Wind Rises in North America 1625

Chapter 133 Shipbuilding
With the arrival of the first cold frost, agricultural production in Shixing Fort and several surrounding settlements basically came to an end.

More than 23,000 acres of farmland have harvested an estimated 2,100 tons of various grain crops. Together with the 300 tons of surplus grain in stock and the more than 200 tons of rice brought back by several immigrant ships, the food reserves of the entire base have reached 2,700 tons.

With the arrival of a new batch of Ming Dynasty immigrants, the latest population of time travelers has soared to 2892, an increase of 71% over last year!

其中汉人（包括穿越众57人）2085人，占72.1%；其次为印第安人632人，占21.8%；接着就是西班牙人175人，占6.1%。

In addition, there are more than ten Indian tribes of various sizes within a radius of more than 3500 kilometers that are vassals or controlled militarily and economically, with a population of more than . This makes the population controlled by the time travelers exceed , which to a certain extent slightly alleviates the dilemma of extreme manpower shortage a few years ago.

Although the accumulation of a large population has increased the consumption of food and other daily necessities to a certain extent, the arrival of more immigrants has also enabled the strength of the time travelers to expand unprecedentedly.

Many workshops and mines that had been semi-shutdown and semi-production suddenly had a relatively abundant workforce, and soon started to operate one after another, beginning to process various materials needed for the production base.

The ship repair yard on the west side of the port has also entered a period of "capacity" expansion with the arrival of more than ten shipbuilders.

The shipyard consists of a dock that can accommodate the "Breaking Waves", a wooden track, and process-based assembly stations built according to a pulsating production line, which are responsible for laying keels, laying planks, laying decks, lifting rails and rigging, etc.

Previously, this somewhat crude shipyard was only used for the daily maintenance of the "Breaking Waves" and "Zhengtu", as well as for the sporadic construction of a few small boats.

Last year and the first half of this year, two half-baked time travel technicians, together with four boat builders and more than fifty part-time temporary workers, built six canoes and two flat-bottomed boats with a cargo capacity of about ten tons. This served as a training exercise and accumulated some experience for the subsequent construction of larger-scale ships.

Therefore, when Zhou Yong, who was appointed as the head of the ship repair shop, received twelve shipbuilders from the Ming Dynasty, he immediately decided to build a "big ship" with a displacement of more than 200 tons to increase the transportation capacity for Qiming Island.

The general meeting of the time travelers held half a month ago passed a resolution with an absolute majority to establish a base in the Fraser River basin to mine the gold minerals in the area in order to increase the gold and silver reserves of Qiming Island.

At the same time, the proposal to build a supply base on Baisha Island was also approved.

At that time, the time travelers will select more than 30 immigrants and Indians, carry a large amount of building materials and daily necessities, and go to the island along the immigration ship to carry out corresponding development and construction.

In addition to the establishment of Rinkai Fort in Hokkaido and the development of the Fenshu Fort coal base, the time travelers now have several strongholds far away from the base.

The supply of supplies and personnel to White Sand Island and Fort Linhai will be left to the traveling immigrant fleet, while Fort Fenzhou and the Fraser River gold rush base can only rely on the only two small sailing galleons currently available.

Considering the frequency of daily supplies and coal transportation between the two places in the future, two transport ships are definitely not enough, and more transport capacity must be added.

So, the question is, where will the necessary ships come from?
Of course, you can spend money to buy it secretly from the Americas through the smuggler Pedro, but this is not a long-term solution.

Not to mention, as a smuggler, he cannot provide ships to the time travelers unlimitedly. As the trading volume increases, it will inevitably attract the attention of the Spanish American colonial authorities.

To some extent, this can be regarded as an act of aiding the enemy. If the network of relationships and background behind him cannot protect him, he will most likely be sent to the gallows.

Well, even if he has great power and can use his powerful connections to continue to provide the time travelers with the ships they need, it feels like he is giving others a handle.

What if the relationship between the two sides breaks down one day, or if this smuggling trade is banned by the Spanish colonial authorities, wouldn’t the time travelers be immediately left at a loss?

Self-reliance and self-reliance have become the basic principles for the development of the time travelers since the very beginning.

In the future, the time travelers will strive to build an industrial power with a complete industrial chain and a world power with advanced technology. Naturally, they will need to move forward step by step from the threshold of each industry.

So, you have to build your own boat!

Although the more than ten craftsmen currently working at the ship repair shop are all from the Ming Dynasty, their shipbuilding experience is mostly concentrated on traditional ship types such as Fujian ships, Sha ships and Guang ships, as well as old lock ships that combine Chinese and Western styles.

They had almost no experience in building European galleons and Spanish galleons, which were more suitable for sea navigation and combat.

However, this is not a big problem for time travelers. Under the guidance of their concepts and technologies that are beyond their time, and through slow exploration and experimentation, they will definitely be able to build a more advanced ocean-going ship.

On the morning of November 11, as soon as he arrived at the ship repair yard, Zhou Yong spread out a ship blueprint that he had spent more than ten days drawing and showed it to all the Ming Dynasty shipbuilders, then waited for their response with anticipation.

