There was a gentle breeze, and the sound of "crash" as the waves were broken by the streamlined bow came one after another.
Sailors walked and talked on the upper level, dealing with various matters. The sun shines on the newly cleaned deck. Some of the water stains on the slightly raised parts have dried and show different colors, while the lower parts still have stagnant water, slightly condensed in the cold weather. Frost.
Although the shipbuilders originally tried their best to make the ship planks straight with planers, many of the ship plans have become slightly bumpy due to sun, rain, and temperature changes during so many years of use.
It is slightly arched, and it makes a "tapping, tapping" sound when walking through the gap. This level is acceptable. But if the arch is too large, the activity should be suspended and sailed to the repair dock to replace this part of the ship plate.
Of course, this is only an ideal situation when funds are sufficient. The actual navigation process is just like the mercenaries traveling on land, full of various compromises and accommodations.
Things begin to lose their life as soon as they are used, and although ships made of fine wood by skilled craftsmen can endure longer due to their high cost, this does not mean that they will not be damaged.
Many things encountered during a long ocean voyage will shorten the service life of the ship.
Sailing in cold sea water will put great challenges on wood and anti-leakage coatings. A lower-quality hull may be able to withstand the mild environment of the Mobigas Inland Sea, but it will be damaged due to temperature changes after entering the North Rigaro Sea. Cracks and water seepage will eventually cause the cargo in the cabin to collapse and cause economic losses, or it may simply sink. When the craftsmen are handling multiple spliced wooden boards, if there is a slight deviation in the planing knife and the connection is not so tight, it will become a potential weakness.
These are by no means places to be taken lightly. Just like a top armorer can make the movable armor pieces on a suit of armor fit so perfectly that even a piece of paper cannot be inserted through the gaps during movement to protect the wearer from being attacked by an opponent using a dagger to pry open the gaps; The famous shipbuilders also know the tools in their hands very well. For them, they can carve out exquisite wooden bow decorations with only a hammer and a chisel, which is as natural and easy as eating and drinking.
The requirements for craftsmanship are extremely high, and because not all wood is suitable for shipbuilding, it is understandable that the world's top shipyards in Rigar are currently concentrated in only a few areas.
The birthplace of the Oriental Moon is the shipyard of the floating city of Ella, the main city of the Southern City-State Alliance.
She was a merchant vessel, like many other ships built in this capital city known throughout the world of Rigal as "Ella's Coin". The scope of commercial exchanges between the people of the South is far wider than anyone else knows, and their footprints are all over the world of Rigar. This is why Ella silver coins are widely used on the east and west coasts, and even in the Otolo Empire on the other side of the Tambur Mountains. All possible reasons.
The ocean-going sailing boats they build will remain solid and reliable even after decades if they are carefully maintained. The profit-seeking nature of these businessmen is precisely the fundamental reason why they have left public institutions like the Padrosi Imperial Shipyard behind.
Although the Padrosi people have the largest and most prosperous port in the world today, if you look carefully, you can find that at least 70% of the ships parked there - especially the large ships - are made in the south.
It is not that the Padrosi people did not have excellent shipbuilders, the vast territory of the arrogant east coast empire also produced numerous talents. However, after two centuries of business reform, while the upper class enjoyed the benefits brought by capital, their heads have not turned around, and they are still stuck in the old-era thinking that "it is natural for common people to serve the nobles."
Therefore, almost all the personnel in the Imperial Shipyard were "recruited", and their remuneration and salary were not much, and they were often deducted by aristocratic bosses who were all about food and not doing anything. As a traditional old empire, after the transformation began to pursue commerce and the aristocracy and merchant class began to combine in large numbers, almost all resources were occupied by related households. In this harsh environment, ordinary civilians can hardly hope to get ahead by relying on their own skills.
As time goes by, they will naturally want to seek other livelihoods. The Southern City-State Alliance gave them this opportunity.
A capable old craftsman from the Empire's shipyard escaped with a group of apprentices and ran to the Southern City-State Alliance; a ship built by the Empire's proud shipyard sank directly into the harbor on the day of the warm celebration of its launch. Such things that make the Padrosi nobles feel disgraceful still happen to this day. However, they have never thought about the reason for what they did. They just tried to intimidate the common people with stricter punishments. Not daring to escape, they even formed a supervisory force specifically to monitor the shipbuilders.
A country is easy to change, but a person's temperament is hard to change. After all, the people of the Empire are the people of the Empire. They hold on to their own glory. Even if they follow the footsteps of the Southern City-State Alliance and start to develop commerce, what they develop will be Padrosi-style commerce, and it will not be exactly the same as that of the Southern Territory.
