Chapter 307： set off

Da Vinci finally made the sextant, and its efficiency is much happier than the last time to make a clockwork rifle. This is no wonder, the last time Da Vinci was a bit perfunctory, this time for the little lover, hard work.

So, in a short time, Da Vinci successfully developed the sextant that Marin called. Not only that, Da Vinci also wrote a set of calculation tables and lookup tables. When measuring latitude, you only need to measure the angle between the sun and the sea level, and you can get the latitude data directly according to the lookup table. Of course, if the angle is not an integer, it can be calculated according to the formula. It should be noted that this lookup table is related to the season and is related to the height of the sun. Such a thing was naturally done by Marin and Da Vinci together. Because, Da Vinci's concept of the height of the sun is still very vague. Therefore, most of the calendar lookup tables in the lookup table came from Marin.

In this way, as long as the captain is mathematically better, the latitude can be easily calculated according to the comparison table. As for longitude, it's a little more troublesome. Although Da Vinci and the Italian watchmaker developed clockwork clocks with good precision, the accuracy was still a bit problematic. Therefore, Marin asked them to test repeatedly to test the error of the clockwork. At noon every day, the time is checked to record the error. Then, when sailing, you can judge the accurate time based on the average error.

The reason why the error is recorded every day is to select the sailing clock with the most stable error. The stable error indicates that this clock has the highest accuracy. As long as the fixed error is added or subtracted at noon every day, the time can be easily realized. And if the error is unstable, it will be 10 minutes today and another 20 minutes tomorrow. It cannot be used to calculate time.

Wait until the sea, the captain can arrange someone to adjust the error once a day to maintain the accuracy of the time. Then, based on the time difference, the longitude can be easily calculated.

怎么 As for how to calculate longitude? This is easier. As long as the time of the nautical clock is accurate, during the voyage, when noon is encountered and the sun is in the middle position, the current time and Orich time standard can be easily judged based on the accurate time obtained from the average error of multiple nautical clocks jet lag.

The circumference of the earth is 40,000 kilometers, and it is divided into 24 time zones. In other words, each time zone is 1,666.667 kilometers long. The current position is a few hours behind Orich, which is a few 1,666.667 kilometers. Marin didn't tell Amerigo about the perimeter of the earth, but told him that an hour difference is 1666.67 kilometers in lateral distance. Then, just calculate according to this principle. As for more, he didn't tell Amerigo. After all, he didn't plan to let him sail around the world, knowing so much?

After picking the ten clockwork clocks with the most stable errors, Marin called Amerigo and asked Da Vinci to teach him the use of the sextant and the latitude algorithm. And Marin told him the algorithm of lateral distance.

In fact, because Magellan has not sailed around the world, the concept of latitude is not clear to everyone. But Amerigo was an excellent captain and a semi-astronaut astronomer. Therefore, it is not difficult to teach him.

Anyway, Marin only asked him to use a sextant to calculate the latitude and lateral distance of each node on the route. Then recorded on the logbook.

At that time, according to the horizontal distance, Marin can easily calculate the longitude. With longitude and latitude data, plus the use of a sextant. As long as the next captain understands the calculation of longitude and lateral distance, he can easily correct the route and reach his destination.

After Marin and Da Vinci taught Amerigo to use the sextant and how to calculate the horizontal distance (longitude), a few days later, there was good news from Tholencher-two 250 class ships Armed merchant ships are also ready. These two ships were named 2503 and 2504, as usual ...

The reason why I made it so fast was because I had enough experience before. In addition, Marin is very powerful in the supply of materials, there is no situation of materials such as midway. In addition, the craftsmen are also skilled, and it is naturally easy to do.

However, Marin actually retained his hand when manufacturing the 250-class armed merchant ship, and did not hand over the technology of high temperature steam processing of the ship's ribs to the Tholencher shipyard. Therefore, when the ship's ribs were manufactured by the Tholencher shipyard, the old method was still used to saw the wide wood into an arc, which was a waste of wood. At this point, the cost of manufacturing the ship's ribs at the Tholencher shipyard was still high.

Alas, Marin also thought of a good way to ask Emden Shipyard to send the processed ship ribs to Tholencher. In this way, there is no need to waste so much wood in the Thornluncher shipyard. As long as they tell Emden Shipyard about the specifications and sizes of the ship's ribs, the craftsmen of Emden Shipyard can use the steam box to process the corresponding ship rib structure, and then ship it to Tholencher.

