It has been two days since the accident of unearthing the treasure of the shipwreck.

Everything is normal on the island at the moment.

Although Evan regularly corresponded with his own senior, Major General Demont Brand, at Fort Dilborn, the information he received from him was that the front line was currently in a stalemate, and that Sylius's dominance was rapidly losing as the weather worsened in the depths of winter.

The commanders of Sack and Atlan were even somewhat optimistic that they could delay the delaying tactics until next spring, when home reinforcements arrived.

Then they will really do a great job for their country!

This kind of information has always been received, and Evan didn't think much about it. Although the strength is no longer the same as in the past, in a large-scale war, the impact that can be made is still limited.

What's more, the personnel that the major general said before have not been replenished yet, and Ai Wen is also happy to be idle.

After all, he now has too many research projects on hand.

For example:

The "Totem Warrior Training Method" related to the future of the knight, the "Adventurer's Blood" suppression plan, the first "Spirit Exploration" after becoming an official wizard, the run-in of the Ocean Current Horn, the renewal of the "Seabird Scouting Network", the "Activated Animal Skin" for all the crew members who fought bravely, and the old guy in the "Cursed Oil Painting"...

There are so many things that no one else can replace, and Evan sometimes wonders if he should take Angel over and assist him in his research.

By the way, I can also help myself bring that second apprentice.

Besides.

Unsure of how long his men would stay in Port Hatrafa, Evan didn't leave the fully recovered soldiers idle while he was busy.

In addition to normal training, they also need to cut down trees to build houses, port facilities, and reclaim wasteland to grow vegetables.

Now the entire crew of the island includes:

The "Storm Horn" originally had a full crew of 350 people, but after removing the battle damage and those who could not return to combat duty due to disability, there are now 209 people left.

The situation of the "Endeavor" is slightly better, originally 352 people, and now there are 268 people.

The captives of Cyrius were 623 people, oh, one was eaten, and now there are only 622 people.

In total, more than 1,000 adult men are only able to enter and exit this island, which is also a huge drain.

Ai Wen simply found something to do for them, which not only helped Donglunzhi build this excellent hidden private port, which could be borrowed at any time with this excellent relationship in the future, but also solved the problem that they had nowhere to vent their energy.

After all, Phaletis is not as rich as Cyrius, and the various military bases in the entire New World that can provide logistical support for battleships are only in the single digits.

Being a qualified captain is not just as simple as fighting and killing, the more you have a friendly private port, the more security you can win for your warship and your subordinates, and the more chance you have to survive.

The best news in the past few days is that with the help of a ship engineer sent by Fort Dilborne, the repair of the Storm Horn was finally completed earlier than expected today.

Back to the sea.

Even in his busy schedule, Evan found time to personally go to the harbor to preside over the relaunching of the battleship.

"Your Excellency, do you need a sea trial? I can accompany you on a tour to re-tune this beautiful battleship, which should bring it to the best condition of its service. ”

Watching the Storm Horn relaunched, the skilled engineer, Mr. Walkley Jeffrey, was confident in his craft.

Indeed, for him, a senior engineer who had presided over the construction of a brand-new battleship, such a small project was simply not difficult at all.

At this time, the right rear side of the aft building of the fourth class ship has been repaired by white oak from the colony, and the balance has also been corrected.

By the way, the crew cleaned the bottom of the copper-clad ship and carried out a major maintenance for it.

There was no need to conduct a trial voyage in person, just looking at the attitude of its sailing at this time, Evan also knew that the "Storm Horn" was already in excellent condition, and could be thrown into another battle at any time.

He nodded in satisfaction, acknowledging the senior engineer's skills.

"But is the restoration of the Startenberg so slow?"

Looking away from the "Storm Horn", Ai Wen looked at the third-class ship that was still lying in the dock and frowned slightly, although he didn't dare to open it openly for the time being, but not opening and not being able to open are completely two concepts.

"Your Excellency, the main thing is that the materials can't keep up, and the hull and ribs of this battleship are badly damaged.

The damage was still the thickest part of the original amidships, and the hull, ribs, and lining of the third-class ship could reach 60 centimeters combined.

It is too difficult to find suitable materials for such warships, and the ones that Donglunzhi brought in before have long been used up.

It seems that they had a good teak boat on their side before, but unfortunately the people of the Trade Department moved too fast, and they were robbed of it at a high price. ”

In fact, this engineer is mainly here for the "Startenburg", and there are not many chances to completely capture the Cylius third-class battleship.

Although he thought that shipbuilding technology had surpassed the "coarse, stupid, and big" design concept of Cylius, as a naval engineer, he was certainly not willing to let go of this opportunity to learn from others.

However, no matter how superb the technology is, it is difficult for a clever woman to cook without rice, and the repair of the third-class ship has been intermittent, because the lack of raw materials has greatly slowed down the progress of the project.

He shook his head and sighed as he spoke, feeling sorry for the boatload of fine teak that he didn't know where it would be used.

"Ahem..."

Evan next to him listened to Walkley's words in his ears, coughed twice to hide his embarrassment, and it turned out to be his own pot when he turned around.

But at that time, who would have thought that they would have a third-class ship to repair in the future? Of course, the Golden Lion in hand was more realistic.

