1635 Han style rises again

Chapter 126 Shipbuilding is not that simple

Cao Xiong and his party of three ships left the Jianye City Wharf on January 1636, 1.In addition to the 3 taels of silver shipped on board, there were also some building materials and tools for production and living.They will first arrive at Fort New Township on Timor Island. At that time, they will unload these materials, and then drive westward to Batavia.

Qi Tian stood on the pier, looking at the fleet that was gradually going away, feeling rather regretful.Except for delivering a batch of supplies to Xinxiang Castle, the three ships were almost empty.Some waste of capacity!I sighed a little in my heart, but what products can Jianye City have that can be shipped to Batavia for sale?

Although, when Niu Jinming returned from Batavia last time, he said that the merchants there were more interested in the steel knives and iron tools produced in Jianye City.But helplessly, the output of those two experimental small iron-smelting and steel-making blast furnaces was pitifully low.Without large-scale raw materials, no matter how sharp and tough your steel knives are, and no matter how durable and affordable your iron tools are, we cannot produce them.

The "Polang 2" that delivered supplies to Xinxiangbao last time did not return directly, but went straight to Batavia to transfer the immigrants stranded there and purchase some food.

In order to deal with possible conflicts and blockades when the Portuguese discovered the existence of the new village, they had to start hoarding food, at least to maintain a food supply for all the population in Hanzhou for 6-8 months.In this way, the food crisis will not break out again when faced with an emergency.

Yu Fukun went to the Naval Training Institute, supervised and followed the lectures taught by several former Spanish naval officers.

Two days ago, the dock near the pier successfully built a 10-ton oarboat equipped with fishing gear, which can also be sailed to the bay not far away for fishing.

This made Qi Tian very happy. Since such a simple paddle can be built, can it be gradually enlarged to a medium-sized paddle of 50 tons, 100 tons, or even 300 tons.

In this way, Jianye City can have more ships sailing to Batavia, transporting more supplies and personnel to Hanzhou.

"My lord!" Frank Ian, the person in charge of the shipyard, shook his head bitterly, "We build this kind of small boat. Considering its use and life expectancy, the wood used is simply processed wood. This kind of boat , after a few years, if soaked in seawater for a long time, the wood will swell and denature, and it is estimated that it will not be usable in three to five years at most.”

"However, in order to build the large ship of more than 200 tons that you requested, this kind of wood that is simply processed cannot be used. The shipbuilding wood must be dried in the shade in advance, and at least three years! Only shade-dried wood can be used. Build a big ship."

"Three years?!" Qi Tian was taken aback, "Then if you come back from cutting trees now, you have to wait three years before you can build a ship?"

"Yes, my lord! The wood for shipbuilding must be dried in the shade for at least three years." Frank Ian said with a smile.It turned out that this knowledgeable and knowledgeable chief executive didn't even know that the wood used in shipbuilding basically needs to be dried in the shade before it can be used.

Don't you wonder if wood for shipbuilding needs to be dried?After the boat is built, it's going to be soaked in water anyway?Why dry?
The drying of wood has been studied and understood in modern times.There are two kinds of water in wood, one is absorbed water in the cell wall, and the other is free water.

The main purpose of drying is to remove adsorbed water, a process called desorption.Free water has little effect. Properly treated wood is placed in humid air, and its moisture absorption generally does not exceed 20%. However, undesorbed green wood can easily exceed 70%.

A simple understanding is to 'inactivate' the wood, kill the plant cells, and let the wood soak in seawater for a long time to prevent its water absorption ability from being exerted.

Therefore, using wood that has not been dried in the shade to build sea-going ships will cause the hull wood to absorb more and more water when the ship is driving in seawater, and the weight of the hull itself will gradually increase, seriously affecting the performance and safety of sea-going ships.

In the [-]th and [-]th centuries, with the development of shipbuilding technology and technology in Europe, people gradually realized and understood that whether the wood is dried in the shade has an extremely critical role in determining the impact on the hull and the life of the ship.

