1635 Han style rises again

Chapter 589 Golden Island
April 1647, 4, Jianye, Shipyard.

A 1-ton small galley named "Hope No. [-]" slowly sailed out of the berth under the pull of several tugboats. When its entire hull entered the water, the work around the berth Ministry officials, naval officers, and many shipwrights all held their breaths, and their eyes were all focused on this small galley that had just been built and launched.

It stands to reason that Jianye Shipyard has built no less than 200 or [-] large and small ships since its establishment ten years ago. It has even built several thousand-ton professional immigration ships and a battleship. There is no need to value this [-]-ton ship so much. small galley.

Gein, this ship uses an unprecedented construction process. Although the hull still uses a lot of wood, its main keel and ribs are all made of steel, that is, the "iron-ribbed wood-hull ship" structure that only appeared in the late 18th century.

Although Hanzhou occupies most of Weiyuan Island (New Guinea Island) and Timor Island, there is no shortage of shipbuilding wood, but considering that larger ships will be built in the future, the size of wood materials is limited, and it is still necessary to The timber is lapped for extension.For example, if you want to build a wooden sailboat of more than 30 meters, the keel at the bottom may be divided into 7 or 8 sections for lap joints, but the strength of wood lap joints is not high after all, which affects the firmness and durability of the ship.

Another problem is that the ship must consider the problem of cargo and personnel capacity.If a wooden frame is used, because the wood density is small, it will occupy a large internal space under the same strength, resulting in a smaller cabin volume, and the operating economy will be low.

However, if steel can be used as the skeleton of the ship, the existence of these problems can be avoided.Of course, the length of the iron frame is also limited, but the iron frame can be riveted, the strength is less damaged, and a continuous structure that runs through the entire ship can be realized.At the same time, after replacing the iron frame, the skeleton can be reduced to effectively increase the carrying capacity of the ship and maximize the wealth creation ability of the ship.

After "Hope No. 1" completely entered the water, it floated on the water very smoothly, and then slowly sailed towards the harbor under the paddling of the paddlers on the boat.After traveling for hundreds of meters, the sails were raised one after another, and the speed gradually increased. After a few quarters of an hour, in the eyes of everyone, there was only a small shadow of the sail left.

"Your Majesty, this ship has successfully sailed!" Sun Weiying, Shangshu of the Ministry of Industry, said excitedly: "Using steel as the ribs and wood as the shell, this method really works!"

"It's still too early to say that the trial voyage was successful." Qi Tian also secretly breathed a sigh of relief, "Only when it sails for several months and returns safely, and proves that the various operating data are better than the old-type ships, can we say that this ship is trial-manufactured success."

"Your Majesty, if this method of shipbuilding is feasible, does it mean that we can build larger and more powerful battleships in the future?" Qi Dajiang also looked excited.

"Even if we don't have this kind of iron-ribbed wooden hull structure, we can build a larger and more powerful battleship even if we use the existing wood." Qi Tian said: "A ship with this structure should be stronger than pure wood. The boats built may be slightly stronger and more durable. In addition, the construction speed will be a little faster."

"Since iron-ribbed wood-hull ships are feasible, can we build warships made entirely of steel?" Qi Dajiang asked.

"Theoretically, it should be possible." Qi Tian thought for a while, and then said: "But the tonnage of the iron-clad battleship itself is relatively large, and it is estimated that if it is driven by sails, the speed may be slower. In addition, our current steel production is not much, but after Can’t afford to use it like this. Moreover, wrought iron technology can’t meet the protective armor needs of ironclad warships.”

Later generations have proved through practice that iron-hulled ships are safer when used as civilian ships, and stronger than wooden-hulled ships when encountering storms.However, since the current iron and steel industry has not experienced a fundamental technological revolution, the production of wrought iron mainly relies on the mixing method, so this material is not cheap, and the output is not very large.

"If we can build a few all-steel warships, wouldn't we be invincible when facing enemy ships!" Sun Weiying murmured.

"In the future naval battles, it is impossible for the steel battleship to become an invincible existence. At best, when the two sides are fighting, they can be more resistant to blows." Qi Tian shook his head and said.

In fact, with the existing technology, it is feasible to build an iron-hulled ship, but the thin layer of wrought iron shell without inner lining is not strong in defense, far from being comparable to the thick wrought iron armor belt of an ironclad ship.Moreover, although wrought iron is harder than oak, it is stronger when facing grenades, but wrought iron is brittle and lacks the toughness of wood.

