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February 25, 1647, La Plata, Puerto del Plata.

The three-masted battleship "Prosecutor Judge", which was captured on the east coast, was cruising the open sea with a bright red background with a bright red eagle flag. In the harbor, several small boats of one or two hundred tons were making final preparations before sailing, and a group of men dressed in Mao suits and wearing headbands were being lectured on the shore.

Most of these men were new sailors from all over the world, including pirates from the Caribbean, sailors from neighbouring countries (Brazil and La Plata) attracted by high wages, French fishermen who had lost their jobs because of the heavy blow to the fishing industry, and the largest number were ordinary people recruited locally on the east coast, many of whom had previously worked in jobs unrelated to seafaring.

As the war with the Spaniards continued, the training of reserve sailors had to be on the agenda. After all, everyone knows that hundreds of casualties in a naval battle are light, and the east coast, where there is a shortage of sailors, obviously cannot afford to play a long-term war of attrition. Even if you're better at boating and better trained than others, so what? As a seafaring country with a rich heritage and a population of four or five million, Spain will also consume you to death. The last time the Spanish fleet of La Plata was encircled and annihilated in the port of Buenos Aires, the East Coast still suffered more than 25o casualties (of which only more than 70 were able to recover from injuries and return to the Navy), this casualty figure was really painful for the East Coasters, because in the East Coast region, it was too difficult to replenish sailors, and the country was full of thirst for sailors from the beginning.

So far, the number of registered seafarers in the country is only 2,413 (excluding the navy), which is only a tiny number compared to the European maritime powers. For example, in the 17th century, King Louis XIV of France decided to revive the navy. He ordered the French sailors who had served overseas to return home. As a result, more than 30,000 crew members responded in the Netherlands alone. It's a figure that can make the East Coast people die of shame. These 2,413 sailors are basically shouldering important tasks, and it is difficult to transfer manpower to replenish the navy's losses, and with the fact that the current naval navigation school can only graduate 3oo students every year, then it can only be said that the prospects of the navy on the east coast are really not good, and if it goes through a few more major battles, maybe the manpower will not be able to keep up.

Against this background, the Admiralty, with the assistance of the Executive Committee and the Council, began to select reserve sailors throughout the country. The so-called reserve sailor. It was to make up for the naval battle losses. Most of these new recruits are landlubbers, and they will be assigned to internships on fishing boats, transport ships, and warships, and will be sent to the Navy for selection after the six-month internship period. At the same time, the United Front Work Department in the Caribbean and adjacent regions was still ongoing, and many pirates and sailors from neighboring countries who wanted to be good were recruited.

In addition, since two years ago, the trading post in Bordeaux on the east coast had begun to recruit sailors in France. Because of the Spanish blows and the English and Portuguese ostracism, consciously or unconsciously, a large number of French boats engaged in cod fishing in Newfoundland have been expelled or plundered, and at its peak there were 4oo French fishing boats fishing for cod in Newfoundland waters, but only a third of them are still active there - mainly from Bordeaux, Nantes and Saint-Malo. And that's not all. French fishing boats fishing for herring off the British coast in Calais, Normandy and Picardi were also repeatedly attacked by the Spanish Dutch navy, and a large number of ships had to turn back. Fishermen are in a difficult situation due to their unemployment. Seeing the opportunity, the East Coast made successive sorties in Bordeaux, La Rochelle and other places, and recruited more than 4oo French immigrants to work on the East Coast in two years, which effectively supplemented the number of sailors in the country.

The 7oo "sailors" (more than two-thirds of whom are landlubbers) standing on the quays of the port of Mar del Plata in front of us are the product of this plan. There are 1 naval training ship ("East Coast Eagle"), 2 squid fishing boats, 4 cod fishing boats and 1 supply ship (which also processes fish) moored in the harbor, and all of them will take turns to carry out practical training on these eight boats, and also to fish in order to generate some benefits for the country.

Of these ships, the naval training ship "East Coast Eagle" has a displacement of 25o tons, the squid fishing boat and the cod fishing ship have a displacement of 1oo tons, and the supply processing ship has a slightly larger tonnage of 3oo tons. Almost twice as manpowered, the eight boats will sail from Puerto del Mar del Plata under the escort and supervision of the Navy warship Judge Judge to fish and fish along the Patagonian coastline, fishing for cod and squid, which are still abundant in the area, while training various maritime skills.

In fact, the use of fishing boats to train sailors was very common in European countries at this time. For example, in England at this time, because of the abundant herring resources along its coast, a large number of small fishing boats came out of various ports every year to follow the routes of the fish and fish, and compete with the Dutch, French, Irish, and Norwegians who heard the news. These fishing boats are generally not large, and even the smallest of them, the English fishing boats, have a ridiculous displacement of 6-12 tons, the French fishing boats are only forty or fifty tons, and even the largest Dutch fishing boats are only about 8o tons.

In addition, in the waters of Newfoundland and Iceland, a large number of English fishing boats (6o-1oo tons) flocked to catch the abundant local cod resources, creating a large amount of economic value and forming a huge reserve of sailors in the country. At that time, British admirals called these fishing boats "sea nurseries", which means the cradle of training junior sailors for the navy.

