Late Ming sea owl

Chapter 72 Sand Ship (please read further)

In Shenji Shipyard, a five-masted sand ship was parked on the beam of the dry dock. Shen Tingyang smiled at Lin Hai and said, "Brother Lin, please look, this is the ship I built for you. Is it still satisfactory?"

Lin Hai looked at the thirteen-foot-long behemoth in front of him and said in shock: "Brother Shen said the other day that the cost of building this ship was no more than a thousand silver coins?"

Shen Tingyang said: "It's around 500 taels, and it will cost 2000 taels to sell to foreigners."

Lin Hai asked again: "How much cargo can this ship carry at most?"

Shen Tingyang smiled and said: "My father used such a big ship to transport military supplies to North Korea. Each ship could carry almost [-] tons of grain and grass."

Lin Hai had visited Shen's father on the sickbed a few days ago and knew that Shen Tingyang's father was a volunteer who participated in the war against Japan and aided Korea, and was awarded the title of Shaoqing of Guanglu Temple for his meritorious service. The Shen family father and son can also be regarded as two generations of loyal people.

According to Shen Tingyang, the carrying capacity of this large sand ship is about 1000 tons, and its loading capacity is greater than that of the Bowang, and is comparable to Li Guozhu's last ship.The cost of such a large ship is only over [-] taels, which is really ridiculously low.

Of course Lin Hai knew that this was because all shipbuilding in Jiangsu and Zhejiang was made of pine and fir wood. The price and processing difficulty of the wood were much lower than that of Guangzhou Shipyard. In addition, the unique keelless structure of the sand ship made its construction process easier. , no wonder Shenji Shipyard shipbuilding is like making dumplings.

Lin Hai was distracted silently, and Shen Tingyang called him: "Brother Lin?"

Lin Hai hurriedly said: "I was thinking, how many sand ships are there every year on the Beiyang route?"

Shen Tingyang said: "It's hard to say. There are at least a thousand merchants in Chongming alone."

Lin Hai nodded. He remembered that during the Daoguang period, the number of Chongming sand ships was as high as [-].These sand ships basically sailed on the Beiyang route, and the goods they transported were mainly cotton cloth and grain. Most of them carried cloth to the north and beans to the south, which greatly strengthened the non-governmental economic exchanges between the south of the Yangtze River and the north.

Although the number of sand ships in the late Ming Dynasty was not as high as it would be hundreds of years later, it still had a huge transport capacity that should not be underestimated. Unfortunately, the Ming court was unable to make good use of this private power, so that a handsome young man like Shen Tingyang, who was dedicated to serving his country, , and finally had to struggle hard in the quagmire of troubled times.

Lin Hai suddenly said: "Brother Shen said that day that he was just a businessman, but he didn't know that businessmen can also do great things. The Spring and Autumn String Gao, the Western Han Dynasty Divination Style, and your father are all role models for businessmen of our generation."

Shen Tingyang said: "Brother Lin's ambition is something Shen will not dare or forget one day."

The two looked at each other and smiled, and Lin Hai added: "To be honest, Brother Shen, I have been a boat enthusiast since I was a child. Among the sea ships in China, I am far more interested in sand ships than Fu ships and Guangzhou ships. I can't wait to see them now." You have to get on the boat and take a closer look.”

Shen Tingyang had heard of the bookworm and the tea lover, but this was the first time he heard about the boat lover. He couldn't help but smile and said: "Brother Lin aims at the north of the Great Wall. If you want to travel the Northern Ocean route, sand ships are naturally the best."

Lin Hai also smiled: "Not only that, I have always felt that Shachuan is the most successful merchant ship."

Shen Tingyang was not used to Lin Hai's wording, so he was startled and said, "Brother Lin, please clarify my doubts."

Lin Haidao: "Merchant ships are the most cost-effective. Sand ships are cheap to build and have a large load capacity. They can be sailed on both open seas and inland rivers. They can even transport goods from overseas and then go to the northern and southern provinces through rivers without changing ships in the middle."

Shen Tingyang nodded and said: "That's true. There are many sand ships on the Yangtze River, canals and even Taihu Lake."

Lin Hai also knew this. The famous freshwater fishing boat Taihu Qifan was a kind of sand boat. Legend has it that it evolved from the warships of the Southern Song Dynasty. Han Shizhong probably used this boat to defeat the Jin army at Huangtiandang.

Therefore, the Taihu fishermen still worshiped General Yue and Han as gods until the era before he time traveled, and even had a ceremony to invite Marshal Yue when they got married.

