Chapter 737: Upper edge slanted sail and fin stabilizer (top)

In the Indian Ocean, the dark clouds of war are approaching, and several princes in Egypt and India are fighting hard to prepare for the defeat of the West Portuguese League and the fleet. However, India is not united.

For example, the port of Calicut, because of the severe damage to the trade of the Calicat Kingdom by the joint fleets of Spain and Portugal, joined the camp against the Spanish-Portuguese combined fleet and prohibited commercial ships of the two countries from calling at the port of Calicut.

However, Calicut just rejected Spain and Portugal, and the prince of Cochin State, which has always been imposing Calicart's status as India's largest trading port, immediately hooked up with Spain and Portugal and expressed willingness to trade with the two countries and become willing to become A trading port for Indian spices exports. Moreover, the warships of the two countries are allowed to dock to supply ...

Originally, Zammelin of Calicut (the name of the prince of Tubon) has united a large number of Indian princes of the coastal states to prepare to block Spain and Portugal of pirate acts. However, in order to replace Calicut's spice trading port status, Prince Kochi took the initiative to turn to Spain and Portugal to play a leading role in order to obtain huge taxes.

Indian peppers are produced in many places, not only in the country of Calicut. And those pepper suppliers, whether it is shipped in Calicut port or Cochin. For them, except for the local pepper dealers in Calicut, they are sold to anyone who gives money.

As for Ceylon (Sri Lanka) that provides cinnamon and Southeast Asian merchants who provide cloves and cinnamon, they don't care much. Anyway, Calicut and Cochin are both ports on the southwest coast of India. Where these spice merchants do business in the end depends on the outcome of the battle. If the Spanish-Portuguese coalition wins, then the Spice Trade Center is likely to be transferred to Cochin. Of course, if the Spanish-Portuguese coalition defeated Calicut, it might still be in Calicut, but the controller became the two countries. And if the coalition wins, needless to say, the Spice Trade Center is still in Calicut, and the controller is still the Zammelin family ...

Therefore, whether Calicut will continue to be the spice distribution center in India in the future, or Cochin will replace it, depends on the outcome of the next sea battle ...

However, because both warring parties need a lot of time to prepare. Therefore, to fight, at least until next year ...

...

Marin has no time to ignore disputes in the Indian Ocean, even if he ignores them, it is useless. Because, he did not interfere with the energy and strength there.

It is said that in order to completely dominate the spice trade in the Indian Ocean, Western Portugal and Portugal may increase the number of warships from 27 to 40. Moreover, they are large Clark sailboats. These are all professional warships, and the rest of the Caravel ships that can transport goods or assist in combat are not counted in ...

Marin didn't care about India's affairs. What he was worried about now was the issue of control over the Americas. During this time, he prepared a large number of ships and supplies, as well as related talents, ready to send Aben to build a city in Panama and establish an excellent freshwater port.

However, Aben told Marin that going to Panama City from the sea was not so easy. Fortunately, the other sections are located in the southernmost tip of Tierra del Fuego in South America, which is a very dangerous nautical section.

The waterway there is narrow, and ships can easily run aground and hit the rocks if they are not careful. Moreover, during the process of entering the Pacific Ocean from the Atlantic Ocean, violent westerly winds will be greeted.

Therefore, when walking the crooked strait that Marin inexplicably named the "Magellan Strait", the sailboat's control is very troublesome.

If you use a horizontal sail, not only is it difficult to move forward in the wind, but it is also easy to have an accident, such as stranding or hitting a rock. Therefore, when passing through this strait, Aben and his ship used spinnakers. According to the navigational habits learned from Columbus, Aben's ship was also prepared with two sets of sails: horizontal sail and spinnaker. When encountering downwind, naturally hang the horizontal sail to make full use of the wind force. When encountering headwinds and crosswinds, it is natural to change to spinnakers.

From Grenada, it travels south along the east coast of South America, then through the Strait of Magellan, and north along the west coast of South America. Among them, the wind belt was replaced many times, and the wind direction was very unstable. Therefore, starting south from Grenada, Aben's boat used spinnakers most of the time.

However, this spinnaker, which became the Latin Sail by the Europeans, was very troublesome to handle.

