Nanyang Storm 1864

Chapter 40 Western Galleon

"General, I have fulfilled my mission and encountered a good opportunity in Shanghai to purchase these four large Western Portuguese sailing ships. I would like to ask General to send someone on board to inspect them and see if they are appropriate." Zheng Guotai saluted respectfully, with uncontrollable excitement on his face.

Zheng Guohui looked surprised for a moment and said, "Oh, there is such a good thing."

As he spoke, he signaled with his eyes that the captain of the personal guard, Zheng Shun, should take his soldiers aboard and thoroughly inspect these large Western sailing ships to make sure there was nothing fishy going on.

By the time Zheng Shun and his men had climbed up the gangway onto several large sailing ships and started to inspect them, there was no one else around the general.

Zheng Guotai then bowed and told the story;

"General, please allow me to report.

This time, the students were ordered to go to Shanghai to purchase foreign guns and cannons, building on the successful cooperation last time.

Only then, through the introduction of Mr. Henry from the foreign company, did he successfully meet General Staveley, the commander of the British Army in Shanghai, in the British Concession.

This person was the British commander who introduced Mr. Gordon to Li Hongzhang, the Governor-General of Liangjiang. Now that the war in China was gradually subsiding, Gordon's foreign rifle team also lost the employment of the court and basically scattered.

In addition to some foreign mercenaries stranded in Shanghai, many have already gone north to Yantai or south to Guangzhou and Hong Kong.

In this case

Foreign companies in the British Concession recovered a large number of foreign guns and cannons, many of which were in very new condition. There was also a large number of arms that had just arrived from the Governor-General's Office in India and were looking for buyers.

General Staveley and Lord Gordon are both willing to sell their excess guns and artillery, especially to us, friends who have worked with them in the past and have gained their trust.

The final agreed price was seven taels and three cents of silver for each foreign rifle, seven taels for old and three taels for new, for a total of 6200 British-made rifles, requiring 45260 taels of silver.

In addition, there were 16 British Armstrong 12-pound field guns, each worth 10880 taels of silver, totaling taels of silver. The total of the two items was more than taels of silver.

After the deal was done, General Staveley was in a very happy mood and took the opportunity to introduce us to Mr. Mendes, a nobleman from Portugal.

Speaking of

Mr. Mendes is really unlucky. It is said that he is lazy and greedy for enjoyment, and has squandered most of his ancestral property.

Seeing that the debt is mounting, I decided to take a gamble, maybe there is still a glimmer of hope.

Spices from the East have always been expensive in Europe and there is no problem selling them. There are also rumors that a large-scale war is taking place in the East.

So, Mr. Mendes sold his ancestral aristocratic manor and castle, spent a large sum of money to buy four large sailing ships, and purchased machinery and equipment for producing foreign guns, cannons and ammunition, filling up the four ships.

After more than half a year of arduous transoceanic voyage, Mr. Mendes was stunned by the situation when he arrived in the East.

The large-scale war in Eastern China was drawing to a close, and the imperial court was facing financial difficulties. No one would buy his machinery for producing foreign guns, cannons, and ammunition.

Mr. Mendes encountered obstacles everywhere, from Hong Kong, Guangzhou to Shanghai, almost everything went wrong.

It also happened that the sailors on the ship were rioting for wages. There were more than 450 French sailors on the four large sailing ships, and they had not been paid for most of the past six months. The machinery and equipment could not be sold and were now just a pile of scrap metal.

How could these Francois sailors give in?
This caused a stir, and it was said that even if they sold their machinery and equipment, they would not be able to buy spices in the East Indies.

The Red Indians' real-time monopoly on spices only allowed designated royal spice merchants to conduct transoceanic spice trade, and Mr. Mendes was clearly not qualified.

Under forced circumstances

Mr. Mendes was willing to sell his four large Western sailing ships at a low price, so... this was a great bargain for the students.

