From Robinson Crusoe

Chapter 7 Carpenter's Room

Every inch of land on the ship is valuable and the available space is limited.

The ship doctor's room serves as both a simple clinic and operating room, as well as a place for the ship doctor to rest.

Next to the cupboard and a long hardwood table were the doctor's bed and his suitcase.

Unlike Robinson, the ship's doctor obviously did not pay much attention to hygiene. His bedding was even dirtier and the lid of his suitcase was open, allowing mold and insects to grow and multiply inside.

Chen Zhou took out a coat and immediately saw the shiny black mud deposited on the collar and cuffs. He threw the clothes back into the box with disgust.

With a doctor like this, sailors on the ship can be considered "blessed" if they fall ill.

If he used those long needles to treat the disease by bleeding, the patient would either die from the disease or from wound infection.

The cleanliness of the bedding and clothes can give you an idea of the ship doctor's living habits. Chen Zhou could already imagine how shabby this person's shoes would be, so he did not search any further and just took a simple look around.

The doctor's room was far from being as tidy as Robinson's.

Short hand saw, small hook, short knife, soldering iron, metal pipe...

Various small tools of unknown purpose and large and small bottles were scattered everywhere. The contents of most of them were unidentifiable. The only ones Chen Zhou recognized were the dried lemons and tomatoes in the glass jars on the bedside table.

The dried fruits are not pickled, but after being fully dried in the sun, they become extremely crisp and break easily.

Chen Zhou thought that this was the ship doctor's special food habit, but it was not the case.

Not all sailors or sea workers in the 17th century were skilled swimmers. A large number of them suffered from seasickness, and were tortured by dizziness and vomiting during long voyages, which made their lives worse than death. This gave rise to the "seasickness remedy" of dried lemons and dried tomatoes.

Perhaps it is a psychological effect. After using these drugs, the symptoms of seasick people can really be relieved, which makes more maritime workers heavily dependent on special medicines. This ship doctor is one of them. In order to facilitate consumption, he specially placed jars of dried lemons and dried tomatoes next to the bed.

However, Chen Zhou was unaware of the truth. After seeing the poor hygiene habits of the ship's doctor, he became wary of all the food in the room.

Therefore, after opening the lid and seeing what was inside, Chen Zhou put the glass jar back on the bedside table.

Then Chen Zhou searched the drawers of each cabinet, trying to find paper and pen and ink, but found nothing.

So he left the room with a bad impression of the ship's doctor and continued to explore.

After opening the door, Chen Zhou’s first impression of the third room was “tidy”.

The table top was clean and placed close to the wall. The chairs were inserted under the table with the backs of the chairs also close to the table top. The bedding on the bed was simply folded into long strips. Although there were stains on it, it at least looked comfortable.

In the corner of the room were two wooden boxes, which were larger than Robinson's suitcases. Chen Zhou found the much-needed ink, parchment and quill pens in them.

In addition to paper and pens, the box also contained a ruler, a triangle, and smaller saws, hammers, planes, chisels, as well as long and short nails, iron latches, angle irons in a wooden box...

There were obvious signs of use on the surfaces of these tools. Some of the nails were straight, some were bent, and some of the latches were rusty and broken. They appeared to be obsolete parts removed during ship maintenance.

At the bottom of the box, there is another small cast iron machine with a more complex shape. At the very bottom is a thick circular base. The part on the base is cylindrical, narrow at the top and wide at the bottom, and it is quite heavy.

Chen Zhou picked up the small machine and saw that it had a wooden handle, so he gripped it and turned it a few times.

The machine suddenly made a creaking sound, and the screw turned through the nut, slowly lifting the top.

It has been some years since Chen Zhou left school. Although he has forgotten most of the knowledge he learned, he can still recognize that this is an ancient screw lifter, which is commonly known as a "jack" in modern times.

The difference is that the old screw jack uses a purely mechanical mechanism, which is much inferior to the general hydraulic jack in terms of stability and structural tightness.

Despite this, the antique crane can still play a role. It can lift heavy objects that are too heavy for human power to bear through simple use, adding convenience to work.

A total of six boxes were opened, and the contents of this box are undoubtedly the most valuable so far.

Just then he found paper and pen, so Chen Zhou pulled out a chair, unscrewed the ink bottle, sat at the table and carefully organized and recorded all the supplies he had found.

It was Chen Zhou’s first time using a feather pen, an ancient writing tool, and he was a little uncomfortable with its light feel.

Dipping the paper in ink, he solemnly wrote the date at the top of the parchment - October 1659, 10.

This is the second day since the challenge officially began, and also the second day of the 10,300-day countdown. During the long challenge process, the passage of one day is an almost imperceptible tiny progress.

