The Ross tribe is actively expanding. However, due to limitations in strength and traditional way of life, the tribe's power cannot enter the inland areas of the vast land at this stage.
The settlements built were all adjacent to the sea, and the conquered tribes all lived along the river. In short, everywhere the Russians set foot can be reached by boat.
The Russians at this stage are obviously a typical maritime people. Navigation and fishing have long been their lifeblood.
In order to maintain stable and smooth exchanges of materials and personnel in various settlements, and to ensure the increasingly important commercial routes, the Russians must take precautions to build a maritime force that can protect their own interests.
Maybe it's too early to build a navy, but the tribe must have one or more fleets that can make all tribesmen feel at ease when they see them.
Since the best shipbuilders in the alliance have been recruited by themselves with generous salaries, they must use existing shipbuilding materials to build a huge ship hull.
This ship must be timeless.
Rurik dare not say that if the ship is successfully launched and has the ability to float all the way to America, it will at least be able to swim seamlessly in the entire Baltic Sea.
Opposite to Rurik's ambition was Otto's doubt. He stared at the keel seriously, doubting the reliability of the future ship with a navigator's instinct.
"Rurik, are you sure this will work? It's too long, and I doubt the spliced keel is reliable."
This matter was not left to Rurik, but the shipbuilder Hotra, who declared his victory in a weathered voice: "Chief, for this ship, my family and I have staked the honor of our generations. If I fail , my soul will feel guilty forever.”
"Ah?! You actually have such an attitude?" I didn't expect that for a ship, a shipbuilder could swear an oath like some soldiers.
"This is our attitude. We are willing to believe in Rurik, and we will...build the ship strictly in accordance with his requirements. Since he is the one who has received Odin's blessing, our ship construction will also go smoothly."
At this time, Otto focused his attention on his son.
"Rurik, tell me your plan. Oh no! I think you have been planning this shipbuilding plan for a long time."
"Hey, Dad, you really understand me."
Rurik admired Otto very much on this point. After all, he was an old guy who had been beaten by the sea breeze.
He began to list the many ideas he wanted to use on the new ship: "This ship will be purely sail-powered, a cargo ship with a huge load, and a sturdy warship. She will be assembled with a large amount of pine and oak, and will use a large number of Using pine gum. She will have a real deck to protect the cargo and provide a place for our sailors to sleep. Cabins will be built at the stern and forward of the ship. The bow cabin is a resting place for distinguished people, and the stern cabin is where the distinguished people rest. The cabin is the cabin where the rudder is controlled.”
Just after saying this, Rurik noticed that his father was so surprised that he could not open his mouth from ear to ear. It was probably the first time that some terms appeared in this world. Rurik did not dare to speak too professionally, so he could only use gestures and use more words to describe one concept after another.
"It also needs to have a huge mast, which will be a jib. I plan to put a mast tilted on the bow, and when it is hooked up to the scale sail, we can take advantage of the wind from the lower end of the ship. I also want to put a mast on the stern. Put up a second mast to take better advantage of the wind. She will have the tallest mast of all our ships and will be the fastest."
The son is making up a beautiful dream for himself. It seems that this dream only needs to wait for one winter to come to fruition next year. Otto estimated that he might not have to wait that long. Look at these Mälaren shipbuilders who came from afar and urgently needed to make a contribution. Their busy appearance did not look like they planned to spend the winter in silence and boredom.
Ice and snow must not interfere with their plans, and Rurik must be constantly supervising them.
While Otto was satisfied, Otto was also a little curious: "Rurik, you actually keep calling the ship her? Is the ship still a woman? Or is it just because you like ships so much that you regard the ship as your woman."
His father's words made Rurik want to laugh, but there was nothing funny about "treating a ship as a woman" if you think about it carefully.
"Because the Romans called ships women, they even named ships after goddesses."
"Huh? Romans? Rome again, you know a lot about them?"
Otto's words gave Rurik a wake-up call. Think about it, everyone's understanding of Rome is still based on hearsay. wrong! Most of the tribe didn't even bother to know anything about Rome.
Rurik immediately lied and said: "That parchment, it is a relic of the Romans. I saw the record on it, and they called the ship a woman."
"Okay, it's really a strange custom." Otto shrugged. He had also read the parchment himself, but he couldn't understand the words on it. Otto showed a little timidity, but also wanted to show that he understood a lot. He pretended to tease a child: "My dear, what are you going to name your woman?"
name? Name my woman?
Rurik almost laughed.
It is indeed funny to think of a ship as a wife, and it was indeed the Romans who were the first to give ships feminine names. All forces in Europe are interested in competing for the legacy of the Roman Empire, and are eager to obtain a noble status. It is reasonable to inherit some of the legacy of the Roman navy.
