Chapter 121: ,black Pearl

After all, it was busy with official business, so Joseph left that afternoon. The caring Napoleon also sent a battalion of cavalry to him. It's just that when sending him away, everyone felt a bit of a "paper boat burning in the sky".

In fact, Joseph did not criticize Napoleon too harshly. He just pointed out very kindly that Napoleon’s idea of ​​caring for his younger brother was of course good, but the way it was extremely wrong.

"A truly moral person uses morality to demand and restrain others in the way of caring for others; only those ignorant fools show their love for others in a tolerant way. You, and Polina, both commit crimes. Made this mistake! Polina is still a child, but Napoleon, you are not. You have to reflect and you can’t make this mistake again.

As for that matter, the responsibility is not yours. The Leclerc you sent out did a very good job. Explain that you actually have a human eye. As for Lucien, you mainly included too much personal will in your judgment. You have to know that the world does not move according to our personal wishes. But Napoleon, you are a smart man, better than me in many ways. I think you should be able to understand this truth. "

As a result, both Napoleon and Polina were gently let go. Only poor Lucien was not only ordered to complete a five-thousand-word review, but also assigned a lot of homework. Until Joseph left and left, Lucien was still busy writing a review that was beaten back and rewritten—Joseph had already ordered that, after writing it, let Napoleon pass it to himself in the form of official documents.

Returning to the research institute, Joseph re-invested in research work, time passed quickly, and the first shoddy smuggling ship was finally completed.

This is a temporary ship, so many places have a taste of improvisation. But this is also normal, because this ship was originally used to verify technical indicators. As for how long it can be used, no one has too many requirements.

However, even for such a ship, a secret launching ceremony is still needed.

In one morning, the small boat, painted in black and gray, slid gently into the small bay along the buttered slide. There were some white waves in the calm bay.

"This ship must be fast. Much faster than any ship we have seen before." A thin navy captain said, looking at the white waves.

"Captain Sparrow, are you so sure?" asked Joseph, who was watching.

"Because the splash is very small when entering the water, much smaller than a ship of the same size." Captain Sparrow replied.

At this time, the new ship, which was still a little shaky at the beginning of the launch, has stabilized. Captain Sparrow said to Joseph, "Your Excellency, now we are going to try this boat. Please allow me to leave temporarily."

"I wish you all the best," Joseph said.

Captain Sparrow took two small boats with a group of sailors and rowed toward the new boat.

Captain Sparrow was originally a sailor captain on the Navy's frigate "Tirena". During the revolution, he led the soldiers to prevent the mutiny of Captain Rembrandt, and thus gained the trust of the revolutionary government. Later, under the order of the government, he commanded a smuggling ship to smuggle various urgently needed strategic resources between France and Spain.

In these operations, he got rid of several British and Spanish warships. In an encounter with a Spanish cruiser, he led the Spanish into the reef area, causing the Spanish cruiser to hit the rocks and damage it. In Foucher's words, "There is no captain of a smuggling ship, more reliable and capable than Sparrow."

Generally speaking, a boat of about two hundred tons generally has only one mast, and the height of the mast is relatively limited. Add a forward stilt used to tie the spinnaker, and hang a few vertical sails.

Such ships are the main force of smuggling ships. They have a shallow draft and move along the coast. They can go to many places where big ships cannot go. If the captain is familiar with the seas in this area, he can lean against places such as shallow reefs. Get rid of enemy warships. They can steer flexibly and have a strong ability to travel upwind. Sometimes even if they encounter enemy warships in wide waters, they can take the upper hand by taking risks, and then escape by relying on the upwind performance.

But this ship is different, because it has a very large aspect ratio, which allows it to be fitted with two masts, and the low center of gravity brought about by the structure of the deep V ship and low freeboard without a ship makes this ship The height of the two masts of the ship is slightly higher than that of a general ship of the same tonnage.

The sailors got on the ship and quickly unfolded the spinnaker between the fore mainmast and the diagonal mast. The two spinnakers were also gray-black. The ship slowly sailed out of the bay in the early morning breeze and came to the open. On the sea. Then the sailors unfolded the two mainmasts and controlled the ship to sail against the wind.

Sailing boats with schooners can take advantage of the Bernoulli effect and sail against the wind while taking a z-shaped course. And this boat, under the slight wind, is obviously accelerating rapidly. The high-rise bow split the gray-blue sea. The waves from the head and the long wake left by the stern can be seen. Even under headwinds, the ship ran at a high speed. .