But for Chen Zhou, who is in the middle of it, no matter how long the marathon is, it is accumulated by one solid step after another. He needs to record the passing of each day and turn each short milestone into hope to support himself to persevere.

Below the date, Chen Zhou roughly divided all the supplies into six categories.

They are tools, resources, food, weapons, clothing, and valuables, which helps him set priorities and store and transport materials in a unified manner.

Among them, tools have the highest priority, ranging from nails and hammers to the rotary winch on the bow. They are the most advanced technological products of this era and are consumables that are difficult for Chen Zhou to replicate with his personal ability. Once one is used up, there is one less.

The second is resources, there are many thin lead rolls, flat planks, spare masts, tar, waterproof paint, canvas and ropes on the ship. They are indispensable for the future construction of the island, but it is time-consuming and laborious to make them, or even impossible to make them.

This important non-renewable material should be transported to the island first.

In third place is clothing, also for the reason that it is consumable and non-renewable.

The fourth is weapons. There are a lot of guns and gunpowder on the ship, and even cannons, but Chen Zhou is very self-aware. With his personal ability, he can only take the guns away. The metal-cast cannons, no matter how small, weigh 170 to 180 kilograms and cannot be moved at all.

Besides, when we go to the island we'll just catch some goats and shoot some birds, and at most scare the cannibalistic natives. There's no need to bring out the cannons, which would be like using a butcher knife to kill a nut.

Following the weapons were valuables and food.

This is not a random ranking by Chen Zhou who cares about money but his life, but the result of his serious thinking.

In his opinion, the edible resources on the island are already abundant to a certain extent.

Carbohydrates, fats, proteins, minerals, trace elements and vitamins necessary for survival can all be found in various types and large quantities.

With this premise, the food on the ship, such as biscuits, cheese, cured meats, etc., which may have become moldy, seems less important.

Chen Zhou would rather exchange them for a few bags of pepper, cabbage, onion, ginger and garlic seeds to enrich his recipes than move them ashore. In comparison, valuable items can not only increase the reward for successful challenges, but also decorate the house and improve Chen Zhou's quality of life on the island. They are not too heavy to carry, so the cost-effectiveness is naturally much higher.

While weighing the importance of each material, he made a list.

Soon, tables were drawn up on several pieces of parchment with different categories, waiting for Chen Zhou to count the quantities and fill them in.

Time was running out. Chen Zhou clearly remembered that there were only 24 days from the time Robinson boarded the ship to the time the storm tore the merchant ship apart.

During this short safe period of more than half a month, he had to build a raft, transport supplies, and set up a temporary shelter without any delay.

Putting down the paper and pen, Chen Zhou prepared to continue searching the carpenter's room. After he had an idea of the items in the room, he organized all the supplies in the first three rooms into wooden boxes and placed them in Robinson's room, which was the most convenient for carrying. After the raft was built, it would be sent to the island first.

Of course, not finding the right shoes is also one of the reasons.

Having had experience in searching Robinson's room, Chen Zhou looked under the bed first this time, and sure enough, he found a pair of old, broken and smelly shoes there.

The size was right, but Chen Zhou couldn't help but look embarrassed when he smelled the pungent smell inside the shoe. He hesitated whether to wear the shoes and risk getting athlete's foot.

Soon, his concerns were perfectly resolved in the carpenter's second box - there was a pair of new shoes in the box!
They were a pair of thick leather boots, obviously not suitable for the hot climate here.

But the upper is brand new and has no peculiar smell. Although the workmanship is not as good as Robinson's clothes, there are no obvious flaws. Moreover, the sole is soft and strong, so you don't have to worry about being pricked by nails after wearing it.

With so many advantages, what does it matter if it’s a little hotter or your feet are covered a little more?

Chen Zhou naturally and readily threw away the "slippers" on his feet and happily changed into the carpenter's leather boots.

It’s like when I was a kid wearing the new shoes my mother bought me. Even though no one appreciated them, I felt so light and fluttery, as if I was walking with the wind.

With the dull sound of his shoes stepping on the wooden boards, Chen Zhou turned the second wooden box upside down.

Unexpectedly, in addition to shoes, there were many surprises in the box.

In addition to a dozen pieces of clothes that fit his body shape, there was a crossbow, five crossbow arrows, a rapier and two hunting knives at the bottom of the box.

Among these weapons, Chen Zhou’s favorite is the crossbow.

Its crossbow arm is made of mahogany and coated with a layer of varnish. The front section of the crossbow is made of steel and the bowstring is thick. Chen Zhou tried to pull it, but he couldn't pull the bowstring with just the strength of his arms. This shows that the poundage of this crossbow is very large and its power must be amazing.

