After Amerigo became the second navigator under Marin, he began preparations for selecting the crew. At the same time, he requested that large ships over 200 tons must be used to ensure safe navigation. After all, a boat that is too small is not very resistant to wind and waves.
Crossing the Atlantic is different from going to India. The route to India is basically along the coast of Africa. The only sea to cross is the relatively calm Arabian Sea. But crossing the Atlantic is different. Although Amerigo has never been to America, he has also heard that the deep Atlantic Ocean is still very windy and waves.
In this regard, Marin naturally agrees. It is estimated that Columbus and the others will go back and forth for at least a year and a half, but it does not take much time to go to Grenada. Columbus' fleet crossed the Atlantic from the Canary Islands, but it took 70 days. And from Emden to the Canary Islands, just over a month. Therefore, from Emden to the Windward Islands, in fact, it only takes more than three months, half a year to go back and forth. Therefore, Marin has enough time to prepare.
For the sake of safety, Marin decided to wait for the completion of the two "250" class armed merchant ships at the Te Horenche Shipyard and hand them over to Amerigo for use. The 250-class merchant ship is now built with mature technology, and it will be completed in a few months. During the past few months, Amerigo took a group of new sailors to practice at sea.
Although Marin still has a group of old sailors who have been rotated from the Columbus fleet, Marin does not plan to use all of these old sailors. Because, he needs to train more sailors. Therefore, Marin only picked some old sailors and ships, and first used those small boats of more than 100 tons to practice the big voyage in the North Sea. Most of the sailors on board are selected from fishermen's families and some young sailors who have received sailor training. In this way, led by old sailors, they can also become old sailors after one sails.
In order to show his emphasis on navigation, Marin also personally accompanied Amerigo to inspect the two shipyards in Thorenche and Emden. But the result of the inspection made Marin frown...
There's nothing wrong with the Te Horenche shipyard, it's just doing things step by step. But Emden Shipyard has encountered technical difficulties...
It turned out that Marin asked Emden Shipyard to trial-build a 500-ton ship, and the difficulty must have increased greatly. Other places are fine, the ribs in the shipbuilding keel skeleton have become a big problem...
Generally speaking, for European-style sail wooden boats, the keel is laid first, and then the planks are covered. The keel is somewhat like a fish bone, a main main keel, plus many curved "ribs".
The main keel is actually very easy to find, the only requirement is that it is long enough. For example, Da Gama explored India's flagship "San Gabriel", which is 25.7 meters long. Of course, this is the length of the upper deck, and the main keel at the bottom of the ship is about 20 meters long. Although it is difficult to find 20-meter-long oak wood, it can still be bought at a high price.
However, if you want a longer keel, it is a bit difficult. For example, for the Swedish "Gothenburg", Marin read their articles on retro shipbuilding in his previous life, and knew that the oak they used to make the keel must be a "grandfather" oak tree with a tree age of more than 300 years and a diameter of more than 5 meters. This kind of oak tree is very rare in Europe. After all, Europeans have been cutting down and using oak trees for thousands of years. Of course, the keel length of the Gothenburg is also very long, reaching 40.9 meters.
Such super-long wood is very precious in Europe at the moment. Because, 300-year-old trees are rare in Europe. However, Marin knew that in America in this era, because there was no developed civilization, trees were rarely cut down. Therefore, in North America, there are a lot of super old oak trees that have grown for hundreds of years and are 40 to 50 meters long. Because, for thousands of years, no one has logged large-scale logging in the forests of North America. Therefore, Marin has plans to log and ship in North America. In North American forests, super long keel oak like the Gothenburg keel, not expensive at all, is everywhere...
The Spaniards, in order to build Spanish galleons, later moved the base for building large ships to America. Marin remembers reading in an article that after about 1610, Spain moved the base of building large ships to Havana, Cuba, to directly use the rich local timber resources.
Of course, Marin is now building a 500-ton ship, not a 1150-ton ship like the Gothenburg. Therefore, Marin does not need 300-year-old wood with a length of 40 meters, but only a 30-meter-long keel is enough. Although the price will be more expensive, but not impossible to find.
However, the ribs used to build large ships are very troublesome. You must know that the great voyage has just begun, and the shipbuilding technology is not yet developed.
After understanding the situation, Marin was surprised to find that the ribs of this era were actually sawn out of a whole piece of wood...
You know, the ribs are not the same as the main keel. The main keel is straight, but the ribs are curved. The ribs are all nailed to the main keel. Generally speaking, the ribs installed at the bow are a pair of "V" ribs, while the ribs in the middle of the ship are "U" shaped. The ribs of the "V" shape are simple, and two relatively straight long planks can be directly nailed to the keel. But the "U"-shaped ribs are more troublesome, but unfortunately, the most used ribs on a ship are "U"-shaped ribs. Moreover, in this era, most of the "U"-shaped ribs used by people are curved ribs sawn from relatively thick logs, which is a waste of wood.
It’s better to build a smaller ship. If you want to build a big ship, the ribs need to be processed from hundreds of years old oak trees, which is very wasteful...
