The Black Sails of the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 8 Treasure Ship
Just as Lin Qian was pondering where to get a clock, the sound of horses' hooves came from afar, interrupting his thoughts.

Lin Qian looked in the direction of the sound and saw three riders entering through the city gate.

The woman in question was none other than Miss Catherine, the governor's daughter, whom he had met that morning.

The surrounding Spaniards all stepped aside and took off their hats in greeting.

Having learned her lesson from the morning, Lin Qian followed the Spanish example, stepping back to the side of the road and bowing her head in greeting.

The sound of horses' hooves never stopped as they made their way to the Governor's Mansion.

Lin Qian raised her head, maintaining a kind smile, and watched Catherine's figure disappear at the end of the street.

On the way back to the dock, Lin Qian asked, "Bai Langzai, what do you think of that woman?"

"That Miss Kai, from an official family? She's a bit headstrong, but she's good at bearing children..."

Lin Qian: "That's not what I'm asking you. I'm trying to say that since she's the daughter of the Spanish governor, why did she only bring two guards? It might be fine in the Royal District, but isn't it too dangerous to go to the Eighth Market?"

"Spain?"

“They’re the Franco-Frankish people you’re talking about,” Lin Qian explained.

From the imperial court to the common people, the Ming Dynasty had extremely limited understanding of Western European countries and could not distinguish between Spain and Portugal, referring to them all as "Francis".

Bai Langzai pondered for a moment, then shook his head and said, "She's just a foreign woman, why bother with her so much?"

"If we were to tie this woman up, would it be easy to do it?" Lin Qian asked casually.

Bai Langzai's expression changed slightly as he analyzed, "If we kidnap someone on the road, I can take care of the guards with three more skilled men. But things at sea are more difficult. Fran... the Spanish ships are fast. Even if we can get out of port, we won't be able to escape."

"Aren't you going to ask why she was tied up?"

"Sixth Brother is meticulous and wouldn't do anything to throw his life away, so there's no need to ask," Bai Langzai replied.

Lin Qian glanced at him.

Bai Langzai had a calm expression. He was only sixteen years old and always had an icy face. He rarely spoke, but he was extremely skilled. During the hijacking, he killed three guards.

Now it seems he's not so simple-minded.

"Don't worry, it's just a joke," Lin Qian said.

The two remained silent the entire way and made it back to their cabin before nightfall when the port closed.

Hotels in Manila are expensive, so boatmen live on their boats.

As soon as Lin Qian and her companion boarded the boat, the boatmen surrounded them, staring at them expectantly.

Lei Sanxiang asked on behalf of everyone, "Brother Lin, have you found a buyer for the goods on the ship?"

"Yes, someone will come to unload the goods tomorrow, and then at three-quarters past 5 PM, everyone will be paid."

Upon hearing this, the boatmen cheered.

Lin Qian smiled in response, walked back to the cabin amidst the cheers of the boatmen, placed the things she had bought during the day on the table, lit candles, spread linen paper on the table, and began to write in the nautical log with a quill pen.

He began writing from the day he hijacked the ship, meticulously recording the daily voyage, route, wind direction, weather, and hydrology.

This is not a formality like keeping a journal. A nautical log can estimate the approximate location by recording the daily voyage, so as not to get lost at sea.

Once the ship arrives at the port, the logbook records can also serve as a route map.

It can be said that every extra sentence written in the logbook provides an extra layer of assurance for future voyages.

Lin Qian wrote in the logbook using a mix of simplified Chinese, English, and Spanish. For some sensitive words, she combined Latin roots with English suffixes, making it difficult to understand even if someone else took the logbook.

However, quill pens were much more difficult to use than fountain pens of later generations, and the linen paper was also extremely rough.

Writing Latin letters is fine, but it's very inconvenient when writing Chinese characters.

I lit three white beeswax sticks in a row and wrote until the wee hours of the morning before finally finishing the nautical log for the past two weeks.

