Nanyang Storm 1864

Chapter 131 Ship Problem
The lively sounds of gongs and drums coming from the direction of the dock, mixed with bursts of firecrackers, startled Zheng Guohui who was in Tucheng. He walked out of the conference room with an expectant look on his face.

"Your Excellency, the Geng fleet has returned. I heard they encountered a storm at sea. One ship is missing, and two damaged ships are left in the Penghu Islands for repairs. Only nine ships made it back safely."

"Oh... let's go check it out."

Zheng Guohui's heart suddenly tightened, and he quickened his pace to walk out.

Captain Zheng Sheng of the personal guards immediately called on his men to follow him, and with three teams of forty or fifty soldiers, they quickly marched forward with the general.

pierside

The fleet returning from a long voyage was anchored near Piers No. 2 and No. 3. Many laborers at the dock had already boarded the ship and began to move the cargo in an orderly manner. The crew was tidying up the sails and cables. Sure enough, there were many traces of the sails being torn by the strong wind and waves.

Part of the ship's hull was also damaged and needed to be inspected on the riverbank after unloading the cargo.

Chongming Island is located in Haikou and is naturally affected by tides.

When the tide recedes, a large area of ​​river beach will be exposed.

When the natural high tide comes, the rising sea tide will push against the flowing river water and raise the water level of large and small rivers and tributaries to a very high level.

Using the principle of tides
During high tide, the boat is driven to the shallows and supported by stone slabs. When the tide recedes, the hull is completely exposed.

Large ships are brought ashore to remove oyster shells clinging to the bottom of the ship, repair and replace damaged parts, repaint with tung oil, fill in the seams of the ship, and maintain it properly.

Soon, Nie Tongsheng, the leader of the Geng fleet, was brought forward. He immediately knelt on one knee, clasped his hands together, and said, "Nie Tongsheng, the leader of the Geng fleet, greets the general. I wish you good health and happiness!"

"No need to be so polite, just stand up and tell me what's going on here?" Zheng Guohui raised his hand and asked.

Nie Tongsheng replied;
"Reporting to the General, the fleet returned north and encountered strong winds as soon as it left the Palawan Strait, and they are getting stronger.

Knowing that something was wrong, I commanded the fleet to sail eastward toward the coast of the Luzon Islands, hoping to avoid the wind and waves.

Only half a day later
The wind and waves on the sea were getting stronger and stronger, with waves exceeding eight meters high, strong winds were raging, and the sea conditions were extremely bad.

Our fleet could only move forward along the coast with difficulty despite the strong wind and waves. Due to the strong wind and waves, several ships collided with each other. Two ships were leaking seriously and were about to capsize.

Fortunately, a bay was discovered at this time.

Our fleet immediately entered the bay to take shelter from the wind. The two severely damaged cargo ships successfully broke free and avoided capsizing. It was a stroke of luck.

After taking shelter in the bay
The fleet immediately mobilized carpenters to carry out emergency repairs, blocking and partially replacing the damaged hull, effectively controlling the losses.

After three days of intensive repairs, the two ships were able to resume sailing after repairing the sails damaged in the storm and draining the water.

After waiting for many days, there is still a cargo ship missing. It may have capsized in the storm or stranded on an island. The specific situation still needs to be investigated.

Considering that the cargo ship has limited food and water reserves, it is difficult to stay any longer. However, the sea is calm at this time, which is suitable for long-distance voyages.

I ordered the fleet to set sail again. When passing through the Penghu Islands and entering the bay for resupply, I re-inspected the two severely damaged ships and found that they had taken on water to varying degrees, which had endangered the safety of navigation.

As a last resort, they had to stay in Penghu for repairs.

It is expected that the two ships will continue their journey northwards and arrive at Chongming Island on the 5th to 7th after being repaired.

"Well...storms at sea are unpredictable, and this is beyond human control. Your actions have been measured and handled appropriately, so you should have made some achievements and no mistakes. Go down and have a rest, and the higher-ups will have their own reasons for rewarding or punishing you." Zheng Guohui's expression eased a little, and he said casually.

"I obey your command and will take my leave now." Nie Tongsheng clasped his fists and bowed again before leaving.

Zheng Guohui looked at the "Geng" fleet in front of him. These nine cargo ships had suffered varying degrees of damage. After unloading the cargo, all of them would be arranged for beach inspections.

What needs to be replaced needs to be replaced, what needs to be repaired needs to be repaired, and what needs to be blocked needs to be blocked. All the bottoms of the ships need to be cleaned of barnacles and shells, and repainted with tung oil and paint several times.

Since you have put in the effort and time, these are all part of the process. It is a good time to maintain it carefully, which will take about 2 to 3 weeks.

Zheng Guohui instructed his staff member, Li Jinghui, "Arrange someone to talk to the other captains and get a detailed investigation report on this voyage. If it agrees with what this person said, they will be awarded a second-class merit and will be included in the list of candidates for promotion in the future."

"I understand. I will arrange people to do it right away." Li Jinghui responded with a fist salute.

Zheng Guohui then called over his aide, Zheng Guotai, and asked, "How is the progress on the purchase of the Western sailing ship?"

"To reply to the General, progress is not going smoothly. Several sailing vessels that we intend to sell have been repeatedly delayed. They may be difficult to purchase in Shanghai Port. It would be best to send personnel to Hong Kong or Singapore. I heard that there are many Western sailing vessels there, and many are willing to sell them."

