"What, can't afford it?" Roland was sitting in the office, and the paperwork requesting the expansion of administrative staff and the purchase of sailboats was on his desk.
Barov cleared his throat, "Your Highness, it is true. The price of a two-masted sailboat ranges from eighty to one hundred and twenty golden dragons, but this is only the cost of building the ship. Counting the people on board is more than that, all The price is estimated to be more than 200 golden dragons."
"Didn't I say that I don't need sailors and helmsmen? Neither does the captain, I just want the boat." Roland tapped on the table and asked. With Wendy around, he doesn't need as many people to operate the sailboat at all. Most of the river boats have straight sails, which are operated like raising and lowering the flag. The paddlers and sailors are redundant. Anyway, with the vector wind force, are you afraid that the ship won't move forward
"His Royal Highness, there is no such business, at least not in Liuye Town." Barov explained carefully, "You may not know much about this industry. Generally speaking, the owner of the ship is the captain. It may be a merchant, or It may be a noble. The former recruits their own staff and travels with the ship to and from the major towns and wharves, trading or transporting goods. For the latter, an agent captain will usually be recruited to follow the ship for them. Employees are not according to The salary is calculated monthly, but paid once every one to three years.”
"Most of the time, boats and people are tied together. You're going to buy a boat from the captain, not his hired men, then he's losing employment pay. Eighty gold dragons, even for For the great nobles, it is not a number that can be given up at will. At the beginning of the month, counting the rough gemstone transaction with Liuye Town, there are now 315 remaining gold dragons in the city hall. Your militia team won't be able to pay for a month." The assistant minister said in one breath, raised his glass and took a sip of ale.
"Most of the time you say..."
"That's right," he nodded, "there are two situations in which the empty ship will be sold. One is that the merchant is in urgent need of cash and sells his property. At this time, he will dismiss all the crew and sell the ship as quickly as possible. The second is to replace the New ships, this is understandable. But I have to say, both cases are very rare."
"Wait," Roland frowned, "You said buying new ships... Where did these ships come from?"
"Clear Water Port, Haifeng County, and Beiwangjiao. Only seaport cities have docks, and only they can build ships."
It turned out that "I can't find such a business in Liuye Town" means this. Roland was silent for a moment. It was too far to go to the port city to buy a boat, and he didn't hire crew members. Who would help him drive the boat back? "In that case, I'll think about it again."
After the assistant minister retired, the prince fell into deep thought.
In the strategic plan he conceived, shipping is an irreplaceable part. Without fast and convenient boat transport, he could not complete double-teaming with artillery. The troops of the duke of the fortress are generally recruited farmers, knights and mercenaries, and the marching speed must not be faster, but it is slower. As Carter puts it, a single mud puddle can make it impossible for a gun to travel by land alone—land traffic in this day and age is not asphalt, not even flagstone. However, there are many people who have left, and a path has been created. It's fine when it's sunny, but it gets muddy when it rains.
In the end, do you still have to build it yourself
Roland spread out a piece of paper and recorded the specifications he needed one by one.
First of all, this is a ship that can carry one or two guns, plus about 30 people. The ship can be propelled by sail without power. Second, the ship needs to be stable and reliable, not easy to overturn, and shallow draft. Third, it should be easy to operate, and the militia can get started quickly after a short training.
Putting all these points together, there is only one answer left... the flat-bottomed barge.
Before Roland crossed, this kind of boats with extremely shallow draft and extremely low center of gravity could be seen everywhere, almost all over the arteries of the rivers. In the past, those ships that were piled with river sand or stones and whose sides were almost level with the water surface were flat-bottomed barges. As long as there was a tugboat, they could pull several barges forward like a train.
After the ship type is determined, the next key point is to choose which material to build.
Roland wrote down three options on paper: wood, iron, and cement.
Making boats out of wood is the earliest nautical technology tree lit by humans. From rafts to sailing battleships, from rivers to oceans, wooden boats can be described as enduring for a long time. Unfortunately, Roland didn't know how to use logs to make a flat boat, and he didn't have any relevant craftsmen. If you rely on a few carpenters to get on it, it is likely to be a large raft, or the kind that may fall apart at any time.
In the case of an iron ship, the structure is similar to that of building a house. The primary and secondary beams criss-cross form the keel, which is then covered with iron sheets. If the welding is done by Anna, the overall rigidity is guaranteed. However, this approach will exhaust the iron ore reserves that are already small, and it is obviously a more suitable choice for these iron ore to be used to produce steam engines and gun barrels unless it is a last resort.
Then the cement boat became the last option—the city wall had been built, and there were still raw materials left. Anna only needed to calcine it once or twice to get enough cement powder. The construction process is also much easier than the iron ship, as long as the shape is spelled out with wooden formwork, the iron bars filled as steel bars are arranged, and then the cement can be filled. Even in the countryside of my hometown, several cement boats can be built for fishing. Compared with the need for regular rust removal and painting on iron ships, it does not even need maintenance after it is built. It can be said to be inexpensive and durable. Even if you haven't learned how to build a large ocean-going ship, it shouldn't be a big problem to build a low-tech inland river cement barge, right
With the mentality of trying, Roland picked up a quill and quickly drew a sketch of the barge.
…
A walled shed was built by the Chishui River.
In order to facilitate launching, Roland placed the shipbuilding site as close to the river bank as possible.
The shed can keep out the wind and snow, and at the same time, two pots of charcoal fire are burned in the room to avoid the low temperature affecting the cement hardening effect.
The wooden formwork planed by the carpenter has spelled out the basic outline of the hull - the bow is arc-shaped to reduce forward resistance, and the stern is square to increase the load area. The boat is about twenty-four feet (8 meters) wide and has a length-to-width ratio of 3:1, which is quite fat compared to the 8:1 slender body of a conventional boat. There are two masts in the middle. The mast is inserted into the bottom of the boat and is connected to an iron beam running through the midline. There is also a wooden stake at the stern, which is reserved for the rudder. Elsewhere are laid with criss-crossing iron bars.
It doesn't matter if there is no iron wire for binding, all the intersections of the iron bars are welded firmly by Anna, forming an iron mesh all over the bottom of the boat.
When the "template" and "rebar" were ready, Roland ordered the workers to start pouring and tamping.
The mixed cement is poured into the formwork in a basin, with a flat bottom in the middle and a height of about 1.5 meters around it, which serves as the side wall of the ship warehouse. At first glance, it looks like a large bathtub with a unique shape.
All the people involved in the construction, including Anna, never thought that this strange thing made of the same material as the city wall was actually a ship.