Ignoring the excited Zhu Houzhao, Liu Jin also carefully observed the huge steamship in front of him.
The ship still uses a wooden structure, and you can also see the design of the mast. It is obvious that the designer is afraid of being damaged by steam power. If there is a mast, it can be used as an ordinary ship.
At the same time, with the existence of the mast, if the wind is downwind, the speed can be faster if the wind is raised. This is also a good design.
Although the ship is far from comparable to the large ships of later generations, in this era, it is definitely a giant, with a length of more than 150 meters and a width of more than 50 meters.
This is a large ship designed based on Zheng He's treasure ship. It is huge in size. Before it is launched into the water, it looks very imposing. When people stand next to it, it looks very small.
There are two tall chimneys on the huge ship, which are standard equipment on steam ships and are specially used to exhaust smoke.
Seeing this chimney, Liu Jin couldn't help but think of the movie Titanic that he had seen in later generations, and thought of those big chimneys.
"Bah~"
"On such a good day, I actually think of the Titanic."
Soon Liu Jin couldn't help but cursed to himself in his heart, "This ship is going to be launched, and he actually thought of the unlucky thing about the Titanic."
Look at the propeller at the rear of the ship. This propeller is similar to the ship propellers seen in later generations. However, although the curved surface of the propeller is very good in Zhu Houzhao's view, in Liu Jin's view, this curved surface is still very average.
It cannot be compared with the curved surfaces of later propellers.
But looking at Zhu Houzhao's excitement, you can tell that in this era, it is probably extremely difficult to create such a curved surface and such a propeller.
Zhu Houzhao called it the pinnacle work in the field of machinery. Obviously, this curved surface processing is definitely not an easy task, it is a highly technical matter.
"His Royal Highness, Mr. Liu~"
"For this steamship named Kunpeng, we integrated the design concept and technology of Zheng He's treasure ship, and also referred to Western European shipbuilding technology, coupled with the principle of steam power, we conducted repeated designs and experiments and finally
It was just finalized and designed.”
"All the wood used to build this ship was carefully selected from the virgin forests in the Liaodong region. A large amount of oak wood was used, and teak was also purchased from Siam. The shipbuilding materials used were all
the best."
Chen Shou, the director of Tianjin Shipyard, also began to introduce the situation of the ship in detail.
The embarrassing thing about the Tianjin Shipyard is that there is no good wood around Tianjin. The best wood for shipbuilding is teak and oak. Teak is mainly found in Myanmar and Siam in the Nanyang region. Oak is also called oak wood in the Ming Dynasty.
, only found in the primeval forests of Liaodong.
If you want to build a large ship, you have to be very particular about the wood materials used in shipbuilding. Ordinary wood cannot be used to build ships, because ships bump around in the sea and are corroded by sea water. Ordinary wood is extremely easy to deform and corrode.
, only good wood can meet the needs of shipbuilding.
"Stop talking nonsense and get ready to launch. I can't wait to see the launch of this steamer."
Zhu Houzhao didn't want to listen to Chen Shou's nonsense. He just wanted to see this neat ship sailing in the sea, so he quickly waved his hand and said.
"Yes, Your Highness!"
When Chen Shou heard this, he quickly arranged to go into the water.
Soon, big red flowers were hung on the boats, incense burners and desks were set up, a pig and a sheep were killed, and after worshiping the Dragon King and Mazu, a long string of firecrackers were added.
Then the launching bell started ringing at the dock.
"Dang~dang~"
Accompanied by bursts of bells and the sound of firecrackers, the Kunpeng slowly began to sail into the sea. The moment it entered the water, the ship's huge body pressed into the water, causing a huge wave.
Fortunately, everything went very smoothly.
Tianjin Shipyard also builds a lot of large ships like the Zheng He Treasure Ship every year. It has rich experience, so launching them into the water is even more trivial.
"Let's go, let's take a ride on this steamer and go around the Bohai Sea~"
As soon as the ship was in the water, Zhu Houzhao couldn't wait to pull Liu Jin onto the Kunpeng.
"..."
There was also a shadow in Liu Jin's heart. Who knows what trouble this guy Zhu Houzhao would cause.
But there was no other way but to give Chen Shou a look. The other party immediately understood and quickly arranged for two large ships and seven or eight small ships to follow them. If something happened, they could immediately carry out rescue.
On the Kunpeng, the captain and sailors quickly boarded the ship, poured bucket after bucket of fresh water into the steam boiler, and loaded load after load of coal onto the ship.
