In the Indian Ocean, the clouds of war are looming, and several princes of Egypt and India are preparing to defeat the Spanish Portuguese Union and the fleet. However, India is not united.

For example, the port of Calicut, because of the serious damage to the trade of the Kingdom of Calicut by the combined fleets of Spain and Portugal, joined the camp against the combined fleet of Spain and Portugal, and forbade the merchant ships of the two countries to call at the port of Calicut.

However, as soon as Calicut rejected Spain and Portugal, the prince of the state of Cochin, who had always been interested in Calicut's status as India's largest trading port, immediately hooked up with Spain and Portugal, expressing his willingness to trade with the two countries and become a trading port for India's spice exports. Moreover, warships of the two countries were allowed to dock and resupply......

Originally, Zammerin of Calicut had united a large number of Indian princes of the coastal states to stop piracy against Spain and Portugal. However, in order to replace Calicut's status as a spice trading port and obtain huge tax revenues, the prince of Cochin took the initiative to take refuge in Spain and Portugal and acted as the leading party.

Indian pepper is produced in many areas, not only in the state of Calicut. And those pepper suppliers, whether they ship in the port of Calicut or in Cochin. As far as they were concerned, except for the local pepper merchants in the small state of Calicut, the other pepper merchants sold to whoever gave the money.

As for Ceylon (Sri Lanka), which supplied cinnamon, and Southeast Asian merchants, who offered cloves and cinnamon, they were even less important. Anyway, Calicut and Cochin are both ports on the southwest coast of India. In the end, where these spice merchants did business depended on the outcome of the final naval battle. If the Spanish and Portuguese forces win, then the spice trade center is likely to be transferred to Cochin. Of course, if the Spanish and Portuguese coalition had taken Calicut, they might still be in Calicut, but the controllers would have been Spain and Portugal. And if the coalition wins, needless to say, the center of the spice trade is still in Calicut, and the Zammerin family is still in control......

Therefore, whether Calicut will continue to serve as India's spice distribution center in the future, or whether Cochin will replace it, will depend on the outcome of the next naval battle......

However, because both warring sides need a lot of time to prepare. Therefore, to fight, at least until next year......

……

Marin doesn't have time to bother with disputes in the Indian Ocean now, and even if he did, it would be useless. Because, he didn't intervene in the energy and strength over there.

It is said that in order to completely dominate the spice trade in the Indian Ocean, the two countries may increase the number of warships from 27 to 40. Moreover, they are all large Clark sailboats. These are all professional warships, and the rest of the Caravel galleons that can transport cargo and assist in combat are not counted......

Marin didn't bother with India, and what he was worried about now was the control of the Americas. During this time, he prepared a large number of ships and supplies, as well as related personnel, to send Ben to Panama to build a city and establish an excellent freshwater port.

However, Ben tells Marin that it is not so easy to travel to Panama City by sea. The rest of the road is fine, just in the southernmost part of South America, the Tierra del Fuego, which is a very dangerous nautical section.

The shipping lanes there are narrow, and ships are prone to running aground and running aground if they are not careful. And, on the way from the Atlantic Ocean into the Pacific Ocean, you will be greeted by a violent westerly wind.

So, when walking through the crooked strait that Marin inexplicably named the "Strait of Magellan", the handling of the sailboat was very troublesome.

If you use a sail, it is not only difficult to move forward against the wind, but it is also easy to have accidents, such as running aground or hitting a rock. So, when passing through this strait, Ben and his boat, used a spinnaker. According to the sailing habits learned from Columbus, Ben's ship was also prepared with two sets of sails: a crosssail and a spinnaker. When there is a tailwind, naturally hang the sail to make full use of the wind. And when encountering headwinds and winds blowing sideways, it is natural to change to a spinnaker.

From Grenada, it travels south along the east coast of South America, then through the Strait of Magellan, and north along the west coast of South America. The wind belt was changed many times, and the wind direction was very unstable. So, starting south from Grenada, Aben's boat used a spinnaker most of the time.

But this spinnaker, which was called the Latin Sail by Europeans, was very troublesome to handle.

