The Rise of the European Emperor

In the Indian Ocean, the dark cloud of war is approaching, and several princes of Egypt and India are preparing to defeat the Spanish-Portuguese Union and the fleet. However, why is India not united.

For example, the port of Calicut, because of the serious damage to the trade of the Kingdom of Calicut by the combined fleet of Spain and Portugal, joined the camp against the combined Spanish-Portuguese fleet and prohibited the merchant ships of the two countries from calling at the port of Calicut.

However, Calicut had just rejected Spain and Portugal, and the prince of Cochin State, who had been jealous of Calicut's status as India's largest trading port, immediately hooked up with Spain and Portugal, expressing his willingness to trade with the two countries and become Trading port for Indian spice exports. Moreover, the warships of the two countries are also allowed to dock for supplies...

Originally, Zammerin of Calicut (the title of the prince of the native state) had united a large number of Indian princes of the coastal states to block Spain and Portugal from piracy. However, in order to replace Calicut's spice trading port status and obtain huge taxes, the Prince of Cochin took the initiative to join Spain and Portugal and acted as the leading party.

There are many producing areas of Indian pepper, not only in Calicut. And those pepper suppliers, whether they ship in Calicut or Cochin. For them, except for the local pepper dealers in the small country of Calicut, all other pepper dealers sell to whoever pays them.

As for Ceylon (Sri Lanka) offering cinnamon, and Southeast Asian traders offering cloves and cinnamon, they don't even care. Anyway, Calicut and Cochin are both ports on the southwest coast of India. Where these spice merchants do business in the end depends on the outcome of the final naval battle. If the Spanish-Portuguese army wins, then the spice trade center is likely to be transferred to Cochin. Of course, if the Spanish-Portuguese coalition captured Calicut, it might still be in Calicut, but the controllers would become Spain and Portugal. And if the coalition wins, needless to say, the spice trade center is still in Calicut, and the control is still the Zammerin family...

Therefore, whether Calicut will continue to serve as India's spice distribution center in the future, or whether Cochin will replace it, depends on the outcome of the next sea battle...

However, because both warring parties need a lot of time to prepare. So, to fight, at least until next year...

...

Marin has no time to pay attention to the disputes in the Indian Ocean right now, even if he does. Because he did not interfere with the energy and strength there.

It is said that in order to completely dominate the spice trade in the Indian Ocean, Spain and Portugal may increase the number of warships from 27 to 40. Moreover, they are all large Clark sailboats. These are all professional warships, and the rest of the Caravel sailboats that can transport cargo or assist in combat are not counted...

Marin doesn't care about India. What he is worried about now is the control of America.

During this time, he prepared a large number of ships and materials, as well as related talents, and was ready to send Aben to Panama to build a city and build an excellent freshwater port.

However, Aben told Marin that it was not so easy to get to Panama City by sea. The other sections are fine, just in the Strait of Tierra del Fuego at the southernmost tip of South America, which is a very dangerous section for navigation.

The waterway there is narrow, and ships can easily run aground and hit the rocks if they are not careful. Moreover, in the process of entering the Pacific Ocean from the Atlantic Ocean, there will be a strong westerly wind head-on.

So sailing through the curved strait that Marin inexplicably named the "Strait of Magellan" was troublesome to maneuver.

If you use a horizontal sail, it is not only difficult to move forward in the wind, but also prone to accidents, such as stranding or hitting a rock or something. Therefore, when passing through this strait, Aben and his ship used a jib. In accordance with the navigation habits learned from Columbus, Aben's ship also prepared two sets of sails, a horizontal sail and a jib. When the wind is down, the horizontal sail is naturally suspended to make full use of the wind. When encountering headwinds and crosswinds, it is natural to change to jibs.

From Grenada, it goes south along the east coast of South America, passes through the Strait of Magellan, and goes north along the west coast of South America. The wind belt was replaced many times, and the wind direction was very unstable. So, starting south from Grenada, Arben's boat was on a jib most of the time.

But this kind of spinnaker, called Latin Sail by Europeans, is very troublesome to maneuver.

