Hong Tao also has a personal matter to deal with, that is, the boat used by Hong Salamander and Luo America for their voyage. The ship was small, about the size of the Predator, but it was far more technologically advanced than any previous ship. It is a new type of ship made by Hong Tao, Wen Xiaoqi, and Wen Si together, taking out all the technology accumulated in the imperial shipyard over the years.

It had a low freeboard, a long bow, a vertical bow post, and a knife-edged sloping column in front of the bow post, which became a pointed bow that protruded forward and extended upwards when the planks were wrapped. This kind of bow was first developed by the Americans, and in the mid-nineteenth century, a ship designer named Griffith designed a sailboat, which adopted this shape, which is considered the world's first scissor sailing boat.

Later, the Atlantic bow developed by the British, that is, the flying scissor bow, was not quite the same as the flying scissor sailing ship made by Hong Tao. The bow of the shear bow is floating outwards near the deck, and the bow post is vertical below the waterline, with a curved arc between the outward and vertical drifts. This shape is a bit difficult to make whether it is made of steel or wood, and Hong Tao did not grasp the specific bending angle.

At present, the shape of the bow made by Hong Tao cannot be called a flying shear bow, and its bow is not vertical under it, and it is called a bow tilted bow. This shape is mostly seen in warships in the early stage of World War II, and small and medium-sized warships that pursue speed mostly use inclined bows, and large warships that do not require too high speed mostly use vertical bows.

The bow alone does not improve much of the boat's performance, it also requires a series of matching designs. For example, the bottom of the boat cannot be made into a U-shape, but instead becomes a semicircle with the least resistance, but it is slightly pointed underneath. The outer keel extends directly from the middle front to the stern of the bottom and is connected to the rudder to increase the stability of the hull.

The main thing is that the length-to-width ratio of the hull has been stretched to more than six to one, which makes it appear slender and long compared to any ship of this era. This is the best ratio of high-speed ships that have been summed up by the struggle between humans and the sea for hundreds of years, which can not only increase the speed of the ship to the greatest extent, but also not lose too much stability. Except for Hong Tao, if others want to test it, they must live as long as Wang Ba.

This North American flying clipper sailboat, which should be regarded as the last batch of sailing ships in the history of sailing on a large scale, is very suitable for ocean freight, but not very suitable for warships, to be precise, not very suitable for front-loading smoothbore guns. Its deck is basically straight from head to tail and is called a low freeboard straight deck. Due to the low freeboard, which looked like it was close to the sea, it was impossible to build a multi-deck, barely enough to fit a layer of naval guns.

A freeboard that was too low would interfere with the line of sight and gun firing angles, and in the event of high sea conditions, the slender hull would roll from side to side larger than that of an older sail battleship, which would be very unfavorable for firing. Originally, there were few guns, and they couldn't hit accurately, and the hull couldn't be too thick, and when a battleship was a crispy and no firepower, it didn't have any advantage except for running fast and turning well. And this kind of ship has another disadvantage, that is, the mast is too high, the sail area is too large, in the naval battle the hull is low, the mast and sail can not be short, it is easy to be damaged by the local mast and sail. Once maneuverability and speed are lost, the flying scissor sailboat has little merit.

Hong Tao didn't plan to use this ship as a warship, it was for the purpose of carrying the Hong Salamander and Luo America on a long voyage. The ship had three masts, all of which were a new type of shangbar called the upper edge jigger. This type of sail is a bit like a combination of a Chinese hard sail and a European soft sail, with a diagonal extension added to the upper edge of the soft sail to make it easier and simpler to raise and lower the sail. The purpose of this is to reduce the number of sail operators, no longer need to climb the mast and step on the rigging to raise the sails one by one, only need to shake the winch at the bottom of the mast, and pull up the two layers of bias sails on the mast and fix them.

A North American clipper with a displacement of 3,000 tons, after being equipped with an upper edge jigs, the whole ship has only twenty sailors. And Hong Tao, a flying scissor sailing ship known as the Americas, is just a little guy with a displacement of less than 100 tons, four or five people are enough, and if an old sailor is used, two people can have fun.

"Daddy, is this ship sturdy?" Luo Meimei followed Hong Tao to the test dock of the Imperial Shipyard, looking at the Americas floating on the water, a little hesitant. He had never seen a scissor sailing boat, nor did he understand the performance of such a boat, but how thin it was from the outside.

"Your father is in America! I don't want to see you, and I have to keep my daughter safe, do you want to? Don't sail away, or go by yourself! Hong Tao wasted half a day's strength, and the last bit of memory about the ship in his mind was dug up, but the result was not favored, so it was strange that he could be happy.

"If I were your own father, I would kick you to death! Bastard, you dare to look down on my Wen family's craftsmanship, forget it, I don't plan to give you this ship, I'll keep it for myself! "Wen Xiaoqi is actually the same generation as Luo Meimei, but he is much older, and he likes to act as an elder when he talks. He is more ruthless than Hong Tao, and he is reluctant to give things he makes, especially good things, to others, and now that others don't look down on him, he is even more unhappy.

"Brother Wen, don't pay attention to him, this ship is not his, it's mine! Dad, let's go out for a spin and let this turtle see and understand. Hong Salamander is not afraid of Wen Xiaoqi and her as an adult, and Wen Xiaoqi does not dare to talk to her like this. Seeing that his fiancé was deflated, he hurriedly stepped forward to solve the siege.