"Then you arrange for someone to go there. Bring this general's order, and someone will contact them there."

"Students understand. It will be arranged immediately." Zheng Guohui explained these matters, turned his head and looked at the several cargo ships anchored at the dock, shaking his head with a little dissatisfaction.

There are still many large cargo ships in the country, but they are all flat-bottomed river ships. Their ability to withstand wind and waves is far inferior to that of Western sailing ships, which makes people worry.

Only in Shanghai

Since the opening of the port

In 1865, the Shanghai Customs Bureau registered the Huangpu River card:
There were more than 8730 import likin ships and more than 12560 export likin ships.

According to the navigation records submitted to the customs that year, there were as many as 4918 long-distance wooden ships sailing to Wuhan on the Liangjiang River, with a cargo volume of more than tons.

The Shanghai harbor is lined with sails, and along the Huangpu River there are often more than two to three thousand wooden ships moored.

Each wooden boat had at least 20 to 30 workers, and as many as 50 to 60. Along the Huangpu River, there were more than a dozen street markets, bustling with activity from the beginning of the year to the end.

There are over 30 wooden boat repair factories, employing over 100 carpenters. Every year, they build over new wooden boats ranging from to tons, and repair thousands of boats of all sizes, a massive operation.

If the Zheng-Di fleet wants to add large ships of a thousand-stone capacity, as long as they pay silver, they can choose from a lot of them, whether in Shanghai, Nanjing, Weiyang, or even Changsha and the Three Towns in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River. It is not a problem at all.

Every month, new thousand-stone ships join the fleet, ranging from three to five or seven to eight, to replace some ships that were severely damaged during long voyages and to increase the long-distance sailing force.

But these ships were unsatisfactory and Zheng Guohui was not very satisfied with them, mainly because they had poor ability to withstand wind and waves on long voyages and were easily damaged.

In just three months, seven ships were destroyed, either severely damaged, missing or sunk.

These three months are also the time to implement regular long-distance voyages of small fleets. The large team is divided into 10 small fleets, named after the "Ten Heavenly Stems" of Jia, Yi, Bing, Ding, Wu, Ji, Geng, Xin, Ren, and Gui. Each fleet has 12 to 15 ships and can carry about 4 to 5 immigrants. The "Geng" fleet is one of them.

During these three months, a total of more than 86,000 immigrants were transported, which was a remarkable achievement and greatly promoted the colonial expansion process of Mindanao.

This period

It is also a period with fewer winds and waves in the South China Sea, which is conducive to transportation.

After May and June, until October, typhoons frequently occur in the South China Sea one after another. That is the most severe test for the transportation team. It is necessary to reduce the frequency of transportation in a timely manner to avoid the invasion of wind and waves.

In Zheng Guohui's plan
He hoped that the large sailing ships purchased from the United States would arrive as scheduled and replace some thousand-stone cargo ships in poor condition for the transportation of people and materials between Chongming Island and Mindanao Island.

The deal that has been finalized with the Wan Guo Tong Bao Trading Company includes 800 three-masted sailing ships of 1000 to 9 tons, 500 two-masted sailing ships of 800 to 13 tons, and more than 10 two-masted sailing ships of to tons, which is a powerful maritime transport force.

A three-masted sailing ship of 800 to 1000 tons could almost equal the carrying capacity of an entire fleet, and the so-called Thousand-stone Fu ship had a carrying capacity of only more than 100 tons.

When transporting across the sea, the maximum that can be loaded is 70 or 80 tons, and a large safety margin must be left to avoid being sunk by a big wave.

There is no big problem in transporting people. A ship can transport 300 people, which is less than 10 tons. The ship can also carry some ballast cargo, which is at most half full.

On the return journey, the cargo such as marble slabs, copper ingots, and pineapples was different. They were heavy and crammed, and the shortcomings of the Qianshi Fu ship were revealed.

Zheng Guohui preferred to use large Western sailing ships to replace the Qianshi Fu ships. These large Western sailing ships had experienced hundreds of years of the Age of Discovery and had been proven to be suitable for long-distance cross-ocean voyages. They were fast, had large carrying capacity, could withstand the baptism of stormy waves, and were durable.

If the money he had was not limited, Zheng Guohui would have liked to buy a large number of sailing ships, the more the better.

Now he has turned his attention mainly to the United States. The U.S. Navy has reduced its warships from more than 5000 last year to more than 800, which means that more than 4000 ships have been put on the market.

In addition, due to the end of the war, many sailing cargo ships lost a large amount of transportation business and were also listed for sale.

In the whole world

In the next 5 to 10 years from this year, North America will be the low point of the world's sailboat market. We need to raise more money and go to North America to buy a lot of sailboats.

It is more cost-effective to buy these ships than to build them. They are not old and the price is low, which means they are a great bargain.

Zheng Guohui walked back to Tucheng with a lot on his mind. He was worried about the American fleet that would arrive in May, which would also arrive in batches.

If you are lucky, the four ironclad ships will also be included.

When Zheng Guohui thought of this, he was so excited that he couldn't wait to set sail south to see for himself the grand spectacle of a large number of sailing cargo ships arriving, as well as the numerous machines and equipment and steel plant blast furnace equipment. It would be a huge fortune!

After discussing this matter with Li Hezhang, Zheng Guohui plans to go to Southeast Asia again sometime in mid-June.

Today is the Lantern Festival, which is already March 3nd. It is only more than three months away from mid-June, so there are not many days left.

(End of this chapter)