The Rise of the European Emperor

Determined to use a gaff sail, Marin immediately set about rebuilding the boat. Because it has not yet been finalized, Marin targeted the ship's transformation to a Type 250 armed merchant ship with a displacement of 250 tons. Moreover, this kind of ship, Marin also has the most.

However, in order to achieve the desired effect, Marin personally came to the Emden shipyard to supervise and guide the shipbuilding craftsmen to modify the ships. To be on the safe side, though, Marin decided—to start with rebuilding the sails of the rear mast. As for the front mast, it remains as it is for the time being.

The reason for this is that although Marin knows the principle of the upper edge gaff sail, he has no experience in how to control the upper edge gutter sail. After all, China is a closed country in the era of great seafaring. When sailing warships became popular, the country was the Manchu Dynasty. But when Huaxia overthrew the Qing Dynasty and began to see the world, the era of sailing was over.

Therefore, regardless of the long history of China, there are really few people who understand Western sailing, and there is no tradition of sailing. The ships that Marin has seen in later generations are all diesel powered. Or, it's small enough to be rowed with a paddle. That said, Marin was just a theoretician and had never had practical experience with sailboat handling.

As a result, he can only talk about it. It is up to the sailors to figure out how to control the upper edge gaff sail. In this context, it is more risky to replace all the sails on the ship with upper edge gaff sails. The safest is to test it with the mast near the stern first. Even if apart from the problem, it's a big deal...

The manufacture of the upper edge gutter sail is very simple. With the theoretical guidance of Marin, it is enough to find a few craftsmen to build a batch of copper rings connecting the mast and the wind rod, the upper edge girder and the sail. The reason why copper rings are used instead of iron rings is naturally because copper is not afraid of water.

After it was built, Marin arranged for craftsmen to connect the thick copper ring to the wind rod and the upper edge slant girder, and to connect the copper ring to the sail. Then, first the thick copper ring with the wind mast was put down from the top of the mizzen mast, and then a series of thin copper rings attached to the sail. Next, put on the thick copper ring connecting the upper edge slant girder. However, the craftsmen also installed a vertically upward guide rail on the wind rod before putting on the upper edge slant. There are two copper rings connecting the upper edge slant girder, the thick copper ring covers the mast, and the thin copper ring covers the guide rail...

Finally, over the upper edge of the girder, there is a jib. The jib near the mast also has a string of thin copper rings. The copper ring at the top is connected by a rope to a pulley at the top of the mast, which is convenient for sailors to raise the sail below, just like raising a national flag.

...

But when the 250 Armed Merchant Ship's mizzen mast was fitted with a gaff sail and tested at sea, Marin discovered another serious problem - there is no steering wheel like a steering wheel in this era...

In Marin's impression, the sailboats on the big voyages are all led by the captain and several sailors who turn the steering wheel there.

Captains will often shout - "left rudder, 20", "right full rudder", or "right rudder" or something like that. Then, the chief mate supervised several sailors to turn the steering wheel to turn...

Before, Marin also rode a sailboat, but he didn't go to the stern to see it. He thought that the steering wheel was also used there. But this time when I was discussing with the old sailors how to control the upper edge gaff sail, Marin accidentally came to the stern of the boat to control the rudder, and only really saw how the sailors of this era controlled the rudder...

Marin watched with a bewildered look on his face as the captains shouted and directed the sailors to play "crowbars" there, to control the steering of the hull instead of turning the legendary steering wheel...

He shook his head and rubbed his eyes, thinking that he must have seen a fake voyage. However, the picture remains...

I saw four strong, shirtless sailors, under the supervision of the chief mate, vigorously pulling a long crowbar that connected vertically to the rudder below. It also makes a "squeaky" sound when it is pulled. The four brawny sailors were also sweating on their heads, shouting chants, as if they were struggling.

"Is it so hard to turn the rudder?" Marin asked Captain Kidd, who was accompanying the inspection, in surprise.

