On both sides of the slipway, the craftsmen of the shipyard made four large wooden wheels, using the animal power provided by the ox to pull the wheels to rotate, the wheels were coiled with ropes, and the thick hemp ropes were hung on the pulleys composed of two sets of fixed pulleys and movable pulleys, and were fixed to the hull.

As long as the ox is moved, the wheels and the pulley block are pulled, and the hull can be slowly dragged towards the chute.

In order to reduce the friction between the heavy hull and the slipway, you can also apply a layer of grease to the wooden slipway, which is occasionally used in the land shipyards, but because the grease also costs a lot of money at the moment, many shipyards on land are reluctant to use this kind of thing, but for the sea wolf, this is not a problem.

Someone has taken several large barrels of whale oil and smeared it on the wooden slide.

With the wooden frame was dismantled, the hull did not shake, still sitting firmly on the frame, someone began to shout and whip the cow for traction, after the cow was in pain, it began to move, driving the wheel to rotate slowly, the thick hemp rope wrapped around the huge wheel gradually began to tighten, the pulley group also began to move, the whole traction system of the hemp rope was gradually tightened, and the force gradually acted on the hull.

Everyone held their breath at this time, nervously watching the situation of the towing rope, although the hull weight of this sloop is not large, only about seventy tons when it is unloaded, but it is still very heavy, and after a few twine for traction are tightened, they begin to make a creaking sound, which makes people feel croaked.

The hemp rope moon tightened tighter and tighter, until all the expansion and contraction were fully stretched, the animal power wheel also began to make a creaking sound, the cow began to struggle, the cow under the whipping, the bull's eyes were rounded, the muscles of the whole body began to tense, the cow's head stretched forward, mooing from time to time, all four legs kicked the ground hard, and the muscles under the skin were tense one by one into pimples.

At this time, the hull finally creaked and moved, and then slowly began to move, sliding from the shelves of the slipway towards the chute.

There was a sharp friction between the heavy hull and the wooden frame, giving off a burnt smell, and the smell of whale oil, a little fried something, it smelled weird.

The hull slowly moved forward, entered the chute, and began to lean forward, at this time the weight of the hull began to play a role, and the oxen traction became easier, but it was immediately stopped, and the ship at this time completely relied on its own weight, sliding along the chute towards the water, the speed became faster and faster, and the friction chute made a heavier burnt smell.

In front of everyone's eyes, the first boat suddenly made a roar, and rushed into the water, and the bow of the boat immediately splashed with huge waves, and many people standing on the shore were splashed with water, and let out an exclamation.

After the hull of the ship rushed into the water, it rushed forward by inertia for some distance, then stopped, swayed from side to side, until it gradually stabilized, until this time, the people on the shore were collectively cheering.

Yu Xiaotian looked at the new ship floating on the water with satisfaction, the line shape of this ship is indeed beautiful, there is a porthole on the side of the ship, these are gun windows, after testing the water, the twelve pounder cannons will be loaded into the cabin immediately, the left and right sides can be arranged with four to six twelve pounder guns, plus a twelve-pounder gun in the bow, this new ship can be fully equipped with thirteen twelve-pounder guns when fully loaded, not counting the four one-pounder long cannons on the side of the deck specially used to deal with enemy personnel.

After this kind of ship has been strengthened and improved, the firepower is already considerable, and in close artillery battles, even if it is a large plywood ship of the Europeans whose size is several times larger, it may not be able to take much advantage.

What's more, the next ship to be launched will also be equipped with a 32-pounder Caron gun that can rotate on the deck, such firepower, only one shot, if you fire shotguns, you can completely sweep the deck of an enemy ship, and you can even get close to the battery on the enemy's shore and directly bombard it, and it is estimated that a small battery can be flattened with just a few shots.

So don't look at the size of this sloop, but now the firepower is quite powerful, but so far, it can only reach this level, if you want to increase its firepower again, it is estimated that without rifled guns, there is no way to increase his firepower.

The first launched ship was slightly tilted to the left, indicating that the ballast stone arrangement of the hull bilge was not accurate enough, and the port side was a little sunk, but this did not hurt, and the ballast stone only needed to be adjusted, and the hull could naturally recover.

After the successful launch of the first boat, everyone was relieved and began to rush to the second boat into the water.

The second boat repeated the steps of the first boat to be launched, and it didn't take long for it to slide off the slipway, rush into the water, and quickly float on the surface of the water and regain its balance.

But when the third boat was launched, there was an unexpectedly serious accident.

When the third boat began to be pulled, because a thick hemp rope might have had a quality problem, it suddenly broke after a short period of tension.

