The bow sprit, the standard structure of European sailing ships, was originally full of ambition to use a mixed sail of soft and hard, but as a result, the bow of the ship was spared the mast that stretched forward flatly, but I didn't expect that it would have to be re-added now, so that the ship could not be launched until at least the end of February. But there is no hurry, even if the masts are good, there is no matching soft sail to use, and the same is not to sail.

In addition to the bow mast, a lower mast should be added to become a three-masted sailing ship, so that the height of the mainmast and foremast can be slightly lowered, so that each mast can withstand the wind more evenly, and avoid the phenomenon of blowing the mast off due to the instantaneous increase of wind power. In addition, three crossbars were added to each mast, which were crossbars on which people could walk. Soft sails are different from hard sails, once they reach a certain area, they cannot be operated as a whole, so soft sails must be divided into pieces and hung on these crossings separately, and different numbers of sails can be raised according to different wind and speed requirements.

As it stands, the new ship will have six mainsails, one on the front, one on the middle and three rear masts, three more bow spinnakers on the bow mast, and one backmast on the backmast, exactly ten sails. In order to cooperate with the take-off and landing of these ten sails, a lot of sail ropes and sail ropes should be added between the masts, plus the rigging used to fix the mast, the ship is almost a spider web, even if Hong Tao uses various pulleys and fixtures to streamline a lot of unnecessary rigging, it is still a net. Looking at this net, Hongtao gritted his teeth, but unfortunately even if his teeth were crushed, he had to do this, otherwise the speed of the ship would not be able to rise.

"Climb, whoever is the last to reach the top will wipe the deck!" At the end of February, the new sailboat was undergoing the final refit, but Hong Tao led a group of people to hang rigging and crossbars on the tallest tree on the shore, and climbed from morning to night every day, not only staring at others to climb, but also climbing himself! This thing is also a new subject for him, he has never tried it himself, he can't be a dealer in the ship, let's climb together by example, whether it is to raise or lower the sail in the future, he has to climb up and down, and the good days of standing on the deck and pulling the rope to drive the ship are gone. At least until the invention of enough steam engines and boilers to power large warships, this kind of work will have to be done every day, day after day, and endlessly.

Thanks to the change to soft sails, the number of sailors on the new ship was instantly increased from 20 to 40. This is just a streamlined configuration, if you want to carry out a voyage, you have to increase it, if you want to be equipped with naval guns, sorry, you have to add it. Sailors are sailors, they have to be ready to operate the sails at all times, and they have no time to open their guns and reload them, unless they are stationary. Now Hong Tao understands why those Spanish galleons had to get hundreds of people, not because they were lively, but because there were fewer people. The crew is the crew, the gunner is the gunner, the Marine is the marine, and no one can replace the other.

As soon as there are more people, there is a management problem, more than 10 people, who can be the captain, the navigator, at most a boatswain or something, shouting to solve the problem. But more than 40 people on board the ship, and then such an extensive management will be problematic, for this reason, it is necessary to figure out a set of work division and crew rank on the ship. This time, Hong Tao did not invent and create by himself, but directly borrowed the organizational structure of European sail warships, streamlined it slightly, and used it for his own use. Existence is reasonable, people have been playing for hundreds of years, and the reason why it is arranged like this is definitely not to make up the number of fraudulent wages, there must be a reasonable aspect, or the main aspect.

Captain, first mate, second officer, boatswain, helmsman, clerk, blacksmith, first class sailor, second class sailor, third class sailor, midshipman officer, these are the duties on the ship that Hong Tao made up according to the memory in his head. At this time in the Southern Song Dynasty, Hong Tao inquired about the ship's positions, and they were divided according to the head (captain), deputy leader, direct warehouse, miscellaneous affairs, department leader, head worker, helmsman, fire chief, anchor hand, and cable worker. In fact, the meaning is similar, but Hong Tao himself sounds awkward, if he can't figure it out, how to train others, just follow his own language habits.

At the beginning of March, the European sailing battleship, which was proposed by Hong Tao and unanimously approved by the board of directors, was finally launched. Hai Bo is the name of the young man who was killed by the mast in the Weng family, he was originally called Weng Xiaowu, Chen Mingen felt that this name was not good, and when he carved a monument for him, he specially chose a new name for him, which can be regarded as helping Hong Tao reduce his psychological burden. In fact, a name can't reduce the burden on Hong Tao, even if he is called Emperor Weng, he won't be able to live.

The ship's name was the Hypo, carved into the stern of the ship with a wooden plank, and the ship was actually made up of 003. In order to save trouble and manage well, Hong Tao simply got the side number out of the thing, and when he painted the ship, he asked Boss Wen to write these Arabic numerals more than one person high with white dye and quartz powder on both sides of the bow. Not only on the hull, but also on the headsail of the mainmast, there is also a black Arabian broadside, so that you can recognize from a long distance on the sea which ship it is and whether it is your own ship or not.

