But in any case, this voyage, Zhu Xu, Peng Hu and the four of them have been fully trained, and Peng Hu and Peng Hu are the most qualified captains in the group of high school students in the eyes of everyone, their rapid progress, and the top-notch level of various skills is also obvious to everyone.

Of course, it would be wrong to say that the other crew members did not have the ambition to be captains, and for those crew members who have been on the Pride for a long time, they either have the ambition to be the king of the pirates, or they have the ambition to be the captain of an ocean-going ship, or they have the ambition to lead a fleet to kill all sides in the future, and of course, it is better to make a home for themselves in each port by the way......

Otherwise, no one would have the stamina to stay on the bumpy and narrow Pride for a long time.

After all, Captain Gu knew this group of young people, so a few days before the time came to return to the Red Pier, Gu Jin suddenly announced that all the trainees who were interning on the Pride would take turns to be a trainee captain for two hours during the rest of the voyage, except for Dai Xiaoshan.

And Li Sanduo's task is to "take a back seat" to check and score and evaluate......

Captain Gu's move was immediately warmly approved by all the crew members of the Pride, and the young people immediately became emotional, and they began to be eager to try to be the captain for the real time.

Zhu Beiguo and others sighed in their hearts, saying that Captain Gu is Captain Gu, and they can really grasp the psychology of these young people and put the most appropriate measures in the places where young people need them most, so as to stimulate their enthusiasm for work to the greatest extent.

Although in the subsequent voyage, it is basically a calm route, and it cannot be compared with the previous period in terms of navigation challenge, but Captain Gu believes that this is also a good time to train these nautical beginners step by step.

And at this time, the closer you are to the northern coast of Australia, the fewer tropical storms there are, there are more islands along the way, the coastline is visible at any time, there is almost no navigation without land reference in the deep sea, and the swells are not too large, so in addition to paying special attention to the problem of hitting the reef, coastal navigation is relatively easy on the whole.

For the young people, their enthusiasm for the ship has not diminished, especially the crew of the Pride, who have fought two naval battles, experienced many ocean storms, sailed more than 5,000 kilometers since they went to sea, and have successfully dealt with Europeans, natives and Han Chinese in this time and space, coupled with the successful trade with the Kingdom of Sulu, they have a certain intimacy with this new world and era, and they no longer look at the world from a separate, bystander eye. And trying to really fit in.

This is important because it is clear to their group of young people with limited education and no science and engineering skills that they can see a path to self-success.

Now that each of them understands their future relationship with the ship, they know that they will be a key link in the strategy of the entire crossing group in the "trading nation".

They knew very well that in the future, each of them should be the captain of the ship sooner or later - this is the minimum goal, and they even have a very high chance of becoming the leader of a fleet, a fleet.

Of course, the premise is that you are willing and go for it.

For any normal person, as long as it is related to their own major future, has a tangible reality, coupled with the group's expectations of themselves, as well as the sense of responsibility and honor of young people, it will make people mature quickly and make people consciously redouble their efforts.

In the days that followed, the trainee captain training on the Pride was very fruitful, and all the crew members on board took turns to practice in the captain's position several times.

According to the original sailing plan, it only took about three to five days to sail day and night from the western tip of Papua Island back to the Red Pier on Mornington Island, but when the fleet was still sheltering from the ocean storm on the western coast of Papua Island, an unexpected situation increased the number of rotations originally planned, and the return date to the Red Pier was delayed by more than ten days compared with the original plan, which also greatly increased the return mileage, so that every crew member on the Pride unexpectedly got more internship time.

The situation was that a telegram suddenly came from Mornington Island.

The telegram asked the fleet to survey the coastline along the southern coast of Papua Island, collect hydrological data, and bring back as many samples of local soil as possible - although the telegram did not say much, it was clearly a telegram sent at the suggestion of the old king.

The telegram said that the water and climatic conditions of Papua Island were very suitable for the growth of rubber trees, and the telegram from the Red House emphasized that according to the expedition notes of Western tourists and explorers in the Old World, the local aborigines had been using the white rubber sap from the rubber trees for a long time.

Of course, the natives used these viscous white unidentified liquids as paint on their bodies and faces, and did not use them for any other purpose.

The telegram began to sail along the southwest coast of Papua for two days, during which time the crew of the Pride made four landings.

However, the results were somewhat disappointing, and in addition to the swampy wetlands and unpleasantly humid air, the only eye-catching sights along the coast were the occasional crocodile and the bird of paradise flying in the primeval forests along the coast.

Crucially, there are so few relatively dry sites suitable for landing, and usually landers are forced to turn back by rowing boats along some estuaries less than a few hundred meters into the land, only to be forced to turn back because too dense branches block the water.

In the process, they found no wild rubber trees, and certainly no natives - probably because the humid climate and swampy wetlands were too much for the natives to bear.

In any case, the exploration yielded very little, and found nothing in terms of the main objectives, except for surveying the coastline, collecting some dirt and exotic plant specimens, and discovering a few open areas near the estuary and a few sites where the water was so deep that the Pride could land directly.

However, just after doing this, the telegram order from the Red Mansion came again, this time it was Cao Limei who sent a telegram on behalf of the Industrial Construction Committee, asking the fleet to "turn around by the way" when heading south, and return to the Red Wharf along the northern coastline of the Australian mainland.

In this way, the fleet will be able to survey the west coast of the Gulf of Carpentalia, with a focus on the mines, piers and coastline of the world-famous manganese island in the northwest corner of the bay.

Cao Limei also suggested that a special exploration team be organized to survey the current situation of the manganese ore export terminal in the old world according to the map of the old world, as well as the situation of the nearby coastline.

If you still have the energy to spare, can you go a little deeper into the jungle and bring back the ore specimens, of course, it is best to find out if there are any natives nearby.

Gu Jin convened a special meeting to discuss this, so everyone flipped through the map and found the famous manganese iron ore island.

In the Old World, that island was called Groot Island, which was at least twice the size of Mornington Island and had a tropical rainforest climate.

According to historical records, the island has always been inhabited by natives, which is obviously not good news for the landers.

But Cao Limei's telegram emphasized that the island was indeed worth exploring, and that even if you don't go now, we must go in the near future!

Cao Limei said in the telegram that the island was rich in coal and manganese iron, and the most attractive thing was that the veins were very shallowly buried, and like the bauxite in Weipa, they were basically mined in the open pit.

Just cut down the trees, remove the bushes from the surface, and peel back a layer of dirt, revealing a large area of manganese and associated iron ore, and by the way, there is also high-quality anthracite......

Well, it seems that this exploration mission is really important, so everyone met and discussed it on the Nicole and Pride respectively, and finally accepted the exploration mission.

However, some modifications have been made: only the area of the survey and mapping dock is explored, and as for the island's coastline and mining points in the jungle, everyone thinks that it is better to forget it, and it looks like it is about to reach home, so don't risk it, it is said that there are many natives there, and safety should come first.