Since iron is not enough, is it better to build wooden boats?

There is no shortage of resources like wood in Border Guard Town, and they are everywhere in the rolling mountains to the east and west.

Even if the carpenters in Bianshu Town have no experience in building ships, as long as they have the design drawings of the wooden ships and study them carefully, they can definitely build them.

The only problem is the construction time. It is said that the most important part of a ship, the keel, needs to wait a long time to completely dry before you can start building on it.

Coupled with the fact that everyone is inexperienced, it will definitely take a long time to build the first wooden boat.

But Owen can't wait to send out his fleet to purchase raw materials. Waiting for such a long time will undoubtedly slow down the development of the territory.

It was so troublesome that neither wood nor iron was suitable for shipbuilding, and Owen finally decided to consult Winster.

The emergency call was answered, and Winster's lazy voice sounded in Owen's mind.

[Haha - Owen, what problem did you encounter again? 】

[Winster, I want to quickly set up a fleet dedicated to transporting raw materials...]

Owen told Winster the idea of ​​forming a fleet and some thoughts on building wooden or iron ships.

【...That's it, do you have any good ideas? 】

[Since you feel that neither wooden ships nor iron ships are difficult to build, then give up on these two options.] Winster responded casually.

【Eh? Then what materials do you want me to use to build the boat?】

Building ships out of wood is a navigation technology that humans began to use very early on.

To this day, you can see a variety of wooden boats sailing around on rivers or seas. They are currently the most important water transportation in the world.

As for the steel ship, Owen learned about it from Winster.

One day in the future, the huge steel body will be able to freely pass through the water. What will it be like then?

Owen has always been looking forward to seeing this scene.

Apart from this, were there any other ships? He couldn't think of any at the moment.

"Use cement to build the ship. You are only using it to transport raw materials anyway." Winster suggested.

[Cement...yes! Cement can also be used to build ships.]

Owen has always regarded cement as an important building material. When talking about shipbuilding, he subconsciously forgot it in a corner.

Even heavy steel can be used to build ships, so cement can certainly be used.

This involves the principle of buoyancy. The buoyant force on an object in the water is equal to the gravity of the water displaced by the object.

Therefore, as long as the ship's design drawings are properly structured after rigorous calculations, the buoyancy force on the ship can be equal to the weight of the ship itself, and the built ship can float on the water without sinking.

[You suggest using cement to build the ship. Will this meet my requirements?] Owen asked.

[Of course. Don’t you want to build the boat quickly? The construction process of cement boats is much simpler than wooden boats and iron boats. As long as there is enough cement, fill the template with cement and wait for it to solidify.

.]

The advantages are far more than these. Bianshu Town already has the means to burn cement in large quantities. The materials are easy to obtain and the cost is low.

The cement boats built are corrosion-resistant and durable, strong and durable, and have low maintenance costs.

In this aspect, wooden ships and iron ships are inferior to cement ships.

For example, iron ships require regular rust removal and painting, which is a bit troublesome to maintain.

Of course, cement ships are not without their shortcomings.

For example, cement ships have a relatively large dead weight, making it difficult to sail on rivers using sails as power.

It is easy to solve this problem. Just install a steam engine on the cement ship and use it as power to sail.

Moreover, without the large mast in the middle, a lot of space can be freed up on the ship to store raw materials, increasing the carrying capacity of each voyage.

In addition, cement ships have poor impact resistance and can only be used within a certain range.

This is completely irrelevant. Irving only uses cement ships to transport raw materials. They are mainly used on inland waterways and there is no problem at all.

After listening to Winster's explanation, Irving was quite satisfied with the cement ship and had already made up his mind to build the cement ship in Bianzhu Town.

[It does meet my requirements, but I don’t have the design drawings of the cement ship in my folder.]

[Oh, I will ask a shipbuilding expert to draw design drawings later and send them to you later.]

【please.】

…

the next morning.

Owen called Clive into his office and told him his shipbuilding plan in detail.

"My Lord Marquis, do you really plan to build a ship?!"

The surprise on Clive's face flashed away, and he seemed to have some resistance to Owen's unusual decision.

"That's right." Owen nodded, "Please wait and issue a recruitment order to recruit some people."

"But, we don't have carpenters with shipbuilding experience here, and the captain and sailors are also a problem." Clive frowned slightly, "It's better to buy a boat from outside and hire the captain and sailors of that ship."

"Buy it outside? It will cost a lot of money, so forget it."

Owen waved his hand and decisively rejected the proposal.

"What I want to build is not a wooden ship, but a brand-new cargo ship. I don't need a carpenter with shipbuilding experience. I have all the control. Sailors are easy to say, but the key is the captain. If you can't recruit anyone locally, just go

We can recruit people from other places, as long as they have experience in driving a boat."

Although Irving has no experience in shipbuilding, according to Winster, the cement ship design drawings he provided are not very technical, and based on the current technological level of Bianzhu Town, there is no problem at all.

In this way, Owen should be qualified for this shipbuilding task.

No matter how difficult it was, he could still call and ask Winston for advice without worrying at all.

What is to be built is not a wooden boat, so well, it is probably another new thing that the Marquis has tinkered with.

In this case, Clive has nothing to say and just accepts the task.

"I understand, I'll do it right now."

A few days later, a large fenced shed was suddenly built somewhere on the bank of the Weishui River.

Shipbuilding sites are generally close to river banks or coasts, making it easy to launch boats.

In addition to protecting the shed from wind and rain, the shed can also be used to adjust the temperature inside the house by using hot magic stones to keep it at a suitable temperature to speed up the hardening of the cement.

Owen first asked the carpenter to plan out the wooden template blocks and piece together the basic outline of the hull.

The bow has an elliptical arc shape, while the stern part is square. It is said that this can increase the load area.

The width of the ship is ten meters, and the length-to-width ratio is four to one.

Generally speaking, the larger the aspect ratio and the slenderer the hull, the smaller the resistance and the easier it is to reach high speeds, but the maneuverability is poor and it rolls greatly in wind and waves. At the same time, the space inside the hull is small and it can carry less cargo.

However, Owen required that the cement ship carry a large carrying capacity, and it didn't matter if the speed was slower, as long as it was stable.

Therefore, Winster asked experts to design such a cement ship according to the requirements.
Chapter completed!