At the turn of spring and summer, the Liaodong Peninsula was breezy and the first branch of the Imperial Naval Academy was located in Dengzhou.

Two white three-masted sail training ships were quietly docked on the dock of the Naval Academy, and two teams of graduating naval cadets lined up on the pier and began to board the ship one after another.

At the anchorage of Liugong Island, there are still several old battleships and cruisers that are used as gunnery training ships quietly stationed there, these "dreadnought" battleships built during the American Counterinsurgency War in the Republic of 275 are already old and most of them have been demolished, only a few meritorious battleships have survived as memorial ships, and some are retained in the Naval Academy, as training ships to exert their residual heat.

The use of sail training ships is a tradition of the Imperial Navy, and it is both a great opportunity for naval cadets to familiarize themselves with the ship and the sea, as well as a test of their sense of unity and personal will. The greatest significance of the retention of such sail training ships, which have almost no combat effectiveness to speak of, in the navies of various countries is that sail technology can test the courage, courage, cooperation spirit and skill of seafarers more than the current steel ships.

At the beginning of April each year, graduates of the Imperial Navy's major academies undergo a three-month ocean-going training aboard a sail training ship to complete their final internship before embarking on the ship, and then after a short period of adjustment, they will officially graduate and be assigned to major fleets or naval bases.

With a standard displacement of 1,600 tons, this sail training ship is capable of accommodating more than 200 cadets for training on board.

In the early morning of 10 April, under the cheers of the leaders, teachers, and officers and men of the Dengzhou Naval Academy, the two sail training ships, the "Yuanwang" and the "Explorer," left the Dengzhou Liugongdao Naval Base and began to sail toward the Yellow Sea.

It was the early summer of the three hundred and third year of the Republic.

The surface of the Yellow Sea was shrouded in a layer of mist, and two sail training ships cleaved the waves and headed for the Goryeo Strait.

The sail training ships of the Datang Navy are generally named after the early discovery of the New World and the earliest exploration and exploration of the Imperial Navy. The "Far Hope" was the first warship to discover the North American continent, while the "Explorer" was the first to discover the South Australian continent.

After leaving the port of Dengju, the "Yuanwang" and "Explorer" sailed through the Goryeo Strait and headed north, passing through the Tsugaru Strait into the Pacific Ocean. After replenishing in the North Island, the transpacific voyage began.

As the "empire on which the sun never sets" and the overlord of this world, the supply bases of the Imperial Navy are almost all over the world, except for the Mediterranean Sea and the Baltic Sea. Ships of the Imperial Fleet with red and blue naval flags can be seen loitering in almost every body of water, and citizens of the Tang Empire live on almost every island with development value.

The entire Pacific Ocean is the exclusive economic waters of Datang, and ships from other countries are not allowed to enter this area and waters to engage in fishing operations except for commercial navigation. Despite the constant protests of the Atlantic Alliance, it has no effect.

Basic sailing training is a very hard work, even with the help of auxiliary machinery such as electric pulleys and rudders, and the careful guidance of veteran non-commissioned officers, it is still not a simple task to maneuver a sailboat. With a distance of more than 4,000 nautical miles across the Pacific Ocean, these graduating Navy cadets thought it would be an easy voyage to North America, but the opposite happened.

On this sail training ship, more than 200 cadets were divided into four squads, and with the help and guidance of more than a dozen non-commissioned officers, they were trying to control this kind of ship that sailed only with wind power. Although the training ship is equipped with auxiliary diesel engines, it is never allowed to be used except in an emergency.

Under the arrangement of the instructors, these "warrant officers" who participated in the internship took turns to participate in the operations of navigation, gunnery, sailing, deck work, surveying and mapping, and at the same time experienced the hard life of the navy ancestors in the early years when they were exploring the New World.

"All assembled!"

More than sixty midshipmen ran from their positions that had just been replaced, and formed three rows on the foredeck.

"It's too slow, you're too slow!" The instructor loudly reprimanded these "rookies", "It took more than five minutes to lower the sail, and if it was a storm, the boat would have been blown over in the water." I've never seen such a bad student like you! Do it all over again, give me a rehearsal. ”

"Yes!"

Under the command of the instructor, more than 60 trainees were divided into three groups and took turns to practice the operation of raising and lowering the sails.

"Ling Li, the training ship seems to have deviated from course, and we are sailing into the East Sixth District......"

Ling Li leaned his body on the side of the boat, looked at the white tracks left behind after sailing on the sea, and said weakly: "This is deliberately made by the instructors, let's see which group can be lucky enough to adjust back." ”

Endless sail training, steering, sea surveying, course deviation and adjustment, sea evasion, as well as endless learning of geographical coordinates and chart positioning, meteorology and hydrological knowledge, etc., let these young midshipmen finally see what is the voyage of a nightmare ship.

A team of reprimanded guys were fiddling with the sextant again to calculate the position, and quickly showed the accurate direction on the sea chart, which is also an essential part of the primary nautical training.

During the days of long-distance sailing training, the instructors and non-commissioned officers who had been on the sea for many years often played tricks on their group of naval "rookies", sometimes deliberately deviating from the course at night for a long time, and then letting them adjust to the original scheduled correct route.

The speed of a sailing ship is often determined by the wind and currents, and it can sail hundreds of nautical miles a day in a downwind or an old steam freighter in front of it in an upwind.

In early summer, the area around the Xindi Ice Sheet is still very cold, and sailing ships sail at high latitudes, and the sea temperature is very low. As part of the voyage training program, polar voyage is also an experience that novices must undergo.

However, after a month of training at sea, the sailing skills of these young midshipmen have improved by leaps and bounds.

At the beginning of May, after resting and resupplying in the Aleutian Islands, where fisheries are developed and fur is abundant, the two sailing ships set sail for the beautiful New World.

On the way from the Aleutian Islands to North America, the fleet also encountered a storm. After two days in the sea battling the storm, in the words of the chief instructor, Lieutenant Colonel Qi Denghai, "everyone has withstood the real test."

In late May, after a long voyage of more than 40 days, the two sail training ships finally arrived at the port of Xinjin in northern North America......

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