The fabrics purchased by the Guangzhou Office and "Fu Ruifeng" from the mainland are certainly qualified for ordinary clothes, but when they are to be used as canvas, they are much worse than the requirements of the Ministry of Shipping in terms of strength, and the sails produced in the trial are slightly larger and can be easily torn in strong winds. Although it has encountered relatively big troubles in the materials of the sails, the Ministry of Shipping believes that it is not without solutions. A local tailor surnamed Wang, who participated in the sail making of zuò, came up with a very good idea to use a tougher multiple fabric to make zuò stiffeners, and after sewing a large number of stiffeners on the larger sail surface, the strength of the sail has been significantly improved, although the overall strength does not meet the technical requirements of the Ministry of Shipping for the time being, but at least it can be used as a spare sail, and the weight of the sail has not increased significantly. And Tailor Wang was also fortunate to be promoted in advance by virtue of this small contribution.

The Executive Committee has sent the latest directives to the Guangzhou Office, asking them to try to order a large number of tougher and thicker fabrics from the cotton-rich Songjiang Province, and to see if they can get some Indian-made canvas from the foreigners, taking advantage of the Spanish or Portuguese threads. The Executive Committee has now included canvas in the list of strategic materials, and in the absence of its own textile industry, even if it spends more money and detours, it must find a stable supply of canvas trade channels.

The design of the sails according to the science of fluids is the most obvious difference between the new sailing ship developed by the Ministry of Shipping and the existing ships in appearance, but this most technical improvement is relatively easy to imitate. Even the natives, who did not understand what the "Bernoulli effect" was, were quick to imitate it out of practical considerations, knowing that the new sail would work much better than the old one.

Of course, this kind of sail with technical advantages must also have a large enough area to fully reflect the performance advantage, so the shipping department will not hesitate to find ways to increase the sail area by raising the mast. According to the shipbuilding technology of this era, it is almost technically impossible to directly build a hollow steel pipe as a mast as a Chinese sailing ship, or to use a large number of support cables to ensure its stability like a Western-style sailing ship. Therefore, even if this new style of sail is stolen in the future, its boat performance will still have a relatively large gap compared with the genuine goods of the crossing group.

Li Nai listened to it for a while, and he could basically understand what everyone was saying, but many of the terms were unclear, and he was inconvenient for people to keep explaining to him, so after a while, he felt even more confused. However, Li Nai noticed that it was not only the Haihan people who participated in the discussion, but also seven or eight Ming boatwrights, who occasionally interjected a few sentences to express their opinions. One of the shipwrights surnamed Zhang seems to be particularly prominent, and even Yue Zhiyun and Sun Changmi will call this person "Master Zhang" from time to time.

Li Nai listened to Master Zhang's words in a Fujian accent, so he turned his head sideways and asked Jiang San in a low voice, "What is the origin of this Master Zhang?"

Jiang Sanying said: "This Tiangui Master Zhang is a good hand in the shipyard, the chiefs promoted him to be a senior foreman, and now all the shipwrights in the shipyard are under his control...... By the way, Master Zhang seems to have been recruited by your firm in Guangzhou to send it to Shengli Port. ”

"Is there such a thing?" Li Nai didn't expect that the number one shipwright of the Haihan people was actually recruited by himself. "Fu Ruifeng" is also one of the most famous maritime merchants in Guangzhou, although the ships under his name are not as good as Xu Xinsu's provincial-level maritime merchants, but there are twenty or thirty ships of all sizes, and there are a lot of tinkering that needs to be done on a regular basis, and after getting into a relationship with the Haihan people, Li Jifeng is already considering whether he needs to build his own shipyard and build a few more ships specifically for running the route of Shengli Port. If he had known that among the craftsmen he recruited was a talent like Zhang Tiangui, he should have stayed and done things for his own family.

However, looking at the scale and operation of the shipyard of Haihanren, Li Nai knew that even if he could afford a high enough commission, it would be difficult to give a shipwright like Zhang Tiangui enough room to play. First of all, if we really want to open a shipyard, the scale will definitely not be comparable to that of this shipyard of the Haihan people, which needs to provide food, drink, and Lazar for hundreds of workers, and how many ships will have to be built this year to balance the income and expenditure? As far as Li Nai knows, the Haihan people's investment in this shipyard is not at all costly, and what they want is only results, not input, and this mode of operation will certainly not be applied to the "Furuifeng" side.

Secondly, the respect and freedom given to Zhang Tiangui by the Haihan people is also quite high, many problems in the details of ship construction, the Haihan people actually have to give his opinion as the mainstay, and this shipyard test boats are built one after another, and the ships that can be used to run sea transportation have not been finalized for half a year.

Li Nai finally survived until the end of the discussion, and everyone got up and patted their buttocks, and they were busy getting to work. Yue Zhiyun walked up to Li Nai and asked, "Mr. Li, do you want to go and see our new ship?"

