Lawrence said that the Netherlands had the largest whaling ship in the world, and this is not really bragging, at the time, the Netherlands had the largest whaling fleet in the world, from Greenland to the Strait of Magellan to Cape Storm. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 infoIn terms of quantity, the Netherlands accounts for more than half of the world's whaling ships, and most of the whale oil from the whale oil lamps used throughout Europe comes from the Netherlands. So Lawrence feels that he is particularly confident.

However, Fabio did not show weakness, because in his opinion, there is no secret about such things as whaling ships, and everyone's level is actually about the same. The reason why Dutch whaling ships can become popular is not because of technology, the only reason is only because of the shipbuilding facilities in the Netherlands, which have complete supporting facilities and low shipbuilding costs.

"We want the whaling ship and the world. There is a slight difference between the generic ones. "I've heard that in the Netherlands and other European countries, when whaling, only whale fat is left to refine whale oil, and the rest of the parts, which are not as good as meat, are discarded." Our ships also need whale oil, but it has a much bigger purpose - to provide meat for my soldiers. So our whaling ships have to be able to bring the meat back. ”

"This can't be, Major General." Lawrence shouted, "Unless you salt that meat and add precious spices." But it's too costly to do so. ”

"Yes, but we're not going to let the ship go too far. It will mainly hunt whales in the waters near Taiwan. Zheng Sen replied, "It's like a fishing boat." ”

"There are fewer whales inshore." Lawrence said.

"So, I needed a very fast whaling ship. They must be able to quickly return whale meat from farther away to our ports. Zheng Sen said.

"The pursuit of high speed reduces the load capacity...... But if a boat catches a whale and has to return immediately, it doesn't need much of a payload. I understand. Fabio began, "And the waters near Taiwan as far as the Ryukyus and Japan are not very stormy. Therefore, the ability of this kind of ship to resist wind and waves does not need to be too strong. I'm going to make a model. ”

"One more point." Zheng Sen added, "I have heard that there is a kind of cannon in Europe that is specially used to fight whales, and it can fire harpoons with barbs and drags ropes, and I wonder if this kind of cannon can be bought in Batavia." ”

"What? A cannon that fires harpoons? Lawrence shook his head, "Where did you hear about this, I can assure you that there is absolutely no such thing in this world." ”

"Mr. Fabio, have you heard of this?" Zheng Sen asked Fabio again.

Fabio shook his head as well.

"I guess I was mistaken." Zheng Sen himself smiled, "By the way, I've only heard of whaling, but I don't know how whaling is done. ”

"Major General, in general whaling is done like this. Whaling crews approach the whales in small boats and stab them in the back with barbed spears or harpoons. The harpoons are tied to a rope attached to a larger buoy. Normally, whales will dive after being attacked, but the buoys will stay on the surface and we know where the whales are. Eventually, they will float up, and when they do, we can attack them again and add new wounds to them, so that the whale will die of exhaustion after each blow. Then we towed it to the side of the boat, and then cut it directly there, and slowly cut out the valuable things that we needed, such as blubber, whale brain, ambergris and so on, and sent it to the ship. When all the useful things are cut off, the rest is discarded. Lawrence introduced the process of whaling to Zheng Sen in detail.

"Sailors approach the whales in small boats, and they don't run away?" Zheng Sen asked again.

"We usually only attack whales like humpbacks, gray whales and sperm whales, they don't swim fast, sperm whales are generally only three to five knots, and when sprinting, it is said to run about 10 knots, but at that speed, it can't go a little far; As for the gray whale, the speed is even slower, even if it is injured and fleeing for life, it will not exceed six knots. Our boats can easily catch up with them. ”

"And don't they resist?" Zheng Sen asked again.

"Of course they resist, they are very intelligent animals, and sometimes they will try to attack the boats of the sailors, especially the sperm whales, which are even more ferocious. If it is hit by its tail or pectoral fin, the boat will probably capsize, and if the sailors are hit, it will be a dead end. Fortunately, they are too big, clumsy, and slow, and experienced sailors will always be able to dodge their attacks. Lawrence continued.

"Thank you for your explanation, Mr. Lawrence." Zheng Sen thanked him and said.

……

The next morning, Lawrence brought over a model of his whaling ship, a slender brig with a long bow sprit, and all but two masts were squoners.

