On February 15, 1689, the high latitudes of the Southern Cone were already feeling a little cooler. But on the docks of Huangyang Harbor, a group of workers in the uniforms of the Black Mountain Industrial Company are still in full swing as they put the finishing touches on a medium-sized ship lying in a wet dock.

The tonnage of this ship is about 600 tons, and it is an improved version of the once famous all-steam-powered ship "Dingjun Mountain", called "Seagull", which is manufactured by the Xuefeng Lake Shipyard under the Black Mountain Industrial Company. Of course, due to the restrictions of Xuefeng Lake and Huangyang River, the power system and some internal equipment of this boat are manufactured in Xuefeng Lake, but the hull is completed in a branch factory affiliated to the company at the mouth of the Huangyang River.

The "Seagull" was ordered by the Nanhai Liner Company. They ordered four ships of the same type, namely the "Seagull", "Petrel", "Albatross" and "Puffin". The first of them, the Seagull, is close to being delivered, and the next three are still under intense construction, but it is estimated that they will be delivered within the year.

In other words, this year, the Nanhai Liner Company will have a fully steam-powered ocean-going shipping fleet with a tonnage of 2,400 tons. This fleet will form a fixed route between the mainland Qingdao Port and the South African Dayuan Port, with a frequency every three months, regardless of the ocean current and wind direction, and also have a strong survivability in bad weather, contributing to the exchange between the mainland and South Africa.

The top management of the Nanhai Group (the sole shareholder of the Nanhai Liner Company) has decided that if the official commercial voyage next year (1690) is more successful, the company will allocate additional funds for the purchase of eight such vessels by the end of next year to form a larger fleet to accelerate the exchange of goods, personnel and information between the mainland and South Africa.

They optimistically expect that after the addition of these 12 ships with a total of 7,200 tons of transport tonnage, the shipping market between South Africa and the mainland will usher in a complete reshuffle. From now on, those old sailboats and sailboats will usher in a period of painful struggle, and they will have little other way than to reduce the price of competition. Considering that sailors take risks to sail to sea in pursuit of high income, this kind of price reduction method is actually not very easy to use, and there is not much space. Therefore, if in the future, instead of transporting goods to the sea to do business by themselves, but simply helping people transport goods, they probably will not survive, and they can only change careers or go to other places to do business.

Of course, this does not mean that sailboats and sailboats will be completely eliminated from the east coast. In fact, there is a long process from the emergence of new things to their development and growth, and they cannot be achieved overnight. Moreover, this kind of all-steam-powered ship can only be built by Montenegro Industrial Company at present, with limited production capacity and low price, so it is not realistic to popularize it in the short term.

Not to mention, the sailboat also has its own advantage, which is the endless wind power on the sea, which is much cheaper than the steam-powered ship that burns coal. The same is true for sailing ships, which have less power steam propulsion systems, are turned off most of the time, sail with currents and wind, and only briefly start their steam engines when they are in or out of port or when wind power is not available, so they can be considered sailing ships most of the time and are less expensive to sail.

In later generations, at the beginning of the 20th century, the Germans also built the steel sailing ship "Big Prussia" with a full load displacement of more than 10,000 tons. This super-large five-masted sailing ship has obvious advantages in the ocean routes that lack coal supply, and the endurance is unlimited, and the fastest time to transport saltpeter from Hamburg to Chile is 57 days, the maximum speed is 20 knots, and the average run is 15 knots.

It can be seen that sailboats and sailboats still have their markets and will not be eliminated soon. Especially after new materials and technologies are widely used, the flying shear schooner is still useful. The vast fleet of sail carriers under the South Sea Transport Company, the East African Transport Company and the Ministry of Immigration will remain in service until they are replaced by new steamships purchased by the company. In fact, the greatest possibility is that they will be auctioned off to the public and into the pockets of private adventurers and maritime traders, and continue to exert their residual heat until they are completely damaged.

In any case, the replacement of sailing ships and even motor sailboats by all-steam-powered steamships is an inevitable trend that does not depend on anyone's will. Even if the sailboat and the sailboat will continue to struggle for a while, they will not be able to change the general trend, and there is no doubt that the steamship represents the future. It is believed that after the successful operation of the steamship fleet of the South China Sea Transportation Company for a year or two, the manufacturing technology of this kind of ship has also spread to several other state-owned shipyards, and the number of enterprises that can build it will become more and more, and the ocean shipping industry on the east coast will slowly enter the era of steamships.

On February 28, the steamship "Seagull" completed the final sweeping work and was received by a representative sent by the South China Sea Transportation Company. Some of the shipyard technicians and the crew of the South China Sea Transportation Company boarded the deck together, intending to go south with the ship, pass through Xingnan Port and Baleen Whale Port and return again to complete a sea trial.