"I don't dare to ask for it. Li Nai replied respectfully. In terms of attitude towards craftsmen, Li Nai is different from a considerable number of scholars in the Ming Dynasty, because he was born in a family of merchants, and the social status of merchants in this era is still not high. Of course, after a businessman's net worth reaches a certain point, his status will still rise significantly, but if the son of a businessman wants to become an official, the disadvantage of his background will be magnified.

It is precisely because of this deep-rooted concept that Li Nai has always been relatively gentle and humble when dealing with craftsmen, not to mention the identity of the shipbuilder in front of him and the Haihan people. In Li Nai's opinion, although Yue Zhiyun and Sun Changmi are not as high as Tao Donglai, Schneider and others, they are at least the people in charge of one party, and they should be given enough respect.

And Yue Zhiyun was also very satisfied with Li Nai's attitude, and stretched out his hand and said, "Then please come with me." ”

Out of the need for secrecy, there is a bamboo fence more than one person high on the outside of the slipway of the No. 1 test ship, and it is difficult to see the work inside from the outside. When Li Nai entered the port the day before, he saw only a small part of the hull that was exposed to the top of the fence. This time, Yue Zhiyun took him into the fence, and he really saw this experimental ship that was very valued by the Haihan people.

This semi-finished product that is still on the slipway is supported by many supporting timbers is about ten zhang long, and because the upper deck is still in a state of construction, the width of the hull is not easy to identify, Li Nai estimates according to his own experience that the width of this ship should be between two zhang and two zhang five, but judging from most of the hulls that have been built so far, the depth of the hull is greater than that of the same level of Fu Ship or Guangzhou Ship, and the visual inspection is at least more than one zhang, only from the hull size, this ship should be slightly larger than the four hundred material sea ships that are commonly seen, especially in the depth of draft, almost one-third more than the general sea ships of the same level。 The shape of the hull is still basically the same as that of a Chinese sailing boat, which is wide and narrow at the bottom, and it is conceivable that the deeper draft hull will bring better seaworthiness to this boat.

There are obviously far fewer shipwrights working on this slipway than several other slipways, and Li Nai knows that this must also be the consideration of secrecy by the Haihan people. But judging from what he has seen so far, Li Nai feels that this ship does not seem to be particularly outstanding, but Li Nai feels that this is mostly a matter of his own knowledge, otherwise there would not be so much content that he did not understand at all when he was observing the discussion before.

If Li Nai had been more knowledgeable, he would have been able to see that the keel of this ship had a tendency to tilt down towards the tail, which was not very conspicuous from the existing sailing ships. This structure can obtain a large tail draft, which can greatly move the transverse hydrodynamic center of the underwater hull backwards, which is conducive to wind navigation and reduce the hull drift amplitude, and effectively improve the stability and speed of the ship at sea.

This structure is from the nineteenth century will appear "Baltimore schooner", two hundred years later appeared in the North American Chesapeake Bay of this kind of North American schooner in the history of world navigation is also regarded as a role with a head and face, is one of the best fast sailing ships after the nineteenth century, representing the most advanced ship design ideas at that time, and also had a revolutionary impact on the shipbuilding technology later, the flying shear sailing ship that appeared after the emergence of the high-end fast sailing ship is developed on this basis.

In the design of the bow, the Ministry of Shipping did borrow from the design of the clipper, and the shape of the underwater part is like a sharp axe, almost the smallest drag shape. There was also some debate about the design of the bow, and there was also a proposal to use a bulbous bow, but it was later rejected by the Ministry of Shipping. The technical difficulty of the construction of the bulbous bow is relatively large, and the drag reduction and speed improvement effect of installing the bulbous bow on small and medium-sized ships is not obvious, and the crossing group may not have enough conditions to build the kind of large ships with a displacement of several thousand tons in recent years.

These excellent design solutions have also been adopted by the Ministry of Shipping, and have been incorporated into the trial production of new sailboats. Of course, in the design of the sail rope system, the Shanghai Transport Department still insisted on its own opinions, after all, it is a black technology work designed based on the principle of fluid lì, and it has also been tested by the practice of later generations, and the technical content is much higher than the full sail of the foreign devil's diaper. However, even if Li Nai saw this small technical detail, he did not realize the significance of this to promote the progress of navigation technology, at most he intuitively felt that the shape of the ship was very smooth and looked more pleasing to the eye.

Yue Zhiyun said: "Mr. Li, you can look at it casually here, but about the construction of this ship, please don't ask any more." As for the reason, I won't explain much, you know. ”

Li Nai nodded, indicating that she understood. This is not the first time he has encountered this kind of thing in Shengli Port, and the last time he came, he asked a lot of unanswered questions, such as how the iron ships moored in the port were built, why the output of the salt works far exceeded the level of the Ming Dynasty, the glass making process, and so on. Every time the Haihan people were unwilling to answer these questions, they used the "secrecy regulations" to prevaricate themselves. Li Nai did not know exactly what the "secrecy regulations" of the Haihan people stipulated, but it was clear that the craftsmanship of everything they made was within the jurisdiction of this "regulations", and now it was clear that another item had to be added to the list.

