Chapter 274

Last night's experience was probably Lorraine's biggest fall after the death of the captain in Cherbourg.

A total of 22 people were killed and 16 people were injured to varying degrees. Among them, 19 people involved in the explosion were killed, and none of them survived.

The Jackdaw is also sacrificing the sequence.

The keel was broken, the poop was broken, the main mast and the back mast were broken, and the back deck was in a mess, and almost no complete place could be found.

Had it not been for the Jackdaw's lack of combat effectiveness, Lorraine had only stored a minimum of gunpowder and shells, and the explosion alone would be enough to send the ship directly to the bottom of the sea.

Now, after a night's toss, the fire was extinguished, the hull was barely saved, the salvage of personal belongings in the poop was almost over, and all the flying arms were handed over to the saints.

At present, Lorraine has two urgent problems. One is how to avoid people's eyes and ears and lift out the ancient gold ware weighing more than 300 pounds and gold coins worth nearly 50000 pounds under the bilge deck.

The total weight of these gold reached more than 370 kilograms, including tens of thousands of golden octagonal gold coins, tens of thousands of pounds and almost a number of golden Louis.

If these evils were piled directly on the bank, Lorraine worried that he would go to war with the white people in Qianwan.

The other is the boat

The life of the Jackdaw was doomed to extinction, and Lorraine lost her flagship for the first time in her life.

What's worse, the Jackdaw is very important to him, and its value is far more than a good ship.

He needs to find a substitute for the Jackdaw as soon as possible, a super high-speed merchant ship with enough cargo tanks, large enough and certain self-protection ability.

This kind of ship can be found only in three places, one is Bermuda, one is Baltimore, and the other is now Boston's Back Bay.

That's why Lorraine followed Jefferson to Houwan.

With Jefferson's wisdom, he must know Lorraine's needs.

Since he recommended his friend at this time, Lorraine had reason to be optimistic. The shipyard owner named Emond Haite happened to have the water tank and boat Lorraine needed.

As a result, it was really good.

Seeing the smoky jackdaw slowly dragged into the temporarily rented shipyard water tank by two tugboats, Lorraine finally breathed a sigh of relief.

"Mr. Haite, I am really grateful that you are willing to take us in after what happened last night."

On the wharf of the water tank, Lorraine, Jefferson and a tall and strong gentleman gathered in a triangle.

This gentleman was Jefferson's friend Edmund Haite, the owner of Boston Haite shipyard, a gentle man with oil and paint seeping through his fingers.

How to say... As like as two peas, it is the same as not being able to speak.

Listening to Lorraine's politeness, Haite waved his hands and remained modest.

"No, no, no, Mr. KENWAY, I haven't done anything for you. You rented the water tank, and even the accident compensation terms are your proposal. I can't find any reason to refuse in the face of a considerate gentleman like you."

"Think of others? Probably no one in Qianwan will see it like this..." Lorraine laughed and pointed to Cang Wai.

There was an obvious disappointment on Hatter's face, and even his broad shoulders hung down.

"Really? Yes, your experience last night was too thrilling. Now you should have a good rest instead of dealing with me, a stranger who met for the first time..."

Lorraine gave Jefferson a strange look, but only saw a helpless wry smile on the old and crafty politician's face.

But Jefferson seemed to have no intention of interrupting.

Lorraine rolled her eyes sadly. "Mr. Haite may have misunderstood. I didn't mean the door just now, but your dock."

"My dock?"

"Yes, you can see the condition of the Jackdaw. Since the governor introduced me here, I think you should have a good boat in your hand, right?"

……

Lorraine never thought that a temptation to leave everything to optimism would bring him to such a strange ship.

Yes, strange.

In the third dry dock of Haite shipyard, Lorraine stood in front of a large ship with its mast unloaded and silently looked through the detailed sea trial report provided by Haite.

According to the description of the sea trial report, the ship named road label has a length of 53 meters, a width of 9.7 meters, a draft of 5.5 meters and a drainage capacity of 1150 tons.

She should be a three mast barg mixed sailboat of the same type as the jackdaw, with three backward leaning masts. The main mast is 52 meters long and the elevation is 50 meters. The sails are double horizontal and one vertical, which sounds regular.

Of course, it sounds like what it sounds like, because no living person with eyes will connect the word road sign with the word "regular".

This is a demon ship cursed by speed!

The weak hollow bow sacrificed the bow gun and moved the center of gravity back for speed.

The standard Baltimore design of the bow, shield and stern of the ship improves the ability to break waves and divide water for speed.

The mast is tilted back to further adjust the center of gravity. At the same time, the tilted mast can make the mast longer and the sail surface larger. The probability that the rear sail blocks the front sail from the wind is reduced, all for the sake of speed.

Even when warships around the world are still debating the aspect ratio of 3.5 or 4, she has adopted the polar fiber ratio of 5.5 to build the whole ship into an arrow, also for speed.

That's not all.

Compared with the hollow bow, the stern gun with up to two layers and six doors is obviously designed to make the bow tilt higher.

The traditional one mast four width horizontal sails are replaced by seven narrow horizontal sails in order to increase the flexibility of grasping the wind.