I still remember that in the first half of the 19th century, the navies of Britain, France and other countries further simplified the caliber of naval guns. Most of the warships were equipped with heavy guns such as 32-pound guns, and even huge Dahlgren guns with 9-inch and 11-inch calibers. The survivability of iron-clad warships on the battlefield is even more worrying.Therefore, for most of the 19th century, wooden warships remained popular.In order to combine the advantages of wood and wrought iron, since the 19s, even iron-ribbed wood-hulled ships became popular for a time.

After watching the launch of Hanzhou's first experimental iron-ribbed wood-hulled ship, everyone went to another maintenance dock to check the progress of a warship's bottom covered with copper skin.

As we all know, after a ship goes to sea for a period of time, various marine organisms will adhere to the bottom of the ship, resulting in rough bottom and greatly increased resistance.Therefore, docking and scraping the bottom of the ship is something that many sea-going ships have to go through.In the era of wooden ships, shipworms corroded the hull and greatly reduced the life of the ship.

In later generations, the British found a way to coat the bottom of the ship with copper. The Fenton reaction catalyzed by copper produces active oxidizing substances such as superoxide, which kills attached marine organisms and removes refractory organic pollutants.However, iron nails cannot be used to nail the copper-clad skin to the bottom of the ship, otherwise, the copper-iron primary battery will be formed and the two will be quickly consumed, so copper-zinc alloy nails should be used. The material of the "copper" skin is actually an alloy of copper and zinc, and the ratio of copper to zinc is about 3:2.The cost of the copper clad skin process is relatively high, up to one-tenth of the cost of the entire ship, but this process was still used until the end of the 19th century.

Jianye Shipyard started the experiment of covering the bottom of the ship with copper skin two years ago.First, I took a few offshore fishing boats to try, and then covered the bottoms of several transport ships traveling to and from the east of the mainland with copper skin. After more than a year of verification, I really think this method is feasible. The plankton is greatly reduced, which greatly improves the operation and use efficiency of the ship.

Today, several professional warships have sailed into the Jianye shipyard. In addition to partial modification and upgrades, the bottom of the warships will be covered with copper skin to improve the service life and speed of the warships.

"How much copper does it cost!" Qi Dajiang saw dozens of craftsmen sticking pieces of pressed and thin copper skins to the bottom of the ship, and then fixed them on the hull with alloy nails. The whole bottom of the ship was glowing a dark purple red. "Why do I feel like I'm putting countless silver coins on the bottom of the ship? If some pirates know that there is a lot of copper on the bottom of our warship, I don't know if they will risk their lives to grab us."

You must know that in this period, copper and gold and silver at a glance represent money. Therefore, in Qi Dajiang's view, covering the bottom of the ship with copper skin is tantamount to pasting a large amount of silver money on the ship.

"It doesn't matter, we have copper now, and there's a lot more." Qi Tian smiled and said, "Weiyuan Island (New Guinea Island) found a small island hundreds of miles northeast of Jinhua City (now Lai City, Papua New Guinea) , there is a huge copper mine on it, which is still open-pit. What's more rare is that it is also close to the sea, so mining and transportation are extremely convenient."
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The copper mine mentioned by Qi Tian is located on Lihir Island in Papua New Guinea (northeast of New Ireland Island), and was accidentally discovered by Jinhua City when it was capturing indigenous sailors from nearby islands.The two galleys followed the canoes driven by a few natives to the island, and with guns and swords, they took out the native tribe by the sea.

When the natives were captured, it was found that they were all wearing golden ornaments, and there were many purple and golden ores in the tribal camp.

After looting the aborigines, the township soldiers of Jinhua City brought back several kinds of ores from the aborigine tribe's camp.Sure enough, after the identification of several prospecting experts, these kinds of ores turned out to be copper and gold mines.Immediately, the commander of Jinhua City immediately reported the discovery to the general manager of Weiyuan, requesting to send corresponding craftsmen and coolies to develop and excavate the copper-gold associated mine on this small island.

As the largest overseas territory of Hanzhou, Weiyuan Island has a very limited share of immigrants each year, only 500 people. Seven or eight years have passed, and the huge island only occupies a dozen strongholds along the coast. Less than 2 people.If you want to develop a copper-gold associated mine on a remote island, you can't do it by yourself.

Subsequently, the manager of Weiyuan reported the discovery to the cabinet and requested the development of the mine.

The industrial sector, which was suffering from the lack of copper mines, was overjoyed when they heard that there was a large-scale open-pit copper-gold mine in the general management area of ​​Weiyuan Island, and asked the immigration department and the military department to mobilize native coolies and some armed personnel. Go to this small island and develop the mine.