Even though the nobles were integrated with the merchant class, they still looked down upon the southern merchants who were "superficial and without noble traditions" in their hearts. It is believed that they are only pursuing profit and do not have greater ideals and ambitions, and their status is not as good as their naturally noble self.
However, the irony is that even these imperial nobles with a high sense of inner superiority still choose ships produced by Ella Shipyard as their first choice when choosing their own personal ships.
These things show the strength of Ella Shipyard to a considerable extent - the profit-seeking southerners may make small calculations in various aspects, but as long as you are smart enough to find the right person and spend the right money, you will get It is undoubtedly a top-notch product.
However, even the world's top ocean-going sailing ship in Rigar inevitably suffered many new scars after this long voyage.
The large dark black stains on the blood-soaked front deck couldn't be washed away. Although the stench was not emitted due to the weather, the dirty appearance was very disturbing.
Several decks began to buckle during the cold weather we had experienced before. In addition, some parts were damaged by the storm, as well as the holes made by the harpoon fired by the pirate speedboat. hole; the Oriental Moon, which had undergone maintenance and renovation work in Suao Marina just a month ago, has not even entered the Dadonghai Sea yet, but it already looks scarred again.
Replacing the damaged ship planks and carrying out all aspects of renovation work consumes a lot of money: using the unit that Henry and Mira are most familiar with, converting 150 Dannos into Ella silver coins as a model, the imperial citizens on the east coast consume daily necessities. The cost is about half an Ella silver coin, which is about 75 to 80 Danos - this level is far higher than the daily expenditure of about 30 Danos for people on the west coast - and our Mr. Sage and the Luoan girl The price of the Dwarf Brigand Floor Armor is 200 Ella silver coins, which is nearly one kri in terms of money of the Southern City-State Alliance.
This price is equivalent to a full 30,000 Danno. In other words, it is completely enough for ordinary citizens of Padrosi to live for one year, or for people on the West Coast to live for more than two years and nearly three years. This is just a piece of plate armor, and during the special period of Parnilla, dwarf craftsmen sold it to humans at a price with almost no profit to gain favor.
For comparison, the price of a set of standard full-body plate armor of an Imperial Knight made by human craftsmen is about 2.5 kri, which is 600 Ella silver coins, converted to 90,000 Danno. This price can already build a small civil fort, but it should be remembered that the full-body plate armor used by the knight class is tailor-made. In comparison, the price of the mass-produced armor and even second-hand armor used by the soldier class has plummeted, without even heat treatment, and the hardness is worrisome.
The price of a brand new mass-produced breastplate ranges from 15 to 20 Ella silver coins depending on the size and style. In other words, an ordinary Padrosi citizen can save up about one month's living expenses to buy one. The price of a simple-style helmet is about 8 to 10 Ella silver coins. Counting the matching swords and other armors, if the wealthy Padrosi citizens want to engage in the adventurer profession, their families can usually afford it. They took on the responsibility of purchasing steel armor.
For those cash-strapped adventurers, the vast second-hand market will provide various types of obsolete weapons and equipment that are about one-third to half cheaper than brand-new products.
Based on this general concept of money consumed by an individual, as a comparison, the price of a maintenance work on the Oriental Moon is also one krit - that is, 240 Ella silver coins or 36,000 Danno; and if there is This cost will double again if the ship plates need to be replaced or other work that requires material maintenance is performed.
After that, plus the supplies needed for the ocean voyage, the price of one kilogram of cured bacon that can be stored for a long time without adding any moisture is two Ella silver coins, which is about 300 Dannos; a two-month voyage, including sailors, exceeds 120 passengers need to prepare at least 150 kilograms of bacon and other food to eat - this expenditure alone requires 45,000 Dannos, plus equally expensive fresh fruits such as lemons as staple food Pastries, seasonings, fuel, ale and rum, skin cream made from whale oil needed by sailors, and various other maintenance supplies. Including maintenance and material supplies, the money consumed for a voyage will range from 200,000 to 280,000 Danno - you must know that the largest amount of funds our sage and the girl of Luoan have received so far is only 5 kri, converted to 180,000 Danno, and each trip of the Oriental Moon already consumes more money than this as basic material preparation.
It's no wonder that their tickets are so expensive. After all, the cost is high and the risks are high. Otherwise, they will lose everything.
And perhaps it is for this reason that when Captain Francisco encounters a situation where he can exchange money, he will take a certain risk and decide to take a detour.
The sound of "sizzling-" came from the huge iron pot, and the brick chimney guided the cooking heat into the interior of the ship to combat the cold temperature. Not all places inside the wooden hull can be cooked freely. In addition to easily causing fires, the heat and steam generated by cooking will also cause the boards to bend and deform if they are directly applied to the ship's planks.