"He bought four large Western galleons for only 5 taels of silver. Mr. Mendes originally spent silver pesos on them, which is equivalent to more than taels of silver."

When reporting this, Zheng Guotai smiled so hard that his teeth were exposed, with a look of great joy on his face.

Purchasing large Western sailing ships was originally a predetermined task, and no one would miss the opportunity.

Zheng Guohui laughed and said, "Hahahaha... Portuguese people have always been bandits. They are really not good at business. They don't have the brains. Mr. Mendes is not an outlier. It's just that he has bad luck."

"Isn't it? When I met the student, he was said to have only one decent piece of clothing on him. Yet, he traveled through Shanghai's foreign concessions, still enjoying himself day and night."

"I'm fully aware of the situation. You did a good job on this matter. I'll give you a credit."

"Thank you, General. How dare I refuse your order?"

"It seems that you are really a deputy general." Zheng Guohui was very happy.

Western sailing ships were expensive, far from comparable to the thousand-stone Fu ships, with the price difference being more than ten times.

The main difference is that
Western sailing ships are made with great care, using high-quality European hardwood as raw material. After being cut down, they need to be left to dry in the shade for one to two years before they can be used.

Since the 14th century
Europe gradually formed a rigorous procedure for building large Western sailing ships, which has been followed for more than 500 years.

From the early round-bellied, large stern ship type, it evolved into a streamlined, small stern ship that is more suitable for ocean voyages. The shipbuilding process is more rigorous and complicated, and it often takes two to three years to build a large sailing ship.

The large Western sailing ships made in this way have high speeds, strong and durable hulls, and can withstand the harsh waves of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans, realizing the dream of transoceanic sailing.

In this regard, the Qianshi Fuchuan is far behind.

The so-called thousand-stone Fu ship is about 100 to tons to more than tons, and the maximum is tons.

This is not the case with Western sailing ships. Take the four Western sailing ships purchased by Zheng Guotai as an example. There is one large and three small ones.

The largest ship was 820 tons, with four decks and two tiers of gun ports on each side. It should have been equipped with 24 guns, but in fact only had six. The others were probably sold by the original owner for money.

The three smaller ones were also 500 tons in weight. They were the most common and most numerous armed merchant ships among Western sailing ships. There was a layer of gun ports on both sides of the ship's hull, and they should be equipped with 14 cannons, seven guns on each side of the ship's hull.

Such a fully equipped armed merchant ship has very powerful firepower and does not need escort ships for ocean voyages. Ordinary pirates have no way to deal with it.

Actually

There were still three or four extra cannons on the ship, but none were left. They must have been dismantled and sold for money by the original owner, Mr. Mendes. After all, a bronze cannon weighing over a thousand pounds was worth a lot of money.

After confirming that there was no problem, Zheng Guohui led his officials on board the ship and enthusiastically visited the largest Western sailing ship.

This large sailing ship is nearly 9.8 meters long and about meters wide. The solid hull is one and a half feet thick. From the bottom of the ship to the upper waterline, it is wrapped with a layer of lead as thick as a finger and brushed with more than ten layers of tung oil.

This is a preventive measure taken to prevent marine organisms from parasitizing and shipworms from eroding the hull.

Must admit

After hundreds of years of accumulation in the Age of Exploration, the European powers have a profound foundation in the field of navigation that Eastern countries cannot yet match.

On a large sailing ship

Three masts, each as thick as a man's embrace, stand tall: the front, middle, and rear masts. This is a typical three-masted sailing ship layout, but there is a fourth mast at the rear mast, on which hangs a smaller square sail.

The entire deck

Large and small mooring winches and piles of sail ropes are scattered all over the place. Among them, a large mooring winch as thick as a small round table is particularly eye-catching.

This is a mooring machine for raising and lowering the anchor. When using it, more than ten people are needed to insert wooden sticks into the gap reserved in the mooring machine, and turn it together to raise and lower the heavy anchor like a donkey pulling a mill.