On April 4, three small galleys slowly sailed into the shore of this small island named Jindao, and more than 18 former Qing and Han soldiers drove the natives on board into the water one by one. , and then followed closely behind, wading in the waist-deep sea water, coming to the shore.

Dong Guangbao struggled to climb ashore, panting heavily, but he held the knife tightly in his hand, staring at the group of natives in front of him.Damn earth monkeys, all thin and thin, are actually more resistant to water than my uncle. After sitting on the boat for so long, they seem to be fine.Turning around to look at the former Qing and Han soldiers who came together, almost all of them were just like me, their legs and feet were weak, or they were lying on the shore, or they were holding their waists and spitting acid water.

Fortunately, those natives were more docile, just looked around the surrounding environment, did not try to escape, and did not intend to attack their guards.

Dong Guangbao hurriedly gathered more than a dozen brothers around him, armed with weapons, and formed a simple defensive formation, and then waited for the sailors on the ship to bring the supplies they needed ashore in small boats.

"I said you guys have been with us for more than half a year, and you have been on this boat for a long time, why haven't you gotten used to it yet? Look at all of you have turned into soft-legged shrimps!" Guo Quan boarded the boat Stepping down, looking at the pale-faced former Qing and Han soldiers, he couldn't help but jokingly said.

"Back to Lord Guo, before we came to your country of Qi, we had never seen the sea, let alone take a boat." Dong Guangbao said flatteringly: "You don't know, last year I boarded a boat from Denglai and went all the way here. Come on, I almost vomited all the gall in my stomach when I was young. Alas, that crime, I think about it now, and I am also afraid for a while. The brothers who boarded the boat with me died three or four times on the way, all of them Throw it into the sea to feed the fish."

"It's your fate!" Guo Quan looked at him contemptuously, "Based on the sins you committed in Daming, it would be cheap to kill you!"

"Yes yes yes..." Dong Guangbao nodded with a smile and said, "What Master Guo said is true. I have committed a lot of crimes in the past. Fortunately, you, the masters of the Qi State, have forgiven me and spared me to come to this remote place. land to atone for his sin."

"Okay, don't talk so much nonsense. Hurry up and get to work." Guo Quan pointed to a few small boats on the shore, "Let those natives unload the things on the boat first, that will be your next half month's work." Supplies should be kept safe."

"Are you going to leave after the things are unloaded?"

"If you don't leave, why don't you stay with you?" Guo Quan looked at the camp of the former indigenous tribe, then pointed to a mountain in front of him, and said, "You must build the camp here this month. .In addition, we need to build a road leading to the mountain. Don’t be lazy here, otherwise, the commander of Jinhua City will know that you failed to complete the work on schedule, but you will be severely punished.”

"Also, don't think that we feel free because we don't send people here to guard you. There are many snakes, insects, and beasts on this island, and there are many cannibals. Don't plan to escape into the deep forest of the island. At that time, you may die to nothing left!"

Hearing this, Dong Guangbao couldn't help but look into the depths of the dense forest in the distance, nodded repeatedly, and said solemnly: "Master Guo, don't worry. Our fifty or so brothers will definitely stay here and urge the natives to complete the project as scheduled. The tasks assigned by the adults. Besides, in this wild area, how can we survive alone without you? We will definitely not go to the deep mountains and old forests to be savages."

At dawn the next day, Guo Quan and his party of three galleys left Jindao one by one, headed south, and returned to Jinhua.

"My lord, the people of Qi just left us here?" A Han soldier watched anxiously as the three galleys gradually disappeared into the depths of the sea, and asked Dong Guangbao worriedly.

"Isn't that right?" Dong Guangbao smiled wryly, "We're here for the front line. On this remote island, we'll build a camp first. I guess they'll bring some people over in a month or so."

"Aren't they afraid that we will wrap up our things and hide in the dense forest?"

"You are so stupid! Do you really think that you can find something to eat when you enter the forest? Maybe there are some poisonous insects and beasts hiding in it, and they will swallow us to nothing." Dong Guangbao sneered: "Besides, If you want to run into the woods, Lao Kong and his gang may not follow. Maybe at that time, they will bring Qi soldiers into the forest to catch us."

"Then we'll only have to suffer here for the rest of our lives..."

"That's not necessarily the case." Dong Guangbao rolled his eyes and pointed at the natives who were tidying up the camp, "Did you see those wild monkeys? I found that in Qi, besides the decent Qi people, there are many The natives are barbarians. Compared with them, the people of Qi seem to trust us, the captive soldiers, more."

"What?"

"Because we are all Han people." Dong Guangbao said proudly, "In the future, we will become the Han Eight Banners of Qi at the worst."

(End of this chapter)