The old Johnson family soon took a boat to Texel Island. At the same time, Old Johnson took on board many tools from his cannon workshop in Weald. Among them, there are dozens of air-dried clay molds for casting guns.
After the old Johnson family arrived on Texel Island, Marin arranged for them to establish a cannon casting workshop by a small river south of Den Burg. Even, in order to facilitate the use of hydraulic machinery by Old Johnson, Marin also specially recruited male laborers from all over the island. A dam was built on the upper reaches of this small river to raise the water level, so that it was convenient for Old Johnson's cannon-casting workshop to use hydraulic machinery.
However, Old Johnson told Marin that the 12-pound heavy gun he is currently casting is actually easy to blow up. It's just that the chances of this are not very high. Moreover, the qualified rate of casting heavy artillery and artillery is less than 20%. The remaining 80% are waste products.
Marin is also well aware of this. Casting heavy artillery is a difficult problem. This problem was not solved by an officer named Rodman until the American Civil War. This is the so-called "Rodman Cannon Method".
However, although Marin knew it well, he didn't want to tell Old Johnson this way. Because, old Johnson was a British subject. If Henry VII thought of him one day, with an edict, Old Johnson might return home. According to the contract, Marin could not stop him yet.
For this reason, Marin intends to keep it secret for the time being. Then, he selected a group of smart young people from the serf families on the island, let them work in the cannon-making workshop, and learned how to make cannons with Old Johnson. Marin's plan is to let them try to use the "Rodman casting method" after these "insiders" learn how to cast cannons.
As for the problem that the 12-pound cast iron gun that Old Johnson said was still easy to explode, Marin thought for a few days and finally thought of a way...
The reason why Old Johnson's cast iron cannon is still easy to explode is obviously a material problem, and has nothing to do with the casting technology. The source of the material for his cannons is naturally cast iron blocks produced in Sussex. In order to satisfy the old Johnson casting cannons, Marin has sent a ship to Sussex, England to import a large number of cast iron blocks.
These cast iron blocks are all pig iron, not very suitable for casting cannons. But Marin has a way to process these cast iron blocks to make them into wrought iron blocks...
The specific method is to put these pig iron blocks imported from Britain into the reverberatory furnace for refining. Then, the refined molten iron is cast into iron ingots to obtain wrought iron ingots. There was little difference in appearance between the wrought iron block and the pig iron block, and Old Johnson couldn't tell. And old Johnson cast the cannon with a refined wrought iron block, and the quality must have been greatly improved. Moreover, the old Johnson will not understand the mystery...
Therefore, Marin recruited a few young blacksmiths who knew how to forge iron among the serfs on the island, and let them be responsible for refining the pig iron imported from Britain into mature iron.
For this reason, Marin sent people to purchase refractory materials, built several simple reverberatory furnaces of "earth turtles", and used coal produced in Hoffman Manor as fuel to refine pig iron.
The reverberatory furnaces of these ground turtles are actually large crucible furnaces. According to Marin's instructions, the surrounding furnace walls have been thickened to prevent heat loss. In addition, the crucible furnace also has special air inlet and outlet holes to supply oxygen for refining. In order to increase the oxygen supply, the air intake hole is also equipped with a special hydraulic blower. In order to make slag and remove sulfur and phosphorus, Marin also sent a ship to Amsterdam to buy the slagging agent-quicklime.
This is different from the pudlin stirring method popular in England in the 18th century, but more like a combination of Pudlin stirring method and Huntsman's crucible method. The reason why the low-cost Pudlin method is not used is because the temperature of the stirring method is low, only 1400 degrees, and the quality of the steel produced is only better than pig iron, not as good as open hearth steel. However, this also has some disadvantages. Mainly, it consumes a lot of fuel.
However, because it is casting important artillery, even if it costs more, Marin can afford it. After all, artillery quality is important to the security of Texel. For civilian use, ordinary pig iron is sufficient, and there is no need to use high-quality, high-cost wrought iron and medium-low carbon steel.
In this way, under the guidance of Marin, a half-level "brickmaker", several local serf blacksmiths in Texel began to use the relatively primitive crucible reverberatory furnace, and began to carry out secondary refining of pig iron ingots imported from the UK . In order to obtain high-quality steel, Marin extended the original 6 to 8 hours of refining to 10 hours. Although it consumes fuel, Marin doesn't care. Because this is the steel used to cast cannons, so it must not be sloppy.
