On this day, Marin was signing and stamping various documents sent by Jeffrey (stamping is not popular in the West, only signature is popular. But Marin was used to stamping in his previous life, so the document review is all signed + stamped) . Suddenly, a document aroused his great interest...
The document says that at the shipyard in Te Horenche, Texel, two new ships have been launched...
"The shipyard on Texel..." Marin fell into memory...
Speaking of which, this shipyard has been established for more than two years. Preparations began at the end of 1496, and the factory was formally established at the beginning of 1497. At the beginning, the shipyard was composed of several master shipbuilders hired from Portugal and hundreds of serfs who were familiar with carpentry.
In 1497, the shipyard hardly produced a single seagoing ship. Under the command of the Portuguese shipbuilder, those serfs who had never built boats built small boats and small fishing boats there every day, and were familiar with ship structures and shipbuilding techniques...
Later, Marin bought 200 shipbuilders from the Venetians. Since 1498, this shipyard has officially started manufacturing seagoing ships...
However, what Marin asked them to build was the British Galen ship in the late 16th century. The Portuguese are only familiar with two types of caraque and caravel. Venetian craftsmen are even more miserable, they can only manufacture galleys suitable for the Mediterranean... As for those serf apprentice craftsmen, let alone, they can't do anything...
In the end, with the joint efforts of the three parties, two "monsters" were created...
These two well-built 200-ton ships combine the characteristics of the three types of ships: Carrack, Caravel and Venetian galley. It sounds very comprehensive, but in fact it is a four-dimensional...
Then, because of the unreasonable design and poor craftsmanship (mainly hundreds of novices participated in it), the ship jumped and jumped when it was sailing at sea. Of course, this is not the kind of clipper ship that jumps and jumps on the sea because of its high speed, but purely because of the unreasonable structure, and it is easy to shake and jump when the speed is slow-this is obviously due to the asymmetrical structure on both sides and the processing technology. But off, plus the design is unreasonable...
Throughout 1498, the new shipyard wasted its time on these two "jumping ships". This also led to Marin having to order two Kirk sailing ships at the shipyard in Lübeck when he wanted two merchant ships running on the route of the Teutonic Knights.
However, the shipyard is not hopeless. After the two "jumping ships" were successfully built, those hundreds of novice shipbuilders finally had experience in building large ships.
As for the "jumping boats" that were obviously not suitable for large-scale voyages, Marin finally dealt with them at a low price to fishermen and used them to fish in the North Sea.
The "jumping boat" is not stable when sailing, and it is easy to make people seasick, but this is nothing to fishermen. Because, when their boat encounters wind and waves, it bumps harder than the "jumping boat". At least, the jumping boat is big and stable, and it is not easy to be capsized by the wind and waves in the North Sea. Moreover, the larger the boat, the larger the trawl net can be towed, and more fish can be held.
At the end of 1498, the two ships Marin sent to the Teutonic country to do business brought back not only a lot of money, but also a lot of oak suitable for shipbuilding from Eastern Europe (dried for a long enough time). So, the second batch of two ships laid down the keel again at the shipyard...
In June 1499, two new ships were finally launched...
According to the submitted documents, these two new ships, according to the new weights and measures promulgated by Marin, both have a displacement of 250 tons...
"Two 250..." Marin was a little speechless about this tonnage. You can get 240 tons or 260 tons, why use 250 tons...
However, after the new boat was launched, it has completely overcome the problem of the two boats jumping and jumping last year, and the sailing is very stable. So, the shipyard sent someone to announce the good news...
Marin was very interested, and quickly issued an order to let the two ships come to Emden Port, let him see for himself...
A few days later, Marin saw these two "250" new ships in the port of Emden...
After seeing the boat, Marin didn't feel excited, of course, he wasn't disappointed either...
Marin has repeatedly emphasized that let them build British-style Galen ships. He even gave them the data of the later "Constitution" sailing warship as a reference.
In this era, the general length-to-width ratio of Carrack sailboats, Caravill sailboats and Kirk sailboats is around 3:1. For example, the flagship "Santa Maria", which was discovered by Columbus in America, was 23.66 meters long and 7.84 meters wide, with an aspect ratio close to 3:1. Da Gama's flagship "San Gabriel" is 27 meters long and 8.5 meters wide, with an aspect ratio close to 3:1.
The "Constitution" in Marin's memory is 62.2 meters long, 13.6 meters wide, and has an aspect ratio of 4.57 to 1, which is much "thinner" than sailing ships of this era. Of course, it is also much faster. You know, the speed of the "Constitution" can reach 13 knots. The sailboats of this era are generally around seven or eight knots, and the clippers do not exceed 9 knots.