At the same time, the boatman who was lighting the boiler also started to light the fire. The fine Liaodong coal burned red, and shovel after shovel of coal began to be added to the boiler.
After waiting for almost half an hour, the water in the boiler finally began to boil.
"Woo~"
Along with a piercing whistle, a huge plume of smoke from the ship rushed here, and billowing smoke rose.
"Haha, let's go~ let's go~"
Zhu Houzhao shouted excitedly and gave the order to go to sea.
At the same time, he also came to the ship's control room, and saw that he forcefully pulled down the starting handle of the steam turbine. At the stern of the ship, the originally calm water surface suddenly burst into rolling waves.
A powerful force began to push the ship forward slowly, and gradually sailed away from the dock.
"Haha, not bad, not bad!"
Zhu Houzhao is now the temporary captain. While feeling the progress of the ship, he shouted excitedly: "Fire up, fire up, the speed is too slow. I didn't see that the sailboats next to us are faster than us."
As he shouted, the captain next to him reluctantly came to a metal pipe mouth and shouted at the pipe mouth. Soon the sound was transmitted to the boiler room, and the boatman in charge of burning the fire had to shovel it again and again.
Shovel coal into the boiler.
"Woo~"
The sirens kept sounding.
The ships also gradually moved away from the shore. Next to the Kunpeng, other ships followed closely, as if they were following suit every step of the way.
"Haha, let me show you the speed of a steamship!"
"Full speed ahead!"
Zhu Houzhao seemed very excited and pushed up the handle that controlled the speed of the ship's steam engine. Suddenly Liu Jin could feel the vibration of the ship becoming more obvious. It was obvious that the steam turbine behind was accelerating.
"You can also control the direction, which is much more convenient than before."
Soon, Zhu Houzhao noticed the steering wheel in the captain's hand again, so he walked over excitedly, controlled the steering wheel to rotate, and the ship also rotated accordingly. This immediately made him excited to start playing.
“It’s fun~ it’s fun~”
"This mechanical design is okay~"
"Better than me."
While playing, he also commented excitedly.
Then Liu Jin on the side could only watch helplessly, as if he had already expected this scene to happen. The guy in front of him was very playful and liked to play. How could he let go of such a good opportunity?
Liu Jin sighed and looked outside. At this time, he was already a little far away from Tianjin Port, and many ships could be seen on the wide sea.
At this moment, people on these ships were all looking at the Kunpeng and this strange smoking guy. Good-hearted people even sent signals to the Kunpeng, asking if there was a fire and if they could help.
some type of.
At the same time, I was also very curious about the ship that did not raise the sail, but could still sail quickly, turn, and turn on the sea seemingly easily and effortlessly.
"What kind of ship is this?"
"There's always smoke~but no fire can be seen."
"There is a sail on it, but why isn't it raised? And there is no sail on it. Why can it move so fast and turn so fast?"
"What kind of ship is this?"
"It's so huge. Looking at the flag above, it seems to be the flag of Tianjin Ocean Trading Company. Only Tianjin Ocean Trading Company likes to use such large ships."
Everyone on the surrounding ships was full of curiosity, full of curiosity about this ship on the sea that was emitting black smoke and did not raise its sails.
On the Kunpeng, Zhu Houzhao was having a great time. Driven by the powerful steam power, the speed of the ship gradually increased. Even without raising the sail, the speed was much faster than the surrounding ships.
The technicians from Tianjin Shipyard and Jingcheng Machinery Factory are also evaluating and inspecting all aspects of the ship at this time. They still want to go to the sea and take a look to find out how the ship is.
"The steam engine at the rear of the ship vibrates a lot when it is working, especially when the power is turned on. The vibration is very obvious, and it is easy to loosen the area where it is fixed, so it must be reinforced."
"The same is true here in the propeller transmission area, and the propeller transmission generates extremely high torque..."
Ren Siheng and Chen Shou led their teams to constantly inspect and test the mechanical design on the ship. This is the first steam ship. There must be many places where the design is not reasonable enough, and continuous improvements must be made.
Better steamships can be built.
Liu Jin came to the deck of the ship, listened to the whistles, felt the sea breeze, and looked at the black smoke billowing out of the smoke, with a smile on his face.
The steamship was built, which was definitely a huge leap for the Ming Dynasty's navigation industry. With the neat ship, there would no longer be the influence of sails, and ships could sail around the world faster, easier, and easier.
, the Ming Dynasty can also strengthen its connections and control over Australia, Golden Continent and other places. The Pacific Ocean has truly become the Ming Dynasty's inland sea, and you can ride on it.