Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 41 Sea Trial

The "Eagle of the East Coast" anchored near the coast by Julien's orders.

Lu Ming walked down from the bridge, patted Julien on the shoulder, and encouraged him with a smile: "Good job, my navigator!"

Julien smiled, looked at the sailing school students who were busy lowering the traffic boat, and said, "To be honest, I kind of enjoy my life now. These kids are working hard. As long as they keep working like this, sooner or later would make excellent naval officers. I know you've been training them to the standards of officers."

"Of course, they are all my children, and I have always been proud of them." Lu Ming put his arms around a student who was tidying up the cables, touched his head and said, "Ji Wen, I'm going to give you some advice later. Exam, if you get the questions wrong again, I will fine you to saw wood for a week."

"Hey." The child named Ji Wen was not afraid of him at all. After struggling out of his arms, he smiled and said, "Mr. Principal, Yuri always gets the questions wrong, and I haven't seen him sawing wood for a day."

Lu Ming, who was exposed, was not embarrassed at all. He laughed and pretended to kick Ji Wen, and then walked and chatted with Julien along the deck.

"Julian, haven't you thought about taking over your family? Look at Johnston, they have already taken over their families from England or Holland, why don't you? We appreciate your character and knowledge, and the children also I like you very much, and you also like them, right? Why can’t we all work hard to live and struggle together? We may have been enemies before, but now we are not. You know our attitude very well. Don’t you have any respect for our cause? Confidence?" Lu Ming looked at the seabirds flying freely on the sea, and asked Julien.

"No, it's not like that." Julien sighed, "I don't have any relatives in Franche-Comté, only an uncle. In fact, I have some unavoidable reasons, I hope you can understand ..."

"Hehe, well, you have the right to keep your privacy." Lu Ming smiled generously, and then said, "Let's go and see how the children's first login is going."

The two small boats have been lowered from the side of the ship, floating on the sea surface. Eight nautical school students and 8 converted marine gunners climbed down the rope ladder.

Those who arrived on the ship earlier raised a small square sail. After everyone boarded the boat smoothly, the sailors on the "Eagle of the East Coast" untied the cables that fixed the boat, and the crew on the boat started Paddle hard, with the help of the northeast wind, the two small boats sailed towards the coast at a fast speed.

This is the sea off the mouth of Patus Lake.Lake Patos has a narrow waterway at the mouth of the lake that connects to the Atlantic Ocean. After entering Lake Patos through the waterway, the crew of the two small boats will be on a peninsula on the south side of the lake (later the city of Rio Grande ) to log in and collect information about rocks, animal and plant specimens.This can be regarded as the industry and agriculture sector taking a ride with the navy. The navy will conduct a rough survey of the environment here in advance, and reserve information for possible large-scale landing development in the future.

Lu Ming held up his binoculars and looked from a distance, and saw that the crew members on the small boat were measuring the water depth and current velocity near the waterway at the mouth of the lake. This is a very important step, because it is related to whether the big ship can directly enter the Patus Lake in the future. Inside.According to the information provided by Gao Mo, the coal mines in this area in later generations should be located near Porto Alegre on the north shore of Lake Patus.In other words, if you want to develop this coal storage area, you must go deep into the innermost side of Patus Lake. From the perspective of transportation, you must ensure that Patus Lake can pass large transport ships, otherwise the coal mine will be dug out. It is meaningless if the coal cannot be shipped out.

Lu Ming and Julien looked at it for a while, and then they left and went to the sailor's lounge on the forecastle. At this time, the lounge was filled with the rest of the sailing school students.Each of them held a small wooden board in front of them, held a charcoal pencil in their hands, and were quietly waiting for Lu Ming's arrival.

Lu Ming took off the captain's cap he had been wearing all the time, then smiled at the students and said, "Well, let's record the test questions now." The "Eagle of the East Coast" sailed from San Vicente at a speed of 8 knots. Set sail, sail along the coast of Brazil and La Plata, drift eastward to South Africa in the Strait of Magellan along the westerly wind, and then go north along the west coast of South Africa. How many days will it take to reach Luanda? Draw the chart and route yourself. Please note that the specific route and time spent for each individual voyage should also be listed separately. For specific parameters, you can refer to the knowledge you have learned in class. I will give you half an hour, start timing now, let’s start, children them!"