First of all, it is necessary to explain here that the mast of a sailboat is often bound with a crossbar. And this crossbar is mainly used as a support frame for the sail. Otherwise, the sails will not spread.

In a sailboat, the crossbar is naturally fixed to the mast. Moreover, it is perpendicular to the mast, and is tied to the mast horizontally. The sail that hangs from the crossbar is the cross sail.

The spinnaker is not the same as the Latin sail, which also has a large jib bound to a crossbar. It's just that this crossbar is not fixed, but can be adjusted (you can see pictures of Arabian jibs or Kirk sailboats hanging jibs, in fact, Latin sails are the jibs of the Arabs that the sailors in the Mediterranean Sea stole from the Arabs technology).

However, the adjustment of the Latin sail is also very troublesome. Whenever the wind direction is changed after turning the rudder, the jib will also change its position, and continue to "ride" in another direction.

It should be pointed out that this kind of beam tied to the mast is called a boom. On a horizontal sailboat, because the boom is tied straight, it is naturally straight. On the other hand, schooners, dhows with Latin sails, are tied diagonally to the mast. Therefore, it is called a sloping girder. Moreover, in order to drive the ship forward, the general method of tying the girder is that the lower end is tied in front of the mast, and the high end is tied behind the mast. The triangular tip of the jib is then tied by the sailor to the left or right of the boat, depending on the wind.

In this way, the jib will bulge for a ride when it is hit by the wind from the side. Then, the wind is transmitted to the girder, and then to the mast, which drives the ship forward.

However, the commutation of this spinnaker is more troublesome. After the rudder changes direction or the wind suddenly changes direction, in order to continue driving in another direction, the sailor must first untie the rope of the triangular tip of the jib that was fixed before, and put the jib on the jib. Then, untie the fixed rope to the girder, erect the girder first, then pass the mast, and go around to the other side of the mast. By then, let go of the sails, and re-bind the triangular tips to take advantage of the wind on the other side...

However, this operation is too cumbersome and time-consuming. If it's on the wide ocean, it's naturally nothing, it's just a matter of spending a little more time. But if it's in a narrow strait with high winds and high waves, this can kill people...

There you are slowly manipulating the jib, but time waits for no one. If you are not careful, when the sailors are busy changing directions, the ship is pushed by the wind and waves to the shoal or simply hits the reef, and it is over...

So, just to be on the safe side, it'd be nice to have a quick way to turn the latin spinnaker...

Then, Marin remembered the upper-edge cantilever sails of later generations...

In later generations, almost all modern sailboats use the upper edge gaff jib, why? It's not that this sail is the most capable. However, this kind of upper edge gaff sail is the easiest to operate and saves manpower. You know, times have changed, and modern artificial thieves are so expensive! Hire one more sailor, and the boss may go bankrupt... So, this sailor-saving topside gaff sail came into being...

Marin later heard about an extra-large clipper sailboat called the "Wyoming", with 6 masts installed and an average speed of 16 knots. However, the sailors who control the sails only need 14 people - too much salary expenditure...

Thinking of this, Marin burst into tears: Columbus needed 40 sailors to complete the small wreck of more than 100 tons to explore the New World. The 250-level armed merchant ships that Marin is currently using also require fifty or sixty sailors. And the Wyoming clipper, with a displacement of tens of thousands of tons, only needs 14 sailors to control... This is a lot of manpower...

Although it is said that manpower is worthless in this era. Unlike the workers of later generations, Nima has to pay five insurances and one housing fund in addition to the salary... However, if each ship needs less manpower, and the number of manpower remains the same, it is possible to control more ships!

Is Marin missing a boat? Temporarily missing. But soon there will be no shortage. Because many of the oaks that Marin cut down in the American colonies have been dried for more than two years and can be used for a large number of shipbuilding.

However, currently due to the limitation of the number of shipbuilders, there has been no large-scale explosion of ships. But Marin had already established a shipbuilding technical school and began to train shipbuilders on a large scale. As long as the number of shipbuilders is sufficient, coupled with the countless resources of trees in the Americas, the explosion of ships can be expected. However, by then, if the number of sailors is insufficient, it will be embarrassing...

Therefore, for Marin, it is also very important to save the manpower to control the sailboat...