The Penghu Islands are an island lacking in fresh water, with no rivers and only some small lakes that are waterlogged. Because it is located in the "Pacific water vapor shadow area" of Taiwan Island, the Penghu Islands have become a rare relatively arid area on the southeast coast, and the wind is strong.

The characteristics of Taiwan Island are that the eastern coastal and northern coastal areas of the eastern part of the island are rainy, while the western coastal area has less rainfall. For example, the Budai Salt Field on the southwest coast of Taiwan Island is a famous Pacific water vapor shadow area, with many sunny days, which is very suitable for salt drying.

Speaking of which, the Penghu Islands, which also belong to the Pacific water vapor shadow area of Taiwan Island, are also suitable for salt drying. However, Marin does not intend to promote.

Because, if you really want to dry salt here, it will be miserable to be learned by the Portuguese. The vast coasts of North Africa were more suitable for salting, and if the Portuguese were to dry salt on the coasts of North and West Africa, Marin's salt-boiling business would be immediately ruined. Therefore, he would rather have good skills and not use it, and insist on boiling salt. After all, the cost of boiling salt with coal is much lower than that of boiling salt with firewood, which can form a cost advantage.

However, because there are no rivers, there is a lack of freshwater river ports on the Penghu Islands. In this way, the warships that have been docked in Penghu Shuizhai for a long time are easy to be eaten by ship maggots and the bottom of the ship...... So, how did Daming Shui Shi solve this problem?

"If you make the bottom of the ship with ironwood, the maggots won't be able to gnaw it!" A shipbuilder from Longjiangbao Shipyard explained.

"What?" Marin was directly dumbfounded. He didn't expect that the Ming Dynasty would solve the problem of ship maggots so simply and rudely. Iron wood, a hard wood that even a ship maggot can't gnaw on. But, used to build the bottom of the ship...... It seems like a bit extravagant......

Marin didn't know that although there were not many Tieli wood in this era, it was not a few. Because of its excellent properties, it was cut down in large quantities and used for shipbuilding, furniture, and even city gates. Therefore, iron power wood is also consumed in large quantities. In later generations, because of too much consumption, Tieli wood has been listed as a national second-class protected plant by the state.

But in this day and age, ironwood was not scarce. Even, the Ming Dynasty also had a warship made of iron-powered wood, 400 materials, and the cost was only seven or eight hundred taels of silver, which still included the cost of craftsmen's wages. Zheng He's treasure ships in the Western Ocean were so big that they cost only about 2,000 taels of silver each.

According to the shipbuilders of the Longjiang Bao Shipyard rewarded by the Ming court, the cost of building a large ship like Marin's 500-ton warship was all made of iron wood, and the cost was only three or four thousand taels. If it is only the bottom and side of the iron wood, the cost is only about 2,000 taels......

"Damn—" Marin couldn't help but explode.

You must know that his 500-ton battleship, in the case of using oak, costs as much as tens of thousands of gold coins. A gold coin is worth 1.14 taels of silver according to the calculation of 1 to 12 gold and silver coins. In other words, the cost of the Marin battleship is as high as more than 11,400 taels.

Even if cheap American timber were used for shipbuilding in the future, it would only be half the cost. After all, European shipbuilder salaries are really high...... Coupled with the price of paint and drying oil, you can't save it......

But if you build a ship on the Ming side, all of them are made of iron wood, and the cost is much lower than that in Europe. Of course, the premise is that you have to use low-wage Daming shipbuilders......

According to the current salary, the annual salary of Daming shipbuilders is only a few taels of silver, and the annual salary of top shipbuilders is not more than 10 taels. And the shipbuilders of the Beihai Kingdom, even if they are apprentice shipbuilders, have a daily salary of 3 pfennig, and the annual salary reaches 21.7 taels. The annual salary of a seasoned shipbuilder can be equivalent to more than 40 taels...... The difference in salary alone is several times greater......

Therefore, Ma Lin instantly decided to set up a shipyard on Daming's side to directly import plates from Daming for shipbuilding, and the cost can be as low as explosive.

