After a day's sailing, despite taking the zigzag route, facing the monsoon winds blowing northeast to the ocean, the speed of the passage remained at a moderate speed of more than five knots, about 10 kilometers in the world. By dark, it had covered about 150 kilometers. In this era, sailing generally sailed a short distance from the coast, and sailed through the center of the sea unless the route was particularly familiar.

After dark, Li Jing originally planned to go to bed early, and opened the small window above the desk to let in the air, but found that it was very dark outside, and the stars and moon could not be seen. The waves below are also clearly trending a little larger. Li Jing felt that the weather seemed to be changing, and he was not worried about the situation on the deck, so he took out his oilcloth raincoat and walked out of the cabin to the deck.

This batch of tarpaulin raincoats is a later style, with a hood and copper buttons. Everyone on the boat has it, when it was just sent down, the sailors were thundering, it was normal to get a body of water when the waves were big, and it was cold and wet in winter, very sinful, although this raincoat wrapped most of the body, but the calves and bare feet would be wet, but the clothes on the body were dry, it would be very warm, Li Jing considered that the rubber was developed to give everyone rubber non-slip boots in the future, so that even in the cold zone the boat will not be frostbitten.

Li Jing came to the bridge at the highest point of the whole ship, and saw that Boss Zhang was nervously directing the helmsman and other personnel to sail. Seeing Li Jing coming up, he hurriedly said, "Young Master, why did you come up, there is about to be a storm, and it is not safe up there." You'd better go back to the cabin."

"It's okay, I'm here to experience sailing this time, tie me a safety rope, and I'll be with you tonight."

Although everyone didn't speak, their eyes looked at Li Jing eagerly. A leader who can share their weal and woe is a beloved leader. Seeing that Li Jing insisted, Boss Zhang did not object, and commanded with Li Jing.

Li Jing saw that the helmsman was struggling to hold the rudder in the big waves, so he asked Boss Zhang, "Have you ever seen the steering wheel on the Francophone manship, the steering wheel is much more labor-saving and convenient than this old-fashioned hand rudder."

"I've seen it and know the principle, but most of our Daming shipyards don't use it, so our Daming ships still use old-fashioned rudders."

"I have drawings for this, and when I come back from Nanjing this time, I can change all the boats at home to the form of a steering wheel. In addition, I will invest in the construction of two types of new ships in the shipyard. One favors high speeds, shallow drafts, and low load capacity, with aspect ratios of more than eight or even nine. The size is calculated according to the displacement ton, and the current material is no longer used to calculate, the current material calculation is too troublesome, the material is a variable, the value of loading different things is not constant, and the shipbuilding industry uses materials to calculate, can not truly reflect the size.

I would suggest that it be expressed in tons later. This ship I am ready to scale up the displacement to 300 tons. Replenishment load 50 tons. The commercial cargo is 100 tons, and the draft is controlled at 2.5 meters, so that it can sail in most of the inland rivers with navigable conditions in the country, even if the section of the Sichuan River from Chongqing to Wuchang, the shallowest dry period is 2.8 meters, that is, the ruler we currently use is about equal to a little more than nine feet. ”

Boss Zhang asked, "Young Master, do you want to build a galleon of the Franco?"

Li Jing was a little surprised, "How much do you know about the galleon of the Francophone man?"

"I was a Fujianese when I was young, and I went to Nanyang to make a living for more than ten years, and I have been to Batavia (Jakarta, Indonesia), Manchurian (Singapore), and Luzon for a few years. I worked in the Batavia shipyard for eight years. I learned to repair sailboats with a red-haired master. Learn a little about Western sailboats. ”

"Do you know the Mediterranean, what was the name of the first sailing ship used in the Mediterranean?"

"I remember that back then, my master told me that it was a wooden sailing boat called "Barka". Small sailing boats made of low-grade timber are mostly used only as fishing boats along the coast. With the introduction of the Great Cannibal navigation technology, the Portuguese Franc Mans improved this sailing boat. ”

"At that time, the Great Cannibals were far more advanced in navigation than in Europe, and their ships used a kind of sail that was superior to the traditional four-cornered sail, which was a triangular skewer, which I had seen in Batavia. That is, what the Francois called the Latin sail. It's a bit similar to the sail you invented, young master. ”

"Sailing, I heard that this kind of sail makes better use of the wind, and on the basis of which the Portuguese built small fast sailing ships with two masts, which seem to be called Ville ships. Yes, it's called a Caravel ship. My master said that this kind of ship was welcomed by many seafarers after it came out. It is agile and easy to handle, and with a light hull and a spinnaker that works perfectly with each other, it is better able to combat the ever-changing walruses. Unfortunately, as a long-haul merchant vessel, it is significantly underloaded. ”

My master said that around the beginning of the Song Dynasty, there was a group of pirates called Vikings in the Northern Franco-Romanian region. A new type of ship appeared, different from the old pirate Viking slender longship, with a two-deck design and a single mast with square sails, as if it were called a Kirk.

It seems to have been named after the method of waterproofing the use of glue and some kind of filling during the construction process, which made up for the gaps in the joints of the hull. These new fleets monopolized the Baltic trade, and there was a business alliance similar to our Ming merchant gang called the Hanseatic League, which used Kirk ships as the core ships, and these people made a lot of money.

My master said that the Kirk ship was a sloop, and the sails used were four-cornered sails, and the lap method was used in the construction. The Kirk ship is a bit chubby and more suitable for carrying cargo, but the lap building method makes the hull not strong enough to resist long-term rough sea conditions. The loading capacity is not much, and the most warships cannot be equipped with too many guns, and the loose structure is easy to fall apart. Therefore, it was not satisfactory either, and was gradually replaced by the improved Spanish carrac sailboats.

At that time, there were many large late-model Kirk ships in Batavia to be repaired, and my master said that the galleons of the Franco-Robot were developed from the Kirk ships, and I was involved in the repair of three galleons (Spanish galleons). But how exactly it evolved is not clear.