After all, it was a busy business, so that afternoon, Joseph left for home. The caring Napoleon also sent another battalion of cavalry to escort him. It's just that when sending him away, everyone was quite a bit of a "paper boat candle burning in the sky".

In fact, Joseph did not criticize Napoleon too harshly, he only pointed out very kindly that Napoleon's idea of caring for his brother was of course good, but the way was extremely wrong.

"A truly moral person loves others in the same way as to demand and restrain others with morality; Only those ignorant fools show their love for others in a way that is appeased and connived. You, and Polina, have made this mistake! Polina is still a child, but Napoleon, you are not, you have to reflect on it, you can't make such mistakes again.

As for that, the blame isn't on you, the Leclerc you sent out did a good job. It shows that you actually have an eye for people. As for Lucien, you are mainly adding too much personal will to your judgment. You see, the world does not move by our personal will. But Napoleon, you are a clever man, better than me in many ways, and I think you should be able to understand that. ”

As a result, both Napoleon and Polina were gently spared, and only poor Lucien was ordered not only to complete a five-thousand-word review, but also to be given a large amount of homework. By the time Joseph had departed, Lucien was still busy writing the review that had been sent back and rewritten—Joseph had already instructed him to pass it on to Napoleon in the form of an official document.

Back at the institute, Joseph returned to his research, and time passed quickly, and the first shoddy smuggling ship was finally completed.

It's a makeshift boat, so a lot of places have a smell of improvisation. However, this is also normal, because the boat is only used to verify technical indicators, and as for how long it can be used, there are not too many requirements.

However, even for such a ship, a secret launching ceremony is needed.

One morning, the boat, painted black and gray, slid gently into the cove along a butter-soaked slipway. In the calm bay stirred up some white waves.

"The ship must be fast. Much faster than any ship we've seen before. A skinny captain looked at the white spray.

"Captain Sparrow, are you so sure?" Joseph, who was watching from the sidelines, asked.

"Because the splash is very small when you enter the water, much smaller than a boat of the same size." Captain Sparrow replied.

By this time, the new boat, which was a little rickety at the beginning after launching, had stabilized. Captain Sparrow said to Joseph, "Your Excellency, now we are going to try this boat. Please allow me to leave for a while. ”

"I wish you all the best." Joseph said.

Captain Sparrow took a group of sailors into two small boats and rowed towards the new boat.

Captain Sparrow was originally a boatswain on the Navy frigate "Tyrina". During the Revolution, he led the soldiers, prevented the defection of the captain Rembrandt, and thus gained the trust of the revolutionary government. Later, under the direction of the government, he commanded a smuggling ship dedicated to smuggling various much-needed strategic resources between France and Spain.

During these operations, he flanked several British and Spanish warships, and during an encounter with a Spanish cruiser, he led the Spanish into the reef, causing the Spanish cruiser to run aground and be damaged. In Foucher's words: "There is no captain of a smuggling ship who is more reliable and capable than Sparrow." ”

Generally speaking, a small boat of about 200 tons generally has only one mast, and the height of the mast is relatively limited. Plus a foremast for tying a spinnaker and hang a few sirlers.

Such ships are the main force of smuggling ships, they have a shallow draft, they move along the coast, they can go to many places where the big ships can't go, and if the captain is familiar with the waters of this area, he can get rid of the enemy's warships by relying on the reef and shoals and the like. They steer nimble and have a strong ability to sail against the wind, sometimes taking risks to gain the upper hand even when encountering an enemy warship in wide waters, and then fleeing with their upwind performance.

However, this ship is different, because its length-to-width ratio is very large, allowing it to fit two masts, and the low center of gravity of the deep V type and the low freeboard structure, the height of the two masts of this ship is slightly higher than that of a normal ship of the same tonnage.

The sailors got aboard and quickly unfurled the jibs between the foremast and the mast, both of which were also gray-black, and the ship sailed slowly out of the bay and into the open sea in the morning breeze. Then the sailors spread the schooners on the two mainmasts and controlled the ship to sail against the wind.

A sailboat with a schooner can take advantage of the Bernoulli effect and sail against the wind while taking a Z-shaped course. And this boat, under the small wind, is obviously increasing rapidly. The high bow of the ship split the gray-blue sea, and it can be seen from the waves at the head and the long wake left by the stern that the boat ran quite high even in the headwind.

