time, the colorful flags fluttered on the scene, Chen Qiming and Zhang Mingcheng delivered speeches respectively, announcing the official start of the steamship, followed by firecrackers.

The first is to place the keel, which is an important time node in the shipbuilding process, which means that the ship is officially built on the slipway, which is similar to the groundbreaking and digging foundation of a house.

The keel structure is mainly composed of six parts: keel, side keel, ribs, keel, hull plate, and keel:

The keel mainly bears the longitudinal bending moment of the hull, and the rectangular section steel should be selected when making the ship model.

(1) Side keel, side keel is a longitudinal member on both sides of the keel. It withstands part of the longitudinal bending moment and increases the strength of the hull to withstand external forces. The side keel of the ship is often made of rectangular cross-section steel.

(2) Ribs, which are transverse members within the hull. It withstands transverse water pressure, maintaining the geometry of the hull. The ribs of the ship model are also made of steel.

(3) Dragon tendons, which are longitudinal members on both sides of the hull. Together with the ribs, it forms a mesh structure to hold the side panels of the boat in place and to increase the structural strength of the hull. The dragon ribs of ship models are also usually made of rectangular steel columns.

(4) Hull plate The hull plate includes the side plate and the bottom plate of the ship. The geometry of the hull is determined by the shape of the hull plates. Various external forces such as longitudinal bending force, water pressure, wave impact force, etc., which are subjected to the hull of the ship, first act on the hull plate. The hull plate of the ship model can be made of pine strips and pine planks spliced and bonded.

(5) Keel Some hulls are also equipped with keel, which is a longitudinal member at the junction of the side and the bottom of the ship. It reduces the sway of the ship when navigating in waves. The keel of the ship model can be made of copper or iron sheet with a thickness of 0.5~1 mm.

(6) Bow column and stern column The bow column and stern column are installed at the bow and tail of the hull respectively, and are connected with the keel below, which can enhance the hull to withstand wave impact and water pressure, and can also withstand longitudinal collision and vibration when the propeller is working.

The splicing of the keel is connected by bolts, nuts and rivets, and the installation of the keel is installed by craftsmen under the demonstration and guidance of students, and it took about two days to complete the installation.

In the laying of the bottom plank, a layer of wrought iron armor, in the paving of teak boards, in the paving of steel plates, laid along the keel structure, after the laying, the installation of the steam engine and boiler was carried out, it was hoisted on the installation base by the crane, and buffering, fire prevention, heat insulation, noise reduction and other devices were installed at one time. Due to the use of the propeller mechanism, the reducer is installed and connected to the propeller drive shaft. The job took only one day to install.

The follow-up work is to install the sealed cabin and other follow-up work, which is in charge of Zhang Mingcheng, who led a group of shipbuilders to work overtime, not only to grasp the progress, but also to grasp the quality.

Chen Qiming took a group of students to test and debug in the machine room, they generally debug at night, the roar of the machine during the day will affect the construction, and the steam engine will not stop at night, carry out full running-in, and overhaul all parts of the machine, especially in lubrication.

The steam engine has been invented for more than four years, and various improvements have been carried out, due to the improvement of steel materials and the precision of lathe processing, the performance of the steam engine has also improved, the failure rate has come and gone, and the output efficiency has become higher and higher.

After twelve days, the steamship was finally largely completed, and the final outfitting was carried out, mainly the installation of anchors, masts, and other equipment and devices, as well as the internal outfitting.

Specifically, it includes rudder equipment, anchor equipment, mooring equipment, life-saving equipment, closing equipment, towing and pushing equipment, as well as ladders, railings, masts, etc.; Interior outfitting: also known as home decoration, cabin separation and installation of insulation materials, manufacturing and installation of marine furniture and sanitary facilities, composition and installation of kitchen cold storage and fire protection system, installation of marine doors and windows.

The project was one of the most chaotic and accident-prone processes on the ship, and it took a total of six days to outfit the bow sides.

Finally, the decoration project of the new ship, the bow is decorated with a pair of relief eyes, this is the big ship's eyes, this pair of white background black beads watery eyes are particularly bright, it seems to have a unique aura.

The big eye is not a flat image painted on it, but a three-dimensional carving, and when it is installed on a sailboat, the boat comes to life like the finishing touch, and the wooden sailing boat sailing in the sea is like a dragon swimming freely on the sea, full of charm.

The production of large ship eyes is very particular, and most of them are made of camphor wood. In the construction of wooden sailing ships, nailing the big hole is like laying the keel, and a grand ceremony is held.

According to the conventional specifications, there are generally three iron nails to nail the eyes of large ships, and there are five nails for large ships. One of the nails was extraordinary, and it had to be nailed in a prescribed position: the fishing boat had to be nailed to the part under the large eye, while the other boats had to be nailed in front of the eye.

Nailing the large ship's eye needs to be done on an auspicious day and when the tide rises. At that time, the shipowner set up a table to light incense and candles, burn paper money, and set off firecrackers, which was very lively.

After nailing the big ship eye nail by the most qualified shipbuilder master, the big ship eye should be covered with a red cloth, and when the new ship is launched before the sacrificial activities, the owner of the ship will uncover the festive red cloth again, revealing a pair of round and wide eyes, indicating that the wooden boat is coming out, the big ship eye is opened, and there is the meaning of pilotage and exorcism, peace and safety every year, and more than every year.

The carvings and painted decorations in ancient ships are mainly laid out on the bow, stern, sides and ancillary components, and are usually carved and decorated with the mascot of Rui Beast.

Tigers and lions with open mouths are common in the bow of the ship; The stern of the ship is decorated with wings and flying eagles, which are extremely ferocious, evil and evil beast types, and are a symbol of powerful deterrent power.

Among them, the stern of the ship has become an important part of the decoration due to the large sealing area and the tall stern, and the paintings are usually brightly colored.

The bow of the steam engine ship is painted with the tiger face pattern with the word "king" written on the forehead, which is very vivid, and the stern is not only painted with the wings of a big eagle, but also the dragon, the phoenix, the fish, the auspicious clouds, etc., which are colorful and beautiful, and it is not an exaggeration to say that it is a vivid painting and art work.

And Meng Ming's name was also written on the stern, in fact, Meng Ming didn't see these colored ornaments, and he must have been surprised when he saw them.

In nearly a month, the steam engine ship was finally fully completed, and it is waiting to be launched for sea trials.

Everyone in the shipyard was looking forward to this day, just waiting for Meng Ming to come back from Yangzhou to preside over the trial ceremony.