Therefore, when building ocean-going ships, the shipbuilding timber will be dried in the shade in advance, and the drying time is based on the year, usually three to four years.

After the 18s, the United Kingdom had rigidly stipulated that a ship built with keels and ribs must be air-dried on the berth for one year before continuing to lay boards inside and outside the hull.This is also to further reduce the water absorption of the hull material.

"Then is there any way to shorten the drying time?" Qi Tian asked modestly.Just kidding, it takes three years to build a boat.What a delay!

Although it is possible to find the Dutch to buy a ship, it will not allow the dock to be vacant for three years, so that all shipwrights cannot accumulate technology and experience through shipbuilding.If it really doesn't work, you can go to Batavia to buy wood for shipbuilding, and then quickly select the wood here and dry it in the shade.

"Now, almost all shipyards dry the wood in the shade in advance. If you want to use fire to dry the wood, it will cause the wood to crack, and it is not suitable for shipbuilding." Another Ming craftsman from Batavia said : "Moreover, so that the general manager can know that even if the wood near Jianye City is dry in the shade, it cannot be used to build large ships."

"Why?" There are large tracts of primeval forest near Jianye City, and some trees have grown for hundreds of years, and some are as high as 70 meters. Why is it not suitable for shipbuilding?
"My lord, the trees near Jianye City are too hard!" The Ming craftsman replied: "The wood is too hard, and the rivets will crack the wood. When splicing the ribs of the hull, there may be many cracks. And there are more cracks,..."

If there are many cracks, water will naturally enter, and if water enters, the ship will sink.Qi Tian was a little bit shocked, co-authored, there is no suitable shipbuilding timber in Hanzhou.Even if they can build ships, they will build fishing boats of tens of tons, or offshore transport ships.

"Then what kind of tree species are generally needed for shipbuilding?" Qi Tian asked again.

"For shipbuilding wood, the first is corrosion resistance. The second is good toughness and high tensile strength. It cannot be used if it is too brittle. It's too big, it won't work." Frank Ian said while snapping his fingers.

"There are many trees that meet these conditions, such as fir, pine, cypress, teak, elm, red wood, camphor, nanmu, catalpa, catalpa, oak, cypress, etc." The Ming craftsman added with a few treasures, It can be seen that he has a relatively detailed understanding of various ship materials.

"There seems to be a lot of teak, camphor and nanmu in Xinxiangbao on the opposite side." A voice behind him suddenly interjected.

Qi Tian turned his head and saw that it was the sailor who followed Niu Jinmin back from Xinxiang Castle last time.

"After we disembarked, we helped the immigrants cut down some trees, including camphor and nanmu, and teak a little further away. As for the lack of other trees, we need to go further into the forest."

"Great!" Qi Tian rubbed his hands excitedly, "The next time we deliver supplies to them, ask the people in Xinxiangbao to cut down more trees, deal with them a little, and bring them back!"

"Your shipyard continues to use those simple-handled timbers to build a slightly larger sailing ship, and it's best to sail to Xinxiang Castle across the sea." Qi Tian said: "With the boat going back and forth between the two places, those timbers will not be able to be dragged. Drag it back!"

Southeast Asia is suitable for building ancient sailboats. In addition to camphor wood (there is a lot of it in Hainan, Taiwan and other places), the performance of Pontianak in Southeast Asia is also quite good. Pontianak is also a member of the Lauraceae family. , There are a lot of this kind of trees in Southeast Asia, and the quantity is very large. The teak wood produced in Myanmar and Thailand is also a good wood for boat boards, even better than oak for boat boards. In the 18th and 19th centuries, the British fell from this area. The teak is shipped back to the country for shipbuilding.

Of course, these places are too far away from Hanzhou, and the only place that has a large amount of shipbuilding timber and is close to it seems to be Timor Island.Then, for the sake of the shipbuilding industry in the future, Xinxiangbao must do everything possible to keep it.

Sure enough, all colonial activities come from interests.

(End of this chapter)