Zhang Heng went back to the captain's room on the Jackdaw and wiped the rain on his head with a towel. On the other side, Annie changed her clothes quickly.
Zhang Heng poured a glass of rum for the girl with red hair to warm her body, and then he drank a glass himself. This kind of wine is the standard for sailors, but it doesn't taste very good. Although it is made from sugarcane juice, it is bitter, which is not as good as wine and brandy, but it is cheaper and has a longer shelf life than fresh water.
Generally, the bottled water on the ship will become very hard to drink after a month, and various plankton will breed in it. However, rum can last for one or two years, which is a necessary product on the ship.
After a cup, Zhang Heng's stomach immediately rose a warm, but at this time, there was a knock on the door.
Billy came in with a little cramped young man.
"This is Mr. Vincent," the helmsman made a brief introduction. "I've read the note you gave me to all the crew on board. We're lucky that Mr. Vincent happens to know the words on it."
Zhang Heng also recognized each other. He was the ship doctor who just got on the ship this time and was recruited by Billy himself. However, he seemed to prefer botany. He was hijacked by a group of pirates on the way to research on the ship and was forced to become the ship doctor of the other party. A year later, the group of Pirates dissolved and merged into another Pirate Group. Vincent regained his freedom, but because he was afraid of his own pirates The calendar was turned out and had to stay on the island.
He lives next door to Billy. He usually makes money by keeping accounts for pubs, courtyards and other places. Under Billy's persuasion, he finally decides to go out with jackdaw again.
"This is a list of goods, but it's written in Dutch. It records the goods carried by a ship every time it sails. They are common things, such as cotton, woollen cloth, or wood." The young ship doctor talked to the captain for the first time. He was a little nervous and worried that Zhang Heng would not believe him. He explained, "my father is Scottish, but my mother is Dutch. When I was a child, I lived in Holland for a period of time, so I can speak some Dutch.
"What about these?" Zhang Heng also gave Vincent the other two notes.
Annie was going to leave, but she stopped at this time. She was curious about the strange missing crew on the ship and wanted to know what happened to them.
The young ship doctor took the notes, opened one of them, read two pages, and said with some uncertainty, "this should be A collection of poems. "
"Poetry collection?"
"Yes, and love poems." Vincent turned a few more pages. "Most of them are written to a woman named Betty, but the level is not so good. It's the first time that I've seen someone use storm to describe his lover, and most of them are not It's very explicit. "
The young ship doctor said that he blushed first.
"Can you read us one?"
"Oh, good OK, no problem Vincent peeked at Annie beside him. The red haired girl didn't respond to this at all.
the young ship doctor turned over and found an article that looked good. He cleared his throat and said, "Betty, my love, I praise you, I adore you. You are the master of the storm, your chest is like the fruit of bending the branches, your Er, your legs are like a valley flowing with honey... " Reading here, Vincent's forehead exuded sweat, he could not help loosening his collar, looked up and asked Zhang Heng, "do I want to read on?"
"Now that you have read this..."
"Well," said the young ship doctor, touching some of his hot ears, "you wrap me in your own body. The whisper in my ear makes me fly. I love you so much that I'm desperate to surpass my soul. I'd like to be with you all my life There's no more in the back. " Vincent said, "if you like Dutch poetry, I can find something much better."
When the young doctor finished, he found that the three people in the room were looking at him. So he picked up the third note again. After a while, he said, "this one looks like a record of their replenishment at each port. It has the name of the port, the date and the statistics of supplies."
"So there's no captain's log in here?"
"I don't think I've seen anything like that." Vincent shook his head.
"Did you forget to take it?" Asked Annie.
"It's not likely. I've checked all the books in that room, including the ones that fell on the ground. Except for these three books, there's no handwriting. They're all printed materials."
Zhang Heng asked the young ship doctor, "are the handwriting of these three notes the same?"
"There are two similar books, the goods list and supply records, but the love poems are different." Vincent went through it again, and then affirmed, "yes, these three notes should come from two people."
Billy said, "the first two are usually bookkeeper's jobs. Unfortunately, we can't find the captain's diary. It's hard to know what happened on that ship at that time."
As soon as he finished, Vincent said, "wait, it's a little strange here."
The young ship doctor was still holding the last supply record in his hand, with a look of doubt on his face. "I know these two ports are quite far away. My brother and I spent nearly a month on the ship. How could it be less than 15 days between the two supplies? The speed should be more than nine knots. There were such fast cargo ships in those days Is that right? ""In the state of that ship, full sail and full speed should be almost reached." Billy said, "but in reality, it's impossible to do that. In 15 days, the wind just keeps at the same level. It won't break the mast, and it can provide the maximum speed for sailing. The probability of this kind of thing happening is similar to that of a thousand gold coins falling right in front of you."
"But the captain of the ship didn't think so."
Vincent pointed to the line above and said, "they only replenished fresh water and food for the first port for about 16 days, only one and a half days from the last voyage."
"Ha, no wonder they had an accident in the end."
"But when we got on board, they had plenty of supplies. It was obvious that the ship didn't happen because of the captain's arrogance." Zhang Hengdao then said to Billy, "I remember there is a more complete chart on board. Find it out. Let Vincent see if he can mark the ports where it stops all the way and calculate its average speed, so that we can know whether his previous sailing time is accidental."
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