Timber for shipbuilding requires some special trees, and different timbers are needed for different parts of the ship. The most important part of the whole ship is the keel, which is also extremely demanding on wood. Even if you can use keel splicing technology, the keel needs to be made of very large trees, and it is best to use oak, teak, etc., which are extremely strong and corrosion-resistant.

In ancient times, the most important thing was wood, which Zhen Qian never worried about looking for wood, and he did not let Zhen Jiu cut down on the Wufeng Islands, mainly because he was worried about disasters such as mudslides caused by soil erosion, not to prevent Zhen Jiu from looking for suitable shipbuilding timber on the island.

There are many uninhabited islands around the Goho Islands, and since these islands are uninhabited, logging is not prohibited. Timber was also easily transported between islands, and it was easy to cut it down and tie it into a raft and tow it to the island by boat.

What is more troublesome is that after the timber is shipped back, it cannot be directly used for shipbuilding, and the wood also needs to be dried in the shade, and a big tree, especially the wood for making keels, may take many years to dry thoroughly, so shipyards often store a lot of wood.

Ke Ming licked his lips and said: "It's amazing, the wood can be used without a few years of drying, if someone else said this to me before, Lao Tzu spit on his face, and now he is convinced?" ”

Ke Ming heard that Zhen Qian was going to build a ship on the Wufeng Islands, but he didn't say a word, but when Zhen Qian told Ke Ming that he would start construction in three months, and strive to launch the first thousand-stone battleship to the sea within half a year, if it weren't for Zhen Qian's face, he would have scolded the ignorant rats a long time ago.

"Ships have the highest requirements for wood, especially sea ships, if the wood is not dried in the shade, the ship will be deformed and cracked, so there is a saying that the wood is dry."

If Zhen Qian didn't even understand this, even if he lived for a lifetime in vain, of course he knew these common senses, but there was not only one way to get dry wood.

In the Age of Discovery, in order to speed up shipbuilding, there were special timber processing factories that were responsible for logging and processing timber. Processing wood is not only the cutting down of trees, but also sawing into various boards, as well as drying the wood.

The wood processing plant will build a special drying cellar, cut down trees, according to the needs of use, directly sawn into slats of various sizes, and then the same humidity, the same material and use of wood, stacked in the drying cellar drying.

In this way, the drying of the wood is greatly accelerated.

The principle of drying wood in the drying cellar is actually very simple, that is, hot air is used in the drying cellar to speed up the desorption process of the wood.

There are two types of moisture in wood, one is the water absorbed in the cell wall, and the other is the natural moisture in the air. The main purpose of drying is to remove the absorbed water, a process called desorption, which has little effect on the water in the cell wall.

When drying in the cellar, the stacking of wood is also very important, and the cross-section of the wood at both ends is coated with wax to prevent cracking.

Ke Ming was very surprised to find that there were three drying kilns around the shipyard, and after checking the first batch of dried wood, he thought that the requirements for use had been met.

As an old sailor, Ke Ming has rich experience, although he has not built a ship before, but he clearly knows every step and detail of shipbuilding, in his words, he just doesn't know what shipbuilding is about, and he can't know the performance of the ship, let alone control a ship well.

"I didn't expect that! I used to think that I had learned how to build a ship, but now it seems that I have lived to the belly of a dog in this life! ”

"I didn't expect that! Even the simplest wood drying, there is so much knowledge in it, Zhen Lang can think of such an advanced method, the old man is completely convinced. ”

When he arrived at the Wufeng Islands, Ke Ming's bad habit of gambling was quit, the key was that no one gambled with him, everyone had a lot of things to do, Ke Ming heard that Zhen Qian wanted to build a ship, and gave Zhen Qian a lot of advice, and vaguely said that he didn't help.

This old thing is actually very face-saving, in the past, he was just paralyzing himself by gambling and drinking, and he didn't want to think about the past of losing his beloved son, and after arriving in the Wufeng Islands, Zhen Qian picked two widows from the pirate captives and gave them to this old thing, so that this old thing suddenly wanted to find something to do, and he was more energetic than a foal.

Zhen Jiudao: "It is not simple to build a drying cellar, and the operation is also very complicated, the operation methods of different wood drying are different, and even different wood specifications are not the same, in addition, summer and winter are not the same. You also need to have a lot of experience to grasp this very well. ”

Shipbuilding is a very systematic and large-scale project, involving all aspects of technology and technology. Just like processed wood, when it comes to shipbuilding, some wood even has to be steamed and then shaped to make wood with different curvature shapes.

Keels and masts generally have to be spliced. Splicing involves a very high level of technology, and it is not simply spliced together.

In the era of great exploration, the shipbuilding industry was extremely developed, and there was already a complete industrial chain. Specializing in logging, specializing in processing ship materials, specializing in the manufacture of sails, as well as specializing in the manufacture of anchors, there are specialized in the manufacture of cables, and even the ship nails have a special workshop, the real one-stop assembly line production, the speed of the later sea coachman Dutch shipbuilding is like a dumpling, is the use of the most advanced technology in shipbuilding.

But if you want to build a boat now, you have to do it almost all by the shipyard itself from start to finish, everything is covered. This model, like many workshops, does not seem to be inappropriate.

The disadvantage is that it takes a long time to build a ship, very long, for example, a thousand-stone ship from the preparation of wood to the construction and launching, not counting the time for the wood to dry, it takes a year, and every piece of wood on the ship is made on the ship.

They are exactly the same as traditional craftsmen, the master takes a few apprentices, the master is responsible for directing and checking, and every process must be made bit by bit from beginning to end.

Zhen Qian has always liked large-scale industrial assembly line production, and the production of each product has long been divided into many small processes, and the masters only do the most difficult ones, and try to use those apprentices and even ordinary people to do the rest.

That would greatly increase the speed and reduce the need for skilled workers.

Now shipbuilding Zhen Qian is also preparing to do this, the first ship may not be easy, because the design and final construction will be slowly improved according to the timing, and when the final finalization, you can start to decompose the process, turn the complex process into a simple process, and decompose the workload into small pieces, and only have a master in the most critical part to check, which is very suitable for Zhen Qian's current shortage of manpower and craftsmen.

In this way, when a ship is built, it can be quickly scaled up and copied in large quantities.

(End of chapter)