Chen Shouxu waited until the last sailor took the food before picking up his portion of dried cod and vegetable soup. Back in the captain's quarters, drizzle some oil and vinegar over the nautical biscuits, which are his staple. The recipe for the vegetable soup was provided by Chen Shouxu and promoted to the whole fleet. This portable soup is made by making a sticky paste from cooked meat, animal water and vegetables, and leaving it to dry in the sun. It was then cut into small pieces and distributed to all the battleships, divided equally among the heads, 50 pounds per 100 men. The way to eat it is to put the soup directly into boiling water and stir it well. In addition, pickled cabbage is served as a pickle accompaniment to the kitchen.

It is said that both of these dishes can reduce the incidence of scurvy, and whether they are good or not can only be evaluated after the end of the voyage.

In the vast Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, the northeast trade winds are a very stable system. Similar work was repeated every day on battleships.

It's September now, and it's different from the galleons that set sail at normal times. When the galleons set sail at the beginning of the year, the trade wind belt was bounded at about 5 degrees north latitude to 25 degrees north latitude. In September, the trade wind belt will move northward, and the boundary will move to 10 to 30 degrees north latitude. Chen Shouxu had to leave enough security boundaries for the fleet, so his sailing area was basically between 13 and 15 degrees north latitude in a straight line to the west.

Life on an ocean voyage is boring. The sailing conditions were good, and the ship resumed 3 shifts. Sailors can rest for 8 hours after 4 hours on duty. But the captain couldn't, only Chen Shouxu and his navigator Harris Acton could lead the shift, and the two of them still worked in two shifts.

For the captain, the trick in the voyage is to keep the sailors busy all the time. No matter what nationality it is, people will think crankily as long as they are idle. Therefore, during the voyage, as long as conditions permit, Chen Shouxuan will organize various training and exercises. Light weapons training, heavy weapons training, sail raising and reeling training, combat drills, and fire drills.

Chen Shouxu intended to use the time spent on the voyage to complement the skills of the marines and sailors. In order to bring more sailors to the combat effectiveness of the Marine Corps, it is common to see rows of ragged soldiers on the deck of the ship. And the ability of sailors to throw grappling hooks and climb bulwarks is also worth learning from the marines.

Sailors on duty had to constantly wash, scrape, and sweep every corner of the deck between boats. Chen Shouxu didn't care what the other captains did, he would take a certain amount of time to work with the sailors when he was on duty. Washing the deck with a Bible grinding stone is the hardest job on the ship, and it is also one of the jobs that is most likely to provoke mutinies and brawls.

Many young sailors find the air on deck good and the sea breeze is cool, and sleep on the open deck at night. After many people got colds in a row, Chen Shouxu banned this behavior. In this day and age, a cold can kill people.

Every morning, Chen Shouxu would inspect the whole ship and inspect all kinds of equipment. The mast, the rudder, the anchor, the winch, the pump, the coal stove, he had to go through them all. Because the anchor cable is often used, it will wear out over time, and in order to slow down further damage, it is necessary to wrap the broken part of the anchor cable with a thin wire.

The longboats and dinghies loaded on the ship should also be filled with gaps in the planks and coated with a layer of asphalt mixed with lead powder to prevent insect damage.

In addition to the crew, there were also some captive Jesuit teachers. These people could not be idle, and all three-masted warships had cultural classes to study, and every morning and afternoon classes were the same, for the convenience of those on duty. The school's teachers were treated the same as the sailors of the part-time military band, and they could take a weekend off for a six-day class. Chen Shouxu set the task for the captain of the big ship, as long as there are no special circumstances, each person will take classes for at least one hour a day. To this end, he also added a clause to the regulations of this voyage, when arriving at the destination, each ship should draw ten people to take the test, and the captain who ranked last should give his part of the income to reward the first place.

Through all the above practices, Chen Shouxu insisted that everyone in the boring transoceanic voyage was extremely busy, and the sailors were snoring when they fell in the hammocks.

For ocean voyages, for the convenience of measurement, a working day is calculated from noon to noon, not midnight to midnight.

The logbook is in charge of Harris and generally records like this:

On 24 October, winds were north-easterly and eastward. Heading due west, the sailing distance is 90 nautical miles. The latitude is 14 degrees 29 minutes north latitude and 149 degrees 28 minutes west longitude. The compass error is 6 degrees 13 minutes east. Everything is normal for the voyage.

