King of German Mercenaries

After Amerigo became the second navigator under Marin's command, he began to prepare for the selection of the crew. At the same time, he requested that a large ship over 200 tons must be used to ensure the safety of navigation. After all, a boat that is too small is not very resistant to wind and waves.

Crossing the Atlantic Ocean is different from going to India. The route to India is basically along the coast of Africa. The only sea crossing is the relatively calm Arabian Sea. But crossing the Atlantic is different. Although Amerigo has never been to the Americas, he has heard that there are still great winds and waves in the depths of the Atlantic.

In this regard, Marin naturally agrees. It is estimated that Columbus and the others have been coming and going 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 in 70 days. And from Emden to the Canary Islands, but more than a month. Therefore, from Emden to the Windward Islands, in fact, it only takes more than three months, and it takes more than half a year to run back and forth. Therefore, Marin has enough time to prepare.

In order to be safe, Marin decided to wait for the completion of the two "250" class armed merchant ships at the Thorencher shipyard and hand them over to Amerigo for use. The 250-class merchant ships are now mature in construction technology and will be completed in a few months. In the past few months, Amerigo took a group of new sailors to the sea for drills.

Although Marlin still has a group of veteran sailors from the Columbus fleet, Marlin does not intend to use all of these veteran sailors. Because, he needs to train more sailors. Therefore, Marin only selected a part of the old sailors to follow the ship, and first used the small boats of more than 100 tons to practice large voyages in the North Sea. Most of the sailors on board are young sailors who are selected from fishermen's families and trained as sailors. In this way, they can also become old sailors when they are carried by the old sailors, and one sails down.

In order to show the importance of sailing, Marin also personally accompanied Amerigo to inspect the two shipyards in Thorencher and Emden. But the results of the inspection made Marin frown a little...

The Thorencher shipyard is nothing but a step-by-step process. But on the Emden Shipyard side, there were technical difficulties...

It turned out that Marin asked Emden Shipyard to trial-build a 500-ton ship, and the difficulty must have been greatly increased. Elsewhere it's okay, the ribs in the shipbuilding keel frame have become a big problem...

Generally speaking, European-style sailing wooden boats are first laid with the keel, and then covered with wooden boards. The keel is somewhat like a fish bone, with a main main keel and many curved "ribs".

The main keel is actually quite easy to find, its only requirement is that it is long enough. For example, Da Gama's flagship "San Gabriel" for exploring India is 25.7 meters long. Of course, this is the length of the upper deck, and the main keel at the bottom of the boat is about 20 meters long. The 20-meter-long oak material, although hard to find, can still be bought at a high price.

However, wanting a longer keel, it is a bit difficult. Take the Swedes' Gothenburg, for example. Marin had read articles about their retro shipbuilding in his previous life, and knew that the oak tree they used to make the keel must be a "grandfather" grade oak tree with a diameter of more than 5 meters and a tree age of more than 300 years. This oak tree is very rare in Europe, after all, Europeans have been cutting down the oak tree for thousands of years. Of course, the keel length of the Gothenburg is also very long, reaching 40.9 meters.

Such extra-long wood is now very precious in Europe. Because 300-year-old trees are rare in Europe. However, Marin knew that in the Americas of this age, because there was no developed civilization, trees were rarely cut down. Therefore, in North America, there are many 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 on a large scale in the forests of North America. Therefore, Marin has the plan to log and build ships in North America in the past. In North American forests, super long keel oak like the Gothenburg keel, not expensive at all, is everywhere...  

And the Spaniards,

In order to build the Spanish galleon, the base of the large ship was later moved to the Americas. Marin remembered that he had read in an article that after about 1610, Spain moved its shipbuilding base to Havana, Cuba, in order to directly utilize the abundant local wood resources.

Of course, Marin now builds 500-ton ships, not 1,150-ton ships like the Gothenburg. So, Marin doesn't need wood from 300-year-old trees that are 40 meters long, only 30 meters long keels are enough. Although the price will be more expensive, but not impossible to find.

However, the rib for building a large ship is a very troublesome thing. You know, the big voyage has just begun, and the shipbuilding technology is not yet developed.

After Marin learned about the situation, he was surprised to find that the rib of this era turned out to be a shape sawed from a whole piece of wood...

You know, the rib is different from the main keel, the main keel is straight, but the rib is curved. The ribs are all nailed to the main keel. Generally speaking, the frame installed at the bow is a pair of "V" ribs, while the pierced ribs in the middle of the ship are "U" shaped. The "V"-shaped rib is simple, and two relatively straight long wooden boards can be directly nailed to the keel. But the "U"-shaped rib is more troublesome, but unfortunately, the most used rib on a ship is the "U"-shaped. 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 small ship. If you build a big ship, the ribs will need hundreds of years old oak wood to be processed, which is very wasteful...

