"Colonel Nelson, we have discovered the Zheng family's ship!" Colonel Nelson was looking at the charts with Captain Rivaldo when suddenly a soldier reported. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

"Where?" Nelson stood up, picked up the hat that had been placed on the table, put it on his head, and walked out of the cabin.

As soon as he stepped onto the deck, he saw the second officer Juan who was on duty hurrying over: "Colonel, over there, look! As he spoke, Juan handed him a telescope and pointed his right hand at 10 o'clock in the ship.

Nelson didn't speak, just held up his binoculars and looked in the direction Juan had pointed. There is nothing on the sea over there, only the blue sea, the blue sky, and ...... And a faint hint of black smoke.

Nelson put down the binoculars in his hand and said, "Is it the Zheng family's whaling ship?" ”

"Yes, Colonel, only the Zheng family's whaling ship will have such black smoke." Juan replied.

"Yes, young man, you've done a good job!" Nelson reached out and patted Juan on the shoulder and said, "Keep staring at it." Captain Rivaldo, do you think we'll be able to live in it? ”

"It's not easy, Colonel, you know, we're in the headwind direction. And the Zheng family's whaling ships are all damn schooners. Captain Rivaldo said.

In this era before the steam engine, there was black smoke rising from the sea, and there were no islands nearby, which was almost the sign of the Zheng family's whaling ship. In order to be able to go to the farther open sea to hunt whales, in order to be able to hunt whales for a long time, instead of wasting time on the way back and forth, the Zheng family's ocean-going whaling ships are very wasteful when dealing with whales. They would almost always leave blubber and other valuable things (like ambergris) and all the other perishable things—meat, bones, and everything. However, blubber is just as perishable, so the Zheng family's whaling ship is equipped with a stove for refining blubber into whale oil. In this way, after catching whales, they can quickly dispose of the whales, and a whaling ship like this can work at sea for a month or two, catching dozens of whales before returning home. In this way, the efficiency of the whaling ship is greatly improved. In order to control the ships and reduce the number of sailors, so as to free up more space for cargo, most of the Zheng family's whaling ships used full schooners. When sailing downwind, the schooner behaves mediocre, but in headwind it will be much faster than a schooner. Now the Spanish fleet was downwind of the whaling ships that were emitting black smoke, and a fleet of sailing warships, sailing against the wind to catch up with a schooner, was simply impossible.

"They shouldn't have noticed us, did they?" Nielsen said.

"Definitely not, and our ship doesn't smoke anymore." Captain Rivaldo said.

"They don't run too fast without noticing us." "This generation should be their hunting ground," Nelson said. ”

"Yes, Colonel." Captain Rivaldo said, "There are a lot of sperm whales and gray whales in this area. In general, sailing in this area, they will not go faster than five knots. ”

"Very well, Captain, please come with me to study the charts." Nielsen said.

"Okay."

The two of them went into the chart room together and studied the charts.

"Obviously, captain, if we had just swooped straight over, we would not have been able to catch up with the whaling ship in such headwind conditions, sailing on the spinnaker alone. It just sees us, and then an acceleration, it can throw us away. We have to go around to the upwind. Nelson said.

"Colonel, you have a point." Captain Rivaldo took out his pocket watch and looked at it, then said, "It's only over two hours until it gets dark." Look, Colonel, we sailed in this direction first, and after nightfall, turned to this side, and at night it was difficult for them to find us. So that when dawn comes, we should be in their upper hand, and they will not be aware of our presence. After dawn, we can search for and capture the whaling ship. ”

Nelson stared at the charts for a long time, then nodded and said, "Just follow this plan!" ”

……

Now that he has changed his shotgun, he no longer uses a whaling ship that can only run near the sea, and now he has contracted an ocean-going whaling ship to hunt whales in the waters near Japan. There are many more whales in the waters near Japan than in the waters near Taiwan. Just now, his boat caught another giant sperm whale. Nowadays, this whale is the favorite of all whaling ships. Not only is this whale very slow, a little over ten knots at its fastest, but it is not sustainable, so most of the time the whaling ship can easily catch up with it and then easily kill it with a whaling fork fired from a cannon. Gray whales swim more slowly, and they are also more docile and safer, but when it comes to the quality of whale oil, sperm whales are the best. What's more, precious ambergris can often be found in the stomach of sperm whales.

