Chapter 121 Mwanza Shipyard

January 3, 1868.

Great Lakes Region, Mwanza.

The Great Lake (Lake Victoria) has a water area of ​​nearly 70,000 square kilometers, an average water depth of about 40 meters, and good navigation capabilities.

If you want to develop the Great Lakes, you will need advanced ships. No matter how advanced they are, they are at least better than the canoes used by the indigenous people.

Moreover, there are more than a thousand islands in the great lake alone, many of which are suitable for human habitation, and are naturally inhabited by indigenous people.

These indigenous people make a living by fishing and may live on the island all their lives. This is naturally not allowed by the East African colonial government that pursues "clearance" as its ultimate goal.

Therefore, out of consideration for the development and utilization of the Great Lakes and the cleanup of the indigenous people on the islands, it is necessary to establish East Africa's own Lake Troops.

Whether it is fishermen fishing or the establishment of inner lake troops, they are inseparable from boats.

Even in previous lives, the main mode of transportation on Lake Victoria was ferries. Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania have all built ports along the coast of Lake Victoria. Relying on the vast waters of the Great Lakes, they have established many relatively large port cities. These lake ports are even compared with some seaports in Africa. Not bad at all.

The Great Lakes also have rich freshwater fishery resources. With the development of the East African colonies and the restrictions on eating wild animals in the East African colonies, it is inevitable to find new alternative sources of meat.

At present, Ernst has two ideas. One is to develop pastures and engage in animal husbandry. One was to develop the fishery resources of freshwater lakes in colonial East Africa.

The development of animal husbandry takes time, and the fishery resources in East African lakes are all ready. The Great Lakes, Lake Solon, Lake Malawi and even Lake Turkana, any one of which is enough to meet the current meat needs of the East African colonies. need.

As for the fishery resources in the ocean, it is true that the fishery resources along the East African coast are very rich, especially during the season when the Somali cold current passes, large-scale fishing grounds will be formed.

However, the current conditions of the East African colonies cannot afford to build large shipyards, and if the fishing boats are too small, they will not be safe on the ocean.

This is not as cost-effective as developing fishery resources in inland lakes. After all, inland lakes are not as choppy as the ocean.

Ernst planned to set up several small shipyards in inland lakes to produce ships that would not only satisfy the fishing industry, but also accelerate the development and expansion of East Africa.

After all, these lakes are large and have vast waters. If you go to the other side, you have to go around a long distance by land. If you have a boat, you can save a lot of time.

At the same time, the ship has a large cargo capacity, which facilitates the transportation of goods and personnel and can effectively reduce losses.

Currently, the most important means of transportation in East Africa are horse-drawn carriages and ox-carts. In places where there is a lot of construction, there are also many wooden wheelbarrows (mainly driven by manpower to transport food and other materials), which are also important means of transportation in East Africa.

The first shipyard in East Africa was located in Mwanza on the shores of the Great Lake (Lake Victoria).

This is the result of comprehensive consideration of various circumstances.

Two important cities in the current East African colonies are located along the Great Lakes, one is Mwanza (the capital of the Great Lakes region) and the other is Kisumu (the capital of Western Kenya). Connecting the two cities can accelerate the development of the Great Lakes, and connecting the two cities Naturally, it relies on ships.

At the same time, the indigenous people living on the islands on the large lakes also need to be addressed. Lake Solon and Lake Malawi do not have similar needs, so there is no need to rush to build factories.

In addition, the attack on the northwest also needs to rely on the navigation capabilities of the Great Lakes, so that control of the northwest can be strengthened in the future.

Finally, there are the excellent natural conditions of Mwanza itself. Relying on Mwanza Bay, Mwanza itself is a natural excellent lake port.

Previously, the Sukuma tribe (actually known as "Gypsies of Tanzania", the largest ethnic group in Tanzania with more than 120 ethnic groups) lived here. Later, the East African colonies directly occupied it. The magpie's nest has taken over this place.

In the subsequent "purge" movement, the entire Sukuma tribe in the Great Lakes region was expelled. They were driven by the East African colonial government into the largest tribe in the eight northwest countries.

The Mwanza Shipyard is located in the southwest of Mwanza City, on the south side of a small peninsula extending westward in Mwanza Bay. The place is calm and the water is deep, so it is very suitable to build a shipyard based on the peninsula.

…

Coming to East Africa is definitely a chore to stay in Europe.

So Ernst directly assigned people from among the Chinese interns in his own shipyards in Europe to go to Africa to guide the shipyard construction work.

These Chinese interns were all students of the Hechingen Military Academy, so they obeyed Ernst's orders unconditionally.

Compared with the days of displacement and daily hunger in the Far East, although the conditions in East Africa are not bad, they are not bad at all for these young Chinese people who once lived in the hot water.