This three-masted sailing ship has a tall hull and a total of five floors from bottom to top. The bottom floor is ballast, and the entire floor above is a cargo hold.

Further up is the lower gun deck, where 24 of the 16 guns are placed, eight on each side of the ship. It can be equipped with 60-pound heavy guns, with quite strong firepower.

Of course, the lower gun deck is now empty, without a single 60-pound gun, as they were all sold by that prodigal son Mendes.

Going up to the fourth floor is the crew's quarters, which are densely packed with bunk beds, hammocks, toilets, weapons storage rooms, etc., and there is a pungent and strange smell inside.

Continuing up to the fifth floor is the upper gun deck.

This layer can be equipped with eight cannons. Because the center of gravity cannot be too high, the caliber of these eight cannons cannot exceed 32 pounds and the weight cannot be too high.

In the captain's room at the stern of the ship, Zheng Guohui saw a copper plate engraved in Spanish with the family crest of the Mendes family and the history of the ship.

This three-dimensional sailing ship was built in 1823 and has a history of more than years.

Before Mendes purchased it, it was a merchant ship traveling back and forth in the Mediterranean, having experienced countless storms and brought huge wealth to its previous owner.

A sailing ship that is more than 40 years old is not considered old. The sailing battleships of various levels equipped by the British Royal Navy have a long history. The longest one is more than years old, and there are many with a history of more than years.

Standing in the captain's room and looking around, the doors and windows are carved with exquisite patterns, and there are also wooden carvings of naked women, strong men and sea beasts, revealing luxury and lewdness everywhere.

My fifth uncle, Zheng Shoucheng, who had come aboard with me, was clearly not used to it. He kept muttering to himself with a dark face, "Ridiculous, ridiculous, this is outrageous!" "These foreigners are ignorant of civility and etiquette, just like animals."

I said that, but I couldn't help but look at it.

Fifth uncle Zheng Shoucheng was of noble status and could follow the general into the captain's room on the side of the ship. Others just looked from the outside and then left quickly with red faces.

Zheng Guohui was not surprised. He was attracted by the heavy bookcase that almost occupied the entire wall in the captain's room and couldn't help but walk over.

This bookcase is filled with various foreign language books, with at least hundreds or even thousands of them, mainly hard cover books.

Many of these hardcover books have beautiful gilded floral text. Some are made of cowhide, and some are made of other leathers. They look very exquisite and are also very valuable.

It’s a pity that such books have no market in China, otherwise, wouldn’t that prodigal son Mendes have sold them all?

Zheng Guohui took out a few books and flipped through them. Most of them were in Spanish, with some in English and German, mainly about religious history and European culture.

He doesn't have time to study it now, but it would be nice to move to another place in the future and take a closer look when he has time. It can be considered a small gain.

Zheng Guohui was always thinking about one thing, so he walked out of the captain's room leisurely. Seeing his aide Zheng Guotai standing by the helm, he waved to him.

"General, what's the matter?"

"I have a question for you. You mentioned earlier that this unfortunate Mr. Mendez was smuggling a lot of machinery for manufacturing guns and cannons, but no one was interested. Where is this machinery now? What is its value?"

"General, you mean..." Zheng Guotai blinked, then immediately realized what he was talking about. He bowed and replied, "I understand. I did ask about this. At that time, a British company had a batch of goods to be delivered to Shanghai, and Mr. Mendes took the business. He also dumped all the machinery and equipment in a warehouse in Hong Kong and didn't ship it here. I guess they are still in the warehouse in Hong Kong, right?"

"Go and ask for accurate information."

"The students understand that they will be leaving for Shanghai again soon and will definitely bring that batch of machinery and equipment back."

"Yes, that's right. It would be best if we could have technicians to assist with the installation and related production matters."

"The students understand and will do it as soon as possible."

(End of this chapter)