From Robinson Crusoe

Chapter 15 Shipbuilding
"Is the raft plan a mistake from the beginning? Is it just wishful thinking on the part of the forum friends?"

He slowly squatted beside the broken bow railing, his eyes blank.

Chen Zhou's thoughts were in a mess and he began to question his choice.

"Could it be that Robinson also considered this issue, and in the end he felt it was not feasible and also chose to give up..."

“That shouldn’t be the case. Robinson Crusoe is written in the first person, and all the protagonist’s thoughts are reflected in the book.

From the beginning to the end, Robinson never thought of building a semi-permanent raft once and for all."

"Besides, I am different from Robinson."

Looking at the rising and falling sea water, Chen Zhou sighed.

He knew it would be easier to throw the wood into the sea and then tie it into a raft with ropes while swimming, but he couldn't do it!

With his swimming skills, he would drown if he just paddled in the water to free his hands to work.

"Ah~"

"It's urgent. Waiting online. Is it too late to start practicing swimming skills from now on?"

After thinking dejectedly for a moment, Chen Zhou still found it difficult to give up the raft plan.

He felt that putting the raft into the sea was not some world-famous mathematical puzzle that could only be solved by a genius.

Now we still have plenty of time and all the tools, so there must be an appropriate method. It's just that we are stuck in a dead end and haven't thought of it yet.

"Can a living person be suffocated to death by urine?"

To calm down and relieve the pressure temporarily, Chen Zhou returned to the middle deck and hammered with a chisel to trim the uneven edges of the frame while continuing to seek inspiration and think about solutions.

The wood chips flew everywhere and gradually piled up into a small hill.

As the sun sets, the day passes in a flash.

After packing up his tools and walking towards the side of the boat to observe the tide, Chen Zhou suddenly had a bold idea.

That is to find a suitable height and appropriate position directly on the side of the cabin, and then cut a gap more than two meters wide in the cabin without affecting the structural strength of the hull.

After the various parts of the raft are manufactured, they will be moved to the gap in the cabin, where they will be assembled and launched into the sea.

The key point of this method is that the location of the gap in the cabin must be higher than the sea level to prevent seawater from flowing back into the cabin.

But the gap cannot be too high, otherwise it will affect the launching of the raft.

Moreover, the sea tides rise and fall every day, and the height of the water surface is not constant. We must take a maximum value and then add half a meter of insurance to this height to ensure safety.

After repeatedly pondering the "dismantling the ship and dismantling the raft" plan in his mind, Chen Zhou ultimately found no obvious flaws.

He also came up with corresponding solutions for the two problems that the opening position conflicted with the height of the cabin floor or the raft was too heavy to be pushed.

If the right opening was somewhere between two cabins, with the floor on one side and the ceiling on the other, he would remove the partition and stack the boxes to the right height, making a simple platform of the right height to place the raft on.

If the raft is too heavy to be pushed into the sea, he can build a downward slope on the platform in advance, place a row of rolling logs on the slope, and use a crowbar to pry the tail of the raft to send the raft into the sea.

At this point, the plan for dismantling the ship and rafting has been very complete, and all major issues have been taken into consideration. If other accidents occur during the implementation of the plan, they should not be too difficult to resolve.

Now all that’s left is the timing of the tides and the height of the peak tides.

Originally, Chen Zhou recorded the tidal patterns just to take a raft ashore during high tide and board a boat during low tide. Now, there is an additional requirement, and he must record the data more completely and in detail.

And in order to make the data more reliable, he also plans to draw a tidal table.

Take a dry wooden stick and put it into the sea to measure once every day when the tide reaches its highest point to determine the direction of the tide.

In addition, he also prepared a long dry rope, tied a heavy object at the end of the rope, and then tied it to the railing of the ship and hung it into the sea.

As long as the weather is clear, the rope will be wetted where the tide is highest. By observing the rope, he can understand whether the strength of the tide has changed within 24 hours. If the momentum of the tide late at night is stronger than that during the day, he can also change the ship dismantling height in advance.

Of course, due to the heavy humidity at sea, the statistical data based on ropes alone may not be rigorous enough, and the measurement results of dry wooden sticks must be added to ensure safety.

After much thought, I finally solved the problem that was bothering me.

After removing the stone from his heart, Chen Zhou felt much more relaxed.

Walking slowly to the edge of the boat, he saw the sea level reflected in a fiery red by the half setting sun and a bright moon appeared in the sky early. Chen Zhou rubbed his stomach and planned to have dinner and then slowly wait for the tide to reach its highest point.

Before that, he had to pack up the tools and materials on the deck.

Having witnessed the unpredictable weather conditions at sea yesterday, Chen Zhou did not dare to bet that the night would be clear as usual.

He pulled open the canvas to cover the pile of materials, then brought a few empty buckets to press down the four corners of the canvas to prevent the wood and tools from getting wet by the rain and to prevent the canvas from being blown away by the wind.

Then he fetched empty sacks and put into them the wood chips, sawdust, and small offcuts that were piled on the deck.

These wood residues are excellent fire starter materials and can be used as tinder. If left on the deck, they will be blown away by the wind sooner or later. Chen Zhou cannot bear to see such a waste.

