The Black Sails of the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 15 Life-saving grace
All that could be seen in front of the bow of the ship, which was tilted towards the sea, was pitch black nothingness.

They had been lifted high by the surging waves, and beneath them lay an endless abyss.

"Hold on tight!" Lin Qian squatted down and gripped the rudder tightly with both hands.

In an instant, the ship overturned the waves and plummeted into nothingness.

In a short while, the bow of the ship crashed into the sea with a loud bang, the wooden planks shattered and flew everywhere, and the entire bow was submerged in the sea, with dark seawater surging onto the deck.

Just then, the stern dropped down, and the bow rose high up from the sea.

The ship's hull crashed through the seawater with a deafening roar, and seawater, carrying driftwood, flowed down from all sides of the deck.

The Fujian ship miraculously survived and even floated back to life at sea.

The boatmen could hardly believe they were still alive.

"The wind is getting weaker, raise the sail to halfway!" Lin Qian shouted.

The sailors struggled to get up and raise the sail.

After navigating over a dozen more waves, the wind weakened considerably, and Lin Qian instructed her men to raise the sails fully.

After sailing for an unknown period of time, a faint light appeared on the eastern sea, and the wind and waves gradually subsided.

After sailing south for another half an hour, the sea was calm, the sun rose above the horizon, and the sky was clear for miles.

It was as if the devastating hurricane that had just struck had never existed.

Only the wrecked prow and soaked clothes testify to what happened last night.

"Are we dead or alive?"

One of the boatmen asked blankly.

"Bullshit, you're the one who's dead."

The shipwrights looked at each other speechlessly, then collapsed onto the deck like lumps of meat that had been deboned.

As they looked at each other, smiles gradually appeared on the boatmen's bewildered faces.

Only now did Lin Qian feel a sense of lingering fear. Even modern sailboats made with countless high-precision materials could hardly escape from a typhoon.

In fact, this typhoon was within Lin Qian's expectations.

He set sail on March 25 because the weather conditions indicated an approaching typhoon.

His original plan was to use the typhoon to escape the Spanish pursuit.

Fujian-style ships are made entirely of wood and are not easy to sink. Their traditional hard sails are also more resistant to storms than triangular sails, Bermuda sails, or soft sails.

Even during the loading process, Lin Qian was already preparing to combat the storm.

Instead of filling the cargo hold to the brim, he had each compartment stacked with a layer of cargo against the bottom of the ship, acting as ballast to effectively lower the center of gravity of the Fujian ship, thus preventing it from capsizing in the giant waves.

Due to the Coriolis effect, the airflow of typhoons in the Northern Hemisphere rotates counterclockwise.

Therefore, when the wind direction at sea changed from southeast to northwest, Lin Qian knew that they had entered the southwest corner of the typhoon.

The general path of typhoons across East Asia is from southeast to northwest.

Therefore, sailing south was the fastest way for Lin Qian to escape the typhoon.

In other words, what Lin Qian did, though seemingly thrilling and dangerous, was actually all within a meticulously planned scheme.

When faced with typhoons, one of the most violent forces in nature, courage and wisdom alone are not enough to survive.

Recalling the spectacular sights of waterspouts and giant waves she had witnessed during the typhoon a few hours earlier, Lin Qian felt as if she had lived through another world.

Because of the excessive adrenaline secretion, Lin Qian felt her two arms trembling uncontrollably as she steered the ship, and her whole body felt extremely weak.

He called a boatman to take the helm, while he rested against the stern.

Faced with the beautiful sunrise, Lin Qian felt that a cup of coffee would make everything perfect.

Chen Jiao gazed at Lin Qian with a complex expression. Others might not know the difficulty of crossing a typhoon, but he was well aware of it.

Legend has it that when the eunuch Zheng He was sailing to the Western Ocean, he also encountered a typhoon. The fleet was helpless and could only drop the anchor, burn incense and pray to the Heavenly Queen, waiting for the storm to subside on its own.

Such an act as Lin Qian, sailing a boat through a storm, is simply unheard of.

Looking back now, Lin Qian's actions—not allowing the cargo to be abandoned, turning against the wind, and lowering and raising the sails during the typhoon—were all prudent and without the slightest impulsiveness.

On the contrary, he publicly contradicted Lin Qian, not only failing to help but also deliberately hindering her.

Upon realizing this, Chen Jiao felt utterly ashamed and walked heavily to Lin Qian.

"Captain, I..."

Lin Qian patted his shoulder: "No need to say anything, it's good that you survived. Go and take stock of the casualties and losses."