"Kill two more whales and we'll be home!" Li Dazui excitedly shouted to the sailors, "The income from this trip is enough for everyone to buy a cow for their families, or to buy another Nanyang woman!" Let's do it! ”

The sperm whales, which had died, were dragged to the side of the boat, and the sailors stood in small boats, cut the thick skin of the sperm whales with special long knives, and then used long knives with hooks to cut the thick layer of fat from the sperm whales and put them into wooden barrels that were hung down. Then the ship's sailors pulled the pulley again and pulled the barrel full of blubber up to it.

The blubber was constantly being cut from the sperm whale's body, and the sperm whale's leather was carefully rolled up, put into a wooden barrel, and pulled up. These leathers, after being treated, can also come in handy in many places. At this time, it was completely dark. The whaling ship lit a torch and continued to handle the sperm whale overnight. By the time it was time to get the fat off, the blubber was basically cut off. If it is a gray whale, the sailors can untie the rope tied to it, pull out the harpoon that pierced its body, and let the whale sink to the bottom of the sea. But the sperm whale can't be treated like this, and there is another key step for the sperm whale that has not been completed, that is, to open the stomach pouch of the sperm whale and look for the possible ambergris.

The sperm whale was flipped over, and its belly was cut open, revealing a swollen stomach pouch. A sailor cut a thick stomach wall with a long knife. A strong foul smell suddenly hit my nose. However, the smell did not deter the sailors, on the contrary, all the sailors smiled when they smelled it. Because the heavier the smell of this, the higher the chance of finding ambergris.

The sperm whale's stomach pouch was cut open, and the sailors first dragged out a king squid from which it had been half digested. This is the sperm whale's favorite food, and the dragon fragrance is actually derived from some sheath shells that are difficult for the king squid to digest.

"Did you find Long Yanxiang?" Li shouted from the deck looking down below.

"Captain, some, some, it's a big piece, it's more than a hundred pounds!" The cheers of the sailors were heard below.

It is not uncommon to find ambergris in the stomach of a sperm whale, but it is relatively rare to find such a large piece.

"Get this thing up!" Li shouted with a big mouth.

Soon, the ambergris was pulled onto the deck, and at the same time, the sailors loosened the ropes that bound the whale's carcass, and the huge sperm whale sank.

Large chunks of ambergris give off a strong stench. But Li Dazui didn't care, he knew that as this thing was exposed to the air for longer and longer, the stench would quickly disappear, and this piece of ambergris would become more and more fragrant.

……

"Do you smell it?" Colonel Nelson asked Captain Rivaldo.

"You mean the stench coming from upwind?" Rivaldo looked at the brightly lit whaling ship in the distance and said, "They must have hunted a sperm whale and found a large piece of ambergris." ”

"They must be happy now." Colonel Nelson pouted, "But wait until tomorrow, and these will be ours." Okay, let's move on. ”

Nielsen wasn't going to attack at this time. Although the whaling ship was clearly defenseless at this time, it was night, and in any case, it was easier for a boat to escape at night.

"By daylight tomorrow, we'll have the upper hand, and the boat that just caught a big whale will definitely continue to smoke tomorrow," Nelson said, "and by that point, they'll not be able to run out anyway." ”

……

Li Dazui raised his head and looked around, although he had successfully hunted another sperm whale, he inexplicably felt that something was not right. So Li Dazui began to look in all directions.

This day is the night of the third day of the lunar calendar, the weather on the sea is very good, cloudless, at this time the moon has already set, the sky is full of stars on all sides, and the boat is directly like floating in the sea of stars.

"Maybe it's a delusion." Li Dazui thought. Still, he took out his binoculars and looked in all directions. However, nothing was found.

……

The sun had risen, and Colonel Nelson nervously searched around with his binoculars, but there was still a thin fog on the sea, so he couldn't see anything. It wasn't until almost noon that the fog gradually lifted.

"Did you find anything?" Colonel Nelson shouted to the lookout.

"Colonel, I saw it, in the port direction, I saw a column of smoke!" The lookout shouted.