After leaving Baleen Whale Harbour, the fleet turned north-east, heading southwesterly at a speed of 6 knots, towards the southwest of South Africa.

In this smooth environment, the graceful shape of the "Breaking Waves" has been perfectly reflected. After raising all the canvases, the Breaking Wave has reached a super high speed of 12-13 knots with sails alone, not to mention the speed bonus of about 3 knots provided by the steam paddle paddle. In other words, in this sea area where a strong westerly wind blows, the speed of the "Breaking Wave" is unique. Even if she went to sea alone, in the face of full power and a maximum speed of 15-16 knots, those slow Dutch pirate ships could only sigh.

"It can be modified on the ship in the future, and it can also be used for whaling, hehe." Standing on the top deck of the stern, Zhang Xiao said in a high-spirited manner, "Add a small cannon that fires a whaling fork with gunpowder, and then you can carry out whaling operations." Nowadays, the domestic industry is developing, especially the rapid development of the machinery industry, and the demand for high-grade lubricants is also increasing. Whales, on the other hand, are animals that can extract a large amount of oil, and the market prospect is quite broad. After all, it's not very appropriate to use olive oil and wax to lubricate the machine now, and the production of oil from the killing of sea lions and seals in Baleen Whale Harbor alone is not enough. Well, it's better to hunt whales. It's just that we don't have enough manpower now, otherwise we could really form some whaling fleets to whaling in the waters near the Falklands. ”

Whales are migratory creatures that inhabit the Southern Ocean, the waters off Antarctica south of 60 degrees south latitude. This area is isolated from other seas due to the westerly drifting zone, and the water temperature is relatively cold, but the life is abundant. It thus becomes the main habitat for whales. in this sea area. The density of whales is much higher than in other regions. And whenever the Southern Ocean enters winter. When the waters begin to freeze, whales leave the area and head north in search of warmer waters. At this time, the waters around the Falklands are often infested with large whales, and if there are some whaling boats operating in this area, it will definitely be a big catch.

Of course, as Zhang Xiao said, the current population of the East Coast Republic is too small and the foundation is too thin. There are really no extra manpower and boats to go out to sea, and this can only be a long-term goal.

Shortly after leaving Baleen Whale Harbor, the Breaking Wave lowered most of its sails and then turned on its steam engine, which was partially powered by steam-powered paddle paddle propellers, and along with several other vessels, it maintained a speed of 6 knots. Zhang Xiao wanted to test the stability and reliability of the "Popeye-1" steam engine and its transmission equipment currently in use, after all, it has been at sea for so long, and this steam power has not been tried seriously. Although they had been able to operate 120 hours of continuous operation in the Duck Lake, it was in the calm inner lake, and now it is in the treacherous South Atlantic. It's hard to say what will happen to that.

The results of the test can only be said to be mixed. Departing from Baleen Whale Harbor on August 12 and arriving at Fort River, South Africa on September 7. The steam engine ran for a record 26 days in a row. In these 26 days, there were many minor faults and problems in the entire steam power system, and almost half of the parts had been replaced. And in the last week, a spring expansion coil in the cylinder failed, causing the air tightness of the cylinder to begin to decline, and the direct consequence was that the speed of the "Breaking Wave" slowly dropped by about 1 knot.

But fortunately, there were no major failures, which already made Zhang Xiao more satisfied. After all, when the "Breaking Waves" was on trial voyage for the first time, it had just driven a few hundred meters before the steam engine suddenly struck and the ship stopped on the river. The group of people from the Ministry of Communications and the Admiralty, who came to attend the inaugural voyage ceremony, were disgraced, and their faces were even more gloomy in the face of the modern special shipyard, from the director and engineer to the technicians, craftsmen and apprentices.

Since then, Wei Hua, the director of the factory, began to gather everyone for a meeting, raised the issue of strict quality control in a high-profile manner, and sent some of the staff in charge of the quality inspection department to the No. 1 Machinery Factory, which provided parts for steam engines, to guide their machine tool operators on how to better process all kinds of parts and components required by modern special shipyards. The parts and components used in the steam engine on the "Breaking Wave" were processed at that time, and although they have been damaged a lot, the reason is more due to the problem of material than the problem of machining accuracy.

The reason for this is that the current metallurgical industry of the East Coast Republic of China is short of non-ferrous metals such as manganese, chromium, and tungsten, and the quality of various steel products produced is generally lacking. For this problem, we don't have a good way to solve this problem at present, who let the East Coast not have these minerals, let's make do with it. Parts are easily damaged, so produce more spare parts and put them there, and replace them with the breakage to minimize losses.