After completing some finishing touches, Chen Zhou left the deck.

As usual, the dog followed him, buried its head in his lowered palm, and wagged its tail lazily, enjoying the caress, as if it had found its backbone.

From morning to night, the big dog was always hanging around under Chen Zhou's nose, and he had figured out its activity pattern.

Most of the time, the dog sleeps in the shade, occasionally lying on the deck to bask in the sun, and rarely gets up.

It is occasionally active, mostly to drive away flying insects that are harassing it, or to attack seabirds that are stealing bacon strips from the side of the ship.

When it needs to defecate, it will take the initiative to run to the toilet at the bow, squat on the toilet and defecate into the sea. I don't know which bored sailor taught it this.

In short, Chen Zhou was very satisfied with this guy.

He had never raised a dog, but he guessed that the most worry-free dog would be like this. Anyway, he couldn't find any fault with it.

He has a friendly personality and a stable temper. He can eat and drink without being served, does not make noise, and will consciously take responsibility for the "security work" on the ship.

Presumably, this dog was favored by the captain and the first mate, otherwise they would never have taken them out to sea.

Looking at its appearance, it is somewhat similar to a golden retriever, but its hair is not as long as that of a golden retriever, and its hair color varies. There is a dark brown line in the center of its back, the front shoulders and rear hips are dark yellow, the chest and sides of the body are lighter in color, and the abdomen is so light that it is almost white.

Looking at its body shape, it has strong limbs, a straight back, and a circle of lush hair on its neck, like a lion's mane.

Watching its actions, it has an arrogant demeanor when patrolling the deck, often with its tail raised, and reacts quickly and without hesitation when attacking seabirds, with a deep and loud cry.

It can be seen that even if it is not a rare dog breed, it is also an excellent young and strong hunting dog. With its smart brain, it can become a good helper in hunting with a little training.

Chen Zhou had long dreamed of "holding Huang on the left, Cang on the right, a flintlock rifle, and the clang of lead bullets."

In order to make his dream come true as soon as possible, he tried to communicate with the dog during dinner, attempting to teach it the two most basic commands - sit down and shake hands.

For convenience, dinner was still cheese stewed with roux, white bread, candied fruit, and cold boiled water, which was considered two dishes and one soup, very sumptuous.

According to his own ideas, Chen Zhou broke pieces of bread while eating and said commands to lure the big dog to "sit down" or "shake hands".

However, the big dog only stared at the bread and didn't care what Chen Zhou was saying. He was indifferent to the commands, which made him very disappointed.

There's no way, Rome wasn't built in a day.

As a novice in dog raising and training, he didn't have much hope. He was just looking forward to spending more and more time with the dog, hoping that one day the dog would suddenly come to his senses and understand human language.

Putting aside the matter of dog training and concentrating on eating, Chen Zhou became worried about the progress of his work.

According to the schedule he made, the first day's task was to cut the four frames and draw the lines of the carving positions on the wood surface with ink, and the second day was to start making mortise and tenon components. But the current progress was too slow. After a whole day of work, less than half of the work goals were completed. Optimistically speaking, it would take at least five days to build the raft. If new problems were encountered in the middle of the process and the progress was delayed, it might take seven or eight days.

Seven or eight days, one third of the safe period.

According to the book, before his raft was launched, Robinson had already made seven or eight trips back and forth between the ship islands and built a simple house.

Chen Zhou couldn't help but doubt whether what he was doing was right.

The old question came to my mind again - should I choose quick success and give up building the raft?
"If I tie a safety rope around my waist, practice swimming for five days, and then throw the wood into the sea and tie it up to transport the supplies, would that be better?"

"If this happens, yesterday's work will be wasted, and I will have to spend five more days practicing swimming.

All in all, I have six or seven days less time than Robinson Crusoe. In these six or seven days, I have to move much less supplies..."

With his elbows supporting the table and his chin resting on his palms, Chen Zhou carefully considered the advantages and disadvantages of the new plan.

As he thought about it, he almost cried, because he found that not only was his swimming skill terrible, he also couldn't tie wood with ropes.

Fastening round wet wood together securely is not as easy as tying shoelaces; it requires special knotting techniques.

If the rope knot is not secure and the raft breaks apart while rowing, it would be a small problem to build a new one, but he would not be able to salvage the cargo that sank into the sea.

It seems that there is no other choice but to go down this path to the end.

After collecting the dishes, Chen Zhou comforted himself: "Instead of getting confused here, I might as well boil some water to soak my feet and relieve my fatigue. By the way, I can put down the measuring rope and use the wooden stick to measure how high the sea water has risen."

Having made his plans, he completed the tasks of hanging the rope and measuring the sea water step by step, and then went to the kitchen to light the firewood and boil a pot of hot water.

Back in the first mate's room, while lying on the bed waiting for the water to boil, he suddenly wanted to give the big dog a name.

There is such a saying in Chen Zhou’s hometown.

Although dogs are spiritual animals, they have a short life. If you raise them but don't give them a name, they will not be able to share the fortune of their owner.

