After sailing out of the well-fortified mouth of Duck Lake, the fleet began to turn west-south, sailing southward with currents and crosswinds. Beginning on 29 July, the fleet crossed the mouth of the Río de la Plata, the Bay of San Mattías, and followed the long Patagonian coastline southward, arriving at the snowy Port of the Falklands on 10 August.

The South Atlantic Ocean in winter is violent, especially in the baleen whale harbor, where the weather is extremely bad all year round, where westerly winds blow above level 5 all year round, and there are huge surges in the entrance channel all year round, and if you are not careful, you may run aground or run aground, which is a great test of the captain's piloting skills.

Led by the flagship frigate "Red Trout", the ships lowered most of their sails and carefully controlled their direction as they navigated the current with great difficulty toward the harbor. At this moment, the slender hull slowly passed through this section of the sea water flow at a low speed of more than 2.5 knots in the sound of paddle and the billowing black smoke coming out of the chimney, and entered the relatively calm berth of the baleen whale harbor.

After the "Breaking Waves" turned off the main engine and lowered the head and tail anchors, Zhang Xiao walked out of the engine room with satisfaction. Along the way, the "Breaking Wave" turned off the main engine most of the time, and only relied on the sail to move along the current, maintaining a "low speed" of 4-6 knots throughout the whole process. That is, not far from Baleen Whale Harbor, after obtaining the permission of Lieutenant Li Yi, the commander-in-chief of the fleet, Zhang Xiao turned on the steam engine and slowly pressurized the boiler. Finally, he relied on pure steam power to safely pass through the waterway with many swells.

It turns out. In case of rough weather or sea conditions. Steam-powered boats have better handling and safety. In areas with variable currents and rapid swells, such as the baleen whale inbound waterway and the Strait of Magellan, the superiority of steam-powered ships is incomparable. It's just that it would be nice to replace the paddle propeller that drives the ship with a propeller, the efficiency of the paddle propeller is enough at low speeds, but it is still a little slower when sailing in the ocean. It is a pity that the shipyard has not solved the problem of underwater sealing of the propeller spindle, so it can only be dealt with with by paddle steamers first, and then converted to propeller drive after solving the technical difficulties in the future.

The load of the "Breaking Wave" is about 730 tons. At this time, in addition to the supplies brought in, the cabin was loaded with about 300 tons of refined coal. If steam power is used (assuming that there are no breakdowns along the way), based on the consumption of 160 kilograms of coal per hour and the speed of 3 knots, then it can theoretically sail more than 5,600 nautical miles.

What is the concept of more than 5600 nautical miles? Starting from the port of the East and crossing the South Atlantic Ocean in a straight line, and then arriving at the port of the river in South Africa, the distance between this is only three or four thousand nautical miles, which means that the Republic of China on the east coast of China can already reach the South African colony directly from the mainland without looking at the face of the ocean current and the direction of the wind. Of course, this coal is only enough for one trip, and if you want to make a smooth round trip, you will need to set up a large coal storage base in Hezhong Port. It is used to refuel passing steamships.

However, in reality, it is not so complicated, and it is a direct voyage from Dongfang Port to Hezhong Port. It's not always the right wind along the way, and many times you can still use the sails to provide some power for the voyage. Therefore, it does not take much time to cross the Atlantic Ocean between the mainland and South Africa, and on average, the whole journey can still reach a speed of 4-5 knots, so that the time taken from the port of Vostochny to South Africa is actually just over a month, which is more than ten days shorter than taking the southern route. In this way, coal is basically barely enough, and it would be safer if the local steam engines were more efficient, the ships were loaded with more coal, or the thermal coal with a higher calorific value of combustion could be replaced.

Zhang Xiao was very happy with this understanding, if the "Breaking Waves" really successfully carried out a long-distance cross-sea voyage, then it could really be regarded as a milestone in the industrial history of the East Coast Republic of China. Well, why don't you try a hybrid sail on the way to the river port next? If it succeeds, then there will be no big problem in applying to the Ministry of Transport for the construction of the same class ship "Chopper" with waist paddle wheels installed on both sides.

At the beginning, when the modern special shipyard reported the plan, it reported two ships of the same class in one go. One of them is the "Breaking Wave", and the other is the "Chopper". The two ships have exactly the same size, displacement, sail surface and other data, the only difference is that the "Breaking Wave" only has a paddle paddle installed at the tail, while the "Chopper" has a paddle paddle on each side of the waist. Wei Hua, the director of the Hyundai Special Shipyard, plans to build both ships, and then test them to see which one is more powerful.