Lu Ming and Julien paced back and forth in the sailor's lounge, watching the children's problem-solving process from time to time.In addition to learning navigation knowledge, these students usually study mathematics, geography and basic physics in class. They are taught by the group of middle school teachers who travel through the crowd, and even the textbooks are written by themselves.In this era when knowledge is wealth, these children are quite knowledgeable in some respects compared with those naval officers in Europe.

"Yuri! You are not allowed to peek at other people's problem-solving process!" Lu Ming walked slowly behind a half-old child with blond hair, and grabbed the child's ears.

Yuri was so frightened that the charcoal pencils fell to the ground, and there was a chuckle in the room.

These children have only studied for one year, and their previous foundation is very poor. Many of them have never been exposed to mathematics, and their logical thinking ability is not good.Lu Ming spent a lot of effort in teaching them. He treated these children equally and spent almost all his time on them.Sometimes in order to clarify a certain problem that he is not good at, Lu Ming often takes the initiative to invite teachers to teach individually for children who do not understand.

Even so, although the level of these children has improved rapidly over the past year, the knowledge they have mastered is still somewhat insufficient. Specific to a certain individual, there are always differences. After all, everyone has different talents.

"It's time!" Lu Ming pinched his watch and said, after every child stopped writing, he and Julien went down to collect everyone's small boards, which showed their answers to the questions.

"Yuri, my God! I told you to go to Luanda, where did you go? Santiago? You went to the Pacific Ocean?!" Lu Ming shouted exaggeratedly while holding a small board, causing everyone to laugh.

"Kyle, you are the most intrepid explorer among us. You have reached Lorenzo Marquez. Did I ask you to go around the Cape of Good Hope?"

"Oliver, you are a little worse than Kyle, but you managed to discover the Gold Coast."

"Johnson, your route is wrong. According to your current route, you may still be floating at sea when your supplies are exhausted."

"Nick, you are scarier than Johnson, you successfully bypassed Tierra del Fuego, do you want to be with penguins for the rest of your life?"

"Only...Ji Wen, only Ji Wen answered correctly!" Lu Ming put down the last small board, rubbed his forehead, and said: "Unfortunately, only Ji Wen answered correctly. The monthly assessment bonus of 10 yuan will be exclusive to Ji Wen , Of course, you can ask him to treat you."

Ignoring the children's fights, Lu Ming and Julien returned to the bridge.At this time, Navy Commissioner Wang Qinian was discussing with some of the artillery officers who traveled across the sea to apply to the executive committee for expanding the navy's establishment. After all, the "Eagle of the East Coast" was about to enter service after returning from sea trials, and the personnel had not yet been found.

Lu Ming was actually not worried about whether the executive committee would approve Wang Qinian's request. It was not obvious, since the ship had already been built, it would be impossible to let her sit there. The "Eagle of the East Coast" has a rated crew of 30 people, as well as some gunners and a small number of marines. A large number of positions in it have long been targeted by a large group of people. Many people even went to Wang Qinian's place before the ship was launched. Activities were carried out.

To be honest, Lu Ming didn't want to be the acting captain at all.After the sea trial of this ship is over, his agency mission will be over, and he has no intention of competing with others for a position. He just wants to go back to school and stay with the children.Immediately, 33 students from the 90rd class, who were recruited two months in advance by the Sailing School, will also enroll. There are a lot of things waiting for him in the school.As for Captain Shenma, Commander Shenma, leave it to others.

In the afternoon, two small boats finished their mission, rowed out of Patus Lake, and boarded the "Eagle of the East Coast" one by one with the help of the sailors on board.

Their task was relatively successful. With the help of a group of old sailors, eight students from the 8nd class of the navigation school not only recorded the hydrological information of the Hukou waterway and the southern part of the lake in detail, but even landed and collected Some rock and plant specimens, and draw a simple map.During the whole process, no Indians were encountered, and no signs of human activity were found at the landing site.After they returned, the last mission of the "East Coast Eagle" was also completed.

Three days later, the "Eagle of the East Coast" returned to Tatan Port, and the sea trial was a complete success.

(End of this chapter)