In that case, even if the owner is rich and blessed, the dog cannot suppress its weak fate and may very likely die a violent death.

Only when it is given a name can it be considered a member of the family, exerting its spirituality and sharing the prosperity and adversity with its owner.

Like Dahuang, Fat Dog, Huzi, Wangwang Huahua and so on, even the simplest and most casual names represent the owner's recognition of it.

"So what should I name this guy?"

Glancing at the big dog sleeping soundly on the carpet, Chen Zhou came up with two more traditional dog names.

"Wangcai?
Or Lai Fu? "

He analyzed it in detail.

“Hey, Wangcai is of no use to me in my current situation.

The most important thing is to stay alive. If you complete the challenges while alive, wealth will naturally come.

Why not call me Lai Fu, bring me more blessings, and bless me to build the ship smoothly, land on the island smoothly, and challenge smoothly..."

"Um……

This name is good in every way, except that it's a bit rustic.

But it's okay if it's rustic. It's a foreign dog and can't understand Chinese. Maybe it thinks it's fashionable."

Chen Zhou placed all his beautiful dreams on Lai Fu, and as he was thinking about it, he actually fell asleep.

Maybe it was because I forgot to observe the tide last night, and today I kept giving myself psychological hints, reminding myself not to forget to measure the tide, so I developed an obsession.

In his dream, Chen Zhou saw the tide rising sharply and terrible huge waves connected the sky and the earth, just like in the movie 2012, crushing all the way, directly overturning the stranded ships and flooding the island.

Even in a dream, the scene was extremely real. Chen Zhou struggled hard in the sea, and the hammock was swaying left and right.

Just when he was about to suffocate in the water, he suddenly woke up, felt a chill on his back and his heart was beating wildly, as if he had really experienced a life-and-death experience.

He shook his head to get rid of those terrible images from his mind.

I slept on the first mate's fur blanket with my clothes on. It was a calm night and I felt hot all over.

Chen Zhou's throat was dry, but he did not bother to drink water. Instead, he ran to the window immediately. He did not feel relieved until he saw that the sea was calm and the sky was full of stars.

After drinking a glass of cold water to quench his thirst, Chen Zhou remembered that he still had work to do, so he forced himself to get the wooden stick.

Coincidentally, the tide had just reached its peak at this moment. Comparing the marks he had made before going to bed, Chen Zhou found that the waterline was more than half a meter higher than at dusk.

Carefully record the data on paper and plot it into a table tomorrow.

After lighting the oil lamp, Chen Zhou went to the kitchen to warm his feet.

The wound on the back of his heel had just scabbed over, but it fell off again when scalded by hot water, causing him to grimace in pain.

But his feet had already been half washed, and the scabs could not grow back. Chen Zhou could only endure the pain and finish washing his feet, then limped back to the room, undressed and went to bed.

There was no rain and no dreams in the second half of the night.

When Chen Zhou got up early in the morning, he still felt sore in his back and waist, and his arms were even a little swollen from sawing too much.

Having already gotten used to the feeling of being uncomfortable all over, after breakfast, Chen Zhou drew up a table, removed the rope tied to the railing on the side of the ship, observed the water marks and wrote down the data, and then started a new day's work.

The task on October 3rd was to use tools to make the four frames into regular mortise and tenon components.

In the drawings left by the big guys on the forum, each part of the mortise and tenon has a corresponding name.

For example, the part of the tenon that is inserted into the mortise is called the tenon tongue, and the rest of the tenon is called the tenon shoulder.

The parts connected by mortise and tenon are called tenon and mortise respectively. These words are vivid and descriptive, and Chen Zhou remembers them very clearly.

In today's job, he has to chisel a full row of square mortise holes on the front and rear frames.

These mortise holes are used to insert the wooden planks that form the top "deck" of the raft.

The size of each mortise should be as consistent as possible and the arrangement should be kept in a straight line.

Chen Zhou is basically a beginner in carpentry. Although he uses European tools that do not require high technical skills, he still lacks confidence.

Fearing that he might make a mistake and the mortise would fail, he chiseled very slowly.

Not only that, he also carried an ink bottle with him, and added new thread every time he chiseled a piece of wood to ensure that he would not carve it crookedly.

But he soon realized that with such extravagant use, the bottles of ink on the boat would not be able to support the raft and would be used up in a blink of an eye.

After pondering for a moment, Chen Zhou found a more suitable substitute - the remaining charcoal under the kitchen stove.

Although the charcoal stick will dirty your hands and the lines drawn will be very thick, it is better in quantity. And if you think it is too thick, you can use a knife to make it thinner, which effectively solves the problem of insufficient ink.

Chen Zhou chiseled the wood bit by bit, and as one mortise after another was successfully chiseled out, his proficiency gradually improved, and his technique in using tools became more and more skillful.

Time always flies when you are working hard and focused.

At noon, after having a quick meal and playing with Lai Fu on the deck for a while to relax, Chen Zhou plunged into the repetitive and boring work of carving again.

　After finishing a chapter every day, I will spend two hours re-reading and revising it. If you want a better reading experience, you can read it later.

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(End of this chapter)