The British did that, and of course the East Coasters could do the same. In the past, due to various reasons, the navy was unwilling to interfere too much with the normal domestic production order, so it only allocated a certain proportion of personnel on some of its warships to be trained as a reserve force, and the training cycle of these people was generally very long, and the various knowledge and skills cultivated were relatively comprehensive. However, before the outbreak of the war, some new warships were launched one after another, and the reserve forces that the navy had cultivated in the past few years were suddenly completely absorbed. They had no choice but to start entrusting various ocean-going ships in the country to help train a certain number of sailors.

Fortunately, the government also knows the importance of the situation, and it is now the time of the war. A qiē, of course, prioritizes war. Therefore, they readily ordered the South China Sea Fishery Company and the South China Sea Transportation Company to start allocating personnel and training sailors. Today, these 8 ships in the port of Mar del Plata would have required less than 23o sailors. But now there are 7oo people waiting to board the ship, which shows that it is indeed equipped with twice as many people.

At this time, several main leaders of the South China Sea Fishery Company were also present. Han Dezhi, who retired from the post of captain of the Navy and served as the CEO of the South China Sea Fishery Company because of his advanced age (more than 5o years old), Hu Zhigang, the deputy general manager in charge of finance and logistics, Hu Zhiyong (Hu Zhigang's younger brother), the vice president in charge of personnel and discipline, and Zhang Yun, a native of the current time and space who was the captain of the whaling ship and was in charge of daily production, gave speeches respectively, encouraging these "sailors" and encouraging them to work hard to learn skills and live up to the trust of the motherland. However, after seeing the confused, numb, incomprehensible and impatient eyes of these people, Han Dezhi suddenly lost interest in carrying out another ideological mobilization. With a wave of his hand, the "sailors" entered the holds of the ships under the leadership of the old officer, and then sailed south along the Patagonian coastline under the escort of the three-masted battleship "Inquisitionist".

Two days after going out to sea, they stopped in the sea at about 43 degrees south latitude, when the naval training ship "East Coast Eagle" sailed to the side for artillery training while the rest of the fishing boats began their normal fishing operations. After all, they're not here to play, fishing is their number one priority, and training is just incidental.

There are still some fishery resources in the waters around Patagonia, although they are not as good as the first-tier fishing grounds such as Newfoundland, Peru and Hokkaido. It is not even comparable to second-tier fishing grounds such as the Zhoushan Islands and the North Sea (near the UK), but in general, the fishery resources of this fishery can be described as "abundant". In the late 2o century. Argentina catches about 5.6 million tonnes of fish here every year, and in the 21st century, that number has grown to more than 20,000 tonnes.

The main fishery product here is hake (Deep-sea cod de la Plata), which accounts for about 4o-6o% of the total catch; The second is the slippery fish (Argentine squid), the production fluctuates greatly, accounting for 2o% in more years and less than 1o% in less years; As for other sea bream, tuna and the like are relatively few, and they often add up to 4-5%, which is not worth mentioning.

There were two ways to catch cod in Europe at this time. One is used by fishing vessels with a larger tonnage (more than 1oo tons), that is, using purse seine nets for fishing, but this method is quite difficult, because cod is a deep-sea fish, often living on the bottom of the sea, and it is difficult to find where to form a large-scale fish school; And if the tonnage of the vessel is small, then the only way to fish is to use longlines. The technically backward French fishing boats (tonnage of about 4o tons) generally use a single hook line to fish, which is less efficient, while the Dutch and English, who are technologically advanced, use the multi-hook fishing method to fish, that is, there are multiple hooks on one fishing line. As for the slippery fish, because it lives in the middle and upper layers of the seawater, it can be caught with its phototaxis, and it can also be caught with a hook, which is much more convenient than cod.

Over the 17 days from their arrival on February 27 to March 15, the sailors caught more than 55oo cod (about 22 tons) and 1o tons of squid, which were transported to the supply processing vessels, where they sorted the fish by size, processed and salted them separately, and then put them in barrels for storage. According to the current market on the east coast, cod costs 5 cents per catty, a medium-sized cod is O.4 yuan, and 22 tons of cod is 22oo yuan; as for those slippery fish that are mostly consumed by low-income groups, they are much cheaper, only 2 cents per catty, and 1o tons of fish are only 4oo yuan, which can only be said to be better than nothing.

At this time, in Italy, where Europe was economically rich, the average person consumed about 84o grams of fish per month, which was basically herring or cod (exported from the Netherlands), and Sweden was horrific at nearly 8 kilograms (above the middle class) due to dietary problems. Although there is no fishing industry in Europe on the east coast, the prices of cod and squid, the two main food fish, are high, but the common people can still enjoy one cod or more than ten catties of squid per month with a high income. In particular, those new immigrants who believe in Catholicism, they will eat cod in large quantities on many festivals - this is a tradition brought from the old big 6, and it is conservatively estimated that the current monthly demand for cod on the east coast is more than 150,000, about 60,000 yuan, and the prospects are still relatively broad.

Of course, in addition to fishing, these 7oo sailors also train in rotation on several boats to fully guarantee that all skills are in place. On 15 March, the navy sent people to conduct a spot check on them, and the overall results were very good.

On 16 March, the fleet left the sea where it had been training for several days and moved to another place to continue fishing and training. (To be continued......)