First of all, it should be explained here that the mast of a sailing ship is often tied to a crossbar. And this crossbar is mainly used as a supporting skeleton for the sails. Otherwise, the sails will not be spread.

In a schooner, the crossbar is naturally fastened to the mast. In addition, it is perpendicular to the mast and tied to the mast horizontally. The sail that hangs down from the crossbar is the sail.

Unlike the Latin spinnaker, which also has a crossbar bound to a huge spinnaker. However, the beam is not fixed, but can be adjusted (you can see the picture of the Arabian spinnaker or the Kirk sailing ship hanging the spinnaker, in fact, the Latin sail was made by European Mediterranean sailors who stole the Arabian spinnaker technique).

It's just that the adjustment of the Latin sail is also very troublesome. Whenever the wind direction is changed after the rudder is turned, the spinnaker should also change position and continue to sail in a different direction.

It should be pointed out that this kind of crossbar tied to the mast is called a sail boom. On a schooner, because the boom is tied, it is naturally positive. Schooners, on the other hand, dhows with Latin sails, had their booms tied diagonally to the mast. Therefore, it is called an oblique girder. Moreover, in order to drive the ship forward, the general way to tie the girder is to tie the lower end in front of the mast, and the high end to tie it behind the mast. The triangular tip of the jib is then tied to the left or right side of the boat by the sailor, depending on the direction of the wind.

In this way, the spinnaker will puff up for a ride when it is exposed to the side wind. Then, the wind is transferred to the girders, and then to the masts, which drive the ship forward.

However, the reversal of this spinnaker is more troublesome. After turning the rudder or the wind suddenly changing direction, in order to continue the drive in a different direction, the sailor first untied the rope of the triangular tip of the jib that had been fixed before, and received the jib onto the jirdle. Then, untie the rope to the girder, put the truss up, and then pass through the mast and go around to the other side of the mast. By releasing the sails and rebinding the triangular tip, you can take advantage of the wind on the other side......

However, this is too cumbersome and time-consuming. If it's on the wide ocean, it's nothing, it's just a big deal to spend a little more time. But if it is in a narrow strait with high winds and waves, it can kill people......

You're slowly manipulating the spinnaker there, but time is of the essence. If you are not careful, while the sailors are busy changing directions, the ship is pushed into the shallows by the wind and waves and runs aground or simply hits the reef, and it is over......

So, to be on the safe side, it's best to have a quick way to change direction for the spinnaker......

Then Marin remembered the upper edge of the ramp sail of later generations......

In later generations, almost all modern sailing boats used top-edge jirs, why? It's not that this kind of sail ride is the most capable. Rather, this kind of upper edge diagonal truss sail is the easiest to handle and very labor-saving. You know, the times are different, and modern people are so expensive to be thieves! Hire one more sailor, and the boss may go bankrupt...... So, this sailor-saving upper edge jill sail came into being......

Marlin later heard of an extra-large flying scissor sailing ship called the Wyoming, which was equipped with six masts and had an average speed of 16 knots. However, the sailors who control the sails need 14 people—too much to save salaries......

When Marin thought of this, he burst into tears - Columbus's small wrecked ship of more than 100 tons to explore the New World needed 40 sailors to complete. The 250-class armed merchant ships that Marin now uses also need fifty or sixty sailors. The Wyoming clipper, with a displacement of tens of thousands of tons, only needs 14 sailors to operate...... That's a lot of manpower......

Although, manpower is not worth much in this era. Unlike later generations of workers, Nima had to pay five insurances and one housing fund in addition to his salary...... However, if each ship needs fewer manpower and the number of manpower remains the same, it is possible to control more ships!

Is Marin short of ships? For the time being, it is missing. However, soon there was no shortage of them. This is because a lot of the oak trees cut down by Marin's colonies in the Americas have been dried for more than two years and can be used for a large number of shipbuilding.

However, due to the current limitation of the number of shipbuilders, there is no large-scale explosion of ships. But Marin had already established a shipbuilding technical school and began to train shipbuilders on a large scale. As long as there are enough shipbuilders and countless tree resources in the Americas, shipbursts can be expected. However, it would be embarrassing if there were not enough sailors......

Therefore, it is also important for Marin to save manpower to control the sailboat......