Chapter 1,424 Four Peaks Island

Flat jars and chairs are now full of knowledge through the efforts of Chen Zhaoming, Su Xiaomei, Shi Fu, Su You, Shi Wei and others.

In the later eighteenth century, there was a profession in the West that was more in line with their current status - naturalist.

Now they have already taken the form of "naturalists".

Navigation is a big project. Nominally, the captain of the Zuoluo is Zhao Xiaoyi, but in fact it is a flat tank.

After announcing the mission, the first thing Bian Gu did was to clearly divide the various errands on the ship and establish the types of work, then assign shift tasks and establish an emergency system to make the originally well-organized shipping more reasonable. Not only

Being well organized, the crew still had a lot of free time.

During these times, Bian Gu arranged learning tasks. There was physical exercise in the morning, and then the crew members with a polytechnic background, including himself, had to learn practical operations from the sailors, such as raising the mast, repairing the sail, looking out, mooring, and steering.

There's even fishing, deck cleaning...

As for the sailors, they have to learn literacy, mathematics, surveying, navigation records, semaphores, lanterns and a series of relatively complex shipping services from the students. It also includes equipment maintenance, gun operation, gun operation, and even boiler machine tool maintenance and repair.

series of technologies.

There are countless games in the evening, such as chess, backgammon, and checkers. The most popular among sailors is, of course, poker...

Will not being able to go ashore for a long time cause psychological problems? But with Zhao Da's brainwashing and Bing Gu's careful arrangements, the crew members lived an extremely fulfilling life.

People's psychology will go wrong when they are empty.

The Zuoheluo is a science and engineering experimental ship. The ship is equipped with various observation equipment? Various data? There is even the latest thing - a navigational clock.

This was customized by Zhao Zongyou entrusted by Shi Fu.

On the navigation clock? Because of Su You’s blind spot in knowledge, he took a small detour.

The earliest marine clocks were designed to be relatively large, because through the design of the Bianjing Bell Tower, everyone believed that the larger the clock, the smaller the error, that is to say, the more accurate it would be.

In order to resist the influence of wave fluctuations on the pendulum, Zhao Zongyou and Shi Fu put a lot of effort into pendulum control.

It wasn't until the third year of Yuanfeng that Zhao Xu prepared to show off in the imperial court. He asked Shi Fu to design a clock that could highlight the magnificence of the Song Dynasty. A clock that could be placed in the Zichen Palace? And after the military put forward the demand for a clock that could be carried with the army, the clock was miniaturized.

The design work is now on the agenda.

In order to solve this problem, Shi Fu gradually added a series of special devices such as hairsprings, tourbillons, and sesame chains to the small clock to get rid of the shackles of the pendulum.

The last small clock we got? Like the one used for flood discharge at Xuanfangkou? The accuracy can reach an error of one second in three days.

Later, Zhao Zongyou carried that kind of clock on a sea ship and found that it was much more accurate than the big navigation clock.

Study its principle? It turns out that the high-frequency reciprocating tourbillon structure is far more stable than a traditional pendulum and can maintain accuracy even in waves!

This discovery completely opened up Shi Fu's thinking? Since it can maintain accuracy at sea, what about on horseback? What about people?

Clocks can continue to get smaller!

But these are another topic. Now the navigation clock on the left-hand spiral is installed on the gyroscope, which can provide accurate time indication.

The reason why a clock is needed for navigation is mainly to calculate the longitude of the ship.

Latitude is very simple. Aim the sextant at the North Star and the angle you get is.

Longitude is more troublesome.

Before clocks came out, star charts were needed to determine longitude using moon phase observation, also known as the celestial clock method.

Once you have a clock, you can calculate longitude through the time difference. This is the clock method commonly used in later generations.

During this voyage, the flat can and the chair had to use two measurement methods to mark their longitude and latitude on the nautical chart every day to determine the route the ship passed.

The disadvantage of the clock method is cumulative error, and the disadvantage of the moon phase and celestial clock method is measurement error.

The science dogs on the ship also often conduct subject discussions, hold Zhuge Liang meetings, study improvement plans for observations and calculations, and solve practical problems.

Therefore, life on this ship is not only not boring, but also has the flavor of a "maritime academy" that is "united, tense, serious and lively".

Pinggu inherited his father's caution and attached great importance to meteorological observations. Whenever there was hazy weather, the boiler would be ignited to maintain the furnace pressure.