However, looking at the third-level ship that is now lying in the nest, while secretly regretting it, a good idea suddenly popped into Aiwen's mind. And the more I think about it, the more feasible it is, and in the end, my eyes are shining.

Turning his head to look at the engineer beside him, he said slightly excitedly:

"Mr. Jeffrey, why don't we refit this ship. ”

"Modification?!"

Walkley Jeffrey wondered if he had misheard, the battleship was the pinnacle of human force in this era, but it was a complex collection that involved the whole body.

At present, the ship types of various countries are the crystallization of dozens of hundreds of years of experience of countless ship engineers and senior craftsmen, and if they are changed indiscriminately, let alone fighting, it is not impossible to sink into the sea immediately even if they go out.

"That's right, it's a modification. Convert this third-class battleship into a heavy cruiser! Heavy cruisers!"

At this time, listening to Evan's words word by word, Walkley felt that he was almost stung by the light in Avan's eyes, and he was also attracted by a term that he had never heard of.

The noun seemed to be inherently magical, and it made him murmur, "Reload... Cruiser!"

As a matter of fact.

Although the Great Voyage has been in place for two hundred years, all aspects of navigation technology have also made great progress.

But in this era, people's concept is still stuck in the degree that more artillery is stronger. Build your ship bigger, have more decks, and put more guns on it!

Then, in the version of the battleship that is shot in line, that is, the "battle line", it is the first to send the opponent into the sea with superior firepower.

Of course, no kind of invention or tactic can be divorced from the background of the times, and some ridiculous tactics in the eyes of modern people are the best choice for a particular era.

In a large-scale war in which no one can run by adopting the tactics of the "battle line", there is nothing wrong with this idea at all.

But what if you go beyond that, or out of the confines of this era?

Judging from Aiwen's insight beyond most people, in addition to the legendary battleships with extraordinary power involved, the era of Blue Star's sail battleships is a big step ahead of this world in terms of the design, concept, and tactics of warships.

Especially before the launch of the steam ironclad, the last and most glorious years of the sail battleship, mankind undoubtedly developed this technology to a certain pinnacle.

Just like the difference machine, which was eventually replaced by a computer, the sail battleship, which was replaced by a steam ironclad, if it could continue to develop, no one could predict what it would be like in the end.

And in those glorious years.

It is difficult to say which of all the famous sail warships is the strongest, because there are the largest "most" with the largest body size, the most guns on board, and the fastest runner.

But if there is one of the most legendary and most suitable warships for the current situation, it is the Bald Eagle "Constitution".

During his service, he experienced more than 40 naval battles, in exchange for the prestige of "being invincible from undefeated to invincible"!

However, it was not a battleship that claimed to be the era of domination. Rather, it is a cruiser, more precisely a "heavy cruiser" with a unique design.

[Specifications] the total length of the hull is 62.2 meters, the width is 13.6 meters, the depth is 6.85 meters, the displacement is 2200 tons, the speed is 13 knots per hour, the crew is 400 people, and the bow and stern tower are canceled.

Double-deck guns: 30 24-pounder guns, 20 32-pounder guns, 2 24-pounder bow and stern guns (after many heavy outfittings, data at the peak of firepower in 1812)

【Sail outfit】Full sail outfit, bow cable-stayed spinnaker, stern oblique truss schooner.

This enhanced version of the supercruiser had several advantages over the battleships of its contemporaries:

First, heavy cruisers with a lower center of gravity can deploy more heavy cannons than third-class battleships, and even adopt all-heavy gun configurations, so that they have almost no inferior firepower to third-class battleships in naval battles.

Secondly, the stern tower was canceled for the same tonnage, and a thicker hull could be equipped, and the "Constitution" even had the reputation of "old ironclad".

Thirdly, the height is lowered closer to the water, the aspect ratio is increased, and the speed is faster (of course, the clipper ship has a faster aspect ratio of up to 6:1, but it lacks stability and strength, and it is simply impossible to equip heavy artillery).

The design idea was to abandon large-scale fleet warfare at the same time.

Create a situation where you can beat it but can't run it, and you can't beat it if you can run it, and of course it's more about neither running nor beating it!

With its powerful firepower and exceptional speed, this heavy cruiser dared to wrestle with any of the warships on the Blue Star at the time.

In fact, from the point of view of displacement and specifications, the target of this kind of cruiser is the third-class ship in the battleship sequence, and it is just right to use a third-class ship that is just "short of two pounds" to transform it.

And Aven's idea wasn't whimsical, or even pioneering.

In order to deal with the continuous troubles of Bald Eagle's heavy cruisers, such as sailing in formation to hunt their own lone warships and merchant ships, John Bull once came up with a deck cutting design to convert a third-class battleship into a heavy cruiser.

How similar is this situation to the current comparison of the combat power of Pharytis and Cyrius?

"So, Mr. Jeffrey, how about we join forces?"

Aven stretched out his right hand to the ship engineer beside him.

Walkley Jeffrey had already been encouraged by Aven's words, and he was almost a little enthusiastic, and he did not hesitate to high-five Evan.

If it fails, it will be the captain's trophy anyway, but if it can succeed, it will leave a heavy mark in the history of the kingdom's warship development!