St. Lucia will be an island that has been contested by Britain and France for a long time, and there are some colonists from Britain and France, but no government has yet taken this volcanic island of mountains and river valleys under its rule, and there is no need to worry about government troops visiting the island for the time being.

The bay where the Tempest is anchored is a steep cliff on the front, and the headland that extends to the right has some sandy beaches, which is actually a good anchorage. A small river cascades vertically down from the cliff, creating a small waterfall.

The dinghy expanded the search area, but no survivors were found. After inspecting the entire bay, the sailors discovered that more than one ship had crashed into the bay reef the previous night. Broken planks and broken masts drifted in the bay in the wind, and some chunks of the ship's wreckage were even pushed onto the beach by the waves.

Using the Tempest's stockpile, the sailors built another sampan from the materials they had collected in the bay. Chen Shouxu decided to moor the Tempest in a different position, and the dinghy explored the reef in the bay and found a route sufficient to accommodate the Tempest's draft. The sailors tied the cable to the Tempest, paddled vigorously and dragged the big ship to the shore in small dinghys.

After anchoring, Chen Shouxuan redistributed manpower. Now there were two officers on board, him and Stirling, two Germans, five Indians, Fraser and three sailors he led, six children, two surviving sailors, Titch, and five new merchant sailors and a carpenter whom he had snatched up. There are a total of twenty-eight people, but in fact, there is not a shortage of manpower.

The children may not be able to fight, but they are very good at seafaring. Before the storm, Chen Shouxu often felt that the reason for the lack of manpower was that he had no binding power on the chief's subordinates and the Germans, and was not very easy to wield. Moreover, he was the only one on the ship who could lead the sailing at that time, and he could only let Rhaeggar, Robert and Fraser co-command when the wind was calm and nothing happened. The lack of rest time made him feel very tired for a while.

But in the aftermath of the storm, these problems were alleviated. After the carpenter helped Sterling fix the broken bone, Sterling only needed a good rest to recover soon.

Now the problem is ship repair. Chen Shouxu left the watchman on the ship, and he led most of the people to move to shore.

Chen Shouxu looked at the surrounding terrain and said to Opei Shenkanno, "Chief, please take two brothers to scout the surrounding environment. He handed the chief a couple of chimneys, "Something's signaling." ”

The chief agreed, and went into the woods on the shore with a scimitar, musket, and bow and arrow.

After the mast broke, the ship's mainsail temporarily lost its function. The sailors removed the canvas from the boom, brought it ashore, and then used the cut down trunk to prop up the sail legs and set up improvised tents. Then all the goods on the ship were moved to the shore one by one. Sucrose soaked in seawater, it's over. Chen Shouxu poured all the cane sugar on the ship into the sea, and some sailors even shouted that it was a pity.

Chen Shouxu said with a smile, "In my hometown, people often say that if you don't die in a big disaster, you will have a blessing. We all survived such a big storm, a few bags of cane sugar are nothing, let's work hard together, we will definitely be rich! ”

Fraser chimed in, "You've seen the wreckage in the bay, and we're the only surviving ship in the vicinity, thanks to the captain." ”

The faces of the sailors could see the joy of surviving the catastrophe and the look of longing for the future. Fraser then assigned sailors to the river to replenish fresh water, salvage usable timber, and dry useful cargo.

"Captain, captain, look what we've found." Rhaegar excitedly jumped out of the water from the sampan that had not stopped, and ran over in a few big strides.

Chen Shouxu looked at the mast dragged behind the dinghy, which was supposed to belong to a large ship.

You've been of great help.

The hull of the Storm is actually very good, the previous sail outfit was too poor, and Chen Shouxu has always planned to transform it, but there is no opportunity and no suitable ship materials. Chen Shouxu called the carpenter and a few senior sailors and talked about his plan while drawing on the beach.

"We added a head mast to the Tempest, spliced it in two sections, and installed a three-sided sail."

The foremast is a common sail outfit and is found on almost all ships that are going to sea. But at this time, the shipbuilding industry did not have much understanding of the rope sail, the sail warship mainly used a head spinnaker with the tail spinnaker as an air rudder, and then set a sail under the first mast to lift the bow, the schooner generally only had one side of the spinnaker, and some old captains added a second side of the rope sail to the ship according to their own experience, in fact, this did not make full use of the wind.

Since there are a lot of materials that can be used in this bay, Chen Shouxu decided to simply have a major refit.

"The first mast was changed to a telescopic two-section type, two sets of pulleys were added to the bow, and a support sail was hung at the forefront. You can take it back when you don't use it. ”

The concept of a rope sail did not frighten the carpenters, and some new-thinking shipwrights in the New World had already begun experimenting. But what Chen Shouxu said next surprised the carpenter.

"The mainmast was completely replaced, with three sections of splicing. The spinnaker is not needed, and the bottom mast is sailed with a jirs. Two more sails were placed on the bottom mast. In fact, most of the masts of ships in this era are spliced, in addition to saving large wood, the greater benefit is the reasonable distribution of weight. If bad weather is predicted in advance, the top mast can also be lowered, so that there is no need to cut the mast, and the sloop schooner will cut this mast, just like now, completely lying on the nest. Of course, if the weather changes drastically and it is too late to operate, then the mast should be cut or chopped.

After the mast is divided into three sections, each section has to be supplemented with a corresponding support cable. In this way, the increased mid-mast and upper mast forestay cables can be used to hang the support rope sails.

According to Chen Shouxu's design, the amount of work involved in the renovation was huge, and fortunately, the sailors found many key parts such as pulley sets and 100-fold rings in the wreckage of the wrecked ship.

Cranes were erected on the shore from discarded ship timber and felled wood, equipped with simple winch, and the remaining masts of the ship were removed. There was no shortage of food on the ship for the time being, and Chen Shouxu also arranged for sailors to fish in the bay, and the rest of the people were engaged in the renovation of the ship.

The jib has removed the part of the jib in front of the mainmast and can be turned at a greater angle than the jib. As the main sail of the boat, it provides most of the power. The sail is generally trapezoidal, with the upper feet fixed by the main girder and the lower feet fixed by the sail rod. The main girders are shorter and lighter, with longer sail poles and slightly higher heights than the stern. After the removal of the heavy jib jirs, the center of gravity of the whole ship was improved. The girders and sail bars can also be fixed at different angles, increasing the selectivity of the wind direction when manoeuvring the boat.

The pirates were accustomed to maintaining their ships in ports that lacked infrastructure, and as the refit progressed, the sailors found that the ship's sail line was much more complicated than before, and although it was only one mast, the Tempest's sail line was now no simpler than that of the Banshee.

By the time it was nearing completion, the sailors were amazed by their achievements. It is not yet known what the modification will bring to sailing, but at least for the moment the Tempest is already a very beautiful sloop. Sailors who are accustomed to seeing the same spinnaker have a refreshing feeling.