"Proprietor, our Baoxing Shipyard, uh, is Xinghe Shipyard. Although our Xinghe Shipyard is not big, it still has a complete range of work types." Chen Liang said.
"When I first entered the shipyard as an apprentice, it was still the time when I was the last owner. At that time, our shipyard was prosperous, with more than 1,300 people. It can build a big fortune ship with two to three thousand materials, one thousand Guangzhou Shipyard, which only costs 500 materials, can also build Siamese ships. Every year, we receive thousands of orders for the construction of watercrafts!"
When the old man said this, his eyes shone, his cheeks were rosy, and his expression of excitement was palpable.
Yang Fan was a little moved. He didn't expect that this broken shipyard had also been glorious in the past. The Siamese ship was much more advanced than the Fu ship and absorbed a lot of Western technology. It is a ship type created by Ming craftsmen who went south to Bangkok and combined the advantages of Ming and Western shipbuilding technology.
"Then how did it end up in this situation?" Yang Fan also asked a little strangely.
"Alas! It wasn't because of the three major conquests of the temple that our shipyard was assigned thirty ships. In the end, the accounts were all settled with treasure money. The old owner fell ill in a fit of anger, and he was so frustrated that he sold the shipyard to Southerner.”
"In the past few decades, scholars have become more and more powerful. Not only do they not pay land taxes, but they also do not pay taxes when doing business, and they do not need to pay for using public boats to transport goods. They intervene in business, and the cost is shockingly low. Local merchants They were all bankrupted. Merchant shipping also declined. The work of repairing merchant ships became less and less. Since Li Sancai became the governor of water transportation, water ship repair and maintenance has been monopolized by Li Sancai and others, and has never been released to local governments. 's shipyard."
Yang Fan frowned. If scholars take advantage of their privileges and get involved in any profitable business, they will advance and destroy it. Over time, all industries in the world will wither.
"In recent years, the sea has been banned, and there are very few orders for Fuchuan. Until now, we can only take on the work of repairing fishing boats. There are less than ten fishing boats this year, and they are idle for half the year. We support the current 70-odd people. All barely."
Yang Fan comforted him. "After I took over, we no longer took over the job of repairing fishing boats. We rebuilt sea-going ships. We built small ones first. After building the small ones, we gradually built bigger ones, and restored the technology bit by bit. There is no need to think about it. It’s a question of orders. I will use the built ships to form an ocean-going fleet.”
Hearing what Yang Fan said, the shipwrights and craftsmen all became excited. As long as the orders are full, the shipyard will be able to survive.
"But the ship I need is not a Fu ship, nor a Guangzhou ship, nor a Siam ship. These ships are too slow. What I need is a fast ship, which can quickly travel between Nagasaki and Tianjin. This kind of ship is called a clipper ship."
The craftsmen all looked at each other and had never heard of the name of such a ship.
"Bring me the drawings," Yang Fan said. "Let all the masters take a look."
Mingyan took out a blueprint of a flying shear ship that was one meter wide and two meters long from her backpack, opened it and hung it on the wooden board.
Colorful drawings, against the background of blue sky and blue sea, a slender white sailboat is moored on the sea, its sharp bow cutting through the waves like scissors. One glance at the slender hull shows that the resistance is very small.
The most impressive thing is the horizontal sails hung on the five tall masts, which are as white as clouds, and there is a foremast on the bow that stretches diagonally forward. Several sail ropes stretched diagonally across the mainmast, which was covered with triangular sails.
This was the ultimate achievement of sailing ships, the German square-rigged ship "Deutsche Wehrmacht".
"Owner, my name is Zhang Tieyi, and I am in charge of the rigging. Is this ship a Western ship? The sail looks like a Western sail, but the old man has never seen the hull. Western ships have chubby hulls, and Short and thick.”
"This is a type of ship that has not yet appeared. There is no such ship in the West now. We can try to build a 100-material ship first, test the relevant technology, and then gradually improve it. Each one will make some progress. Wait for this When the ship type is mature, we will enlarge it and try to build one with 300 materials." Yang Fan said
"The owner, I am Chen Qi, I am responsible for the installation and construction of the keel. Looking at the shape of this ship, I estimate that the ribs and keel of the ship need wood that is naturally curved in shape and consistent with the design. Such wood is not Easy to find, such a ship would be difficult to build on a large scale without enough wood.”
"Isn't it possible to cut the wood into a suitable curvature? Why must it be naturally curved, and the curved shape must be consistent with the design drawing." Yang Fan asked puzzledly.
"Proprietor, the strength of wood comes from the fiber of the wood, which is the smooth ballast we see when we split the wood. Only the whole wood has the greatest strength. The strength is not strong enough when it is bent by cutting or assembling. If you forcefully bend the wood, you will break the fibers and the wood will not be strong.”
Yang Fan understood that it was difficult to find naturally shaped wood, let alone wood that conformed to the curvature of the design.
"I have some ideas for this." Yang Fan had just gained knowledge on sailboat construction in the past two days. "I have a way to bend wood with as little fiber breakage as possible."
"In addition, I also have an iron factory. The ribs and keel of the ship do not have to be made of wood. They can also be cast in the required shape with iron. You can cast it in any shape you want."
The craftsmen were all shocked that it could still be done like this, but after thinking about it carefully after the shock, it didn't seem unreasonable.
Everyone tries to make the boat as square as possible just to make it easier to find wood. If iron is used to cast parts such as keels and ship ribs that require special shapes, it can indeed greatly alleviate the problem of insufficient wood for special shapes.
"Proprietor, if the keel is made of iron, it must be cast into sections one by one. How are these small sections connected?" asked a craftsman.
"This can be riveted, that is, a hole is reserved in the component, the iron rod is heated, and while it is red and soft, it is inserted into the joint, and the two sides are hammered into nail heads with a hammer. After cooling, they are connected into one piece. There is no blacksmith in the shipyard, so I A group of blacksmiths will be transferred to establish an iron factory." Yang Fan explained.
"Proprietor, I am Li Changdong, the person in charge of the mast. I see that the mast in this picture is very high, exceeding the captain." Li Changdong pointed to the mast in the picture and continued, "It is true that the power of a sailboat comes from the area of the sail. The mast The higher it is, the bigger and more sails are hung. The power of propulsion is also greater, but in fact the mast cannot be so high."
Yang Fan nodded and motioned for him to continue. These people were very professional and what they said was on point.
"The mast must be fixed to effectively utilize the thrust from the wind, so it usually has to penetrate several layers of decks to connect to the keel."
Yang Fan nodded, that's right. Only when it is fixed in this way can the mast be the most stable, otherwise it will swing around and waste all the wind power.
Li Changdong continued: "But the strength of the keel made of hardwood has an upper limit. The force transmitted from the mast cannot exceed the upper limit of the keel, otherwise the keel will tilt up and cause water leakage. So the higher the mast, the better, but In fact, there are limitations. The mast in the picture is too high. One is because the wood cannot be that high and is not strong enough and will be blown off by the wind. The other is a mast that is really that high and is transmitted through the sail. The force is too great. The keels and deck beams cannot withstand such a large thrust and will break."
"What you said is very good, but there is a way to solve this problem. If the keel and mast are made of steel, the strength will be greatly strengthened. I have good steel here and it will be shipped later."
