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Chapter 1718 South Africa Express

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    The blue sky is cloudless and there are no birds, and the dark green southern Indian Ocean is endless.

    The depths of the southern Indian Ocean have been like this for the past ten years, a hundred years, a thousand years, and tens of thousands of years. There are no birds or sails, and the silence is so despairing.

    Suddenly, two white sailboats broke the eternal loneliness of the sea and sky, cutting through the waves and sailing quickly from the depths of the ocean to the northeast.

    The shapes of these two sailboats are very eye-catching. Not only are the hulls painted the same pure white as the canvas, but the hull design is also extremely bold. The length-to-width ratio of the slender hulls is more than six to one, with a length of more than sixty meters and a width of less than ten.  rice.  Compared with it, all types of sailboats in this era have become bloated.

    And it also adopts the minimum resistance design underwater, but maintains a certain lateral resistance profile, resulting in a particularly beautiful waterline.  There is even an indentation on the waterline surface of its bow, and the long and sharp curved scissor-shaped bow can cut the waves to reduce wave resistance when moving forward, so it is called a flying shear ship.

    This kind of clipper ship has a very shallow draft and low sides, but the mast has been increased to five levels, and there are outriggers on both sides of the ship, which can hang wing sails, making the sail area larger than that of a Galen ship of the same tonnage.  Enough has doubled.

    All designs are for one purpose only - to be faster.  Its top speed can reach 30 kilometers per hour, and its cruising speed is more than 20 kilometers per hour, which is four times faster than traditional sailing boats.  A true journey of thousands of miles per day!

    But the great increase in speed also puts greater pressure on the hull, and the safety factor is also reduced.  In early trials, sailing from Ceylon to Luzon only took 51 days and the return trip only took 30 days, causing a great sensation.  But only four of the ten reached their destination, and the remaining six were all damaged midway.

    Later, an iron-framed wooden hull was adopted, and the wooden keel was replaced with welded steel, which made the clipper boat strong enough to support such a long hull, such a fast speed, and so many sails.

    Of course, this kind of ship also has shortcomings. First of all, it has a shallow draft, low side and narrow hull. Secondly, although the longitudinal speed is very fast, it is very difficult to turn.  In this era, naval battles were won by the number of artillery pieces.  This requires the main battleship to have a wide and stable hull as an artillery platform, tall ship sides to accommodate more artillery decks, a strong hull to resist artillery shells, and more flexibility in turning in naval battles than speed.  important.

    Of course, it is fast, and it can grab the wind direction accurately, and it can take the lead whether it wants to fight or run.  But it certainly cannot be used as a capital ship. At most it can be used for patrolling, harassment, and communication.  However, its original design was as a high-speed cargo sailing ship, not a battleship.

    Since it was officially finalized and put into production in the twelfth year of Wanli, the Luzon Shipyard has built thirty such clipper ships in three years, and Mr. Zhao named them the ¡®North American Class¡¯.  The original intention of this kind of ship design is evident.

    "However, Mr. Zhao's dream of North America has to be taken a step back. Currently, all thirty clipper ships are affiliated to the Western Shipping Corporation and are used to transport valuable goods and people across the ocean.

    ¡°For example, the two ships ¡®White Rainbow¡¯ and ¡®White Horse¡¯ were the ¡®South Africa Express¡¯ that set sail from Cape City at the Cape of Good Hope at the southern tip of Africa on the first day of May a month ago, bound for Southeast Asia.

    ??~~

    Cape City was originally the Portuguese stronghold in the Cape of Good Hope, named Fort Good Hope.  More than ten years ago, when Lin Feng and Zhang Xiaojing led the "Eternal Sinner Liu Daxia" to sail around the world, they repaired the ship here.

    In addition to bunkers, docks and ship repair yards, the Portuguese also hired local indigenous people to plant fruit and vegetables, vegetable gardens and raise livestock nearby to provide supplies for the passing fleet.

    In fact, this is the famous Cape Town in later generations, but there are too few Portuguese people, and there is a serious lack of building materials here, so we have to wait until a few decades later for the Dutch to transport building materials from the Netherlands and build a city and open a port here.

    But this time we won¡¯t bother the Dutch fellows. In the ninth year of Wanli, in June 1581 AD, the coast guard fleet took over the Fort of Good Hope from the Portuguese.  After on-the-spot investigation, Ma Yinglong and Haerdi found that this place was indeed a military fortress that was easy to defend and difficult to attack, as described in the intelligence.

    It is surrounded by a cliff with an altitude of more than 1,000 meters, which is as difficult to conquer as a hell.  There are no islands on the sea where the enemy can establish strongholds to fight.

    And the Cape of Good Hope is located in the roaring westerly belt. This area has strong winds and waves almost all year round, and "killer waves" of more than ten meters high often appear. It is one of the most dangerous navigation areas in the world. No captain dares to sail far from the coast.

    So as long as a bastion dock is built here, and a powerful fleet is stationed in the haven under the Cape of Good Hope Mountains, a wall of sighs can be erected that is insurmountable by the European powers.

    What¡¯s more valuable is that although it is surrounded by Gobi desert, within the cliffs is a fertile basin plain with an area ofFollowing the route later discovered by the Dutch, we arrived at the southern tip of Madagascar three days later.

    But the two clipper ships, which had not been consumed much, continued to sail into the depths of the ocean without stopping.  After another three days, we arrived at the island of Mauritius.

    Of course, Mauritius was named by the Dutch after their prince in 1595 AD.  This time, Zhao Hao was the first to name it Dudu Island.

    There is a stronghold set up by the Western Shipping Company there, raising pigs and vegetables, and purchasing game and fruits from the locals to provide supplies for passing fleets.

    In fact, there is no need for South African express delivery to stop here, but the meat of a local flightless bird is particularly delicious and is deeply loved by sailors.  For the sake of the Dodo, they would stop at Dodo Island to make tooth sacrifices and improve their food.

    ¡°And the girls on Dodo Island are quite beautiful.

    ps. Sorry, I¡¯m always tired and can¡¯t update properly.  But thankfully, after initial radiotherapy and chemotherapy, my mother's condition improved a lot, and it felt like it was worth it.  I'm just sorry for everyone, and everything is difficult at the beginning. I have only finished one chapter now (Remember the website address: www.hlnovel.com
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