industrial lord

Chapter 659: Upgrading the Shipbuilding Industry
“Oh, this is Lukang!”

Frederick and Maria passed by Deer Harbour on their way to the city of Le Havre, and Frederick came to take a look and see if there was any problem he could solve himself.

That day, the two men came to the dam. On one side was the raging sea, and on the other side was the land where people were working.

After a dam was built to surround this swamp, it was filled with silt brought by the floods after two flood seasons. However, the growth rate of the reeds inside exceeded everyone's expectations, and the few swamp deer caught could not eat them all.

These swamp deer are so clever that it is easy to kill them but difficult to capture them alive. The captured deer cannot eat the reeds as fast as they grow.

On the contrary, the swamp slimes in the swamp that eat aquatic and rotten plants and small insects are easy to catch. You can dig a hole and use the smell of composted plants to attract them, and then just use a pair of pliers to catch them.

The farmers had set fire to the reeds not long ago, burning the part above ground, and now reed seedlings have grown from the roots in the soil.

Then it's the tractor's turn to plow the land deeply to allow air to flow, while also destroying the root system of the reeds and pulling the roots out of the soil.

But the soil here is moist, and even if the roots are cut off, they will sprout in less than half a month if they are not treated.

The next person to appear left Frederick speechless.

Students from the Necromancer Academy of the University of Weissenberg came out to work. The large-scale, low-intensity withering of life was enough to kill the reed roots on the ground without harming the bacteria deep in the soil.

It’s easy to deal with the ones that slip through the net, as there aren’t many of them. After they sprout, let the children pick them up and burn them.

The adults were splashing something on the field. Maria went over to take a look out of curiosity, but her legs went a little weak.

“Lots of earthworms!”

Frederick supported her and said with a wicked smile: "Go get some fish, I'll go fishing."

Maria reached out and pinched his waist hard.

After strolling for a while, the two returned to the platform where the village was located. There were new houses for the villagers to live in, and there were churches, taverns, schools, hospitals, etc.

They took only a few servants and guards with them, and lived in the guest rooms of the church and the tavern.

The servant reported that someone had been waiting for Frederick in the tavern for a long time.

Frederick arrived at the tavern and was not surprised to see the newcomer.

He and the owners of 13 shipyards in Amstel City jointly built a large shipyard in Lugang, and the first phase is expected to be put into production next year.

The factory director was Nilis Dreyer, who had met Frederick at the beginning. As soon as he saw Frederick, he immediately asked, "Sir, I heard that you will no longer build wooden keel ships in the future?"

Frederick did not answer immediately, but sat down at a table, had beer and snacks brought to him, and then said to him: "You are well-informed."

“We got wind that you were building two ships with steel keels,” Dreyer said.

Frederick nodded, thinking that this matter might have been communicated among their shipyards, or that Lulu might have mentioned it to them.

He didn't care about it, since the matter was originally planned to be publicized.

"It is true." Frederick said after taking a sip of beer, "I know what you are worried about. Don't worry, the shipyard in Lugang will also use this technology."

Dreyer breathed a sigh of relief.

They have calculated that for ship owners, ships with steel keels have overwhelming advantages over traditional ships in terms of carrying capacity, strength and service life.

If the shipyard in Lukang continues to produce old-style ships, it will lose everything.

Now Frederick holds 30% of the shares of Lukang Shipyard, 40% of the shares of 13 shipyards, and the remaining three are held by a large number of people in the lowland areas.

Although the lowland areas suffered a setback with tulips in the past few years, business here is booming and they have quickly recovered.

People had money, but the land had been divided up, so they needed a stable investment channel. At this time, the shipyard began to recruit shares, and private money poured in. If the shipyard was closed again, who knows what would happen.

Frederick continued, "For reasons you know, it is impossible to produce military ships in Lugang, so only civilian ships are produced here."

"For the foreseeable future, the meat market will continue to expand, demand for fish will increase, and demand for fishing vessels will also increase."

"I have a suggestion that the shipyard in Lukang should put more effort into fishing boats."

Dreyer got the meaning.

In the future, there will be two large shipyards supported by Frederick in the North Sea, Lukang and Hanmacheng.

Among them, Hamma City is naturally Frederick's biological son, while Lukang is not so close. The attitude of the Kingdom of Gaul must also be considered, so restrictions are inevitable.

Warships have high profits, but because of this restriction, this piece of meat can never reach Lukang’s bowl.

Fishing boats are also good. Although the profit is not high, the market is large and you can make a lot of money.

Seeing that he did not object but was thinking, Frederick said, "As the power and size of ships are developed, the fishing methods must also be developed. You should study them carefully."

Dreyer nodded and said, “We will start studying the fishing boats.”

"Sir, I heard that you are planning to promote a transport box called a container?"

Frederick nodded and said, "Yes, tell me what you think."

Dreyer said seriously, "Sir, we have done simulations and found that container transportation will be a revolutionary invention just like the steam engine replacing the sail."

"The most time-consuming part of shipping is cargo transshipment. In the past, we used sacks and wooden boxes of different sizes, which made it very troublesome to lift and transport. If we were not careful, the packaging would be damaged, and it would be even more troublesome when it rained."

"If standard boxes are made of steel, first of all, they are very strong, and secondly, they are easy to hoist and place without worrying about crushing the goods on the lower level. They can even be hoisted directly from the ship to the truck or train, and they are not afraid of rain, which saves the need to transfer them to the warehouse."

"We expect that all future cargo ships will be dedicated container ships."

Frederick was a little surprised. He just had an idea and asked Lulu to ask other ship owners and captains for their opinions. He didn't expect them to study it so deeply.

But perhaps the information was mispronounced, he said: "I expected the container to be made of steel as the pillars and frame, with wood and waterproof coating as the outer shell, so I'm afraid it's not that strong."

He thought about all-metal containers, but steel production did not allow it.

Dreyer immediately said, "It doesn't matter. The cargo stacking is mainly supported by the weight from above. As long as the bracket and the bottom plate are strong, it will be enough. The box only needs ordinary anti-collision protection."

Frederick nodded and decided to make do with it given the limited conditions. At worst he could just replace the wooden shell from time to time.

Then Dreyer said, "Sir, the shipyard has nothing to do anyway, why don't we study the size, material and manufacturing of this container first?"

Frederick raised his eyebrows and did not answer immediately. Instead, he smiled, took a sip of beer, and picked up two shrimps with a fork and ate them.

Dreyer was a little anxious. They realized the advantages of containers and planned to take over the container manufacturing industry.

Frederick thought that building a container factory here would be a good choice, but there was no steel plant here and the transportation cost of the main materials was high.

Lugang is indeed a good place to build a steel plant. It is very convenient to transport the iron ore from Grouse Forest and the Kingdom of Gaul, and the coal from the Kingdom of Anglia and the Rhine Confederation here.

The Duchy of Wessen has no place to build another smelter, so it can upgrade its industry. After refining steel here, the steel can be transported to the city of Wessenburg for various refining processes to increase profits.

The problem is that this is the territory of the Kingdom of Gaul.

Finally, Frederick said, "You guys do the research first, I'll see if we can build a steel plant here, it will be more convenient in the future."

(End of this chapter)