It's just that at that time, Xiao Bailang's "own son" of the General Administration of Railways was vigorously launching the railway, consuming a lot of hardwood resources transported back from New China; In addition, the hungry navy began to stop insisting on using all Brazilian mahogany to build warships, but instead use the hardwood of the New China region to make frigates, so this wood resource suddenly became strained. Later, not surprisingly, the plan of the "Chopper" multi-purpose ship was shot dead by Xiao Bailang, and only the permission to build a ship was granted to the modern special shipyard. However, the situation is different now, as long as Zhang Xiao can prove that the "Breaking Waves" is indeed excellent, can take on a variety of tasks, and most importantly, can effectively shorten the time to cross the ocean, then the Ministry of Communications will definitely not stop itself from building new steam-powered ships.

Moreover, the reason why this type of boat is called a multi-purpose boat is really because it has a variety of functions. For example, special chains are installed on the ship to measure the depth of the water, for example, a large fishing trawl operated by a steam winch is installed on the ship, for example, a small desalination device for cooking seawater is installed on the ship, and there is even a small surgical operation room next to the captain's room on the second floor of the stern. In addition, a total of 18 guns were placed on the deck of the ship, including two powerful 24-pounder guns.

Some steel plates were added to the important parts of the ship, which greatly enhanced the protection of the ship, and also made the weight of the ship reach more than 300 tons. From here, we can easily see that this "Breaking Wave" multi-purpose ship is actually tailor-made for exploring unfamiliar routes. All of her functions are designed for sea exploration, in other words, the ship's ability to survive at sea is much better than that of ordinary ships.

No, when the fleet passed through the mouth of the La Plata, Zhang Xiao ordered the sailors to use large trawls to catch a net of fish. The fish are fresh and delicious sage, and the catch is processed on the spot in a special cabin. After leaving enough food for the entire boat for two days, the rest of the fish was processed and stacked with salt as reserve food.

The crew of the small desalination plant also tried it out, and the seawater was boiled in the unit, and the resulting water vapor was condensed and collected in the pipes, and then it could be used as drinking water. The only drawback of this device may be that it consumes too much coal to be used for a long time, and can only be used for emergencies. In addition, the water vapor discharged from the steam engine boiler when the pressure is depressurized is also collected through special pipes for next use. After all, it is a sea voyage, and it is a little bit to save a little fresh water.

The ship is currently owned by the South China Sea Transportation Company and the Admiralty, but it is estimated that she will soon be transferred to the Navy. Because opening up and exploring the Far East route is not what the "Breaking Waves" is best at?

After a few hours of tossing, the other four ships were finally anchored safely in the marina of Baleen Whale Harbor. The berths in the harbor are empty, and not many people want to come to this place where birds don't, and the occasional ones who come to the harbor to take refuge are the ships of unscrupulous merchants.

Baleen Whale Harbor's mayor, former Army Sergeant Matthias, personally came to the docks to greet the incoming fleet. Because he heard that the mainland would bring him a batch of immigrants this time, he must know that the population of Baleen Whale Harbor has only increased to more than 400 after so many years. It was not convenient for such a small population to do anything, so the local inhabitants also cultivated some fields near the port, growing vegetables, potatoes and sweet potatoes, and raising some large white pigs and beef cattle, so that they could be well supplied when the national fleet passed by.

Some of the vicuñas and sheep brought back from Tierra del Fuego and Chile are now breeding well on the island, and most of the small amount of wool produced is consumed locally on the island. In addition, the Ministry of Agriculture has set up a small military horse farm on the island, raising about 200 horses.

Probably the only industry on the island is that the township government organizes residents to kill some seals and sea lions on their own initiative to obtain their fur and refine lubricant. However, the number of these animals that are hunted each year is severely limited to ensure that the population does not decline rapidly and become endangered.

The 300 new immigrants (half French and half Guarani) were quickly arranged by the township government. Next, they will use the building materials brought by the fleet to build houses for themselves, and then settle and live in the area. In view of the extremely important geographical location of Baleen Whale Harbor, the Republic of East Coast of China has continuously strengthened the docks, forts and urban defense facilities here over the years to give it a certain degree of self-protection.

After unloading supplies and population at Baleen Whale Harbor, the five ships were replenished with some fresh fresh water, vegetables, and meat, and some sick men were also placed here to recuperate, and then set sail again on August 12 and left Baleen Whale Harbor. (To be continued......)