Otto didn't think it was important to name the boats. He learned that his son had marked the captured fishing boats with clear numbers. This was an unprecedented move, and now he actually wanted to give an elegant name to a single boat. name? If you must do this, why not choose a domineering name? ! Just like the invincible Red Dragon that the Danish leader boasted.
Since it has a name, what name should be given to the first truly purely sail-powered ship of the Russians?
Since she is an epoch-making product, she should have a resounding name.
"Yes! Just call her Aurora!"
"Huh? Afrola? I thought you would have a louder name."
Rurik was also puzzled: "Isn't she elegant enough? This ship will be born in winter, with Aurora shining in the sky. It is the parade of the Valkyries. Dad, this ship is not only a cargo ship, but also a A special warship."
"Is that so?" Otto thought again, "Wouldn't it be better to name it directly after the Valkyrie? For example, Valkyrie, Brunhild, or Noren."
"It's absolutely okay!" The excited Rurik slapped his thighs wantonly, his blue eyes suddenly burning with flames. He immediately looked at the shipbuilders and said loudly: "Listen, I named this ship Aurora. After we complete her, the construction of the second ship will also begin, and they will be named one after another after the Valkyries. .”
Hotla's wrinkled face began to twitch violently. He was not excited, nor was he inappropriate about naming the ship after a woman. He suggested cautiously: "Rurik, maybe this is inappropriate. I'm afraid that God will be angry. , we shouldn’t name the ship after Odin’s maid.”
Rurik shook his head: "Really? I don't think it's necessary. Hotla, I asked you to build the ship. Next year! When the Avora starts sailing, if Odin is really angry, she will capsize. I Think, Odin won't be angry about this."
He wants to believe in a great existence, but does not believe in any strange powers or gods.
Avora is pronounced in Norse according to the dialect of the Ross tribe. She is basically just a noun describing the Northern Lights. In fact, in the final analysis, this word comes from ancient Indo-European, and finally evolved into a word describing "Europe".
Of course, Rurik gave this name to this ship that was still in keel state and the construction plan was basically completed, as long as it still came from his bad taste.
The Ross tribe really needs a ship called Northern Lights as a national treasure.
Otto Ryurik and others stayed at the shipbuilder for the longest time. After all, this place was regarded as an extremely important stop for Otto to inspect the tribe. He had to examine the wintering conditions of all the tribe's ships, and even the winter work plans of all the tribe's shipbuilders.
When the sea freezes in winter, fishing has become a method of drilling holes in the ice sea, and even special preparations of short spears are used to "wait for seals in holes".
Rurik's dreamlike plan fascinated Otto, and he was even more surprised that his son was able to make plans with the shipbuilder in a short period of time. No! The planning must have been done at Mälaren. There are traces carved on some thin wooden boards. The traces are not blindly carved. They are the engineering blueprints of the shipbuilding plan! The ships were made according to the patterns described on the wooden boards, coupled with their superb cargo ship building skills, and the most important thing was the direct participation of Rurik, a holy man.
Otto believes this will be a huge success. What positive impact will the launch of the Avora bring? Otto couldn't make any estimates at all.
Because the situation is more special than Otto could imagine!
What Rurik deliberately built was a high imitation of the Caravel sailboat.
Because of some sailing games he came into contact with in that plane, Rurik had a little understanding of the history of ship development in Europe. This caravel, according to the language of the Iberian people who first built it, is an "oak ship". It has learned a lot from the experience of the Oriental big food sea-going ships in the sail system, and combined it with the local hull to magically modify it to create such a treasure capable of ocean navigation.
The cargo ships of various Viking tribes are the originators of European sailing ships! The hull of the historical Caravel ship was born from the continuous transformation of Viking cargo ships for five hundred years.
Caravel's huge triangular sail, of course, cannot achieve the greatest sailing efficiency downwind like the hengsail, but it is better at being able to turn at a small angle freely, and can even control any wind direction. The stretched sail resembles an aircraft wing shape, making it a A series of refined operations means that as long as there is wind, she can sail freely.
A great dream was being implemented, and Rurik felt very reassured about the shipbuilders.
Only regarding the cost, Rurik did not intend to tell his father the truth.
For a conventional cargo ship, the price quoted by the Hotla family was already an astonishing five hundred silver coins. The manufacture of the Avora under construction is more complicated and requires more costs. Moreover, because it has to be forcibly manufactured in winter, the labor cost is also huge.
Hotla made an extremely high offer: three thousand silver coins.
And that's just the cost of the hull.
In order to build the ship's hull, the Hotra family had to hire some Russians to cut down and process the wood, or even simply buy the finished products of local carpenters and blacksmiths. The consumption of rosin as a wood gap adhesive is also huge, which has become one of the important reasons for spending money. A large part of the three thousand silver coins will fall into the hands of Russian laborers. In the end, the shipbuilder's profit is not amazing.