The sailors threw knotted ropes into the sea and began to measure the degrees of the ship. Joseph saw through the telescope that the rope had been washed into the sea in a very short time.

Then the ship put away the sails on its mainmast and began to turn with the spinnaker on the bow. The ship drew a large circle on the sea and turned to the wind.

By this time, the sailors had put away the rope that had been thrown into the sea to measure the ship, and had opened the mainsail to test the degree of downwind. Even from Joseph's point of view, it can be clearly felt that the boat is faster when it is downwind.

"It's like flying." Next to Joseph, Bernard, a naval architect, exclaimed, "I think it's made through ten knots!" Is there anyone willing to make a bet with me? ”

There was a laugh next to him, and a voice said, "Bernard, isn't this something obvious?" What's there to bet on? If you want me to say, there are at least 12 verses in this. To bet or not to bet? ”

"Don't bet." Bernard did not hesitate to say, "The degree is still increasing, and now it should be more than 12 knots......

By this time the boat had already run a considerable distance. Looking at it from a distance, the gray-black hull and gray-black sails seem to blend into the gray-blue sea and the cloudy sky.

This is also the reason why Joseph insisted on painting the ship in this color. Compared with those warships with snow-white sails, this ship is very inconspicuous, even in good light, it is difficult to see it from a long distance, and if it is dimly lit in the early morning or dusk, I am afraid that it will slip under people's noses, and people may not be able to see it. For smuggling ships, this is just too important.

By this time, the ship's downwind test had been completed, and the boat had retracted its mainsail as usual, slowly turned around, and then reopened its sails and sailed back.

When they reached the bay, the ship retracted its mainsail and a spinnaker, and slowly approached the pier with only one of the ship's small spinnakers. The ship was particularly clumsy when it docked, and it took a long time to barely get up.

When the ship was stable, Captain Sparrow took the lead and disembarked from the ship, and everyone went up together.

"How?" Joseph asked first.

"The boat was very fast, very fast, and when the wind was against the wind, it knocked down nine knots. This is faster than the average cruiser when the wind is downwind. As for the downwind, the fastest time to run is 13 knots, I think, in fact, it can be faster, but I am not familiar with this boat, and I can't run faster. ”

"Actually, at this point, it's already the fastest ship in the world!" One laughed.

"That's, that's the degree, and no warship can catch up with it." Captain Sparrow replied.

"Very well, but what about the other things?" Joseph asked again.

"Something else? Well, the ship is very stupid when it slows down, and it is very difficult to make a turn. With such a small boat, when I turned, I felt like I was controlling a first-class battleship. Even a first-class battleship is more flexible than it at low times. But as soon as the mainsail is deployed, it adds up like a horse. So, when the ship is in action, I advise not to enter the nearshore and not to dock at the smuggling dock. It was supposed to stop in the open sea and transfer the cargo up with a sampan. It's safer that way......"

Speaking of this, Captain Sparrow paused a little and said: "We do not expect the seaworthiness of this ship to be too good. But just now, it seems that the situation is better than we thought. The boat rocked quickly, but not too much. Well, if you change a battleship, it will shake from side to side, it may take more than half a minute, and this ship can be rocked seven or eight times during this time, but to say that the magnitude of the shake is actually not large. I even think that if we were only using it in the Mediterranean, we could have made the mast a little higher so that we could run faster. ”

"This degree is enough, and with the addition of a tall mast and a boost, the significance is limited." Joseph said, "It's better to leave a little more redundancy." ”

In fact, in the original history, the most widely used route was the route from North America to Europe. This type of ship can cross the Atlantic Ocean with high winds and waves, and its seaworthiness is not bad. However, when it comes to comfort, because the frequency of the swing is too high, and the waves on the deck are so severe that it is almost like soaking in water, so the comfort of this kind of boat is almost a mess. Even if it was to transport slaves, no one would use clippers.

"Well, the ship's trial voyage was a success. It's time for us to give it a name. Well, Captain Sparrow, you're its first captain, so it's up to you to name it. Joseph said.

Captain Sparrow looked at the gray-black ship and thought for a moment, "This ship is all black, so it might as well be called the Black Pearl." ”