…
While worrying about the issue of casting cannons, Marin suddenly remembered that he should pay attention to the issue of shipbuilding.
The age of great voyages has already begun, and when Da Gama leads the fleet to India next year, the European great voyage trade will officially kick off.
In any case, Marin is unwilling to miss such a historical moment. So, he began to prepare for the construction of ships and teams for long voyages.
For this reason, Marin personally came to the Frisian fishing village and selected 80 young Frisian fishermen who were willing to be sailors.
However, these fishermen are obviously not trained to become qualified sailors. The experienced sailors who know how to navigate the ocean are mainly concentrated in Portugal and Spain.
However, many of Spain's nautical talents are not cultivated by themselves, but imported from outside. For example, Columbus, who discovered America for Spain, was actually a Genoese in Italy.
Only Portugal, because of Prince Enrique, has cultivated a large number of sailing talents and sailors, and is a real sailing power.
As for another stronger nautical power, Venice, because it only operates in the Mediterranean waters, it is actually not good at ocean navigation. Because the Mediterranean Sea is relatively calm and there are no storms at all. It is completely different from sailing in the Atlantic Ocean, and there is no comparison.
So, after deliberation, Marin decided to send people to Portugal, hire experienced captains and sailors with high salaries, and train these young Frisian fishermen to make them truly qualified sailors.
Of course, it is not enough to have sailors and captains, you must have a ship. For this reason, Marin decided to send people to Spain and Portugal to buy two larger Clark sailboats.
As for how big the boat is? Marin decided to refer to the flagship of Da Gama's voyage to India-"San Gabriel".
The "San Gabriel" is 27 meters long, 8.5 meters wide, with a draft of 2.3 meters, a displacement of 178 tons, and 20 Fran cannons. This is the data of later generations. Although Marin did not see the flagship when Da Gama set off in July next year, he has long been familiar with these data.
So, Marin wrote down the data of the "San Gabriel" and handed it over to his men, intending to let them go to Spain and Portugal to buy two similar ships. When the sailors and captains are trained, it's almost time for Vasco da Gama to set off. At that time, Marin plans to let his two ships follow Da Gama's fleet and pick ready-made peaches...
However, Marin knew that neither the Clark sailboat nor the Caravel sailboat was a sailboat suitable for ocean voyages. Caravels are too small for sailing in shallow waters. The Wadden Sea is quite suitable for using caravel sailboats, but ocean sailing is not as good as Clark sailboats.
However, the Clark sailboat is too wide, the head-on resistance is high, the speed cannot be increased, and it is easy to run aground. The flagship of Columbus's discovery of America, the Clark sailing ship "Santa Maria", ran aground on the island of Haiti.
When it comes to the best sailing ship on a great voyage, it is naturally the legendary Galen ship...
Speaking of which, the flying shear boat developed later was faster. However, the clipper ship is too thin to fit the artillery, which is a big disadvantage.
You know, in the Age of Discovery, there were a lot of pirates. A ship without artillery for self-defense is very dangerous. Therefore, from a comprehensive point of view, the Galen ship is better, not only can it have the ability to protect itself, but also has a large cargo capacity.
In Marin's mind, there are data and models of the legendary American warship "Constitution". Because, on his birthday in the previous life, one of his sailing fan classmates gave him a model ship of the "Constitution". Marin put it in the room and watched it every day, and he was basically familiar with the shape of the Constitution.
Marin intends to build Galen ships, so a shipyard is needed. When it comes to the shipbuilding industry, Venice is the most developed. However, the man-made galleys in Venice are only suitable for sailing in the Mediterranean Sea. It depends on Portugal to build ships for ocean voyages. Although Spain is stronger, it does not pay as much attention to navigation as Portugal. Therefore, at this stage, Portugal is the strongest manufacturer of ocean-going ships.
Therefore, Marin decided to send people to Portugal to recruit a group of shipbuilders, build a shipyard in Tejorenche, and first build the Clark ship and the Caravel sailboat. Wait until the time is right to build the Garen Ship.
For this reason, Marin contacted Jewish businessmen again and asked them to go to Portugal to help recruit skilled shipbuilders. The reason for looking for Jews is because Jews are the best at doing business and buying people, and their footprints are all over most of Europe except Spain, which is heavily anti-Semitic. Moreover, Marin is currently seriously lacking in talents and has to turn to the Jews for help. Therefore, for recruiting captains, sailors, and shipbuilders, Marin had to turn to Jewish merchants and pay a large amount of commission...