Kidd nodded and said:

"Well, it's just that hard. It's not bad. The wind and waves in the North Sea are still average. If there are strong winds and waves, it will take more force to turn the vertical tiller, and the four strong men may not be able to turn it. A 250-class ship is better, but on a 500-ton warship, because the rudder is larger, heavier and more difficult to turn, it generally requires 6 to 8 strong men to turn the vertical tiller."

"I wipe..." Marin suddenly exclaimed. However, no one could understand this Chinese-style foul language.

"Looks like the gaff sails aren't the most important thing anymore. Getting a steering wheel first is the most important thing."

Marin watched the scene of manipulating the vertical tiller for a while, and really felt the effort. Seeing the scene where the four strong men were sweating profusely, Marin felt that this was a waste of manpower. According to the captain, these four strong men are the first shift, and they will find another four sailors to change shifts in a few hours... As a result, a large number of sailors are needed just to turn the rudder, which is a waste of manpower. resources...

So, after the ship docked, Marin immediately sent guards to find a few mechanical experts. Da Vinci, the old man, was sent by Marin to North America some time ago to test the use of steam engines to drive water pumps for irrigation. Therefore, Marin can only settle for the next best thing and find a few other mechanical experts.

When it comes to mechanical experts, who can compare with watchmakers in this era? These people can play with small gears, and they are most proficient in mechanics. Of course, some advanced blacksmiths are also required to build the equipment they need.

After several large watchmakers hired from Italy arrived, Marin gave them the task of creating a mechanical system that could turn the rudder of the ship by turning the wheel. Moreover, it is best to be able to move it by one person... Not only that, Marin also requires that the entire system be as simple as possible, and it needs to be resistant to seawater corrosion. For example, iron parts cannot be used to avoid corrosion and rust by seawater... For this reason, the craftsmen unanimously decided to use corrosion-resistant copper to make parts such as gears...

As for this system, Marin attached great importance to it and offered a high reward of 1,000 gold coins per person. Although the reward is high, Marin thinks it is very worthwhile. Because this is of great significance to the great voyage.

You must know that it is very inconvenient to control the rudder with the current vertical rudder stock. Not only is it difficult, but the steering angle is also very small, at most 5 degrees. And this also caused the hull to turn very slowly. If you encounter a shoal or a reef, if you turn slowly, you may still encounter it. Therefore, Marin requested that the new steering wheel must allow the rudder to turn more than 30 degrees...

After making these demands, Marin left first and returned to Aurich. With the efficiency of these watchmakers, Marin estimates that he will not be able to come up with a reliable steering wheel in a short time. It's not hard to get them to take out the wheel, they're all professionals after all. However, it is difficult to come up with a reliable and durable steering wheel. Because it is unreliable and durable, it takes a long time to test before it can be finalized.

Therefore, Aben led the fleet to build cities and ports on the Pacific side of Panama this time. I am afraid that these people can't wait for these people to come up with a mature steering wheel, and they have to use the vertical rudder to turn the rudder.

Fortunately, however, the manoeuvring of the upper edge gaff sail is simple. Although Marin didn't understand it himself, the old sailors had basically figured out how the upper edge gaff sail was steered. A few details remain, and Aben's fleet can continue to test while sailing. Anyway, only the mizzen mast at the stern uses the gaff sail, which does not affect the overall situation.

In this way, Aben's fleet, a total of 10 250-class armed merchant ships, loaded with personnel and materials, embarked on the journey to Panama City.

In addition to the task of building a city and a port at the location of Panama City, they also had the task of building a transit station on Santa Maria Island near Concepcion, Chile.

After all, the voyage from Grenada to Panama City is too long and requires a transfer station to replenish fresh water. In the future, the development of Chilean saltpeter may also take this as a springboard.

Therefore, on this voyage, when passing through Santa Maria Island, Aben will leave a small group of people to build a small bunker by the river on Santa Maria Island. In the future, this bunker will be expanded into a transit port, which is responsible for replenishing the freshwater river food for the ships...