Although there are many problems, the "Breaking Waves" multi-purpose ship still has set many records in the history of the East Coast Republic of China. One is that the ship set a record of 26 days for the longest continuous operation of a steam-powered ship (one day of shutdown and maintenance); The second is that the ship has sailed a total of about 4,500 nautical miles, which is the longest range of a steam-powered ship. Third, the ship has challenged a variety of different sea conditions, verifying the reliability of the steam paddle steamer in the west wind zone of the Falklands. All in all, this trial voyage was very rewarding, and it provided extremely important first-hand information for the improvement of steam-powered ships in the future.

After a thorough overhaul of the "Popeye-1" steam engine in the harbor of the river, on 9 September, the multi-purpose ship "Breaking Waves" and the fast cruiser "Yangwu" escorted two flute-type transport ships loaded with more than 400 slaves of the Eight Banners and a large number of weapons, ammunition, foodstuffs, and other materials, leaving the port of South Africa, turning south, and heading for the new Chinese colony.

On October 3, the four ships heading upstream, driven by strong southeasterly winds, finally arrived at the Xinhuabao pier at the northern tip of Madagascar. Thankfully, the New China region is still at the end of the dry season, which is a relief for sailors who are accustomed to coming to Xinhua Fort on rainy days.

With the increasing demand for high-quality hardwood resources in China, the new Chinese colony has now become more and more important in the eyes of the executive committee leaders, not to mention that now Xinhua Fort is now undertaking the important task of opening up the bridgehead and departure port of the eastern route. The Irish foremen on the docks commanded a group of Eight Banner slaves to begin unloading several ships moored by the trestle, apparently for the first time they had seen a ship like the "Breaking Wave" with a flat chimney, but they didn't dare to ask, just buried their heads and began to unload.

The one million yuan of silver coins at the bottom of the "Breaking Waves" was the most important batch of cargo escorted by this trip. Shi Qinjie, the supreme governor of the New China Colony, finally breathed a sigh of relief after seeing the money arrive, and in two or three months, the first batch of Ming immigrants from the East might arrive. Moreover, the place of the transaction has clearly stated that it is the New China Colony, if Shi Qinjie does not have the money to pay for this immigration fee at that time, he really can't imagine what to do when the time comes? Will those angry Portuguese captains take advantage of the situation to tear down Fort Neunew?

Fortunately, the first money in the country has been paid, and it is still as much as one million yuan, which is enough for him to pay for the first batch of immigrants. I heard that the local people are still raising follow-up funds everywhere, so this time the immigrants should not have much of a problem in terms of money.

More than 400 new Eight Banner overseers and slaves were led to the quarters by the administrators, where they were to undergo urgent training on how to survive in the tropics to avoid repeating the mistakes of some of their predecessors. After the training, they will be sent to the fort construction site at the mouth of the bay to start installing some of the coastal defense heavy guns that have been brought from the mainland.

The foundations, gun emplacements, and underground storage facilities of the battery have been built quite a bit, and now it is time to place the artillery. There are three forts, which are located at the top of the northern headland of the strait, the small island adjacent to the north headland, and the top of the south headland, from north to south, and are called the No. 1, 2, and 3 batteries respectively. The three forts are made of a mixture of stone and brick, and so far less than 20 gun emplacements have been built, and according to the plan, the final total number of coastal defense gun emplacements is 36, which means that 36 coastal defense heavy guns will eventually be installed here.

Thirty of the thirty-six coastal defense guns were installed on batteries No. 1 and No. 3, respectively, while the No. 2 battery on the island was allocated only six guns. Similar to the layout of the four major forts in Dongfang Port, these 36 guns formed horns with each other, forming crossfire, and there were basically no dead ends for shooting. If the enemy begins to land and attack one of the batteries, they will soon fall under the fire of some of the guns on the other two batteries, and the losses will be considerable.

There can be no doubt that when all thirty-six coastal defense guns are in place, and a large number of skilled gunners have been trained, any enemy fleet will have to be carefully weighed when attacking it. After all, such a lineup of batteries is simply too luxurious. In this era, no country can cast so many high-quality steel cannons in one breath like the East Coast, and it is precisely with the existence of these large-caliber heavy artillery that every port of the East Coast people can be impregnable.

After the completion of the construction of the coastal defense fort, the construction of the land defense fortifications, which is even more huge, will also be included in the official agenda. Coastal forts are fragile without army protection, and once these land fortifications are built, the local army garrison will move their barracks here, and the defense of Fort Xinhua will be handed over to the militia in the city. (To be continued......)