Moreover, while they were in school, they were prepared to go through fire and water for the principal. However, they failed because their spoken English (German) was too poor. The translator must at least be able to communicate without any barriers.

Therefore, many students who are not proficient in the language stay in Europe to further their German studies. However, the school cannot support them forever, so they can only go to internships in companies under Hechingen and learn German while working. This is faster than learning in school. After all, Most of my colleagues around me are German, and the language environment is better.

And those students with excellent grades (good German) were transferred to East Africa, where they entered the military and local government and were responsible for coordination work.

Since European students were recruited late, all the Hechingen students who practiced in the Hechingen factory in the early days were Chinese.

And Rob Lee was the candidate chosen by Ernst. With a name like this, you can tell that he was originally Chinese.

Rob Lee had previously interned with German workers at the Venice Shipyard, and was later transferred to work in Hamburg together.

As one of the few Chinese students working in a shipyard, he was selected to go to East Africa to guide shipyard construction work.

Although Rob Lee only has more than a year of work experience, the shipyards in Venice and Hamburg both build ocean-going ships, and Rob Lee also learned the experience of building ocean-going ships.

Therefore, going to East Africa to guide the work at the Mwanza Shipyard is a waste of time.

Hundreds of workers, under the direction of Rob Lee and German technicians, leveled the land along the shore, felled trees, and cleared debris.

This time not only Rob Lee himself came, but also a German technician, but this time he was only responsible for the work for the first few months, and he would still have to return to Germany later.

This German technician was able to come to East Africa because of the large amount of remuneration and he just took the risk. As an old shipwright, his economic conditions in Germany were not bad and he was much better than ordinary people.

So he just planned to make a quick buck and leave. After all, the conditions in East Africa were too poor and there were not even entertainment venues. Coupled with his knowledge of Africa (compulsory education in Prussia included geography), he naturally did not plan to stay there permanently.

Soon, under the command of the two men, a large open space was cleared by workers on the south side of the peninsula, and reserved land for buildings and roads was planned around it.

In order to put the shipyard into operation as soon as possible, Rob Lee decided to start construction on land and water at the same time. While building the shipyard's land-based workshops and roads, he built the shipyard relying on the water body.

The Great Lakes Basin has abundant rainfall, dense forests, and inexhaustible wood.

The Mwanza government organized people to cut trees to provide raw materials for shipyard construction.

These trees are high-quality materials that have grown for many years. However, the indigenous productivity is backward and they are unable to develop these trees on a large scale. This makes the East African colonies cheaper.

The design scale of the shipyard is not very large, and the technical requirements are not too high. Most of the materials used are local wood to make the hull.

Although it is a shipyard in Africa, production equipment still has to be imported from Europe. Although due to geographical location, the production equipment imported from Europe is not easy to transport, the impact is not big.

In addition to production equipment, some parts and components, including ship nails and ship paint, need to be imported.

Although the Mwanza Shipyard is not large enough to be seen in Europe, the Mwanza Shipyard will also be recorded in history in the future, that is, it will be the first to use engines and special propellers produced by Berlin Energy Power Company.

At present, many technologies of Berlin Energy Power Company have been stored and have not been used in Europe. However, there is no need to worry about East Africa. This is Ernst's territory and there is no fear of leaks.

This kind of boat-specific engine is tested here, and its measured data and performance are also very good. It can be regarded as opening up a water track for future Berlin Energy Power Company products in advance.

Currently, these important components are produced in closed factories affiliated with Berlin Energy Power Company and then transported to East Africa via ocean.

Shipbuilders in East Africa only need to complete the assembly according to the design drawings.

This kind of boat equipped with an engine is actually a small speedboat. The hull is made of wood and has a willow leaf shape. After the engine is started, it can run extremely fast.

In the previous life, this kind of extremely simple boat, which could be copied by ordinary people by collecting the materials, was absolutely nothing.

But in this era, ships using petroleum engines are the most advanced ships of the same size.

The power required for these speedboats is generated by oil, which needs to be imported, but if you are not in a hurry, you can also use paddles to slide slowly.

In addition to such boats with engines, Mwanza Shipyard mainly produces small fishing boats without engines.

Speedboats with engines will be given priority to form the lake force (water force), while traditionally powered boats will be provided to fishermen in Mwanza and Kisumu.

Although Kisumu is not close to Mwanza, once the boats are built, speedboats and ropes can pull a large number of ordinary small fishing boats to Kisumu.

Therefore, the Mwanza Shipyard, after completion, will be enough to supply the needs of Mwanza and Kisumu for ships (after all, the two cities have a small population, with a total of more than 26,000 people currently).

In the future, Mwanza and Kisumu will be positioned as important cities in East Africa. The local environment has a large carrying capacity, sufficient water resources, and rich products. Africa is suitable for population gathering, and the development of fishery resources is an important step in its development.