On general merchant ships, there are not many ribs. For a boat with a keel length of 24 meters, only 33 pairs of ribs are required. Class 250 armed merchant ships, because the keel length is only 20 meters, as long as 27 pairs of ship ribs. After using the high-temperature steam box, the cost of the ship's ribs is much lower, uncomplicated, and less wasteful of wood. As long as the processed boat ribs are air-dried again, you can take them back and nail them on the keel. After the skeleton is finished, you can cover the planks with thick wood. Then, it ’s just a matter of painting ...

In fact, the materials of the two ships 2503 and 2504 were prepared in the morning. Therefore, the shipbuilding has saved a lot of material preparation time. As a result, the Tholencher shipyard was able to build and launch both ships in just four months. Because the most difficult to process ribs in a ship were actually processed together when the 2501 and 2502 were last manufactured. Therefore, this time shipbuilding is very fast.

Suddenly, Marin made the 500-ton warship made by Emden Shipyard not so fast. Among them, bending a ship's ribs with a high-temperature steam box saves money, but it takes time. Not the processing time, but the air-drying time after processing ...

船 Wood for shipbuilding must not be wet. Therefore, the shipbuilding wood is air-dried for a year or two. Ermalin allowed the craftsmen to smoke the boat's ribs for several hours with high-temperature steam, and the previous air-drying effort was wasted. Therefore, after the boat ribs are processed and shaped, they need to be air-dried again for several months.

In other words, waiting to nail the boat's ribs to the keel would take months to wait. No wonder ancient shipbuilding lasted for one year ...

Marin thought about it, it was too time consuming. So he simply ordered a large batch of wood again, and the craftsmen of the Emden shipyard processed an extra batch of spare ribs. This way, the next time you build a ship, you don't have to fumigate and process the ship's ribs again. After all, the newly processed boat ribs need to be air-dried for several months, which is a waste of time. If the processing time of the ship's ribs is excluded, and the keel and wooden boards are ready, a ship can be built in three or four months.

Thinking of this, Marin was very hot. It seems that logging in the Americas is still very promising. If a large amount of wood is prepared in the Americas, it is then processed into suitable keels and boat ribs. In the case of complete materials, as long as the craftsmen are enough, they can explode like a soldier ...

So, when Amerigo adjusted the crew and prepared all the supplies, Marin pulled him and asked him to modify the route ...

I saw Marin come up with a map that outlines the east coast of North America. Amerigo was aggressive:

"Master, is this?"

"This is a map of the coastline of the east coast of the barren continent ..."

这 "This ... is this true? Someone has explored the barren continent before?" Amerigo was taken aback. You know, Europeans now only know some of the Caribbean islands that Columbus is exploring ...

"My teacher Albert Einstein has been to these places ..."

"Master, your request is ..."

"After you explore Grenada, go northward along the Windward Islands. After arriving at Barbuda, turn northwest and go first to the Bahamas, which was first discovered by Columbus ... Remember, don't continue north on Barbuda, where It's Bermuda's Devil's Triangle ... "

百慕大 "Bermuda ... the Devil's Triangle ..." Amerigo shuddered, a little scared.

"Well, this huge sea is very dangerous. My teacher said that there is a devil under the sea and it will devour the sea boat. He even heard the howl of the devil ... And, this seaweed in the sea is big and long, It ’s easy to entangle the boat. My teacher said that the seaweed may be driven by the devil to drag the boat and people into Haiti ... ”said Marin mysteriously.

Amerigo was a little scared, though, he didn't believe much about the devil. But the huge seaweed scared him a little. Because, if the seaweed is long enough, it can really entangle the boat. In the river region, it is normal for the boat to be entangled in algae. But the boat was entangled in inland river algae and it was nothing. Because one can abandon the ship and go ashore for help.

However, in the middle of the vast sea, if the ship is entangled by seaweed, then it really "makes every day ineffective, and makes the ground and the land unacceptable." Therefore, Amerigo nodded sharply, saying that he would not die.

Then Marin continued to point:

"After you arrive in the Bahamas, sail northwest and you will encounter real land. This is the Florida peninsula of the wild continent. You go north along the peninsula, about 40 degrees and 43 minutes north latitude, and you will arrive in New York-ah, New York It hasn't appeared yet ... "Marin just remembered that none of the place names he marked appeared ...

But it doesn't matter, he continues to talk ...

"After you arrive in New York, continue to sail northeast along the coast. Then you will see two small islands ... the one near the land is called Martha's Vineyard and the other is Nantucket Island ... The second task is to discover these two islands ... "

"Master, why don't you send troops to occupy such a large area of ​​land? Why only two islands?" Amerigo asked puzzledly.