Although Chen Jiao was more than twenty years older than Lin Qian and nominally bore the title of elder brother, he had no intention of acting as one at this moment. Instead, he willingly obeyed Lin Qian's orders and nodded as he walked away. "We actually made it through the typhoon," Catherine muttered to herself in disbelief, looking at Lin Qian with a complicated expression.

Spain is the world's leading maritime power, and every young person dreams of sailing the seas.

From a young age, Catherine was fascinated by sailing and the sea, hoping that one day she could achieve unparalleled glory on the sea like famous navigators such as Dias, Columbus, and Vasco da Gama.

Because women were not allowed on the boat, she dressed as a man every day.

No one was willing to teach her navigation, so she went to the shipyard every week to learn by herself.

She had always felt that she had mastered all the knowledge needed for navigation, and all she lacked was an opportunity.

But when faced with a typhoon, she realized how far she was from being able to do it.

In the midst of the raging wind and rain, her limbs went weak and her mind went blank.

She even fainted at one point as she plummeted from the crest of the wave.

If she hadn't been tied to the mast, she would surely have perished at sea by now.

Let alone her, even the most ancient noble captains would surely perish if they encountered such a violent Southeast Asian typhoon.

And this crude, yellow-skinned pirate managed to break through the typhoon unscathed.

She clearly remembered Lin Qian's figure as she roared orders to the crew amidst the surging waves.

Although she couldn't understand what he was saying, the firmness in his words briefly dispelled her fear, like a ray of light piercing through leaden clouds.

After resting for a while, Lin Qian gradually regained some strength in her limbs and began to hold onto the gunwale to examine the hull.

As he passed by, all the crew members held their breath and looked at him with burning eyes.

Some of the boatmen who were talking gradually lowered their voices as he approached, their eyes fixed on Lin Qian.

In the eyes of the boatmen, whether it was the Dragon King turning over or the Third Granny getting angry, it was a life-threatening event with no chance of survival.

At the height of the storm, many people were so frightened that they couldn't move an inch and had already mentally considered themselves dead.

Lin Qian, however, managed to snatch the lives of everyone on the ship back from the clutches of the Sea Dragon King.

Such behavior is simply unheard of.

Most of the boatmen were extremely superstitious. If Lin Qian hadn't lived and eaten on the boat with them and known that she was also a mortal, some people would have believed that she was an envoy of Mazu.

"Uncle Chen, you've injured your forehead? There's some wound medicine in the warehouse..." Lin Qian asked with concern as she passed by the cook.

As a result, the cook, Uncle Chen, immediately knelt down and was about to kowtow.

Lin Qian stopped him: "What are you doing?"

Uncle Chen: "Captain, I will remember this life-saving grace!"

As soon as he finished speaking, many of the boatmen around him realized what was happening and immediately knelt down.

Lin Qian couldn't stop these people, so she could only accept their bows. Then she said loudly, "We've all been on the same boat, going through life and death together. We're brothers. There's no reason for brothers to kowtow and express gratitude to each other. Get up."

Those who made a living on the boat were all strong-willed people who rarely acted coy. Hearing Lin Qian say this, they all felt relieved and stood up, their respect for Lin Qian growing stronger.

Lin Qian ordered someone to tally the total losses on the ship.

A moment later, someone came to report: "Helmsman, we've found out. Two brothers were swept away by the storm, the bow of the ship is badly damaged, but there are no other losses."

"Yes, write down the names of the shipwrecked crew members. When the opportunity arises, give the compensation money to their families," Lin Qian ordered. "Let's go check the bow of the ship."

The bow of the Fujian ship is flat, without a bow mast, and it has one less bow sail than the galleon.

However, precisely because of this, the damage to the bow did not affect the voyage; it simply meant that some seawater flowed into the cabin through the breach.

Lin Qian instructed the mute Huang to have his men make some basic repairs to the bow of the boat, to plug the gap first, and to make more thorough repairs once they reached the shore.

Lin Qian then inspected the ship's hold, and most of the cargo holds were intact.

Only one or two cargo holds were submerged in seawater, and the cloves and cardamom they contained were basically ruined, but the boxes of silver ingots and coins were intact.

In total, the loss was only a little over a thousand taels of silver, which was well within an acceptable range.

After all, their most important cargo on this trip was not cloves, cardamom, or silver ingots and coins, but the Spanish woman on the mast.

Thinking of this, Lin Qian instructed the boatmen to repair the leaking cargo hold and salvage the water-damaged goods.

He then left the cabin and walked toward Catherine.

As she approached, Lin Qian's gaze sharpened, and a playful smile appeared on her face.

What you see before you is a scene that is extremely visually striking.

(End of this chapter)