The Black Sails of the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 34 Captain's Room

Zhou Xiucai nodded and said, "I understand."

After Lin Qian finished speaking, she stood up and looked around: "I happen to have some free time this morning, so I'll help you with the inventory."

The captain's cabin is a suite design, with a study, living room, and dining room outside, and a bedroom inside. The two rooms together are about 20 square meters.
Since boarding the ship, Lin Qian had been staying in the outer rooms and had not stepped into the bedroom. She said, "Let's start by looking at the bedroom."

The bedroom was small, with a walnut wood double four-poster bed in the center, covered with gorgeously embroidered deep red silk bedding, and curtains hanging around the perimeter. There were no bedside tables.

The room had a walnut wardrobe against the wall, and inside the wardrobe hung a large number of Spanish garments with ruff collars. These clothes were made of fine materials, but they did not conform to the aesthetics of the Ming Dynasty and were definitely unwearable. They could be sold to the Portuguese after the port was reached.

In the center of the wardrobe hung a swift sword, its hilt and scabbard inlaid with several rubies and sapphires, clearly indicating that the sword's decorative function far outweighed its practical use.

Stepping out of the bedroom, the outer cabin is much larger and has more furniture. In the center is an Ottoman couch, with a Turkish handmade carpet in front of it, and a small table about the size of a coffee table on the carpet.

To the left of the soft couch, by the window, was a nautical table, piled with candlesticks, an astrolabe, nautical charts, and Lin Qian's nautical logbook.

He's been using this nautical table all morning and loves it. The table and chair are both made of ebony, the height is just right, and the tabletop is extremely flat without a single dent.

When you get tired of working at your desk, just turn around and you'll see a whole row of glass portholes, offering a panoramic view of the vast ocean.

To the right of the chaise lounge is a small oval dining table surrounded by six chairs. The table and chairs are made of walnut wood, with thick materials and exquisite craftsmanship. The chair backs and armrests are carved with intricate patterns.

The meticulously crafted dining environment creates a stark contrast with the hard biscuits and cured meats.

Numerous cabinets were placed around the furniture, making the most of every available space. The cabinets were also carefully placed and sized to prevent the cabin from feeling cramped.

The walls of the cabin were covered with oil paintings, roughly a dozen in total, covering almost no part of the teak hull.

Directly opposite the chaise lounge is a Renaissance-style portrait of the Virgin Mary. In front of the portrait is a low cabinet with a cross about the size of an arm on top, on which is carved Jesus with outstretched arms.

The crucifix is ​​entirely white and lustrous, likely carved from ivory. The craftsmanship is superb, with every detail of the beard and hair meticulously rendered.

Lin Qian clicked his tongue in amazement. The extravagance of the captain's cabin had exceeded his imagination. The Spanish treasure ship truly lived up to its reputation.

"Sell the ivory carving, the painting on the wall, the sword and clothes in the wardrobe after we dock at the port, don't keep them."

Zhou Xiucai followed behind Lin Qian, his pen flying across the ledger as he quickly made notes.

Then Lin Qian opened and inspected all the cabinets and boxes in the captain's cabin, and found several exquisite porcelain tableware pieces. These items were quite expensive in Europe, but were not considered so luxurious in the Ming Dynasty.

Twelve books written in Spanish, all on parchment, handwritten with a quill pen, and accompanied by exquisite hand-drawn color illustrations.

Based on the parchment production process, each parchment requires a sheepskin, and a single book requires at least 200 sheep. In addition, the labor cost for copying makes it extremely expensive, making it a treasure of European heirloom level.

Lin Qian decided to read through these books first before making any further decisions.

Inside the cabinet, there was also a small, exquisitely crafted gold ornament, with an artistic style completely different from that of Europe.

Lin Qian casually picked it up and played with it in her hand. It was a disc-shaped object, about the size of a button, and judging from its weight, it was made of pure gold. It was engraved with extremely intricate patterns, roughly depicting the sun.

The feather-like headdress and totem-like patterns clearly indicate an Inca style.

The Inca Empire was known as the Golden Civilization, possessing an extremely high level of gold processing skills and countless gold reserves. Now that it had become a Spanish colony, it is not surprising that Inca gold artifacts were found on this ship.

Compared to the value of gold itself, the cultural, artistic, and historical value of this gold pendant is clearly much greater.

The colonists, however, thought differently. They melted down and recast all the gold they looted to sell for money, making them veritable "butchers of human history."

This "golden button" probably survived because it was too small and didn't catch the colonists' eye. Lin Qian placed it on the nautical table, deciding to treasure it for the Incas.

Besides the Inca gold buttons, the cabinet also contained hundreds of silver pesos, dozens of rials, and gold and silver coins from other countries.

All of these were recorded by Zhou Xiucai.

Lin Qianqing checked everything meticulously, rummaging through the captain's cabin with a kind of joyful, beachcombing experience.

Unfortunately, the captain's cabin was filled with so many things, large cabinets containing smaller boxes, stacked layer upon layer, which allowed this joy to continue indefinitely.

Before long, Lin Qian found another wooden box about the size of an arm, carefully wrapped in oiled paper.

Opening the box revealed two more layers of oil paper inside. Even the former captain of the large sailing ship hadn't been so careful with his parchment books, which piqued Lin Qian's curiosity.

But when Lin Qian peeled off the oil paper, she was greatly disappointed. Inside were neatly arranged cigarettes, which were very similar in shape to cigars in later generations.

Lin Qian had no interest in tobacco. In her previous life, she occasionally smoked cigars, but only for social occasions.

So Zhou Xiucai was instructed to put the cigarettes into the account and then set them aside.

After that, Lin Qianqing mostly pointed out miscellaneous items.

"What is this?" Zhou Xiucai suddenly asked.

Lin Qian rushed over and was immediately wide-eyed to see what was in front of her: a pendulum clock.

This clock is about the height of a person and is placed against the wall. It is cleverly hidden in a cabinet. If you don't open the cabinet door, you would never guess that there is a clock hidden inside.

The clock face uses Roman numerals and indicates the time as 4:34.

It's not even noon yet, so the time is obviously way off.

Of course, this clock couldn't possibly display the local time in Madrid or any other European country.

Because clocks with a pendulum escapement mechanism are greatly affected by the rocking of the sea, in principle, any clock from that era would not be accurate once it was on a ship.

For the former captain, the main purpose of this pendulum clock in the captain's cabin was to demonstrate his wealth.

The principle is that only the most elite nobles are willing to waste money on meaningless things.

But for Lin Qian, the value of this clock far exceeded the total value of all the luxury items in the room.

He had the idea of ​​making marine clocks as early as when he saw church clocks in Manila.

Now it's like having a steamed bun when you're hungry and a pillow when you're sleepy.

If we could successfully create a marine chronometer, it would be like having GPS in an era where we relied on maps for travel.

At that time, other fleets will have to obediently follow their routes, making all sorts of turns.

Lin Qian can freely travel the shortest distance between the two places—the great arc—without needing to take the conservative right-angle route, thus eliminating the risk of getting lost at sea.

Thinking of this, Lin Qian's to-do list inevitably gained another item.

　Having seen the suggestions from many readers regarding the captain's cabin issue, I feel they make valid points, and I've made some minor revisions to the corresponding chapters. The revised paragraph comments might disappear unexpectedly, so I apologize to all the readers.
　　
　
(End of this chapter)