However, according to the craftsmen of Longjiang Bao Shipyard, the shipbuilding of the Ming Dynasty was built in sections, and it was built step by step according to the watertight compartment. This is not a problem, the problem is that most of the shipbuilding timber in the Ming Dynasty was cut, and there were very few logs that could be used as keels. Even if there were, it had just been harvested and had not had time to divide it. But to build the keel of a sea ship, you need to wait a year or two...... Therefore, Marin's idea of using European shipbuilding technology to explode ships on Daming's side has been temporarily frustrated, and it will be feasible for at least two years. Moreover, it is necessary to order enough large materials as keels now......

In this regard, Marin was also deeply helpless. He thought about transporting the keel from the Americas, but the keel was dozens of meters long, and it was not very suitable for ocean shipping at all. Therefore, the shipyard on the Taiwan side can only wait for the keel material on the Daming side to dry enough.

But in any case, it is necessary to use iron power wood as a side guard. Iron wood sideboard, ordinary iron ball shells are simply difficult to penetrate. Wrap an iron sheet again, it's really invincible......

It's just that it is said that the number of shipbuilders provided by the Ming school to himself this time seems to be a bit much. Therefore, Marin did not intend to leave all these craftsmen here to build ships. After all, they still have to wait for the big material suitable as a keel to dry out, and they can't build ships for the time being. In other words, for the time being, Western-style warships cannot be built.

Therefore, Marin planned to bring most of the shipbuilders to New York and build warships in batches from red oak. As for the island of Taiwan, only 2,000 craftsmen remained, divided into two teams, and used the iron power wood of the Ming Dynasty to build ships. In this way, it is not necessary to delay the explosion of ships now, but also to obtain a fleet of luxury warships made of iron and wood in the future......

……

Speaking of timber, these days, when Ma Lin inspected the logging in the Taipei Basin, he actually found that among the many trees that were cut down, there were many camphor trees.

Camphor wood itself is a good material for shipbuilding, as it is resistant to seawater corrosion. However, Marin knew that shipbuilding was not a problem compared to the use for which it could refine mothballs.

Because, the fragrant cedar on Taiwan Island is also an excellent shipbuilding timber. However, the only thing that can refine camphor is camphor wood......

So, Marin hired a skilled carpenter and sorted the wood. For example, the cedars are all left to dry and wait to be used for shipbuilding. The camphor wood that was cut down was all picked out and used to refine camphor......

……

Why is camphor refined? Marlin wasn't trying to get mothballs to repel insects in the closet, but to get smokeless gunpowder......

As mentioned earlier (in the chapter of harmony), smokeless gunpowder burns too quickly and requires a passivator. Marlin used paraffin wax before, but the paraffin passivation effect is average, and camphor is the best passivating agent that Marlin can obtain at present.

Marin did not graduate with a major in chemical engineering, so naturally he could not make phenylenediamine that was more suitable as a smokeless powder passivator. However, camphor is still readily available. It can be said that camphor is the best passivating agent that can be extracted from nature. At the end of the 19th century, in the process of developing smokeless gunpowder, Nobel and other bigwigs invariably chose camphor as the passivating agent for new gunpowder. The French, on the other hand, had a problem with the use of paraffin, and because of the spontaneous combustion of gunpowder, they sank one of their own battleships......

Marlin is also working on a new type of smokeless gunpowder, although the production is small, but it can also be used to do big things at critical moments.

It's just that wooden boats are more fragile. If there was an accident with smokeless powder added with paraffin, the wooden warship would be dead. Therefore, Marin now did not dare to easily put smokeless powder with paraffin wax on the battleship. The steel battleships of the French at the end of the 19th century could be sunk, not to mention the flammable wooden ships?

But smokeless gunpowder is very powerful, especially when used as a propellant. Used to shell enemy ships, absolutely awesome. Therefore, Marlin has long been waiting to replace paraffin with camphor as a passivating agent and stabilizer for smokeless gunpowder. Once stable and powerful smokeless gunpowder was obtained, it was time for Marin to apply them to naval guns......

……

Under Marin's command, the carpenters cut all the camphor wood material they had cut into thin slices. Then, it is distilled in an airtight container with water. The resulting steam is condensing...... After that, the white crystals of crude camphor are obtained, as well as the liquid camphor oil......

Camphor oil is left alone, and crude camphor can be further purified to obtain the camphor for military use that Marin coveted......

And camphor is one of the important goals of Marin to occupy Taiwan Island. After all, Taiwan Island was known as the "Camphor Kingdom" in later generations, and there were many camphor trees on the island......

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