Whistles, seagulls, bells, human language, this is the early morning Kiel Quay, peaceful, peaceful, and orderly. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 The flat-deck light cruiser, the Charlotte, which had been on naval tour since 1887, was loaded with food, fresh water, medicine and 331 young cadets from the Kiel Naval Academy. Before these young Germans, whose average age is less than 18 years old, are about to become officers in the Royal Navy, they will have to undergo one final test – to deal with the moody sea in the most traditional way, and to learn the true meaning of tenacity, bravery, patience and solidarity from the harshness of nature.

Led by the chaplain who accompanied the ship, some of the devout officers and cadets prayed on deck before sailing, while others stared over the side of the ship at the farewell on the dock. These farewells range from well-dressed middle-aged and elderly couples to slim girls. This parting will be a long separation, they are reluctant to cling to each other, and they can find figures on both sides who silently wipe away their tears. Near the stern, Natsuki and Christian, dressed in very ordinary white sailors' suits, waited to sail without saying a word. The farewell affection of parents and family members is written on brocade silk, which they have long been accustomed to, and in terms of family affection, the two noble princes seem to belong to the "poor". Fortunately, Natsuki's Friedrich shipyard had just received an order for a German light cruiser, and Christian had received a recent photo of Princess Louise, finally receiving a consolation prize before the voyage.

Dingdingding......

The first mate rang the bell mercilessly, and the commander shouted in a voice comparable to that of a tenor: "Raise the anchor, untie the cable, remove the board, and raise the sail!" ”

Hearing the slogan of the military commander, the cadets ran to their posts. The 3,288-ton Charlotte carried a total of 376 crew members. With the exception of the captain, first mate, commander, gunner, navigator officer, boatswain, and chaplain, the rest were naval cadets with no actual sailing experience. In order to ensure the normal operation of the sailing ship, the captain made a preliminary assignment to the cadets, some of whom temporarily served as midshipmen, and then gradually adjusted their roles according to the performance of the cadets during the sailing training until they stabilized. According to the past practice, the performance of the cadets on the training ship will become an important basis for the Admiralty to evaluate their characteristics and capabilities.

With Natsuki's ability, there should have been no suspense as a cadet midshipman during the nautical training, but after a week of docking training, he had four days off and went out, and did not return in a hurry until the dust settled on the cruiser bidding. As they were also responsible for the nautical training of ordinary recruits, the officers on board the Charlotte did not attend the daily classes at the Kiel Naval Academy. Although Natsuki has a reputation such as the genius of Hohenzollern and the "best cadet in history" of the Kiel Naval Academy, the Germans are also known for their rigidity and stubbornness, and the officers mainly decide the division of labor based on the performance of the cadets during the docking training. In only three days, Natsuki was as diligent and pragmatic as ever, but the top students had conquered the officers with their hard work, and in the end he only got a position as a boatswain candidate.

On a warship, the boatswain usually arranges the sailors' daily tasks under the leadership of the first mate, including deck cleaning, equipment maintenance, and day and night watch, but the boatswain here does not take the place of the boatswain when he leaves his post - that is the role of the boatswain, the so-called "alternate", that is, the rotating boatswain selected from the cadets can only be replaced by the alternate sailor when he proves incompetent for the job, or is unable to perform his duties due to illness or other reasons. If the boatswain on duty goes smoothly from departure to home, then Natsuki will only have to watch the whole process.

It is surprising on the surface that the glamorous Prussian prince did not get the "starting position", but in fact, at the Kiel Naval Academy, his position as the number one student was not as advantageous as people thought. In the first half year of entering the Naval Academy, Xia Shu made a beautiful start with the knowledge and skills accumulated in the early stage and hard work, and won the honor in the basic training stage, and the breadth and depth of the later courses gradually increased, his existing advantages were no longer as obvious as before, and he had a lot of energy to deal with other things, and the advantage of riding in the dust no longer existed. Among the cadets enrolled in 1904, there were 7 "full honor students" who could achieve excellent results in each course, more than 20 "excellent students" with outstanding performance in individual courses, and even more than 20 "excellent students" with outstanding performance in individual courses. Moreover, most of the students who focus on their studies are from ordinary families or even from poor backgrounds, even if they have a heart, the completely different growth environment and hobbies make it difficult for them to play with the aristocratic sons, and they are young and vigorous, and they do not want people to feel that they are attached to power, and over time they have formed a social class group - this situation has existed in the previous cadets of the Kiel Navy, but this time because of the influence of Natsuki and formed a "third group". These students were both nobles and commoners, who were impressed by Prince Joachim's generosity and benevolence because of the activities of the Friendship Society, or formed friendships because of the football tournaments he organized, and some who threw themselves into the ground for his dazzling talents, and of course, there were also those who smuggled around the prince unconditionally and responded to his call, so they were called the "princes' gang" by the students.