This trial voyage finally made Hong Tao a little satisfied, and he could run up to 13 knots under the right sea conditions and wind speed, with an average speed of about 8 knots. No matter how fast it is, it is dangerous, the main thing is that the hull and mast cannot withstand such great strength, this is a warship, a single-deck fast cruiser to be precise, not a fast cruiser. It is relatively shorter and thicker, has a deeper draft, is more stable in traversing, has a larger carrying capacity, and is also more bulky, and it can catch up with the opposing warships and merchant ships, which is a victory.

The keel length of the Haibo is 29 meters, the hull length is 31 meters, the width is more than 8 meters, the draft is 3.2 meters, and the displacement is between 350 and 400 tons. The mainmast is 21 meters high, the foremast is 18 meters, the aftermast is 15 meters, and the minimum number of sailors is 40, which can be increased to 150 in wartime. Of course, if you don't care about the distance, it can carry 300 people, so there are people on the deck and in the cabin, just like crowding the subway during rush hour in Beijing.

Since it's a warship, it has to have weapons, and the Sea Wave also has weapons, 18 whaling crossbows! 8 on the port side, 8 on the starboard side, and 2 on the stern. Naval gun? No! At present, Hong Tao can only make this kind of large crossbow with a shooting distance of more than 50 meters, and the naval artillery still has to think about it. The smelting industry in Jinhewan has just started, and the foundry industry has not yet appeared, not that Hong Tao is too stupid, but the conditions are limited, and he is almost tired of jogging in small steps, and he wants to play hurdles to ensure that he will get eggs!

However, Hong Tao didn't plan to shoot someone else's boat to death with just a crossbow arrow, this thing would be useful against whales and those small fishing boats, and it would be useless to run into a big boat. But Hong Tao didn't want his precious crew to play gang battles with the enemy, and he was distressed to die a Hong Tao, but he trained this group of crew members according to the model of cultivating captains, who would want to take a captain to fight with others.

In order to make up for this shortcoming, Hong Tao deliberately invented a kind of **, which is to use a bamboo tube loaded with whale oil and tied to a crossbow arrow for hanging shooting, which can also shoot more than 50 meters away, and the accuracy is okay on land, but at sea...... It's okay when the boat stops and there is no wind, and other times it's just luck. Once this bamboo tube hits a hard object, it will burst, and the whale oil inside will flow out, and then shoot rockets at the opponent's ship.

With this big ship, Hong Tao set off with people again, and in addition to a large pile of bamboo tubes and whale oil, there were candles and soap in the cabin. The destination of his trip was the country of Boni, which later became the kingdom of Brunei, in the northern part of the island of Kalimantan. The last time he sailed away, he had his eye on this port, which was a good supply point, and there was a kind of cargo that Hong Tao was very eager for, and as for how to gain a foothold in the local area, Hong Tao had already found a way.

Brunei actually has oil! This was something Hong Tao hadn't expected, and the locals had been digging wells for many years, at least that's what the monk who could speak a little Chinese said to himself. Their sole purpose in extracting oil was to cremate the monks of the temple, and for this reason they also mastered the rudimentary art of oil refining, which was to heat the oil in a clay urn, and when the hot steam cooled naturally, it became a liquid that could be burned.

The last time Hong Tao arrived here, he was just in time for a temple next to the port to cremate the monks, and the momentum was very huge. At first, Hong Tao was not interested in going over to see the burning dead, but he suddenly smelled a very familiar smell, the smell of diesel or gasoline burning! This smell immediately startled Hong Tao, he thought that there were similar people who had also crossed here, and he was still a more bullish traveler than him, and he was already able to make gasoline, which was worth it! So he hurriedly led someone with a crossbow and rushed over, if it was really a traverser, then it didn't say, a crossbow arrow shot to death and then run away!

Well, what are the traversers most afraid of? It has to be a traverser! As the old saying goes, peers are enemies, this sentence is not wrong at all, the traverser is the natural enemy of the traverser, the two traversers do not have the slightest chance of peaceful coexistence, when the interests reach a certain level, there must be contradictions between the traversers. Once there is a disagreement, it is difficult to integrate again, everyone has their own pursuits, everyone is a superhuman existence, why do you make others agree with your ideas? Once the eyes are reversed, it is an endless ending, and unless these two traversers are father and son, there is no solution.

As a result, Hong Tao did not find the traverser, but found an old monk who could speak Chinese and yearn for the Great Song Dynasty. Through this monk, Hong Tao figured out that they had mastered the primary method of oil refining, but it was too simple, and the thing that was refined was not kerosene, nor gasoline, nor diesel, but mixed oil, and all the ingredients.

Hong Tao is very hungry for the oil here, and if he had this thing, he would be able to make a purer oil mixture. Although it is also a mixed oil, the composition can already be closer to gasoline, and it is no fun to drive the engine, but when it is an incendiary bomb, it is much better than whale oil. The residue of oil refining is heavy oil, this thing is also a good thing, once it burns, it will produce highly toxic smoke, and if you can't burn people, you have to smoke to death, not only can attack ships at sea, but also a big killer weapon for cities and ports on the shore!