When the hull was completed, a large number of strong men had to be gathered and dragged outdoors along the slide. At that time, a pine tree from Ellenburg in the north was transported and turned into the main mast of the ship.
It is a normal decision to use straight red pine as the main mast, but can it be used as the keel?
If you are just building an ordinary ship, pine wood can certainly be used as the keel. Since this time it was a huge ship that challenged the shipbuilders, it had to be built with stronger oak.
Shipbuilding has always been a very expensive business. How large a ship can be built is also an evaluation indicator of a country's manufacturing level.
Logically, Rurik asked these people to dig a pit and build a waterproof embankment with wood and sand. This is the dry dock, which is the key to building large ships.
Obviously, in the current situation of sudden construction, there is no time to dig a dry dock.
The Aurora had to be built on flat ground. Fortunately, it was not extremely large, and the existing manufacturing process could handle such a behemoth.
Rurik is currently unable to estimate the true cost of a large ship. If the expensive hull cost will account for the vast majority of the finished ship, the final cost of the Avora must be four thousand silver coins.
It seems that this money is not much for Rurik, but he currently cannot control even a silver mine. The root cause is that the Russians cannot issue a currency that is accepted by all tribes. It is inevitable that food will become a special currency. Four thousand silver coins corresponded to 40,000 pounds of grain.
The Caravel type sailboat itself is a small boat. Her displacement is only about fifty tons, but when fully loaded, the displacement can reach an astonishing eighty tons. She is a small ship with a large belly. Because she has a slightly flat hull, the center of gravity of the ship is extremely low after loading cargo or ballast, and she looks like a roly-poly when standing on the sea.
What Rurik expected most was this effect, even if the ship would cost him a lot of money.
The Avora, which was built with huge investment, must be a milestone. How many ships of the same class will be built in the future? Rurik had an expectation in mind.
"I must have at least ten ships, or more. In the future, this kind of ship will become the main force of transportation. Of course it is very expensive. If I can sell more high-value goods, I can buy a huge amount of grain from Malaren , it’s not a big problem.”
The ship construction plan started with the Aurora. What can support the construction of her and the subsequent sisters is ultimately food.
On this day, Otto and his men completed the tribal inspection. He stayed in key areas for a long time, and naturally left the less important places after taking a few glances. For example, Otto still doesn't realize what it means to immigrate with a group of female slaves like Vodegen who are good at sewing?
In Otto's view, it is only natural that the women in the family make all kinds of clothes for the men. Otto had no idea of making money by processing garments and opening a tailoring factory.
Rurik thinks this is of great significance. The tailoring workshop in Vodgen and the large shipbuilding workshop in Hotla are clearly a kind of enterprise. They can create more wealth, and as the chief family, they have the right to collect more taxes.
The balance of the "big money box" is seriously insufficient, and maintaining a large amount of advanced reserves is originally the wealth backing for Rurik to implement a series of plans. Although the backing has now become a huge amount of food, it is still very important to control a large number of silver coins and copper coins that can be used flexibly.
On the second day of Otto's inspection, a food market arranged by the chief family was unexpectedly formed on the cold beach.
A large group of tribesmen who were interested in buying oats gathered together with their money. It was so chaotic that Rurik was so shocked that he thought that this group of tribesmen would soon engage in violent looting and even cause a stampede.
Fortunately, with the experience of distributing loot, neither Otto nor Rurik could sit back and watch the tribe fall into confusion.
The mercenaries followed the leader's orders to maintain this. They gradually formed a queue and waited for the opportunity to buy food for themselves amid constant complaints.
A huge scale weighs one hundred pounds of fresh wheat, which the buyer puts into a pottery urn or a burlap bag and takes away.
The upper limit of the grain distribution this time is 100,000 pounds of grain, which is enough for 1,000 people to receive it once. Rurik will receive 10,000 silver coins from the sale.
Rurik disagrees with his father's plan to release grain on a large scale. The truth is that grain is the private property of the chief family, and most of it is Rurik's private property. How to use it should be arranged by the owner of the property.
The tribesmen do not have a reliable granary, but they do have a lot of silver coins. If they rashly put out a large amount of grain, they will cause the grain to be damaged due to their poor storage, and the gain will not be worth the loss.
Slowly releasing the grain, Rurik boasted of a strategy. When the people of the tribe have almost eaten enough food, the next wave of 100,000 pounds of food will be released. For example, the food will be released every two months. In this way, the 800,000 pounds of food can really be carried through a special distribution method. The next harvest season, in a sense, uses limited grain reserves to achieve the magical result of "having wheat to eat all year round".
Of course, this is still a stopgap measure when food reserves are extremely low. If there is really a lot of food, then the Russians will start brewing wine. It is not surprising that there will be drunkards lying down and snoring everywhere.