But after waiting for a while, he found that all the shipbuilders were staring at him with wide eyes, and from time to time they glanced at the drawing marked with many numbers, and they were all silent.

"Why don't you guys say something!" Zhou Yong's heart skipped a beat when he saw this.

Could it be that the drawings he drew were not up to standard and these Ming Dynasty ancestors disliked them?

God have mercy on me, I was forced to do this! His experience in sailboat construction was just a passion of his own. He had collected and observed countless historical data and materials on world-renowned sailboats, but he had no real shipbuilding experience at all.

"Master Zhou..."

"Hey, I've told you so many times, there's no such thing as master or servant here." Zhou Yong waved his hand, interrupting the shipbuilder, who had just arrived. "From now on, you can just call me Director Zhou. This shipyard is already the number one shipyard on Qiming Island. And all of you are the founding fathers of this shipyard. Whether it will develop and grow in the future depends entirely on you!"

"Um, Director Zhou..." Xu Jinghui bowed to him and said carefully, "Excuse me, is the ship model you drew a scaled-down version of the actual ship after it's built?"

"Yes, that's right. This is a thumbnail of the ship after it's completed."

"I have something to say, but I don't know whether I should say it or not..."

"Here, if you have any suggestions, just say them directly. There's no such thing as a rude or inappropriate topic. Even if you're wrong, that's fine. When it comes to expressing opinions, we all need to speak freely and without reservation. Oh, and by the way, from now on, please stop referring to yourselves as 'little one' or 'little man' or other such respectful or inferior terms."

"Here, we are all equal. That's right, we are all the same in terms of personality. There is no high or low."

"..." Xu Jinghui said softly, and was stunned for a moment, not knowing how to start.

Can we craftsmen really enjoy equal status with others?
"Uh, Director Zhou... Director Zhou..." At Zhou Yong's glance, Xu Jinghui considered his words. "If we build a ship according to this blueprint, I'm afraid it won't be able to launch into the water, nor will it be able to withstand strong winds and waves. Because, the length of this ship is really a bit too long, making the whole ship look very... very uncoordinated."

"Hmm?" Zhou Yong said gently, and couldn't help but turn his head to look at another time traveler, Tang Qidong.

This ship drawing was drawn by us based on the technical parameters, shape and size of the "Breaking Waves", but scaled down several times.

In other words, the ship built according to this drawing is a small clipper with a length-to-width ratio of about 6:1 and a full load displacement of only around to tons.

What? This ship is poorly designed?

"Director Zhou..." Xu Jinghui continued, steeling himself. "I've worked at the Huangpu Shipyard in Guangzhou for eight years, building over a dozen ships, but I've never seen one with such a disproportionate length and width. Even the great ships of the Western barbarians don't have such a disharmony. You know, any ship sailing on the sea must increase its water surface to support a massive vessel."

"...If a boat were built using this blueprint, it would sail through the water like a slender reed. If it were not careful, it would be overturned by the wind and waves, capsizing both the boat and the passengers, sinking to the bottom of the sea. Therefore, I suggest making a slight adjustment to the boat model, widening the hull to make it more suitable for water travel."

As soon as he finished speaking, many shipbuilders present nodded frequently.

Shipbuilding is not something that you high and mighty gentlemen can imagine out of thin air!

We have received your high salaries, so we have to be responsible for the ships we build. We cannot be perfunctory or foolish.

Otherwise, if the ship capsizes and sinks as soon as it is launched, we will probably be in trouble here!

"You mean that the length-to-width ratio of this ship is too high and it can't sail in the water?" Zhou Yong asked with a smile.

"Master Zhou... oh, no, Director Zhou..." another thin shipbuilder replied with a bow, "If the length and width of this boat aren't perfectly balanced, it's not impossible to sail in the water. But we all think that this type of boat can't withstand strong winds and waves, especially in the open ocean, where winds are high and waves are fierce, and it's easy to capsize and sink."

"Haha..." Zhou Yong and Tang Qidong smiled at each other, then stood up. "Come on, follow me to the dock."

Having said that, he walked out of the room first and led a group of shipbuilders with questioning faces towards the dock.

"Look, this is our 'Breaking Waves'. With a fully loaded displacement of 1200 tons, it's a giant ship at sea." Zhou Yong pointed to a large ship docked at the berth. "This ship is over 8 meters long and only 1 meters wide, with an astonishing length-to-width ratio of :."

"I'm sure some of you came to Qiming Island on this ship, right? Do you think it's likely to capsize and sink at sea?"

"..."

The shipbuilders looked at the big ship and suddenly looked at each other in confusion, unable to say a word.

"That ship drawing is a scaled-down version of this very vessel. This type of ship is a new type of three-masted sailing vessel, the latest in the world. It's shaped like scissors and has a body like a swordfish. It can travel at sea many times faster than other vessels, making it a truly divine weapon."

"So, our goal is to first successfully replicate a small clipper ship to lay a solid foundation for the development of our shipbuilding industry."

(End of this chapter)