The sailors threw the knotted rope into the sea and began to measure the speed of the ship. Joseph saw through the telescope that the rope was washed into the sea within a short time.

Then the ship retracted the sails on the mainmast and began to turn using the jib at the bow. The ship drew a big circle on the sea and turned to tailwind.

At this time, the sailors on the ship had collected the rope they had just thrown into the sea to measure the speed of the ship, and opened the mainsail to test the speed when it was downwind. Even from Joseph's point of view, it can be clearly felt that the speed of this boat is faster when it is downwind.

"It's like flying." Beside Joseph, the shipbuilder Bernard exclaimed. "I think it's faster than ten knots! Anyone willing to make a bet with me?"

There was a burst of laughter next to him, and a voice said, "Bernard, isn't this an obvious thing? What's a gamble? Let me say, there are at least 12 knots. Do you gamble?"

"Don't bet." Bernard said without hesitation. "The speed is still increasing. It should be more than 12 knots now..."

By this time the boat had already ran a considerable distance. Looking at it from a distance, the gray-black hull and gray-black sails seemed to blend into the gray-blue sea and the clouds.

This is why Joseph insisted on painting the boat in this color. Compared with those warships with snow-white sails, this ship is very inconspicuous. Even when the light is good, it is difficult to see it from a long distance, and if it is dimly lit early morning or dusk , I'm afraid it slips past under the eyes of others, and they may not be able to find it. For smuggling ships, this is too important.

At this time, the ship's downwind speed test has also been completed. As usual, the ship retracted its mainsail, slowly turned its head, then reopened its sails and sailed back.

When it arrived in the bay, the ship put away its mainsail and one spinnaker, and slowly approached the pier with only a small spinnaker on the bow. When the ship docked at the dock, it was extremely clumsy, and it took a long time before it could be considered reluctantly to come up.

When the ship stabilized, Captain Sparrow took the lead to get off the ship, and everyone greeted it.

"How?" Joseph asked first.

"The ship is very fast, very fast. When headwinds, it knocked down nine knots. This is faster than a normal cruiser when it goes downwind. As for the tailwind, it runs to thirteen knots as soon as possible. I think it's actually still It can be faster, but I’m not familiar with this boat yet and I can’t run faster."

"In fact, at this speed, it is already the fastest ship in the world!" A person laughed.

"That is, at this speed, no warship can catch up with it." Captain Sparrow replied.

"Very well, except for speed, what about other things?" Joseph asked again.

"Other circumstances? Well, the ship is very stupid after slowing down, and it is very difficult to turn. Such a small boat, when turning, I feel like I am controlling a first-class battleship. Even a first-class battleship, at low speed It’s more agile than it at the time. But as long as the mainsail is unfolded, it accelerates like a horse. Therefore, when the ship is moving, I suggest not to enter the shore or stop at the smuggling dock. It should stop at In the open sea, use a sampan to transfer the goods up. This is safer..."

Speaking of this, Captain Sparrow paused for a while and said, "We don't expect the seaworthiness of this ship to be very good. But from just now, the situation seems to be better than we thought. The ship swayed very quickly. But the magnitude of the shaking is not too great. Well, I changed a battleship and it swayed from side to side, it may take more than half a minute, and this ship can be shaken around seven or eight times during this period, but I have to say The amount of shaking is actually not great. I even think that if it is only used in the Mediterranean, we can increase the mast a bit higher so that we can run faster."

"This speed is enough. If you raise the mast and increase the speed, the meaning is limited." Joseph said, "We'd better leave more redundancy."

In fact, the most widely used route used by flying shears in the original history of ~EbookFREE.me~ is the route from North America to Europe. This kind of ship can cross the stormy Atlantic Ocean, and its seaworthiness is not bad. However, speaking of comfort, because the frequency of swaying is too high, coupled with the serious waves on the deck, it is almost the same as being in the water, so the comfort of this kind of boat is almost a mess. Even if you are transporting slaves, no one will use flying shears. (Using it to transport slaves will greatly increase the mortality rate of slaves, resulting in a significant reduction in the amount of money that can be sold.)

"Then, the trial of this ship is considered a success. We should give it a name. Well, Captain Sparrow, you are its first captain. It is up to you to name it." Joseph Say.

Captain Sparrow looked at the gray-black ship, and thought for a while, "This ship is all black. Why not call it the Black Pearl."