Chapter 274: , Free Trade Number

The choice of the messenger was left to Lucien. After all, the Ministry of Truth had the most talk about liars, even more than the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Of course, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs also has its own advantages, that is, many people in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs receive wages from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, secretly from the Ministry of Truth, or from the Ministry of Public Security, or even from three departments at the same time.
Lucien found a guy with very good working ability in his department. Last time, this guy helped him find out a lot of people who are in the Ministry of Truth, whose heart is in the Ministry of Public Security, who are paid in the Ministry of Truth, and who are paid in the Ministry of Public Security. The guy with the bonus therefore entered Lucien's eyes.
After talking with this person, Lucien even decided that this is a very capable guy worthy of reuse. This guy’s hands are full of cocoons made when he was a craftsman. When necessary, he can show an honest silly hat at any time, but he can speak five languages ​​and has received a pretty good education. More importantly, he His mind is quite sober, he can clearly see where his interests are, and he is very courageous, not afraid of death, nor afraid of letting others die. Or to put it more clearly, this guy is a natural liar and robber.
This guy is called Victor de Treville. Well, look at the name, you know he is a nobleman. But the birthplace is involuntary, and the path is optional. Just like in "93", Guo Wen, who was born a noble, stood firmly on the side of the revolution, so Victor was also one, at least he seemed to betray his birth, and stood firmly with the broad revolutionary masses. Progressive nobles together. He severed ties with his brother who remained in the reactionary camp. In the battle to suppress the aristocratic rebellion when Napoleon became the key to the first ruling power, he made a lot of credit, and he is now one of the trump cards of the Ministry of Truth.
So as soon as he received this task, Lucien thought of him.
Victor also knew that although he was reused, he faced a big problem. That is, he has always worked in the secret department.
In the eyes of many people, working in a secret department is so powerful and prestigious that you can't even mention the name. But this is actually a complete misunderstanding, the result of being misled by various dramas. The more you can't mention the name, the more you can be sacrificed at any time. No one knows if you sacrifice. Not to mention the kind that can’t be mentioned. Most of the time, it’s the commander of Jinyiwei with a name and a surname. It compares with the civil servants of the eight scriptures, especially the civil servants of Shuji. Actually Mao Doesn't count.
If you really want to climb up, you must find a way to go to the open road and become a character whose name can appear in the newspaper. And Victor knew that this time as the envoy of the first ruling Napoleon to Santo Domingo, it might be such an opportunity.
So after receiving the task, Victor immediately went home to prepare. He only confessed to his wife "I'm going to go on a task", and he took the luggage he had prepared because he often needed it for a certain task. Go out immediately, so there will always be a set of luggage that has been packed in a box and can be carried out.
The wife, who had been used to all this, didn't ask him where he was going or when he would be back. Because most of the time, these are also "confidential". It was Victor himself who added: "Maybe we will be out for a long time this time." And when he went out, his son Edgar said gruffly: "Dad, remember to bring me paint when I come back. The paint is almost used up again."
Victor answered with a smile and went out.
There was already a carriage waiting at the door.
"Go to Russell's Wharf." Victor said to the coachman when he got into the carriage.
Russell Pier is a pier on the Seine, where there are steamboats to Le Havre. In order to protect the secrets of propellers, in addition to navy warships, civilian steamships are still only allowed to use paddle wheels. This of course slows down the speed of the ship, but because the ship is nonstop day and night, this is already the fastest way from Paris to the Atlantic coast. Of course, if you reverse the direction and go to Paris from the Atlantic coast, it is faster to take the post.
When Victor arrived in Le Havre, the staff of the Ministry of Truth had prepared him a ship to Santo Domingo.
This is a large steam frigate named "Free Trade" with three towering masts and two large chimneys. The so-called large steam frigate is the latest experimental warship of the French Navy. , It has reached the level of a second-class battleship in terms of displacement, which is about 2,300 tons.
In addition to the huge increase in displacement, she also used many new technologies. The first is the steel keel.
In this era, the keel needed to build battleships is a hard-won strategic resource. Although keel splicing technology is available, the strength of splicing keel is obviously not comparable to that of a giant tree directly grown, and the use of splicing There are also great restrictions. Therefore, the keel has severely restricted the size of warships and other ships.
