Vikings: Lords of the Ice Sea

Chapter 239 Plantation

After the annual meeting concluded, Vigé, as usual, took a long vacation. Apart from necessary official duties, he spent the rest of his time reading in the palace, enjoying this rare period of peace and quiet.

One day, Hergi came to him, requesting to purchase a two-masted sailing ship.

The royal fleet was understaffed. Vig closed his book, hesitated for a moment, and then agreed to sell three new ships. "Developing territory requires a lot of investment. Do you have enough money?"

“That’s enough. I have saved over nine hundred pounds and persuaded a group of businessmen to invest, raising a total of fifteen hundred pounds. If all goes well, the first batch of sugar cane is expected to be produced within two years.”

Having achieved his goal, Helgi put on his coat and left.

With the ship problem solved, the next task was to hire a captain and sailors. Helgi braved the wind and snow to travel to the maritime school in the south of the city to observe the students' classes.

Compared to the previous rowing longboats and cogs, the two-masted sailing ships had a larger carrying capacity and better resistance to wind and waves. The disadvantage was that they were more complex to operate. As stargazing and nautical charts became more popular, the requirements for captains increased.

Currently, the maritime school is divided into a shipbuilding department and a navigation department. The navigation department mainly enrolls two types of students:
One type is for teenagers with no prior maritime experience who do not need to pay tuition. They first spend two years at school, completing the most basic training courses, and then serve as reserve officers on ships for five years of practical training.

Officer trainees are classified as "officers in training," which is significantly different from regular officers. During their training, they follow the captain's instructions and become familiar with operations such as steering, managing sails and cables, and keeping logbooks.

At the end of their internship, they need to take the officer qualification exam. If they pass the exam, they will also have to attend a year-long advanced course before they are finally commissioned as naval ensigns.

The second type of trainees are adults who need to pay their own tuition. Most of them have a certain level of seafaring knowledge, and the training period is relatively short. Hergi plans to recruit sailors from among them.

When the course ended, Hergi walked into the classroom. The students recognized the Minister of the Navy and a famous navigator. Hearing that he was preparing to form a fleet, most of them realized that an opportunity had come and asked to join.

"Thank you all for your trust. Please come to my house for an interview at 8:00 AM tomorrow. I will assign positions based on each person's abilities and guarantee excellent compensation. There will also be additional bonuses for each voyage."

Enduring the increasingly fierce wind and snow, Helgi returned to his mansion and saw twenty investors, including Hosa, gathered in the living room chatting and discussing what names to give to the various islands.

He coughed, interrupting the boring topic, "His Majesty has agreed to sell us three ocean-going sailing ships, and adult students from the sailing school are also willing to join the fleet and will come for interviews tomorrow."

With two major problems resolved at once, the investors were enthusiastic, believing that Canary Sugar Company had a bright future. Only Hosa remained calm. He walked over and quietly asked:

"Instead of recruiting from the nautical school, why not recruit from the old brothers in the Wang family fleet?"

“This is against the rules. The royal fleet is short of manpower, and His Majesty will not allow a large number of crew members to retire at the same time.”

In Hergé’s view, Vig’s recognition of his count status and sale of three bimasted sailing ships was already a gesture of goodwill based on years of kinship. If he were to make any further excessive demands, the relationship between the two families would only weaken and eventually degenerate into a simple lord-vassal relationship.

In early March, as the storm in the North Sea gradually subsided, Hergi bid farewell to his family and led three brand-new ocean-going sailing ships out of the port.

Each ship carried forty sailors and sixty passengers, including investors and sugar company employees, with a large amount of supplies loaded in the hold.

The fleet's route was the same as last year, with a brief stop at Gijon, the port of Asturias, before rounding the southwestern coast of Iberia. "My lord, my hometown is just ahead."

Garros signaled for the fleet to anchor in an abandoned fishing village, and instructed Helgi and the others to change into local clothing before heading to a sugarcane plantation near the coast.

The plantation was located in a river valley, and the Moors built a sophisticated irrigation system to ensure a sufficient water supply, making their agricultural level far ahead of Western Europe.

It is early spring, and the weather is warm and humid. Hundreds of workers are busy in the fields, cutting sugarcane into sections, placing them in furrows, covering them with soil, and then irrigating them.

“When I was young, my parents suggested that I work on a plantation, but I couldn’t accept that kind of boring and tedious life, so I ended up going to work on a ship.”

After muttering to himself for a while, Garros signaled his companions to stay where they were. He then found a foreman who was inspecting the fields. After exchanging a few words with the foreman, Garros headed towards the manor house.

The mansion stands on a high ground, with Persian-style arcades and courtyards planted with pomegranates, roses, mint, and some exotic flowers that Garros couldn't name.

After a short wait, he was able to meet the manor's butler. After more than ten minutes of bargaining, the two reached an agreement.

"It's that simple?"

Looking at the sugarcane piled up on the carriage and the five hired workers following behind Garros, Helgi was somewhat incredulous; this was going too smoothly.

He picked up a sugarcane stalk and examined it repeatedly, asking Garros, "They just let the workers go so easily and sold a whole cartload of sugarcane? Aren't they worried that we'll become their competitors?"

Garros: "The sugar plantation belongs to a nobleman who has served in the court of Córdoba for many years. The plantation is managed entirely by a steward. The steward is greedy by nature and doesn't care about any competitors. If you're willing to pay more, you can buy even more sugarcane."

Hergi rubbed his itchy eyes. Seizing the opportunity, he took out a large bag of silver and asked Garros to buy sugarcane, as well as crops such as roses, pomegranates, citrus fruits, and grapes.

A moment later, Garros returned. "The butler agreed. He asked if you had any other needs, such as a woman."

"There are limited seats available, so I won't buy any for now. Please tell the housekeeper that I will ask him for help again if I need anything later."

Afterwards, Helgi returned to the fishing village with ten horse-drawn carriages, loaded the horses and sugarcane into the boat, and set sail as quickly as possible.

With the experience gained from the previous voyage, the subsequent voyage only took eight days, allowing investors to witness the beauty of the Canary Islands firsthand, and their worries finally dissipated.

After landing, Helgi went to a temporary camp on a nearby hillside. Last year, he had specifically left behind twenty Marines. Six months later, one died from illness after accidentally eating wild fruit, and four others were killed by the indigenous people.

“Indigenous people? Hey, you didn’t mention that before.”

Hosa and the investors started making a fuss, which annoyed Helgi. "I only stayed for a few days last time and didn't encounter any local natives. Besides, what are you panicking about? The ship carries a lot of armor and crossbows. Dealing with them won't be a problem."

(End of this chapter)