First of all, let me explain here that the mast of a sailing ship is often tied with a crossbar. And this beam is mainly used as a supporting framework for sails. Otherwise, the sails will not spread.

In a horizontal sailing boat, the horizontal beam is naturally fixed to the mast. Moreover, it is perpendicular to the mast and tied horizontally to the mast. The sail hanging from the horizontal beam is the horizontal sail.

A spinnaker like a Latin sail is not the same. It also has a huge spinnaker bound to a crossbar. It ’s just that this beam is not fixed, but can be adjusted (you can see the picture of the spinnaker hanged by the Arabian spinnaker or Kirk sailing. In fact, the Latin sail is the sail that the sailors of the European Mediterranean Mediterranean steal from the Arabs Technology).

However, the adjustment of Latin sails is also very troublesome. Whenever the wind direction is changed after turning the rudder, the spinnaker must also change position and continue to sail in another direction.

It should be pointed out that this kind of beam tied to the mast is called a sail truss. On a horizontal sailing boat, because the truss is tied, it is naturally positive. The schooner, which is a dinghy that uses Latin sails, is tied to the mast obliquely. Therefore, it is called a diagonal beam. In addition, in order to drive the ship forward, the general method of tying the slant is to tie the lower end to the front of the mast, and the high end to the rear of the mast. Then, the triangle tip of the spinnaker is tied to the left or right side of the vessel by the sailor, depending on the wind direction.

As a result, when the spinnaker receives wind from the side, it will swell for a ride. Then, the wind force is transmitted to the slant, and then to the mast to drive the ship forward.

However, this kind of spinnaker commutation is more troublesome. After turning the rudder or turning the wind suddenly, in order to continue the ride in another direction, the sailor first needs to untie the triangle-pointed rope of the previously fixed jib and receive the jib on the slant. Then, untie the fixed rope to the girders, erect the girders first, and then pass the mast to the other side of the mast. By, let go of the sails again, re-bind the triangle tip, to make use of the wind on the other side ...

However, this operation is too cumbersome and time-consuming. If it's on the ocean, it's nothing. It's not a big deal. But if it is in a narrow strait with high winds and waves, it can kill people ...

You are slowly operating the spinnaker there, but time waits for no one. If you are not careful, when the sailor is busy changing direction, the ship is pushed by the wind and waves to the beach and runs aground or simply hits the reef, then it is finished ...

Therefore, for safety reasons, it is best to have a quick way to change the direction of the Latin spinnaker ...

Then, Marin remembered the upper edge slant sails of later generations ...

In later generations, modern sailing ships almost always use upper-edge slant jib, why? This is not the strongest sailing ability. Rather, this type of upper edge slant sail is the most easy to operate and saves manpower. You know, the times are different. How expensive are modern artificial thieves! If you hire another sailor, the boss may go bankrupt ... So, this sailor-saving upper-edge slant sail came into being ...

Later generations of Marin had heard that a very large flying scissor named Wyoming had six masts installed and the average speed was up to 16 knots. However, the sailor who controls the sails ~ www.wuxiaspot.com ~ only needs 14 people-it is too saving salary expenses ...

When Marin thought of this, he burst into tears. Columbus explored the new continent's more than one hundred tons of small broken ships. It took 40 sailors to get it. The 250-class armed merchant ships currently used by Marin also require fifty or sixty sailors. The Wyoming flying shear with a displacement of tens of thousands of tons only needs 14 sailors to control ... This is much more labor-saving ...

Although, manpower is not valuable in this era. Unlike the workers of later generations, Nima has to pay five insurances and one gold in addition to salary ... But if the manpower required for each ship is less, and the number of manpower is unchanged, you can control more ships!

Is Marin missing a boat? Temporarily missing. However, it will soon be available. Because many of the oaks felled by Marin in the American colonies have been air-dried for more than two years and can be used to build ships in large quantities.

Only because of the current limitation of the number of shipbuilding craftsmen, there is no large-scale ship explosion. But Marin has established a shipbuilding technology school and began to train shipbuilding craftsmen on a large scale. As long as the number of shipbuilding craftsmen is sufficient, and the endless tree resources of the Americas, the ship explosion can be expected. However, by then, if there were not enough sailors, it would be embarrassing ...

Therefore, for Marin, it is also important to save manpower to control the sailing boat ...