But the appearance of cheap steel has changed this situation. Steel is stronger than any wood, and it can be as thick as you want, and as long as you want. The only problem is that steel is prone to rust in the marine environment. Most of the other parts of a boat are replaceable, but the keel cannot be replaced. Once the keel is severely rusted, it almost means that the ship is complete.
Of course, this is not without a solution, such as adding chromium to steel to make stainless steel. In fact, stainless steel has already appeared in the laboratory of military complexes. But chromium has just been discovered, and its extraction is not easy, which makes the cost of stainless steel quite high. Moreover, the corrosion resistance of the stainless steel produced in the laboratory of the military-industrial complex is not enough to resist the salt spray environment at sea, and the strength is also very general compared to ordinary steel. Therefore, this technology is not suitable for being used to make the keel of warships.
Another related technique is to galvanize the entire steel keel. On the earth, the reserves of zinc are far less than that of chromium, but its extraction is not difficult. A certain mysterious eastern country has been able to produce large amounts of metallic zinc as early as a thousand years ago. Until the nineteenth century, the metal Zinc is one of the leading products exported by a major country.
The melting point of zinc is very low, which makes the process of galvanizing quite simple, no electroplating or anything is needed, only the hot dip method is needed.
The keel of this battleship uses this technique.
The use of steel keel made the cost of this big guy of more than two thousand tons relatively lower. The construction time saved is even more obvious.
The ship still uses steam and sail hybrid power, but is equipped with two larger steam engines and is equipped with twin propellers.
Of course, the steam engine and coal bunker took up a lot of space, resulting in the ship still only having a complete gun deck and a short low-level gun deck.
However, compared to the past "Equality", "Free Trade" is still much stronger. It has a total of twenty 110 mm rear-mounted rifled guns. Two of them are installed in the bow part, and the other eighteen doors are distributed on both sides of the warship. The upper gun deck has seven doors on each side, and the second gun deck has two doors on each side.
Although the number of cannons has only increased by two, the rate of fire and power of each cannon has greatly increased.
"Free Trade" has completed many sailing tests in offshore areas, but it was the first time for her to sail across the Atlantic Ocean. And this kind of voyage was also designed for her purpose: sailing to the new continent to defend free trade between the old and new continents.
In fact, this ship is not yet fully prepared for such a long voyage. It's just a change in the situation in Haiti, and there is an urgent need for a warship that can shake the ground. Napoleon only asked the navy to allow the "Free Trade" to sail in advance.
The night after Victor got on the ship, the ship sailed out of the harbor and sailed towards the vast sea.
The speed of the "Free Trade" is not fast. On average, it is about 7 knots. Of course, this is because they did not start the steam engine, and were sailing entirely on sails. Although the bunker of the "Free Trade" is large, it cannot support the voyage across the Atlantic.
Victor had no experience of traveling on a sea boat before, so the days at sea were very novel at first. But the freshness passed quickly, and the days suddenly became monotonous and boring. It takes more than a month to sail across the Atlantic. In this month ~EbookFREE.me~ Viktor can see the blue sky except the blue sea, and the blue sky except the blue sea.
Occasionally, they can also meet one or two other ships, but most of these ships avoid them far away, and occasionally one or two get closer, but after seeing the size of the "Free Trade" clearly, He immediately turned and ran away.
"Mr. Treville, is this the first time you have participated in such a voyage?" Captain Zola asked as Victor looked at the sea boredly by himself.
"Yes, it is indeed the first time I have participated in such a voyage. I have taken a sea boat before, but it was in the Mediterranean Sea, from Marseille to Genoa. At that time, I already felt that the sea was really too big. I know, the Mediterranean is so small. By the way, Captain, how long will we get to Santo Domingo."
"Ah, Mr. Treville, you have asked this question more than once. Maybe tomorrow, maybe the day after tomorrow, in short, we are almost there." Captain Zola replied.
Victor smiled embarrassedly. Just as he was about to say something, he heard the lookout shouting: "Found the ship, direction at 13 o'clock!"
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