It can be seen from the design route that the "Seagull" will sail against the current and against the wind for a period of time, and at the same time go to the sea area with strong winds and waves to be inspected, if there is no problem, then it proves that the quality of the ship is qualified, then the South China Sea Transportation Company will not be stingy, and the remaining money will soon be transferred to the account of the Xuefeng Lake Shipyard to complete the transaction.

On 4 March, the steamer Seagull finally arrived at anchorage at Baleen Whale Harbor at noon on the same day, overcoming the adverse effects of the adverse currents (the Falkland Current) and the headwind (southwesterly winds). The technicians on the ship carefully checked the operation of the machine, and found that it was quite good, and the run-in degree of each component was also deepening.

In order to test the performance of the boat, on the return trip, the "Seagull" also plans to purchase a large number of canned food and whale products here to Xingnan Port to see how the heavily loaded ship behaves in the rough seas near the Falklands.

When it comes to purchasing supplies at Baleen Whale Harbor, it is impossible not to mention the development of Baleen Whale Harbor today. The remote port, which serves as the logistical supply base for most whaling ships on the east coast, now has about 5,000 residents, most of whom live in and around the city of Baleen Whale Harbor.

In this port, there is a small ship repair center, which provides repair and maintenance services for merchant ships, whaling ships and even warships. However, the machinery and parts needed for repairs are all imported from the other side of the country, and Baleen Whale Harbor does not have such an industrial base, and it cannot have one.

In addition to the ship repair business, the main industry of the Falklands is probably the deep processing of the whales caught and then sold on land to make a profit. The vast majority of whale skins in the East Coast Republic are processed here, and even some water backs and galoshes are produced here, but on a small scale. As for whale oil, whale meat and so on, they also have their own processing factories, the best quality whale oil on the east coast is Falklands whale oil, followed by whale oil produced in Qingfeng County, Chile, which is also very good, but the production capacity is not as good as here.

The same is true of whale meat, which was a slightly coarse meat for low-class laborers on the east coast, until the bison of the Pampa Plains were captured in large numbers. Like whale oil, the largest producer of whale jerky (including canned products) on the East Coast is the Falklands Baleen Whale Harbor, followed by Qingfeng County, which supplies more than ninety percent of whale products to the East Coast Republic, including all kinds of oil, leather, meat, vitamins (obtained from whale internal organs or glands) and other gadgets (such as bras, skirts, etc.), and the quantity is still very large.

Of course, the Falklands also supply nearly half of the guano and seal droppings on the east coast, which is also a good resource, which can be used in both agriculture and chemical industry, and it depends on the brave Baleen Whale Harbor residents to obtain it all over the island and some of the nearby islands, which need to face the threat of strong winds and waves, but it is all worth it.

All in all, the baleen whale harbor still made a lot of money by exporting the above materials and supplying and repairing the ships, which gave them the capital to import all kinds of daily necessities from the mainland, and people's lives were generally not bad, the only drawback was that the weather here was not very good, and there was too much rain and snow, but it did not seem to be insurmountable.

The inhabitants of Baleen Whale Harbor have recently been trying to find a way to establish an independent county in order to escape the unfree fate of being managed by the port of Hungnam. When they talked to each other, they always felt that the bureaucrats in Xingnan County, across the sea, did not care about their development, but only blindly collected all kinds of taxes from them, so that they had no money for development. One of the most criticized by local residents is that the lighthouse in Baleen Whale Harbor was built by the Navy decades ago, which is slightly low and the lights are not bright enough.

However, I heard that the superiors did not notice their predicament, in fact, the Government Council has really been studying the establishment of Baleen Whale County recently. Once the county is established, the basic jurisdiction will include the entire Malvinas Islands in later life, as well as the nearby island of South Georgia, etc., and the land area is not large, but the sea area is very large. In the future, even if steamships were to prevail and Baleen Whale Harbor lost most of its supply and maintenance ship business, they would be able to make a living by shepherding sheep, fishing, whaling, and extracting guano. Even a few hundred years later, it will even be a good tourist destination and a starting point for visiting Antarctica, and the abundant oil and gas reserves in the surrounding seas are another wealth, and the overall economy is still good.

On March 8, the "Seagull" returned to Huangyang Port. The workers of the Xuefeng Lake shipyard dragged him into the dock, carefully inspected it up and down, and after confirming that there were no problems, they negotiated with the representatives of the South China Sea Transportation Company about the official delivery. The wealthy South China Sea Transportation Company did not talk nonsense, and after confirming that there was no problem, it signed an agreement with the shipyard and officially accepted the all-steamship, which was a solid step towards the formation of an ocean-going fleet.

Think about this time, European countries, especially England, were still worried about how to get the steam engine on the sailboat, and they were constantly making technical breakthroughs. But in the Far South New World, the people of the East Coast have slowly opened the era of steamships, and the gap is indeed quite large.