In addition to the logbook, every night before going to bed, Chen Shouxu will also record the voyage diary:

"October 25......

The wind and waves were on the rough side, but I didn't want to lower too many masts. Only the top and upper masts are lowered. Retract the mid-mast sail with one retracted sail, and the bottom mast sail with two retracted sails. The downcast sail is a sail suit prepared for this voyage, with 3 pieces on the mid-mast sail and 4 pieces on the bottom mast. Tested since the launch of the voyage, the downsizing of the sail has greatly increased the vessel's flexibility to cope with the wind. If I don't have a downscrew, I'd consider putting away the mid-mast or bottom-mast sail at this wind. It depends. ”

—

"October 27......

By this time, I had only a handful of sick people on my ship, and they were all in trouble. Anyone with the slightest symptom of scurvy will be given to him at any time by making wort from malt.

Pickled cabbage, people were reluctant to eat it at first. Half a month ago, I thought of a solution, and I persevered day long. Every day I made a little pickled cabbage and put it on my desk, and asked the managers to eat a little each. Others are free to choose, eat or not. In this way, within a week, the whole ship will be rationed. Seafarers' temperament and habits are such that it is generally difficult to accept uncommon foods. Even if they are told that eating it is good for their body, and if they don't eat it, they will get sick, but they don't accept it. And if as soon as I take the lead as a captain, their attitude will change.

……

I don't just know what's working, but the whole boat is healthy, and maybe the portable soups and pickles are really useful. ”

—

"October 28......

Cloudy with mist. Light winds with winds ranging from north-northeast to south-southwest. Rare occurrence of a changeable wind due to the influence of the Coriolis force? I'm not sure, it is not possible to calculate the longitude today, or it is possible that the observation was wrong.

……”

—

October 30......

The weather was sunny with steady winds in the second half of the day. It's a great feeling to ride the waves.

The latitude and longitude were accurately measured, and the longitude was calculated to give a one-day voyage 14 nautical miles more than the logbook, and the effect of ocean currents was normal.

……

—

November 5......

The last sheep was killed today, and the sailors of the whole ship were given a beautiful meal.

The mutton soup is so delicious.

Now there are more than 20 hens left on the boat, and I miss the taste of chicken soup.

……

—

November 9......

Today's fire drill was a mess and there was a fire.

As envisaged for the exercise, a fire broke out on the lower deck of the Changshui, which was about to spread to the ammunition depot. The highest priority for all was to line up and drop all the gunpowder into the sea.

Barrels and sail cables were everywhere blocking the fire escapes, and at this rate, if this was the real thing, we would all be bombarded with exploding powder magazines.

The group of sailors who punished the dereliction of duty to clean the toilets for a week was in favor of everyone except themselves.

……

—

"November 13......

Today the International Date Line was passed, and the fleet was notified that the calendar had been set forward by one day, and the captains were confused.

It is still a strong trade wind and a pleasant weather. At noon there was some light rain, and the sailors collected it with canvases.

In the afternoon, a sailor went to the toilet on the bow deck when he fell overboard. The battleship was forced to turn to the wind, slowing down to lower the dinghy for rescue work. It took an hour to rescue people, but fortunately there were no sharks. Starting tomorrow, the safety of the toilet deck will be strengthened......"

—

"On November 17, the wind was strong and it rained heavily.

Put away the foremast and sail, put the sail up, and lower the crossbow. At first, the sailors happily took out the hammocks and spare hammocks to wash them in the rain, but the seawater washed the hammocks very badly, and they collected rainwater to clean the hammocks. But then the rain was so heavy that the battleship was forced to pull up the canvas on the open deck to provide shelter.

……”

—

"On November 18, the weather was still bad. Visibility is low, and it is important to maintain visual contact with the fleet. Each ship ventured to send sailors to climb the lookout.

The trade winds blow thick clouds, the sea is steaming and foggy, and dark clouds carry showers pouring down.

A lot of people have caught a cold, and I've noticed that the number of sick crew members has been on the rise lately, and it is important to find an anchorage to rest as soon as possible.

In this weather, I could not measure the angle of the sun and calculate the exact position of the fleet. At the speed of the boat, it should be very close to the Marshall Islands. Let's hope you don't miss the island because of bad weather. ”

……

Chen Shouxu's worries did not appear, and the next day the weather cleared, and under the blue sky, the sailors at the observatory could always see the sea antenna.

Behind the port side of the fleet, lookouts alerted the whole ship to the discovery of the islands.

