"What, you can't afford it?" Roland sat in his office, the document requesting the expansion of administrative staff and the purchase of sailboats was placed on his desk.
Barov cleared his throat, "Your Highness, it is true. The price of a two-masted sailboat is between eighty and one hundred and twenty Golden Dragon, but this is only the cost of building the boat. Including the people on board, the total price is estimated to be more than two hundred Golden Dragon. "
"Didn't I say that I don't need a sailor or a helmsman? I don't need the captain, I just want the boat. "Roland knocked on the table and asked. With Vendy there, he didn't need so many people to operate the sailboat. Most of the river boats had straight sails, so it was like raising and lowering a flag. The oarsmen and sailors were redundant, the helmsman just needed to pull someone up to try. Anyway, with the wind vector, why would the boat not move forward?
"Your Highness, there is no such deal, at least not in Willow Town." Barov carefully explained, "You may not know much about this industry, but generally speaking, the owner of the boat is the captain. It may be a merchant, or it may be a noble. The former, after recruiting their own men, will travel back and forth between the major town docks, trading or transporting goods. If it was the latter, they would usually hire an acting captain to follow the ship for them.Employees are not paid monthly, but are paid once every one to three years. "
"Most of the time, the boat and the people are tied together. If you intend to buy the boat from the captain instead of his hired men, then it is equivalent to a loss of employment pay. Eighty Golden Dragon, even for a great noble, is not a number that can be easily given up. At the beginning of the month, including the raw gemstone transaction with Willow Town, City Hall now has a balance of three hundred and fifteen Golden Dragon. If you spend more than half of it to buy a boat, you will not be able to pay the militia next month. "The assistant minister finished in one breath, raised his glass and drank a mouthful of ale.
"You said most of the time …"
"Yes," he nodded, "There are two situations where there will be an empty boat. One is when the merchant is in urgent need of cash and sells his property. At this time, he will dismiss all the crew and sell the boat as soon as possible. The second is to replace the boat, which is understandable. But I have to say, both situations are very rare. "
"Wait." Roland frowned. "You said you want to buy new ships … Where did these ships come from?"
"Port of Clearwater, Seawindshire, North Cape. Only port cities have docks, and only they can build ships. "
Roland was silent for a moment. It was too far to buy a ship in the port city, and if he didn't hire a crew, who would drive the ship back for him? "If that's the case, I'll think about it."
After the assistant minister left, the prince fell into deep thought.
In his strategic plan, shipping was an irreplaceable part of it. Without a fast and convenient ship, he would not be able to complete the encirclement with the cannons. The army of the Duke of Stronghold was generally made up of farmers, Knight, and mercenaries, so their marching speed was not very fast. It was just that they were slower. Just as Carter had said, if they relied purely on land, a muddy pit would make it difficult for the cannons to advance. In this era, land transportation was not the same as asphalt roads, or even stone roads. It was just that there were a lot of people, so they were forced to make a path. It was fine when it was sunny, but when it rained, it would be muddy.
In the end, do I still have to rely on myself to build it?
Roland spread out a piece of paper and wrote down the specifications he needed.
First of all, it was a ship that could carry one or two cannons, plus about thirty people. The ship could be propelled by sail.Second, the ship needed to be stable and reliable, not easy to overturn, and had a shallow draft. Third, it had to be easy to operate. After a short period of training, the militia could quickly get used to it.
Combining these points, there was only one answer left … a flat-bottomed barge.
Before Roland came to this world, this kind of extremely shallow draft, with a very low center of gravity, could be seen everywhere, almost all the major rivers. In the past, those that were piled up with sand or stones, and the side of the ship was almost level with the water, were flat-bottomed barges. As long as there was a tugboat, it could pull several barges like a train.
After determining the type of ship, the next key point was to choose the material to build it with.
Roland wrote down three options on the paper: wood, iron, and cement.
Using wood to build a ship was the earliest navigation technology tree of mankind. From wooden rafts to sailing battleships, from rivers to oceans, wooden ships could be said to be everlasting. Unfortunately, Roland did not know how to use logs to put together a flat-bottomed boat, nor did he have any craftsmen. If he relied on a few carpenters, it was likely to be a large raft, or the kind that could fall apart at any time.
For an iron ship, the structure was similar to building a house. The main and secondary beams crisscrossed to form the keel, and then covered with iron sheets. If there was Anna to do the welding, the overall rigidity was guaranteed. But this approach would exhaust the small iron reserves. Unless it was a last resort, it was obviously a more suitable choice to use the iron to produce steam engines and gun barrels.
Then the cement ship became the last option – the city wall had been built, and there were still raw materials left. Anna only needed to calcine it once or twice to get enough cement powder. The construction process was also much easier than for an iron ship. He only needed to use a wooden template to piece together the shape, arrange the iron bars to act as steel bars, and then fill it with cement. Even in his hometown in the countryside, he could make several cement boats to fish.Compared to the iron ship, which needed to be regularly rusted and painted, it didn't even need to be maintained. It could be said that the cost was low, and it was strong and durable. Even if he had not learned how to build an ocean-going ship, building a low-tech inland river cement barge should not be a big problem, right?
With the mentality of trying, Roland picked up a quill pen and quickly drew a sketch of the barge.
…
A shed with a wall was built on the bank of the Redwater River.
In order to facilitate the launching, Roland built the ship as close to the river bank as possible.
The shed could shelter them from the wind and snow, and at the same time there were two charcoal fires in the room to prevent the temperature from being too low, which would affect the hardening effect of the cement.
The carpenters had already pieced together the basic outline of the hull – the bow was curved to reduce forward resistance, and the stern was square to increase the load area. The width of the ship was about 24 feet (8 meters), with a length to width ratio of 3: 1, and a double mast in the middle.The mast was inserted into the bottom of the ship, and was connected to the iron beam that ran through the middle of the ship. There was also a wooden stake at the stern, which was reserved for the rudder.Other places were covered with crisscrossing iron bars.
It didn't matter if there was no binding wire, all the iron bars were welded by Anna herself, forming an iron net all over the bottom of the ship.
When the "template" and "steel bar" were ready, Roland ordered the workers to start pouring and tamping.
The mixed cement was poured into the template in the basin, and the middle was flat, and the surrounding was about 1.5 meters high, which acted as the side wall of the cabin. At first glance, it looked like a unique large bathtub.