This is similar to the process of bending the shields used by knights. In order to enhance the extensibility and avoid breaking during the shaping process, the wood is softened by boiling it with water at high temperatures. Even though the decking is thicker, long-term cooking heat can damage the structure of the hull.
Therefore, it is common practice to attach insulating ceramics or sand bricks to the interior of the cabin, and to arrange the kitchen on the upper deck to avoid damage to the load-bearing structure caused by heat or fire.
In this way, plus a platform made of bricks with a layer of sand as the brazier, and various pots and pans placed on it, it became the only cooking platform on the ship that could use an open flame.
Smaller ships without dedicated galleys would cook on earthenware charcoal stoves in the open air on the deck. But all in all, when the chef on board starts cooking, the taste will be quickly felt by everyone because of the location of the kitchen.
There are three chefs plus helpers on the Oriental Moon. With this number of people, it obviously requires a lot of experience and extremely fast hand speed to prepare meals for a hundred people. The crew of this ship are mainly Lamanites and Suomir people, so their cooking method is also quite northwest of Padro - characterized by high heat and rapid processing, and always pile the flame high, After that, the hot pot was stir-fried several times, and the food was quickly processed.
However, the extremely dry bacon used for sailing is very different from the ones bought by land adventurers that still contain some moisture. After a kilogram of fresh beef and mutton is drained with coarse salt, only 30% of its original volume and volume will remain. weight. Those used by adventurers will be slightly higher in moisture, as traveling over land is generally easier to find supplies. Although weather factors can help with storage of these items for ocean voyages, when purchasing, they still try to choose types that can be stored longer.
This kind of bacon cannot be eaten directly. It needs to be blanched at least twice. On the one hand, it’s because it’s too dry and hard and can make your gums bleed, so you have to rehydrate it before you can eat it; on the other hand, it’s too high in salt and you can’t eat it otherwise.
After this treatment, part of them was added to the stew pot to stew with beans and other things. The other part is put into a large wok, dried seasonings and flour products are added, as well as a large amount of chili peppers and stir-fried.
Even the cold air couldn't cover up the spicy smell that irritated the nasal cavity and quickly spread on the uppermost deck of the ship. Spicy is the most common flavor in the menu of ocean-going sailors, because pepper can also prevent scurvy to a certain extent, and Neutralizes overly salty flavors in shelf-stable foods.
Henry, Mira and Galeva were a little uncomfortable at first. Although the young porter was born in a seaport town like Porousaro, it was not uncommon for dishes containing chili peppers to cater to the tastes of sailors, but he himself never liked the spicy and stinging taste.
However, when sailing in the icy waters of winter, when other taste buds seem to be frozen by ice due to the cold, hot spicy dishes provide essential heat and are very popular on the ship.
In less than half an hour, the chefs prepared a huge number of dishes. They were carried away in groups by the sailors and passengers in groups of one small pot after another. Afterwards, these small pots were placed on the hollow hollow in the center of the table, with a small iron attached to the bottom of the hollow. There is a small candle on the shelf, which provides a little heat to keep the iron pot warm.
In this severe cold weather, even indoors, things will cool down quickly as soon as they are removed from the pot.
If they don't, they'll have to eat cold food.
The passengers and sailors sat down in twos and threes and began to eat, but before that, others took the extra food to the bottom of the cabin.
That was the location of the prisoners, and Captain Francisco retained them, as we have said, in order to make a fortune.
Time passed, and a few hours after lunch, in the distant sky, in addition to the sound of wind, waves and the walking and talking of people on the ship, there began to appear some long-lost sounds.
The long cry of seagulls indicates the presence of the land.
After sailing such a long journey, they finally saw land again. It's just that this is not the territory of any country, but the northernmost nest of the most vicious pirates.
Captain Francisco called this place "Chili Island". This word is said to mean "fog" in the local dialect - and as its name suggests, this island located at the southernmost tip of the North Riga Sea is always visited by tourists all year round. Surrounded by fog.
"Forty-seven people, go to their pirate leader, and you should be able to exchange for a lot of ransom." The sailors were talking, and Captain Francisco held the kitten in one hand and waved with the other hand: "Stop the ship and prepare to put it down." Dinghy!”
He said this, and it was obvious that the whole ship sailed into the other party's lair. Therefore, in order to protect their own interests, they had to escort these people in a small boat for exchange with a small number of people.
The number of people is small, but they must all be smart-minded and powerful people, so as to ensure that if the transaction goes wrong, they can at least protect themselves.
"Convert it into local money that you will need at that time. Can you accept this condition?" The captain looked at Henry and Mira. The Luoan girl hesitated for a while, while the sage shrugged. : "Okay."
"Get ready to put on your plate armor. Galeva——" "Huh?" the young man responded blankly.
"You come here too." The sage said.