Although the fleet had already overtaken the island, Chen Shouxu looked at the direction of the wind indicated by the masttop flag, the northeast wind, which would not cause sailing against the wind.

The signal flag was hoisted, and the whole fleet turned the rudder in the direction indicated by the flagship, and approached the island in the afternoon of the same day.

Worried about running aground, Chen Shouxu turned to the wind, still 5 nautical miles from the island, lowered the boom, and slowed down the sail.

The fleet sent Roberts' Tempest out to reconnoitre.

It is a crescent-shaped reef with a distance of about 10 nautical miles between the two tips of the atoll crescent and about 5 nautical miles at its widest point. When the Tempest approached the island, it lowered the dinghy and measured the depth of the water with a plumb weight. The northern side of the atoll is below the surface of the water, and the channel is wide enough and deep enough.

At the direction of the Tempest, the fleet carefully sailed into the lagoon in the middle of the atoll using two bottom sails. The atoll has a large area below the surface of the sea, which has no shelter from the wind and waves, and is not a place for the fleet to rest.

However, seeing the excitement of the sailors seeing land for the first time after two months of ocean sailing, Chen Shouxu agreed to temporarily berth in the lagoon. The deeper the lagoon is 20 meters, there is a risk of stranding if it continues south. The fleet anchored to the north of the Lagoon Lake, its hull rising and falling in the wind and waves.

On the southeast side of the lagoon, there is a continuous beach that looks like a causeway outcropping out of the sea, which is the largest island in the atoll. It is about 5 nautical miles long and only 3,400 meters wide. The height of the outcropping of the island is only 1 meter, and there are only a few low bushes on the island.

The captains of each ship took a team and landed on the island in a longboat. The tallest tree on the island is 5,6 meters, and there is no coconut that Chen Shouxu is most eager to see.

Vasekoncelos crouched in front of a low plant, scrutinizing it.

"What kind of plant is this, and is it useful?"

"I'm not sure, it's like a purslane. If it is true, it can be eaten as a vegetable. ”

Chen Shouxu was happy when he heard the word vegetables, and immediately sent sailors to collect them. The entire fleet was left with only one sheep on board the Melville, and there were fewer sailors on the whaling ship. Conventionally, the sheep are tasted first.

"Commander, this plant may not be good news."

Chen Shouxu looked at Concelos, "What do you mean?" ”

"Purslane is a drought-tolerant plant that grows so much that there should be no fresh water on the island."

As soon as Concelus said this, Chen Shouxu also noticed the strange place on the island, a huge Pacific coral reef island, and there were no coconut trees.

To verify, Chen Shouxu asked a few sailors to dig on the beach. Although there is no freshwater lake on a coral reef island like this, the sand has the effect of enriching rainwater, and digging down a few meters may seep out drinkable fresh water.

There were quite a few people who went ashore, and the sailors dug a dozen pits at different locations, but no fresh water was found.

Chen Shouxu spit out a national curse.

The islands could not allow the fleet to rest. The only use is to replenish fresh food.

Chen Shouxu looked at the many seabirds on the island. These seabirds are not afraid of people at all, there are more than a dozen species. The only things Chen Shouxu could recognize were boobies and seagulls, but that didn't matter. With a wave of his hand, he had the soldiers surround him with fishing nets and other tools.

"Birds, birds, I'm sorry. My soldiers haven't eaten fresh meat for 2 months......"

To the sailors' surprise, a huge crab was found on the island, adding another dish to the recipe.

The lagoons of coral reefs have always been areas where fish gather. Although it has been sailing on the sea, the ocean has always been a blue desert, and it is difficult to see any other fish except for some large tuna.

The soldiers had not eaten fresh fish for a long time. Each boat sent out dinghies and lowered their trawls to fish in the lagoon. There are a lot of fish, and you can see them with your eyes, but no one knows how to catch them. Three hours passed, and more than a dozen dinghy only caught more than 30, and there was no shortage of unlucky ones who did not catch them. The rookies later gave up fishing altogether and rowed to the shore to catch oysters and shellfish.

……

While the soldiers were busy preparing dinner, Chen Shouxu finally settled on his position. 14 degrees 38 minutes north latitude, 169 degrees east longitude, Taungi Atoll, part of the Central Latac Islands in the Marshall Islands.

With longitude, in this era is to open the map. Chen Shouxu looked at the southwest side of the chart, Bikini Atoll, a three-day voyage.