The liberal and arrogant aristocracy, the simple, industrious, low-key and self-reliant plebeian faction, and the princely gang led by the Prussian prince Joachim, these three cadets were usually in their own positions, and they never organized themselves in a clear-cut manner, but this relationship would continue throughout their naval careers, and this trend began to manifest itself in seafaring training......

After anchoring and unmooring, the Charlotte does not leave the dock on its own, like a normal steam turbine. Whenever the captain gave an order, the small commander would greet the cadets in his loud voice, which was comparable to a megaphone:

"Raise the headsail, watch the saillines, and beware of winding the mast!"

"Sail ahead, tighten the halyard!"

"Open the turnswire, the backmast syllaber sticks out on the starboard side, pay attention to the outboard, and the rudder turns left!"

For a time, the deck was filled with the sound of ropes stretching and grinding wooden poles, a situation that was almost extinct on mechanized ships.

With the action of the jib and the schooner, the dinosaur-like primitive and clumsy sailboat slowly sails out of the dock. Behind the stern, the faces waving goodbye faded.

"Raise the mainsail and watch out for the halyard...... The mainsail is windy, tighten the control of the sail line! ”

Accompanied by the loud slogans of the military commanders, the cadets did their best to control the old three-masted schooner in accordance with the operating instructions learned in the docking training. With the mainsail opened, the speed of the ship increased markedly, and although it could not be compared to that of a steam clipper, the different feeling of the sail moving with the wind and the boat and the waves was still a novelty for these young men.

With the combined action of rudder oars and shoulk sails, the Charlotte sailed through the harbor to the fairway. Suddenly, a large steamship passed by, and its waves did not look unusual, but the wooden sailboat swayed laterally. Without moving the sails and rudder, the bow of the ship slowly deviated from the course, and it happened that at this time, a sailboat with the steering compartment in front of it sailed from outside the harbor, and the two sides had plenty of time to avoid the collision, but the captain, the first mate, and the military commander, these guys seemed to suddenly become wooden sculptures, and stood there silently one by one. The distance between the two boats continued to close, and the trainee in charge of the lookout on the mast hurriedly shouted: "There is a ship ahead, turn quickly!" ”

The inexperienced students were suddenly a little flustered.

Realizing that this was a deliberate test for the officers, Mons, who served as the second lieutenant of midship. Feng. Kelled, the No. 2 student in the second place in the whole academy in terms of overall academic scores, and a representative of the liberal aristocracy, shouted at the top of his voice: "Attention...... Release the front and rear swivels, turn the front jib and rear mast sloop 90 degrees to the left, and the rudder 30 degrees to the right...... Concentrate and move fast! ”

This last sentence was supposed to be the mantra of a military commander, but it was counterproductive in this case—after a week of shore training, the cadets should have been familiar with these commands, but it was not so easy to tame such a three-masted sailing ship, with more than a dozen sails, large and small, and countless ropes and sails. As a result, the mainsail harness was mistakenly loosened, causing the training ship to sail to be reduced sharply, and the backmast was unable to move due to a knot in a rope, and the panicked report caused confusion on the deck. Seeing a mess on board, Boatswain on Duty Reddy. Walter shouted: "Calm down, everyone calm down, front spinnaker, sail line turn left, the rest of the people don't move!" ”

An officer's greatest role on the battlefield is to guide the soldier and give them a clear direction, but success also needs to be based on full knowledge and trust. As the highest institution of the German Navy, the Kiel Naval Academy was not low in terms of admission requirements, and these naval cadets who entered in the summer of 1904 were among the best of their peers. Although the students' academic performance is high, the gap between them is not too large, and it is normal for them to compete with each other and even be dissatisfied. The group of students at the stern of the ship were all immersed in solving the problem of knots, ignoring the all-honors student from a civilian background, and the trainees in charge of the front spinnaker in the bow seemed to be in the same situation.

Since the speed of the boat has slowed down a lot, the steering effect of the nose jib and rudder is not noticeable. Tall Feng. Kelleder rushed to the stern cadets and shouted, "Cut that cable and let the backmast sloop!" ”

This may sound like a decisive decision, but cutting the cable could cause the backsail to spiral out of control entirely, and the potential threat goes far beyond leaving it as it is. Not waiting for any reckless guy to really find a machete, midshipman Otto. Sikenus shouted, "You can't cut it!" ”

Who should I listen to? The students looked at each other.

"Alright, stop me!" Captain Feng. Lieutenant Commander Kells finally spoke, the fifty-year-old navy in the shape of a tuxedo, a boat-shaped hat that was very popular in the sailing era and is now gradually retiring from the stage of history, and a monocular is just the right thing to fit a 19th-century battleship commander. Faced with the chaotic scene on the deck, his eyes widened with rage, and his majestic eyes swept over, and no one dared to look at him.

"Guys, what are you panicking about? Afraid of what? Is it even more terrifying to steer this old sailing ship than to face a modern enemy? ”

On the solemn deck, the captain's voice was clearly heard in everyone's ears.

(End of chapter)