Wu Shiwen frowned and said with a somewhat unpleasant expression, "Is it because my fishing boat is second-hand, so its load capacity is so much lower than that of a new boat?"
Officer Chen shook his head and said, "Actually, this has nothing to do with the load capacity. Of the three fishing boats, the ocean-going processing ship must have the largest load capacity. The remaining two ships actually have similar load capacities."
"Old Chen, don't keep us in suspense, just talk about Yuanyang." Xu Fang urged.
Officer Chen nodded and continued, "This boat has a much shallower draft than the other one. There are actually two reasons for this. One is Captain Wu's boat. There must be a lot of barnacles accumulated under your fishing boat. These barnacles have greatly increased the weight of your boat and also increased the resistance of your boat when sailing. I suggest that you clean it up if you have time."
Wu Shiwen asked thoughtfully: "What's the other reason?"
"Another reason is that the manufacturer did something wrong." Officer Chen said with a wry smile.
"Did the manufacturer do something?" Xiang Yang looked unhappy.
"Actually, it's not a big deal. Many shipyards will do such small tricks. It can also be regarded as a marketing method." said Officer Chen.
Xiang Yang motioned for him to continue.
Officer Chen said: "Many fishing boats have a load capacity of 1,000 tons or several thousand tons. In fact, this load capacity needs to be discounted to a certain extent. A fishing boat with a load capacity of 1,800 tons, after removing some of the equipment on board, the actual maximum load capacity is only about 1,500 tons. Once the load capacity exceeds this, the fishing boat will be in danger when sailing."
"Some buyers, when buying a boat, will test the actual load of the fishing boat with the manufacturer to see if it can really reach the weight advertised by the manufacturer."
At this time, Xu Fang was the first to react, "Old Chen, do you mean to say that we put wheels under the boat?"
Officer Chen nodded. "You went out to sea at the same time, so the catch should be about the same. Even if there are a lot of barnacles on that old boat, the draft can't be ten centimeters different. If nothing unexpected happens, there must be a lot of wheels."
"Wheel?" Xiang Yang asked doubtfully.
Xu Fang explained to Xiang Yang: "When buying a boat, some people will put heavy objects on the boat to test the actual load of the fishing boat. Therefore, the merchants will secretly fix a large number of wheels under the boat to increase the buoyancy of the fishing boat."
"Isn't this a good thing? Increasing the buoyancy of the fishing boat is indeed equivalent to increasing the carrying capacity of the fishing boat." Xiang Yang wondered.
"This actually has certain hidden dangers and great adverse effects."
"If our ship is now empty, then the center of gravity of our ship is actually unstable. It is not noticeable at ordinary times, but once a typhoon hits, a fishing boat that can withstand a Category 10 typhoon may be overturned by a Category 9 typhoon."
"Moreover, because of the buoyancy, a large part of the pressure will be wasted when the fishing boat is sailing under pressure, and the fishing boat will become more fuel-consuming."
"The bottom line is that the maximum load of a fishing boat does not mean it will sink if it exceeds the waterline. Rather, if it exceeds the waterline, the boiler will be overloaded, causing great damage to the boiler. If the actual load of our ship is 1,200 tons, and now with these wheels under the ship, the load capacity is entirely possible to reach 1,500 tons. But the result is that the boiler is overloaded, and the data on many instruments are also deviated." Xu Fang explained to Xiang Yang bit by bit.
Xiang Yang frowned and said directly: "Fang Youqun, go and prepare a diving suit for me."
Fang Youqun was stunned for a moment, "Brother Yang, are you going into the water now?"
"Please prepare a set for me as well." Officer Chen said with a smile.
Fang Youqun looked at Xiang Yang, then at Chen Guan, and nodded quickly, "Okay, I'll go right away."
Soon, Fang Youqun ran over with two heavy diving suits.
Officer Chen looked at the metal diving suit in his hand and smacked his lips. "Boss, are all our fleets using this kind of diving suit?"
As Xiang Yang put on his diving suit, he said to Officer Chen, "Yes, our fleet often conducts underwater operations. This diving suit is far superior to ordinary diving suits on the market in terms of both pressure resistance and bite resistance. Put it on quickly and let's go down and take a look."
Officer Chen nodded quickly.
This is a deep-water port with a water depth of hundreds of meters.
Xiang Yang and Chen Guan went down to the seabed with waterproof flashlights, and then swam under the fishing boat.
The bottom of the fishing boat was smooth and there were no wheels as Officer Chen had mentioned.
Xiang Yang looked at Chen Guan strangely, meaning, look.
In fact, Xiang Yang felt strange when he was on the boat.
Because in the past, Xiang Yang often went to the bottom of the sea. Although Xiang Yang did not pay special attention to the bottom of the boat, if there really were wheels on the bottom of the boat, Xiang Yang felt that it was impossible for him to have not discovered them for so long.
Officer Chen waved his hands, swam to the bottom of the boat, and then reached out and pressed the bottom of the boat.
Xiang Yang followed suit, swam to the bottom of the boat, reached out and pressed hard upwards.
When Xiang Yang pressed this, his face changed. It turned out that the material of the bottom of the boat was not made of steel, but a layer of something like a plastic bucket, which sank inwards when pressed.
"Fuck!" Xiang Yang knew that the shipyard had really installed wheels on the bottom of his boat. Immediately, Xiang Yang waved his fist, ready to smash the plastic shell, take out the wheels inside and throw them away.
Officer Chen quickly grabbed Xiang Yang, then pointed upwards with one hand, indicating that Xiang Yang should wait until he had anything to say.
Xiang Yang nodded gloomily, then swam towards the surface.
When Fang Youqun on the boat saw Xiang Yang take off his helmet, his gloomy face was immediately startled, "Brother Yang, there really aren't wheels under our boat, are there?"
Xiang Yang nodded grimly, "The shipyard covered the wheels with a layer of plastic. No wonder I didn't notice it before."
Xu Fang said quickly: "Captain, this is my fault. I was careless."
Xiang Yang waved his hand and said, "It's not your fault. Strictly speaking, this is a case of the merchant defrauding the consumer. We were all cheated by that shipyard."
"Strictly speaking, this is not considered as a fraud by the merchant, because the real data of the ship is definitely the same as the data he presented. No one dares to falsify the data. The purpose of the manufacturer doing this is actually to make the data look better when the ship is actually tested. Although it is unethical, we really can't do anything about it." At this time, Officer Chen said helplessly. (To be continued)