"Major General, I think, our whaling ship is not big, so there can't be too many people on it, otherwise there will be no room for whale fat and whale meat, although the sail will be faster when the wind is downwind, but there are too many operators, and in case of a headwind, the speed will drop sharply. The boat made extensive use of schooners, which, although not as fast as the schooners in downwind conditions, were much faster than sails in headwinds. And the speed difference between headwind and downwind is not too big. This way, the captain will be able to control the time more confidently. All in all, it is not slower than a sailboat. And considering that there are very few rough winds and waves in the sea near Taiwan, I will further raise the slenderness ratio to about 5, so that I am sure that the boat will be faster than most ships. You can get as much fresh whale meat back to port as possible. Seeing Zheng Sen looking at the ship model seriously, Lawrence explained on the side.

Seeing Lawrence away, Zheng Sen thought he would soon be able to see Fabio and his ship model. However, it wasn't until three days later that Fabio came to see Zheng Sen.

"Major General, I would like to ask you to visit something new." Fabio smiled all over his face.

"What's that?" Zheng Sen asked.

"The whale cannon that the Major General mentioned that day." Fabio knew that he and Zheng Sen were not familiar with each other, and he couldn't sell them casually, so he said it directly.

"Really? That's pretty good. Zheng Sen said, "Where?" ”

……

Fabio's so-called whale cannon was actually made from a trumpet Furlong cannon.

"Look, Major General, we have replaced the shell with this barbed harpoon, which has four large wooden tails to ensure its stability in the air, and we have attached a chain behind it, and then a rope and a buoy behind it. We first loaded a piece of balsa wood into the barrel and used it as a piston. Then put in the gunpowder and fire it. Fabio watched as the rest of the staff loaded the whale cannon and explained to Zheng Sen.

"Mr. Fabio, I think you've tried it many times, right?" Zheng Sen said, "I don't know how effective it is, especially how accurate the shooting is? ”

"Major General, to be honest, its shooting accuracy is not as good as that of the authentic front-loading gun, after all, the Furlong cannon will have gas leakage, and the innate accuracy will be worse. It's just that it's lightweight, it's relatively cheap, and if the first attack misses, it's faster to launch a second attack. So I chose to modify it with a Furlong cannon. As for accuracy, it's not good to be far away, but it's still certain to attack a target as large as a whale at a distance of forty or fifty paces. ”

By this time the rest of the crew had already loaded their cannons, and about a hundred paces away was a cliff on which Fabio had a whale drawn as a target.

"Major General, please stay back." Seeing that the preparations before the launch were basically done, Fabio said to Zheng Sen.

Zheng Sen smiled slightly, and took a few steps back with Fabio.

"Boom" a cannon sounded, a thick smoke erupted from the muzzle, and Zheng Sen, who was standing in the distance, saw the harpoon inserted in the muzzle of the cannon flying over with a rope like lightning, and then plunged into the earth cliff and did not reach the tail.

"Right on target, good." Zheng Sen put down the binoculars in his hand and said.

"Major General, there are many real whales than that target." "But the boat will shake and the whale will move." So to sum it up, as long as there is good training, I think, the shooting accuracy of this whaling gun is still guaranteed. In any case, it is safer and more efficient than having sailors rush to the whale and risk being attacked by the whale to throw harpoons at it, or even to stab the whale with a long harpoon. For example, with this, we will be able to catch whales that swim faster than we could before. ”

"Very good, Mr. Fabio. I'm going to give you a reward, a big one. Well, do you think that's going to work? Mr. Fabio, I will reward you with 500 Spanish silver coins first, and as long as you are willing to work for us, as long as you do not reveal the secrets of the whale cannon to anyone else, you will be rewarded with one percent of the blubber cut from this whale for every whale caught by our whaling vessels. You can decide whether to sell them yourself or just sell it to us. Rest assured, we will buy it at the market price. What do you think? ”

Fabio was stunned for a moment, and then said in ecstasy: "Thank you, young general, you are so generous. The concept of "patent" existed in this era, but it was only used on a small scale, such as in Italy and England. As for being in the East, that's not to even think about. Zheng Sen, on the other hand, gave him even better conditions than in Europe, where 500 Spanish silver coins and a strong position were enough to buy his patent at once. Although Zheng Sen also added restrictions such as "as long as you are willing to work for us". But just looking at the 500 Spanish silver coins, Fabio was already satisfied.