Marin was a little surprised. In his memory, when the antique ship "Gothenburg" was built using retro technology, it was obviously made by softening straight wooden boards with steam and then bending them...

However, Marin didn't think about it, even the original "Göteborg" was an 18th-century ship. The shipbuilding technology at that time was definitely much stronger than at the end of the 15th century. It can even be said that it is precisely because of the great voyage that the advancement of European shipbuilding technology has been promoted. After all, "Necessity is the mother of invention".

Marin doesn't know when the technology to soften and change the shape of the rib with steam came into being, but he at least knows it's not available at his shipyard right now. Even some Portuguese shipbuilders have not heard of this technique.

So Marin is sure - this is still a technology that hasn't been around yet...

Seeing Emden shipyards struggling to find enough rough oak to process the curved ribs, Marin spoke directly about the techniques he had seen using steam to soften and change the shape of the ribs.

In this regard, those old shipbuilders will be skeptical. Facts speak louder than words, though. Marin immediately sent someone to make long boxes for the wood to be softened. Then, I asked a blacksmith to make a large iron pot with a fixed lid, and a tube to guide the water vapor...

When things are ready, under the command of Marin, the craftsmen put the wood that needs to be softened and processed into long boxes and semi-sealed them. Then, the big iron pot starts to boil water, and the pipes pass the steam into the long semi-sealed box...

In this way, after steaming steamed buns with steam for five or six hours, the board finally softened. But Marin knew from an article about the construction of the Gothenburg that he had read in a previous life that this softening could only last for 20 minutes. So he quickly ordered the craftsmen to bend 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 some signs of a rebound.

So, the craftsmen simply made a groove, which is specially used to clamp the wood that needs to be bent, so that the plank can reach the shape required for shipbuilding. When the wood is air-dried, it is exactly the shape the boat builders want.

After several days of experimentation, the craftsmen are finally familiar with the craft. In this way, the cost of manufacturing curved ship frames several meters long is greatly reduced.

Previously, they had to saw curved ribs from very thick logs, which was a waste of wood. Because most of the scraps of rough logs from which the ribs are sawed are wasted.

After using the steam softening technology provided by Marin, they can directly process the very common several meters of wood planks into curved ship rib by steam softening method. In this way, considerable cost savings can be achieved. Because, straight plank steps of several meters long are easy to find and cheap. Unlike the previous need to find very thick logs, the price is relatively expensive, and it wastes wood.

In this way, Marin used the processing method of the Swedish "Gothenburg" antique ship that he had seen in his previous life, and easily solved a technical difficulty in building a large ship. The 500-ton warship that Marin requested was also successfully manufactured.

As for the issue of technical confidentiality, Marin does not need to worry, because most of the craftsmen at the Emden Shipyard are Marin's serfs. Other craftsmen who were not serfs also signed lifetime contracts, and their family members are here, so there is no need to worry about them running away with skills.

Marin had secrecy in mind when he separated the Thorencher shipyard. Therefore, he left the craftsmen hired from Portugal who did not sign life-long contracts at the Tejorenche shipyard, and led by the Portuguese stubborn old man Varado to continue to manufacture "250" class armed merchant ships. The serf artisans who will manufacture warships in the future, as well as those Venetian artisans who have signed lifetime contracts and a small number of Portuguese artisans, are all arranged to enter the Emden Shipyard to manufacture warships exclusively. Later, the Thorencher Shipyard was specialized in manufacturing merchant ships, while the Emden Shipyard was 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. Between the ribs of the ship, there are a lot of gaps, which are directly covered with wooden boards.

However, in this case, because of the existence of these gaps, during a naval battle, if the enemy's iron balls and artillery shells hit this gap, it is easy to break the wooden board covered outside, resulting in a "piercing" effect. As a result, the broadsides of the ship will get flooded, possibly even sinking...

Therefore, when warships are manufactured, more ribs are often used, which are arranged in a compact manner, leaving no gaps, and the outside is covered with wooden boards, which are also thicker.

This time, when manufacturing a 500-ton warship, the craftsmen followed Marin's request, leaving no gaps between the ribs. For this reason, more than 60 pairs of ribs need to be nailed to the 30-meter keel, which is very compact, but also very time-consuming, labor-intensive and consumables.

But fortunately, Marin provided the technology for steam softening and processing ribs in a timely manner, which greatly reduced the processing cost of ribs. Otherwise, the cost will be sky-high...

Marin left the Emden shipyard satisfied, thinking triumphantly as he walked:

"Sure enough, the traversers are the most powerful. Those difficult technical problems that are difficult for the craftsmen to solve are solved by the traversers with a simple memory..."