At the end of the crossbow arm, there is a lever-type stringer, which can "pry" the string directly onto the string hook through the principle of leverage.

In mid-17th century Europe, the rise of the matchlock in wars severely squeezed the living space of the crossbow. Faced with fully armed "heavy armor iron cans" and large shield soldiers, gunpowder projectiles were far more useful than crossbow arrows.

Therefore, except for occasionally appearing in the hunting activities of nobles, the crossbow has rarely appeared.

Not to mention Chen Zhou, who lives in a society where guns and crossbows are banned, even the sailors who are active on ships all year round and the pirates who plunder everywhere, most of the time they speak with guns.

However, everything has its pros and cons. Although the crossbow cannot break through the protection of armor in war, when facing wild beasts or birds, its advantages of high accuracy, no odor and low noise are difficult to replace by the matchlock gun.

For Chen Zhou, this crossbow is definitely more useful than a matchlock gun when hunting wild goats, seabirds and other prey on the island.

Moreover, as a man who has loved wielding swords and sticks since childhood and a man who graduated in mechanical manufacturing and automation, Chen Zhou could not refuse to own such a deadly weapon that combines mechanical beauty and practicality.

If he hadn't been worried about shooting arrows into the sea from a boat, he would have wanted to carry this crossbow with him to shoot down the seabirds circling in the sky.

After all, there is no chance to experience cold weapon hunting in modern society. At most, you can go to a shooting club to shoot at targets that don't bleed to satisfy your desire.

Like a child, Chen Zhou imagined an imaginary enemy in his mind, used the winder to pull the string, held the crossbow, pretended to aim, and fired a shot in the air.

The bowstring suddenly bounced, making a continuous buzzing sound, and the instantaneous burst of power shocked Chen Zhou so much that he almost lost his grip on the crossbow arm.

Based on this, he judged that the pulling force of this crossbow was at least 200 pounds.

This is a very terrifying number. Even though the energy storage rate of smelted steel in the 17th century is far lower than that of tendon-horn composite materials or yew wood, as long as the poundage is large enough, the pulled bowstring can also give the crossbow arrow extremely strong lethality, and it is no problem to shoot through the strongest skulls of some medium-sized herbivores.

After playing with the crossbow for a while, Chen Zhou finally put it down reluctantly without pulling the bowstring again - the force generated by frequent empty firing would act on the bow, which would be detrimental to the structural strength.

There will be plenty of opportunities to show off the power of the crossbow in the future, but now is the important thing.

Returning to Robinson's room, Chen Zhou moved four empty wooden boxes to the door and placed them in a row, ready to use them to store clothes, bedding and tools respectively.

While moving the wooden boxes, he took down the lantern hanging by the window.

It was more than two hundred years later that iron-structured ocean-going ships replaced wooden sailing ships on a large scale. The slave ships of this era were full of flammable materials.

Not to mention the wooden keel and the walls made of thin wooden boards, the adhesive mixed with tar and asphalt alone is enough to reduce the entire ship to ashes, so there are strict prevention regulations on the ship against any open flames.

There are restrictions on the identity of the person who starts the fire, the time and place of starting the fire, and it is strictly forbidden to use fire when the sea conditions are bad. Even if the ship is passing through cold waters at the time, even if the sailors cannot eat hot food and die of cold and hunger, the captain will not make exceptions and lift these regulations.

Under the constraints of these requirements, the ship's lanterns were also made in special styles.

The metal frame is spherical, with push-able glass nested around it, which can completely enclose the entire lantern. A candle is inserted in the bowl-shaped groove in the center.

The candle has been half used up, and its color is different from the common modern smokeless candles. The surface is a warm milky yellow instead of white.

Chen Zhou didn't know that the raw material used for this ordinary candle was beeswax rather than animal fat or paraffin.

In the 17th century, such candles were generally used by the royal family, nobles or monasteries. If Robinson's plantation owner friend had not often given him some rare European items, this lantern would not have fallen into Chen Zhou's hands.

However, the extensive use of glass decoration made the entire lantern more fragile while being beautiful. In order to protect it from damage during transportation, Chen Zhou specially brought the ship's doctor's bedding to fill the wooden box and wrapped the lantern inside.

This metal-and-glass work of art reminded Chen Zhou of the brass hourglass in the midship closet.

Worried that he would forget the hourglass when he got busy, after making sure the lantern was properly protected, he quickly left Robinson's room, ready to take the hourglass first and test how long it would take for the fine sand to flow completely from one end to the other.

(End of this chapter)