In fact, the long history of sand ships speaks volumes about its brilliance.This type of ship originated from Chongming in the Tang Dynasty. The Sea Falcon warship at that time was a kind of sand ship. It appeared much earlier than Fu Ship and Guangzhou Ship. However, it would not completely withdraw from the stage of history until the second half of the [-]th century. It has been used along the coast for thousands of years.Looking around the world, no mainstream sea-going ship can endure for such a long time. This is the result of smart maritime merchants voting with their feet. Based on this alone, the sand ship can be called the most successful ship type in history.It can be said that Shachuan is the best epitome of the development of Shanghai Port from an unknown small fishing village to an international metropolis.

Shen Tingyang said again: "In that case, why don't we board the ship and take a trip?"

Lin Hai smiled and said: "No hurry, no rush, I'll take a look at the rudder first."

This was the first time he had carefully observed the stern rudders of ancient Chinese seagoing ships. After all, the rudders of the last ship and the Bowang were both Western-style. What's more, there was no water filling in the dry dock at the moment, so he could see the entire rudder system.

Lin Hai came to the butt of the ship and saw that the rudder blade was about ten feet high and was suspended from the horizontal winch in the stern wheelhouse through the rudder cable.This is the biggest feature of the Chinese-style rudder. It can be raised and lowered by a winch, and the rudder blade can be lowered below the bottom of the ship in deep water areas, which can increase its effective area.

The rudder stock connected to the rudder blade is three feet long and extends all the way to the top of the winch. The horizontal tiller is inserted into the vertical rudder stock and extends into the wheelhouse longitudinally along the hull. The helmsman of this era relied on This thing steers the ship from left to right.

Due to the large area of ​​the rudder blade, steering requires overcoming huge water resistance, so the tiller is often very long to maximize leverage.However, due to the limited width of the wheelhouse, the long tiller could not rotate to a large angle at all, so the rudder blades of seagoing ships in this era could only deflect about five degrees at most.

This problem can only be solved after the emergence of the steering wheel. A larger rudder deflection means stronger steering maneuverability. Of course, the connection strength of the rudder system also needs to be enhanced to withstand the dynamic forces under large rudder deflection conditions during high-speed driving. pressure.

Lin Hai feels that the technical difficulty of the steering wheel is not very difficult. When he has his own shipyard, this is one of the first technologies to be implemented.

He saw that there were two round holes on the lower edge of the rudder blade, and asked Shen Tingyang, "Are these two holes used to thread the rudder ropes?"

Shen Tingyang smiled and said, "Did Brother Lin ever run a shipyard in Western Thailand?"

Lin Hai shook his head and said: "Taishi's ships do not use rudder ropes, and their rudders cannot be raised or lowered."

In fact, this rudder rope is the most fatal weakness of Chinese-style ships.Because the suspended elevator must use a rudder cable to tighten the lower edge of the rudder, and the rudder cable is located at the bottom of the ship, it is easy to break in high sea conditions, which will cause the connection of the rudder blades to be very unreliable.

The consequences are firstly that the rudder is easily lost, and secondly that the rudder stock frequently hits the rudder seat, which can easily cause the stern to crack, and the tiller often loses control and kills the helmsman.This makes it very dangerous for Chinese-style seagoing ships to sail in high seas. This cannot but be said to be a side effect of the Chinese-style rudders that have evolved over thousands of years.

The stern rudder was developed from the rudder oar. It first appeared in the Han Dynasty of China and was not spread to the West until 1000 years later.By the time the West used stern rudders, China had already invented the suspended elevator in the Song Dynasty. This was the crystallization of wisdom for offshore optimization, but it accidentally restricted the ocean navigation capabilities of Eastern seagoing ships.

After looking at the stern rudder, Lin Hai took a closer look at the water-covering plates on both sides of the ship. This is a unique part of the sand ship. It is also called the skid head and the waist rudder. Its function is similar to the center plate of the Guangzhou ship. Slow down horizontal drift.

Different from the center board, the water board is located on both sides of the ship. In crosswinds and headwinds, the water board in the leeward direction can be lowered. The effect of resisting horizontal drift is better than that of the center board.Later, the Dutch brought the water board to Western Europe, and it was further developed by the North American schooner.

In addition to the water-covering boards, there are waterwood stems on the bilges on both sides of the sand ships. This thing is currently unique to sand ships, but it has been widely used in later ships and is called bilge keels or anti-rolling keels.Its main function is to reduce the rolling of the hull in wind and waves, thereby preventing it from heeling.

It has to be said that Shachuan has indeed made a lot of contributions in the history of ship development.This is also because the sand boat has a shallow draft and a long and narrow hull, which results in severe drifting and shaking. Therefore, many unique parts are forced to be used. When the wind and waves are strong, the sand boat will also put down unique safety baskets on both sides of the stern. Further combating roll.

Shen Tingyang saw that Lin Hai was very satisfied with this sand boat, so he said: "Brother Lin, please give this boat a name."

Lin Hai had already thought of the name of the ship and responded: "Let's call it Ganfu."

(End of this chapter)