Li Nai did not dislike this attitude of the Haihan people, technical barriers are the magic weapon of craftsmen in this era to make money, and the goods of the Haihan people can be sold at such a high price, is it not because they have mastered their own manufacturing technology? Li Nai secretly wondered in his heart that after returning to Guangzhou this time, should he go to a shipyard to make up for his knowledge of ship construction, so that he might be able to understand a little about the technical superiority of Haihan's new sailing ship. Li Nai made up her mind, and while looking at it, she kept the shape of the ship in her mind, and planned to consult with a professional when she returned.

However, it is a pity that Li Nai came to visit a little earlier, and the deck superstructure has just entered the construction stage, and Li Nai, as one of the design essences of the No. 1 test ship, has no chance to see the steering wheel steering system.

Regardless of whether it is a Chinese or Western sailing ship, the rudder is still used to adjust the rudder direction by the helmsman directly operating the rudder at the stern. The disadvantages of this steering method are very obvious, one is that on a ship with a slightly larger hull, the helmsman's sight will be blocked by the stern deck, and the sail movement on the ship cannot be observed, so that the helmsman can only be operated by indirectly conveying instructions through guò, which affects the navigation efficiency; second, this steering method almost relies on pure manpower, if it encounters bad weather at sea, the manpower may not be able to withstand the power of nature, and the wind and waves are too strong to lose the initiative at the helm.

Originally, the steering wheel, a navigational black technology, was only invented in the early eighteenth century, and the arrival of the crossing group advanced its appearance by nearly a hundred years. The technical advantages of the steering wheel are as obvious as the disadvantages of the old rudder, which is set on the stern deck, which is light and flexible to operate, and the user can intuitively see the movement of the sails and adapt to the situation, and the steering operation of the rudder can be described as an epoch-making improvement compared to the old method. The most important thing is that although this thing is not high-tech for the traverser, it is not like a new sail, which can be copied from the outside, and its main transmission structure is hidden inside the hull, even if a non-professional sees the operation of the steering wheel, he can't imagine how such a small wooden wheel can drive the whole ship to turn.

In addition to the steering wheel system, there are also sextants and marine astronomical clocks. In the eighteenth century, the sextant underwent many improvements, from an octane with an angle of only 90 degrees, to a sextant with an angle of 120 degrees. This instrument is more convenient to use than tools such as astrolabe and right-angle quadrant used in the past for latitude measurement, and the accuracy has also been greatly improved.

In order to estimate their relative position with speed, ocean-going ships need a stable and reliable timer to calculate the speed, and the accuracy of the timer that can be used on board the ship in this era is far from meeting the requirements of navigation. In 1656, the Dutch scientist Huygens invented the spiral balance spring to replace the pendulum, but such marine clocks still have poor time accuracy. It wasn't until 1736 that an English watchmaker created the first marine clock in the true sense of the word for a bounty from the British Parliament.

However, the early marine clocks were big guys, and the shipping department didn't plan to use that kind of clumsy navigation device. Whether it is a sextant or a marine clock, it is included in the list of strategic materials in the procurement of materials before the crossing. Of course, the Preparatory Committee, which had limited funds at that time, did not buy any high-end goods, so it directly purchased a batch of marine quartz marine clocks from the Internet, and has now been put into the use of the Black Earth Port route. The technical department did not forget to purchase a few mechanical marine clocks as backups, and when the level of metal processing technology came up, it could be copied, so as not to run out of batteries for quartz clocks in a few years.

It is worth mentioning that in terms of navigation, the leading expert in the crossing group is still King Tom. The level of professionalism he embodies is not only in terms of nautical theory and experience, but also in terms of equipment level. The marine clock used by this guy is a super limited edition of Montblanc's Villeret 1858 collection, consisting of an analogue dual time zone chronograph and a large analogue marine clock. In particular, the 120-kilogram marine clock, made of ruby, granite, brass, aluminium and carbon fiber, is enough to dazzle the eyes of every visitor. It is said that this set of nautical clocks is limited to 16 sets worldwide, and it can become an epic piece of equipment in any nautical game, and I don't know how much this guy spent to get it.

Tao Donglai can be regarded as a well-informed rich man in the crossing group, but he was also taken aback when he saw this set. According to what he said afterwards, the average price of Montblanc's series is more than seven figures, and according to this calculation, Wang Tom's equipment is probably worth much more than the two catamarans combined. There are actually a lot of members whose assets have reached six or seven figures before the crossing, but as the saying goes, the poor play the car and the rich play the watch, so it seems that Wang Tom is the real local tyrant who is very deeply hidden. If it weren't for the fact that Tom Wang stayed at sea all day and few people knew his details, I am afraid that a large group of ladies who wanted to give birth to Tom Wang would have appeared in Victory Harbor.