After the taut hemp rope suddenly broke, it immediately flew out of the boat from both sides of the stern, and the two apprentices who operated the boat to launch near the slipway were caught off guard, and were swept by the thick hemp rope, and were immediately pulled out of the gang, one vomited a pool of blood and died on the spot, and it was too late to rescue, and the other broke a leg on the spot, which is estimated to be a comminuted fracture, and the injury was very serious, even after being cured, it must be crippled.

Moreover, after the tow rope broke, the boat suddenly felt uneven force, and began to tilt slowly, which shocked everyone to shout badly.

Someone immediately stopped the cattle being pulled, and stopped the few remaining ropes that were still being pulled, but fortunately, the boathouse also had some precautions, and people prepared thick wooden sticks to wait nearby in advance to prevent the hull from tipping over.

Guo Fu screamed and rushed over, holding a log and rushing forward, while shouting and beckoning the rest of the people to hurry up, a group of craftsmen holding the log rushed to the hull that was tilting, and forcefully put the wooden stick on the hull, and poked the other end the ground, and after a dozen logs were topped, the hull was stabilized.

Yu Xiaotian was even more shocked into a cold sweat, and hurriedly beckoned more people to go up, stabilized the hull, re-fixed the cable on the ship, and dragged the hull on the other side to prevent the hull from continuing to tilt.

Finally, the boat was stabilized again, Yu Xiaotian hurriedly sent someone to rescue the wounded, and sent him to the Tamsui City Medical Center as quickly as possible, as for the apprentice who had unfortunately died, he also ordered to properly handle his funeral and bury him, which could have given his family a generous pension, but after asking, he learned that this apprentice was an orphan and had no home, so he had to give up.

If the ship is not rescued in time, once it capsizes on the slipway, it is difficult to straighten it with the current technology, and the final result is likely to be to dismantle most of it on the spot, and the rest can be righted, which is equivalent to rebuilding one.

Fortunately, Guo Fu and the others were wary, so at the last moment, they saved the boat and kept it from toppling, but even so, the boat was reset in two or three days, and it couldn't get into the water.

This originally lively launching ceremony, because of the accident of the boat at the back of the day, cast a shadow, and the trouble broke up unhappily.

Guo Fu was so frightened that his hands and feet were weak, such a good thing, but let him do this, not to mention such a big thing, and also caused death and injury, so he ran to Yu Xiaotian sweating profusely, knelt down and pleaded guilty.

Yu Xiaotian is also in a bad mood, but this kind of thing is an emergency, and there is no stronger nylon rope or wire rope in this era, and no one dares to guarantee that the hemp rope will not break.

And he also personally looked at the broken hemp rope, the hemp rope is very thick, and it is not too thin, and the hemp rope is not injured on the surface, it can be said that it is unpredictable, this kind of thing is blamed on Guo Fu's head, it is really a bit wronged him, even if it is investigated, the craftsmen who make the hemp rope must be held responsible.

But this kind of accident can't be completely counted like this, if it is just like that, the craftsmen will think that it is not a big deal if there is an accident, and they will still not be careful.

So Yu Xiaotian kept a calm face and immediately ordered Guo Fu to be fined three months' wages, because he was the main person in charge of the shipyard, and the launching of the boat that was fully arranged by himself did not do a good job of adequate prevention, resulting in serious consequences for the accident.

The steward of hemp was fined three months' wages for failing to produce qualified hemp rope, which led to the accident, and several other craftsmen who made hemp rope also deducted their wages ranging from one month to three months to set an example.

The craftsmen in the ship's liao were so frightened that they knelt down for a long time, and listened to Yu Xiaotian's reprimand, Yu Xiaotian once again reaffirmed the quality consciousness and safety awareness in public, and told the craftsmen in the ship's liao that they must strengthen their quality consciousness and not have a fluke mentality, otherwise it is a trivial matter to damage something, and it is not impossible to directly cause death and injury like today.

What's more, the ship is something to run on the sea, if there is a problem with the quality, it may lead to the death of the whole ship at any time at sea, which is a major matter of many people's lives, and these ships are basically combat warships, if there is a problem in the battle, it may even lead to a battle loss, and the destruction of the ship is a trivial matter.

The craftsmen were lying on the ground and were trained by Yu Xiaotian, and they were silent one by one, and they didn't dare to speak, they were vigilant in their hearts, and they secretly thought that they should be more careful in whatever they say in the future.

The originally lively launching ceremony had to come to an end in such a hurry, but then Yu Xiaotian personally boarded the boat and checked the situation of the two boats that were launched.