Marin was a little surprised. In his memory, when the "Gothenburg" antique ship was built using retro technology, it was obviously bent by using steam to soften the straight planks...
However, Marin didn't think about it, even the original "Gothenburg" was a ship from the 18th century. The shipbuilding technology at that time must have been much stronger than that at the end of the 15th century. It can even be said that it is precisely because of the great voyage that the progress of European shipbuilding technology has been promoted. After all, "necessity is the mother of invention".
Marin doesn't know when the technology of using steam to soften and change the shape of ribs appeared, but he at least knows that his shipyard does not have this technology right now. Even some Portuguese shipbuilders have never heard of this technology.
Therefore, Marin determined-this is still a technology that has not yet appeared...
Seeing that the Emden Shipyard was worried because it could not find enough rough oak to process the curved ribs, Marin directly talked about the technology he had seen to soften and change the shape of the ribs with steam.
In this regard, those old shipbuilders are skeptical. However, facts speak louder than words. Marin immediately sent someone to make a long box for putting the wood that needs to be softened into it. Then, I asked a blacksmith to make a large iron pot with a fixed lid and a pipe for guiding water vapor...
After the things are ready, under the command of Marin, the craftsmen put the wood that needs to be softened and processed into the long box and half seal it. Then, the big iron pot started to boil water, and the pipes passed the water vapor into the semi-sealed long box...
In this way, after five or six hours of steaming like steamed buns, the wooden board finally softened. But Marin knew from the article on the construction process of the Gothenburg that he had read in his previous life that this softening could only last for 20 minutes. So, he quickly ordered the craftsmen to bend and deform the wood within 20 minutes...
Sure enough, after 20 minutes, the wood began to harden, but it was bent and deformed before, but it was really deformed. However, there are also signs of a rebound.
Therefore, the craftsmen simply made a groove, which is specially used to clamp the wood that needs to be bent in, so that the wood board can reach the shape required for shipbuilding. When the wood is dry, it is exactly the shape required by the shipbuilders.
After several days of experimentation, the craftsmen were finally familiar with the craft. In this way, the cost of manufacturing curved ship ribs several meters long is greatly reduced.
Previously, they had to saw curved ribs out of very thick logs, which was a waste of wood. Because most of the scraps of the rough logs sawn out of the ribs are wasted.
However, after using the steam softening technology provided by Marin, they can directly process very ordinary wooden boards several meters long into curved ship ribs by steam softening. In this way, a lot of cost can be saved. Because straight wooden steps several meters long are easy to find and cheap. Unlike before, it was necessary to find very thick logs, the price was more expensive, and it was a waste of wood.
In this way, Marin easily solved a technical difficulty in building a large ship by using the processing method of the Swedish "Gothenburg" antique ship that he had seen in his previous life. The 500-ton warship requested by Marin also continued to be manufactured smoothly.
As for the issue of technical secrecy, Marin does not have to worry, because most of the craftsmen at Emden Shipyard are Marin's serfs. Other artisans who are not serfs have also signed lifetime contracts, and their families are all here, so there is no need to worry about them running away with their skills.
At the beginning, when separating the Te Horenche Shipyard, Marin considered the issue of confidentiality. Therefore, he left all the craftsmen hired from Portugal who did not sign a lifetime contract at the Tejorenche Shipyard, led by the stubborn Portuguese old man Varado to continue to manufacture "250" class armed merchant ships. In the future, the serf craftsmen who will build warships, those Venetian craftsmen who signed a lifelong contract, and a small number of Portuguese craftsmen were arranged to enter the Emden Shipyard to manufacture warships. In the future, the Thorencher Shipyard will specialize in the manufacture of merchant ships, while the Emden Shipyard will be responsible for the manufacture of warships, with a clear division of labor...
Merchant ships are different from warships. For example, on a 24-meter-long keel, merchant ships generally only need 33 pairs of ribs. There are a lot of gaps between the ship's ribs, which are directly covered with wooden boards.
However, in this case, because of the existence of these gaps, during naval battles, if the enemy's iron ball shells hit this gap, it is easy to break through the wooden boards covering the outside, resulting in the effect of "piercing gangs". That would flood the side of the boat and possibly cause the ship to sink...
Therefore, when warships are manufactured, more ship ribs are often used, which are arranged tightly without gaps, and the outside is covered with wooden boards, which are also thicker.
This time to manufacture a 500-ton warship, the craftsmen followed Marin's requirements, leaving no gaps between the ribs of the ship. For this reason, more than 60 pairs of ship ribs need to be nailed on the 30-meter keel, which is very compact, but also very time-consuming, labor-intensive and consumable.
Fortunately, Marin provided the technology of steam softening and processing ribs in a timely manner, which greatly reduced the cost of rib processing. Otherwise, the cost will be against the sky...
Marin left the Emden Shipyard with satisfaction, thinking triumphantly as he walked:
"Sure enough, the traveler is the most powerful. Those difficult technical problems that the craftsmen are difficult to solve, the traveler can solve them with a simple memory..."