"Well, my brain hurts so much. I can't think about anything like this."
Ella dragged her tired body out of the cabin with dark circles under her eyes. After the fake map incident, she stayed alone in the room for several days, and finally walked out of the cabin today.
She wanted to blow in the sea breeze to clear her head, but unfortunately, it was just as dull on the deck as inside the cabin. Surrounded by nothing but sea water, only the piled black clouds and mountains on the horizon are particularly eye-catching.
"Is it going to rain? No, where am I now? What am I doing?"
Even in Gotland, Ella spent half the time sleeping on the Flying Sealander, and it was normal to wake up and find herself on the ship. Ella's mind is now blank, just like those who have irregular sleep schedules sometimes can't tell the difference between day and night when they wake up.
She shook her head to clear her head. The memories buried under complicated academic questions gradually came back to life, answering the questions in her mind one by one - she was exploring a new route to Vinland, and was chasing Lubeck's merchant ship.
"Well, how many days have you been at sea? How many days have you been since you rescued the sailor in Lübeck? Surveyor? Surveyor!"
As soon as Ella shouted, the pirate who was the surveyor hurried over from the side of the deck. He spread out a rough and crude chart in front of Ella. The North Sea area on the map was extremely severely deformed - but there was no way, the slightly more accurate chart had been angrily removed by Ella a few days ago. Teared off.
"King of Sweden, we should be here now, or it may be here, or of course it may be here... I can't mark it accurately. Look at this damn map, Ireland and England were supposed to be two islands. On the map They are even connected by land!"
The person in charge of the survey was a student who had not yet graduated from Gotland's school. He was also considered a junior officer among the pirates. Because of his excellent performance, Ella selected him as the surveyor for this voyage and was responsible for operating the sextant. .
At the moment, he looked a little worried.
"The islands marked by the Aztlans were just random drawings, and there is no way to locate them using longitude and latitude. King of Sweden, if we continue sailing like this, I'm worried that we will miss Atlantis and Vinland and go all the way to India!"
However, before Ella could speak, a pirate burst out laughing:
"Return to India. What did you learn in vain? The circumference of the earth is fifty times the distance from Seini to Alexandria, a total of 39,360 kilometers. Do the math, where are we running to now?"
The surveyor listened, drew on the known map with his hand for a while, and then smiled a little apologetically:
"Indeed, no matter how you calculate it, it's still very far away."
Ella nodded with satisfaction: "It was Eratosthenes, a scholar of the Seven Hills Empire, who measured the circumference of the earth through the shadow of the summer solstice 1,100 years ago. He was also the founder of the latitude and longitude coordinates. He gave me the sextant. The use of it provides a theoretical basis. You have learned your lessons quite well."
While talking, Amy hurried over with a pirate officer.
"Your Majesty, you finally came out, we were just preparing to come find you!"
"Find me?"
Ella gets serious. The officer's cabin behind Amy is the first cabin on the right side of the first floor below the deck, two cabins closer to the bow than Ella's room. In other words, he is actually commanding the flying Sealander. Sailing captain. Things that neither he nor Amy can solve must be of great importance.
"Your Majesty, we have just discovered Lübeck's fleet ahead." Amy said first, "Originally, I was planning to let the flying Zealander speed up to catch up."
"Really? Great! Then what are you waiting for? Let the paddler prepare first..."
"But King of Sweden, look at the weather, a storm is coming soon." The pirate officer said, "For the safety of the ship, we must take down the sails."
For a ship as huge as the Flying Zealander, the power provided by the oars is actually very limited. Its main function is to make the ship more agile in close naval battles. When sailing across the ocean, most of the speed lies in the sails on the nine masts. The sea is not as good as the land. Although we saw the merchant ships in Lübeck, there was actually a very long distance between them. Retracting the sails meant letting go of the Lübeck merchant ship that they had worked so hard to catch up with.
Therefore, the officer's suggestion made Ella frown: "Retract the sail? Now? If the wind gets stronger, wouldn't it be better to speed up and catch up?"
"If you don't close the sail, the mast will be broken." The pirate officer patted the mast next to him. "Although the mast looks strong, ordinary wind can already push the flying Zealander. When When the wind gets stronger, a long pole erected so high is very fragile."
Ella was a little embarrassed. She was not as experienced in sailing as these pirates, so she should be left to the officer's discretion. But it would be a pity to let Lubeck's merchant ship go like this.
Hesitating, she cast her sights on the sea - the sea was extremely calm, with no wind or waves. Except for the dark cumulus clouds in the distance, there was nothing unusual.
"There doesn't seem to be any wind now." She asked, "I think we can wait a little longer. There's no need to trim the sails so early, right?"
"King of Sweden, the storm is coming very quickly! By then it will be too late!"
"...Did Lübeck's merchant ship also trim its sails?"
"One hundred percent." The pirate officer said, "Since they were sent to perform ocean missions, they must be experienced sailors. They know the dangers of storms!"
So Ella walked to the bow of the ship in a few steps and shouted to the soldiers on the observation deck:
"Take a look, have those merchant ships in Lübeck trimmed their sails?"
"No!" shouted the soldiers on the observation deck. "The sail is still hanging! It has your coat of arms, King of Sweden, painted on it!"
"This is impossible! Can you tell me clearly?" The pirate officer scolded from below, "Does the merchant ship in Lübeck not know that the storm is coming?"
"Don't worry, Amy, go to my cabin to get the Eye of Hermes." Ella said, "Make sure you have a sail hanging?"
The soldiers on the observation deck climbed down, took the simple Eye of Hermes taken from Ella's cabin from Amy, and then climbed back to the observation deck:
"Still hanging!" shouted the soldier. "The deck is busy, but they are not busy reefing. They are sailing at full speed!"
"We have been discovered. If we lose them today, they will deliberately avoid them, and it will be difficult to find them again in the future." Ella said, "Since they have not taken down the sails, we will not take them down and will catch up! "
"King of Sweden, you are so considerate." The pirate officer nodded in admiration, "Indeed, the people of Lübeck are not timid. If I hadn't noticed and had taken in the sail early, I would have become their grandson! I will Let the crew catch up with full sail!”
"You still have to be careful and let the sailors stand by on the mast. Once the sails are furled on the other side, we will furl the sails immediately." Ella warned, "Also, pull out our military band to play music. See if we can Let the other side surrender before the storm comes!"
(End of chapter)