"Yes, it's still my daughter's talk, this boat is my daughter's, do you like it or not!" Hong Tao did not refuse his daughter's request this time, and got on the boat with his chest on his chest, chatting as he walked.

"......" Luo Meimei didn't dare to speak, this ship was the money his family spended, and it was very expensive, almost catching up with the cost of half of the Sea Wolf-class battleship naked ship. Hong Tao didn't pay a penny, why did he become a Hong salamander? But now that Emperor Hong said that it was the Hong salamander's, obviously Wen Xiaoqi also agreed, it was useless to say anything more, it was called a thief ship.

Compared with the traditional sailing boats such as the Flying Fish, Seawolf and Jiaosha classes, Hong Tao is actually more accustomed to the operation of this kind of flying scissor sailboat. It is more similar to the cruising sailing ships of later generations, and what Hong Tao really learned is the way to drive this kind of boat. Without the help of others, he single-handedly raised the sails on all three masts by one-third, and then watched the salamander take the helm and slowly sail the boat into the river.

When this strange-looking sailing ship sailed past the Golden River, most of the inhabitants of the Golden River Country were quite calm, they were used to their emperor coming up with something new from time to time, and at most they stopped to take a look and waved to the sailing boat.

But the foreigners on the commercial docks were not so calm, and after the first person discovered Hong Tao's Americas, within a few minutes, the docks were full of people. There are those who hold a pergola with their hands to look out, and there are those who hold binoculars and chase carefully. There was a heated debate about what the ship was for, and what it could do, until the sailboat was far away, and they were not done with it.

Hong Tao is not afraid of anyone's prying eyes, even if someone stands on the pier and draws the whole America, if someone is willing to spend money on the ship to see it. Without the I-beams and the steel pipe mast base sleeve directly attached to the keel, they would not have been able to build this type of ship even if they handed over the original drawings to any shipyard.

Technical deficiencies can be made up for through learning, reference, and experimentation, but the differences in materials cannot be solved in a short period of time. It's useless to just understand the principles and structures, you have to have something to implement the idea.

"See, right? The rest of you come, I watch, raise half sails! When the sailboat reaches the mouth of the Golden River, it can be accelerated, and this time Hong Tao did not do it by himself, but handed over the work of raising the sail to Luo Meimei.

Although the type of ship is different, the driving rules and techniques have not changed, but the operation is simpler, such as the Hong Salamander and Luo Mei, who have been professionally trained and have reached the level of a Royal Navy midshipman, can operate with a little familiarity. The reason why I accompanied them out was not to teach them how to operate the ship, but to tell them about the characteristics of the ship so that they could get familiar with it as soon as possible.

"Your Majesty, your ship is good for a veteran sailor, but the hull is easy to go up the waves, if only the freeboard was higher." The sailing course in Rome was very good, and after a few hours of practice, I gradually became familiar with the performance of the America. If the hull is strong or not, he won't mention it, and he doesn't need to go to the bilge to see the material of the keel, he only needs to use experience to feel and feel to know roughly. I didn't find any other shortcomings, but I was a little uncomfortable to be splashed in the seawater.

"Hey, you're easy to satisfy, this ship is already the fastest ship in the world, and you still want to be comfortable. Let's go back and you design a ship that can run fast and far, and Minister Wen and I will help you, and let's build it and see how about it? "With such a good ship, there are still people who dare to be dissatisfied, and Hong Tao has even more opinions on this son-in-law.

"Then you say that if we set off from Uncle Carl on this ship, we will find my father in a few days?" Luo Meimei sighed and didn't dare to pick up this stubble. When it comes to designing ships, Emperor Hong said second, and no one dared to say first; When it comes to shipbuilding, the Wen family says second, and no one dares to say first. Since you can't talk about this issue, let's just talk about something else, such as Luo Youde's matter.

"Oh, probably never to ......get there," Hong Tao pinched his fingers and calculated, then looked at Luo Mei, who was full of anticipation, bared his teeth and smiled evilly to give an answer that no one could understand.

"Why?" Luo Mei is a little confused, is there a route in the world that this emperor can't calculate?

"Because I won't tell you how many days I'll be there! If you want to find your dad by sailing, dream! Do you think I'm one of those midshipmen in the navy, fooling around and saying anything when I'm happy? You use this brain more on the salamander than anything else, other people's fiancées wear gold and silver, you see what you bought for my salamander? Don't mention that the gem on her neck was bought by you, although our girl is quite round, but she doesn't know, she stole the button of my clothes on the front foot and went to the jewelry store to polish it into a pendant, and the back foot Lao Meng told her, why do you say you keep so much money? "Hong Tao is so angry, he likes to take revenge and revenge, and he doesn't have the patience of a gentleman who has endured for ten years, he can come as fast as he can, and the best retribution in the world is the best.

“…… I don't want to be a poor king, the salamander will be the queen in the future, and when we have our own country, she will have whatever she wants! Luo Meimei really thinks long-term, and he hasn't forgotten his ideals when he was a child.

"You can deceive the salamander with a blank check like you, and it's okay if she's willing to listen to me, come on." Luo Meimei's explanation really made Hong Tao look at him differently. When he was a child, he said that he wanted to be a king, which was at most a child's whim, but if he could persist for so many years, it might be an ideal. And this kid is really frugal, not like a little rich man with a lot of money. Originally, Hong Tao thought that he was picking on the door by nature, but now he understands that he is saving money for his ideals. Cixi is right, this child is a ruthless person, with ideals, persistence and resilience, and Luo Youde raised a good son.

(To be continued.) )