Once there are signs of a storm or thunderstorm, immediately lower the sails, start the boiler, and flee toward the southeast to avoid the storm and huge waves.

This trick is timid, but very effective. This is the advantage of the left-handed screw.

After several times, Long Haisheng and others admired Captain Zhao's ability so much that they fell into admiration.

Under the ship, the warm current known as the "Kuroshio" by the locals off the coast of Japan allowed the Screwtape to sail quickly to the northeast. However, when passing through the 40 degrees north latitude area, the Kuroshio and another northward current were

After the cold water neutralized, the direction changed to due east, and the ocean current slowed down.

In order to obtain higher speed, the ship continued to sail northeast for several days, hoping to take advantage of the strong westerly wind.

However, the climate has become a bit colder than when we set off. It is obviously summer, so the crew members all put on their spring clothes and added a fleece jacket at night.

Bian Gu and the chair stood at the bow of the boat. Bian Gu watched the brothers from the Polytechnic Institute put the iron mesh bag containing the thermometer into the sea water and said to the chair: "We can't go further north, the wind is too strong."

At this moment, on the lookout post at the top of the mast, Long Wu, the son of Sanniang Zi and the second officer on this voyage, waved his hand excitedly: "Land - there is land ahead -"

On May 20, the seventh year of Yuanfeng, after nearly one month and eighteen days of sailing, the Zuoheluo discovered an uninhabited island.

To be precise, an archipelago.

On the first island, the engineering team discovered four towering volcanoes.

In the logbook, the flat can named it "Four Peaks Islands".

This place is completely like a prehistoric world, with many islands and the entire island is a volcano. There are no trees on the island, only green grass at the bottom and snowy peaks at the top.

The inhabitants of the island are seabirds and seals, which are densely populated on the cliffs and rocks. They are not afraid when they see the scientific research boat launched from the Lone Conch.

The big seals also raised their fat heads and looked curiously at the two-legged beasts they had never seen before.

Long Haisheng said to the bow of the boat, which was wearing a plate armor and a steel helmet, holding a flat can of magic gun: "Master, want a gun?"

Bian Guan smiled and said: "That's not necessary, but the place can be recorded. Let's see——"

Several huge whales arched their backs from under the water, exposed their breathing holes, and sprayed high water columns into the sky. After taking a breath, they sank again.

Long Haisheng smiled and said: "It's a pity that we are not a whaler, otherwise, the profit would be huge!"

Bian Guan said: "Brother Haisheng, don't you know? I discovered that the island can be exchanged for money, and the Hangzhou Shipping Department invested in the acquisition!"

Long Haisheng rowed a long oar and made a "cut" sound: "Sitong's gang of profiteers, they only gave one hundred guan for the most valuable navigation chart, how could they find a whale farm and make money continuously all year round?

"

Hey! The boy in the flat jar was very angry. He pointed at the monk and scolded the bald donkey. Isn’t that bad?!

Then I heard Long Haisheng continue to say: "But it's useless. Even if the captain doesn't sell, the first mate and the second mate are not afraid. Sooner or later, they will all belong to Sitong and Shishi Ship Company. It's better to sell early and get money early. This whale farm

Ah, I can’t keep it in my hands!”

The boat rowed into a bay, and Long Haisheng's eyes suddenly lit up: "Young Master, Young Master! What a good thing!"

The protruding rocks in the bay are covered with groups of small animals, including hundreds of sea otters.

Long Haisheng was so excited that his face turned red: "This is the best leather! A otter skin hat can be exchanged for a good horse in the Goryeo and Liao Kingdoms! Oh my God, how many there are here... This, this is

Money lair..."

But Bian Guan shuddered: "No, we are going the wrong way!"

"Ah? What do you mean?" Haisheng was a little confused. Weren't you always confident about taking advantage of the west wind?

Bian Guan said: "Brother Haisheng, haven't you noticed? Now the wind is getting stronger, the fog is getting more and more, and the sea water has become too cold... We have to change our sail to the southeast."

Haisheng obviously couldn't bear to spend the money in this bay: "Master, it's hard to get to the island, how about we continue along the island towards the northeast? These charts are sold to Sitong, and they are all money!"

Bian Guan said: "There are less than 2,000 sea otters in this bay, and Liao horses now have five guans each. Even if they were all made into leather tubes, they would not exceed 10,000 guans, and you can't even buy a house in Bianjing...

…”
Chapter completed!