Wing sail is of course an indispensable high-speed configuration.

In addition, four Bermuda triangular sails are arranged on the 12 meter long bowsprit to enhance the wind force.

The dense four wind catching sails between the main mast and the foremast enhance the windward force.

The super Bermuda bony longitudinal soft sail, which is nearly 40 meters high, has greatly increased the strong wind force.

All this creates the road label in front of us.

The downwind speed is 16 knots and the upwind speed is 5.5 knots. There is no need to collect data. Lorraine can guarantee that among the large ships above 50 meters, her speed is the best in the world!

But is that really good?

In order to exceed the speed, the road label pays the price of extremely sensitive ship center of gravity and weaker wind and wave resistance than brigantin.

The ship may not turn over in open, but it only needs a round of sideboard shelling

There is no need to match her 24 pound heavy gun. As long as she weighs 18 pounds, she will definitely be overturned by the recoil force of the gun.

In other words, she is not an armed merchant ship at all, but a pure extreme speed merchant ship.

However, Lorraine saw some guns on the side of the road label. Some sporadic, strange, different from the normal square, the style was obviously rectangular.

He opened the second page of Shipborne evaluation curiously and was immediately convinced by the wonderful ideas of the design team of Haite shipyard.

The road label is really not suitable for equipping shipborne guns, so the original two-layer gun cabin is changed to one layer, and the upper layer is adjusted to a simple cargo cabin.

At the lower level, the designers creatively arranged a strange diamond gun cabin, combined with the fan-shaped gun track, and fixed two shooting directions obliquely forward and backward in an inch, one for pursuit and the other for escape.

Lorraine was so impressed that she couldn't help reading aloud.

"This is probably the most nerdy gun layout scheme in the history of HNA..."

Haite had been waiting nervously for Lorraine's evaluation, but because he was too nervous, he couldn't hear Lorraine for a moment.

"Sorry, Mr. KENWAY..."

Lorraine shook her head and closed the evaluation report: "you don't have to care about me. Please introduce the road label for me. I'm very interested in her."

"Really!" said Haite, blushing excitedly. "The child called the beacon, beacon, beacon, beacon, because she is the daughter of Boston!"

"Boston is a well deserved beacon in America. On the one hand, the earliest colony of this town is between the three mountains, and the lighthouse mountain is the tallest and most central of the three mountains."

"On the other hand, Paul Revere's midnight ride and the wind lamp hanging on the spire of the old North Church opened our cause of independence. It is nicknamed the guiding light by the people all over the United States."

"Third, this ship is an experimental ship of great design and a landmark of the new era of the ocean. We try to find out the road of high-speed large warships from her..."

"So she's an experiment, and she's still an immature experiment, isn't she?" Lorraine interrupted with a smile.

"Yes... Yes."

"Since you said you wanted to find out the high-speed path of large warships from her, can I venture to ask how much the elevation angle of her side shelling of the complete wheel?"

"It depends on the wind and waves at that time..."

"Gentle wind, gentle waves."

"5... 5 degrees." Haite opened his eyes with a guilty conscience.

"5 degrees?"

"5 degrees... To 15 degrees."

Lorraine opened her mouth: "you mean that you and your team gave up a whole layer of firepower, put 16 guns in the space of 24 guns, and even gave up the T-head advantage. She still has an elevation of 15 degrees?"

"In the case of small waves... That's right."

"Where's the big wave?"

Haite was frightened by Lorraine's roar and shrunk his neck: "because of the evaluation of medium wave and big wave, after the small wave, those hired sailors refused... But they paid liquidated damages readily..."

"When you got the liquidated damages, didn't you think that the best destination of this ship was actually demolished by you?"

"Er..."

Looking at the clumsy and poor Haite, Lorraine didn't know whether she should cry or laugh.

"Well, Mr. Haite, let me ask one last question. What's the price of the road label?"

Haite seemed to grasp the last straw.

"Mr. KENWAY! The boy's whole body is made of the top Bermuda cypress, and the sail is Baltimore's manual flag sail. It is fully equipped with 16 18 pound long-range guns and 6 12 pound medium range stern guns. It has been built for three years and has been carefully maintained by me. It is in better condition than the new ship..."

"Sorry, I want to hear the price."

Haite bit his teeth and screamed, "the price... The price of the road label is 7500 pounds!"

Lorraine was shocked again.

Not because it's too expensive, but because it's too cheap.

The road label is made of the top-level materials of high-speed ships all over the body. Coupled with that poor ship outfit, even if it sells 15000 pounds, it can only be worth it. What's more, it has been maintained in the dry dock for three years.

Dry dock maintenance is a special treatment that only class I and class II ships can enjoy. After maintenance, the wood will become stronger and more corrosion-resistant. In other words, it can greatly increase the service life of the ship.

It's just a merchant ship, isn't it?

If the ship means a lot to Haite, why should he sell it at a low price?

At the thought of this, a word suddenly popped out of Lorraine's mind.

[this ship is an experimental ship of great design and a landmark of the new era of the ocean]

"Mr. Haite, may I venture to ask, are you short of money?"