Lin Qian yawned and stretched, reaching for his coffee cup as usual, only to find it empty. He couldn't help but smile wryly. In his past life, he was a passionate coffee lover, with coffee machines installed everywhere—at home, in the office, and on his ship—and his daily coffee intake hovered around dangerous levels.

Unexpectedly, upon arriving in the Ming Dynasty, they were forced to quit coffee.

He had intended to buy some coffee today, but upon inquiring, he discovered that coffee had not yet been introduced to Spain, and the most popular beverage among Spaniards was still hot cocoa, which originated in the Americas.

Helpless, Lin Qian walked to the ship's window, opened it, and gazed at the scenery of Manila.

There is no moon tonight, and the harbor is pitch black except for a few scattered torches.

The closer you get to the Manila Grand Ferry, the denser the torches become.

During the more than 100 years that Spain dominated the world's oceans, the Manila galleon may not have been well-known.

But if you change the name, it will be absolutely legendary—the Spanish Treasure Ship.

It can be said that the Manila Galleon was a Spanish treasure ship sailing on the Pacific Ocean.

These ships had a huge cargo capacity. Each trip carried around 30 tons of silver alone, which was close to one million taels of silver, equivalent to 10% of the total tax revenue of the Ming Dynasty.

Each ship carried the spoils of the Spanish plunder, and any mishap on the way would have a huge impact on the Spanish royal family's finances, so they had no choice but to guard them with utmost care.

Lin Qian stared at the Manila Galleon in a daze. This ship not only had extremely high economic value, but its firepower and protection were also top-notch.

In the age of sail, the larger the tonnage of a ship, the more sailors it had, the thicker the hull, the higher the gunwale, and the more cannons it had, with larger calibers.

Whether in long-range gunnery or boarding action, they have an absolute advantage.

In today's world, the mainstream warships in the West are galleons, the same type of ship as the Black Pearl in the Caribbean pirates.

The Manila galleon was even larger than a galleon, making it the largest in the world at the time and giving it an advantage over any galleon warship.

They were utterly outmatched by the Ming Dynasty's ancient naval warships.

This was even after the Manila Galleon sacrificed some space for cannons in order to increase cargo capacity.

Lin Qian's main profession is architectural structural design, and she doesn't know much about ship design, but the basic analysis of resisting external loads, material stress analysis, and space utilization analysis are all interconnected.

If Lin Qian were to modify it, with the design concept of pursuing maximum firepower, at least ten more cannons could be added to the ship.

At the same time, reducing the height of the sterncastle, increasing the number of triangular sails, and increasing the area of ​​the aft mainsail can greatly improve speed and seaworthiness.

If further investment is made, the bottom of the ship can be wrapped with copper and lead; a cruiser stern can be applied; the hull lines can be optimized; the resistance of navigation can be reduced; and the speed can be greatly increased.

At the same time, adding wrought iron armor belts to key waterline areas and applying watertight compartment designs to sub-waterline compartments can significantly reduce the risk of being sunk.

With modifications made regardless of cost, perhaps a single ship could traverse the southeastern coast of the Ming Dynasty...

For Lin Qian, studying different types of design schemes is not only his forte, but also his way of relaxing.

Given that it was already about three in the morning, he allowed himself to relax for ten minutes in this way.

……

ten minutes later.

Lin Qian took a few deep breaths of the fresh sea breeze to dispel her drowsiness, closed the window, sat back down at her desk, and resumed her work.

He took out the nautical charts and logbooks he had found during the day and studied them.

These materials appear extremely crude, and the positional relationships between Dongfan Island, Luzon Island, and Zhangzhou Yuegang on the nautical charts are completely incorrect.

But it's not entirely without value.

After all, there are many islands in the South China Sea, and Lin Qian could learn about the surrounding islands through these nautical charts and logbooks.

And so they looked until dawn.

(End of this chapter)