"Amerigo, you don't understand. Although the land is large, there are dense jungles everywhere. There are many fierce Indians in the jungle. If I rush you to the shore, it is easy to be shot by Indians. So, I first asked you to find these two islands, in order to gain a foothold first, and then use this as a springboard and base to attack the mainland ... "

This is Marin's strategy. Marin thought for a long time and felt that he was currently weak and with a small population, and could not immediately colonize on a large scale.

Moreover, to colonize the Americas, what is most needed for the premise is not land, but a foothold. Just like the British later colonized North America, they hurriedly landed directly on the land of Virginia. As a result, they fought many times with the Indians. When they were besieged, the colonists in the British colonies were miserable without food To the point.

So Marin would not make that mistake. The Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket he chose are small islands of two or three hundred square kilometers, and they stand alone. Not many Indians are on the island.

On these two islands, Marin can easily occupy and develop with peace of mind. For example, logging, establishing farms and ranches ...

In short, developing on two small sea islands will not anger the Indian tribe on the road. Even if they were dissatisfied, they could not attack the island. Because the Indians are still in the era of canoeing. Marin just went out on a boat and knocked over the Indian canoe ...

Moreover, these two islands were also carefully selected by Marin. First of all, the areas of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket are about two hundred and several dozen square kilometers, and Bitsel Island is much larger. Such a large island can open up a lot of farmland.

With farmland, there is enough food to meet the needs of the colonists. In this way, colonial activities can proceed smoothly. Moreover, the two islands are highly secure and do not worry about Indian attacks.

Not only that, Nantucket was later a famous whaling center in the United States. It is not far from Newfoundland fishing grounds, one of the world's four largest fishing grounds, and its fishery resources are also abundant. Therefore, many whales often appear in the waters of this generation.

As long as a few whaling boats are dispatched here to carry out activities, Marlin can catch many and many whales. You know, the whaling industry hasn't risen this year, and there are whales in the sea. As long as the whale is caught, not only can it get a lot of whale meat, but also tons of tons of whale oil.

Whale meat can be made into salted dried fish, which can definitely satisfy hunger. A whale, the lightest also weighs more than two tons, can get nearly one ton of whale meat. A ton of whale meat can feed several people for a year. Don't say that the bigger whales are tens of tons. Just catching a whale can provide a lot of meat.

Alas, whale oil is also important. In this age of lack of vegetable oil, ordinary people can also eat some whale oil. Although, whale oil does not taste good. But for the poor, oil and water are good, dare to be picky?

Not only that, whale oil can be used to light a lamp, provide lighting, and be processed into a candle. The best of the candlestick dinners of later generations is made from whale oil.

Also, the cost of making soap from whale oil is very low. In short, the whaling industry is very beneficial ...

These two islands can both be used for farming and raising livestock, and can also be used as a base for whaling and catching common fish ... In short, they are a perfect food supply base ...

When Marin's men settled down on these two islands ~ www.novelhall.com ~, they can use this as a base camp, march to land, and occupy new colonies. The new colony was first built by the sea so that it was not afraid of being besieged by the Indians. Even if the Indians surrounded the new colony on land, the two islands could provide enough supplies to the colony through warships, so as not to run out of food like a stupid Englishman, and get people to eat ...

Before Amerigo boarded the ship, Marin took his hand and said:

"Good work, Amerigo. When you come back this time, if you find these two places successfully, I will seize you as a hereditary jazz, and reward you with 10,000 gold coins ... you know, found wild islands and found India The meanings are different, so I can slam Columbus as a baron, should you understand? "

Amerigo nodded, and of course he knew what Columbus found in India. After all, the discovery of India brought a huge profit of millions of gold coins to Marin, and it was normal to seal Columbus from a baron. And this time to explore the islands of the barren continent by himself, will not bring any huge profits. Therefore, Marin candid himself as hereditary jazz. After all, that's hereditary.

Before He broke up, Marin asked Amerigo to write a family letter, the purpose of which was to bring Amerigo's family to Orich. Amerigo also understood that it was Marin who was taking hostages. Because, Marin was worried that Amerigo would disclose his information to others. However, this is also a convention in ancient times, commonly used by nobles, and Amerigo didn't have much resistance.

In this way, in the eyes of Marin's anticipation, Amerigo took the selected players and boarded two 250-class armed merchant ships and two smaller former Frisian ships captured and set foot on It's time to explore Grenada and North America ...