Of course, the "Constitution" appeared relatively late, at the end of the 18th century. At that time, the ship design concept also tended to be thinner and faster. In the middle of the 19th century, the clipper boat that "drag racing" on the sea was directly produced, and its aspect ratio directly reached more than 6 to 1, and it was as "thin" as a stick. However, because it is too "thin", the clipper ship cannot even install artillery. Because, for such a "thin" ship, if the artillery is placed on the side, the reaction force of the salvo of the artillery can almost overturn the clipper ship...
Marin obviously didn't want to build a clipper ship so early, because the clipper ship has no protection and is easy to be robbed by pirates. The reason why the clipper ships in the middle and late 19th century were fine was that the warships of the British Empire spread all over the seas and navigation routes at that time, chasing and killing pirate ships everywhere, which greatly improved the safety of the routes. If pirates were rampant in the 17th and 18th centuries, would you try flying clippers? What Captain Drake, Captain Kidd, Captain Morgan... They will send fleets to stop you on some important routes every minute, and then put all the sailors into sacks and throw them into the sea. As for property, grab it all...
Therefore, even if the flying clipper ship is made, it is mainly used for sending messages, and cannot be used for transporting too valuable property. Unless, there are enough warships cruising on this route. Otherwise, once the ship is stopped by someone, it will be no different from a lamb waiting to be slaughtered.
Of course, it depends on where. For example, in a pass-like waterway like the Strait of Malacca, clipper ships can easily be stopped. In places like the English Channel or the Strait of Gibraltar, clippers can be stopped as long as there are enough ships. But if you want to intercept clipper ships in the Pacific and Atlantic without passing through those narrow waterways, it's a dream...
The two boats that appeared in front of Marin, in Marin's view, were not the English-style Galenic ships he wanted, but Spanish-style Galenic ships...
The aspect ratio of this ship is about 3.5 to 1. It seems that the designers still haven't fully listened to Marin's words, and regard Marin as a lay leader who "doesn't know how to command chaos"...
However, the forecastle at the bow was removed according to Marin's suggestion. However, the poop at the stern remains...
Marin asked the designer who came with the ship, but the old Portuguese designer had plausible words—necessary for naval battles, and the captain also needed to go to the poop to observe the sea conditions...
"Damn it..." Marin was so angry that he wanted to curse - it was still needed for naval battles, which was clearly still stuck in the old thinking of boarding battles...
As for the observation of the captain, we only need to build a high platform like a watchtower on the top of the stern building. There is no need to build such a wide three-story building. How much wind resistance is there...
Moreover, to observe the sea conditions, you can also send a few hard-working sailors to climb on the mast to observe. Of course, this is a little bit dangerous.
Even, Marin had seen such an observation method in his previous life—a thick flagpole was placed on the top of the stern poop, and this wooden box similar to an elevator room was hung on the flag rope. The captain or the first mate needs to climb up to observe, so they go directly into this wooden box similar to the elevator room. Then, several sailors raise the wooden box to a high place like raising a flag, and let the captain or first mate go up and observe with a telescope. After the observation, a few sailors will lower the flag down...
The design of the high poop is obviously the idea of the Spaniards... No, it was originally the idea of the Portuguese. The Spaniards just built more ships of this kind than the Portuguese, and later generations called this kind of ship a Spanish galleon...
Sure enough, it is a designer from Portugal. Marin has provided specific data, and he even came up with a ship like the "Spanish Galleon"...
But in any case, the design of these two ships has surpassed other ships of this era. According to estimates, the speed of the two ships has also reached 9 knots, which is only one knot behind the 10 knots of the British Galen ship.
Marin boarded the boat and sailed with the boat for a long time, and found that it was much more stable than the last jumping boat, and it was almost as stable as the Kirk sailboat built by Lübeck.
However, in terms of the arrangement of the artillery positions, the old Portuguese designer was stubborn again. The artillery positions he designed turned out to be mostly at the stern, and most of them were distributed on the poop at the stern. Then, four artillery positions were also placed on the bow. As for the middle section of the side, there are basically no gun positions, and there is no lower artillery deck with windows protruding from the muzzle...
What makes Marin speechless the most is that according to tradition, the toilet on the ship is actually set up under the bow...
Once the sailboat is sailing, it must face the wind. However, the smell from the toilet at the bow is blowing directly along the wind... that smell is more "sour" than the old godmother...
According to Marin's knowledge, the bow part of the later clipper ship was specially made hollow to facilitate the floating of the bow, suitable for "jumping" during navigation to reduce seawater resistance.
Looking at the stubborn old Portuguese man in front of him with an expression of "I am a professional, you are an amateur", Marin made up his mind - next time, if the old man dares not to listen to his opinion, the director of the shipyard will change Do what you are told. Next time, be sure to build an English-style Galen ship...