Chapter 1053 Narrow Sea Terrain, Decline of Shipping
Xia Duo and Niya followed Evans to the port pier and stood beside the "Yuanyuan". Looking at this big ship that was slightly longer than the "Lucky Owen", Xia Duo nodded secretly.
This ship is not an ocean-going ship, and its hull size and carrying capacity are not as good as those of a real ocean-going ship, but it has no problem at all when sailing in offshore waters.
Although Harbor Harbor is far away from Severington, it still falls within the scope of offshore navigation. This starts with the special geographical environment of the Narrow Sea.
The overall shape of the Narrow Sea is like a stomach, and the narrowest part in the northwest is the esophagus connected to the stomach. Ascor, the trading city on the surface of the dwarf kingdom Danzo, is at the end of the esophagus.
In the east, a mountain range extending from the Great North Glacier divides the main body of the Narrow Sea into east and west halves.
Zenith is located on the southern coast of the Western Narrow Sea, while Severington is located on the southern coast of the Eastern Narrow Sea.
As for Harbor Harbor, it is actually the cutoff point of the Channel Mountains in the Narrow Sea. Of course, this is only seen from the sea surface. Under the sea, the Channel Mountains are still a whole.
Watch Island is the closest island outside Harbor Harbor. Of course, it can also be understood as a peak above the sea in the Channel Mountains.
The fastest way to sail from Severington to Harbor Harbor is, of course, to go as straight as possible, taking into account the wind direction and undercurrents.
However, doing so will inevitably lead to deep oceans, and the risk factor is high.
With a ship like the "Yuanyuan" not suitable for ocean-going voyages and a newly recruited crew, it was not safe to choose this way of sailing.
The really safe way is to first drive west along the coastline, reach the Channel Mountains, and then continue north along the Channel Mountains until you reach Harbor Harbor.
If you sail like this, you will basically be in the offshore range.
Last night, Xia Duo and Niya also discussed the route. Although the two of them were not worried about the risks at sea, the ship and other crew members on the ship did.
Therefore, even Niya, who longs for a sea adventure, strongly agrees with the more secure offshore route.
…
After boarding the ship, Evans introduced Captain Bill to the Chateau couple, a veteran navigator who was said to have led the crew to defeat a sea monster at sea.
"Sir, what Evans said is too exaggerated. I only survived the sea monster's attack that time. It's not a victory at all." Bill said very humbly.
However, Xia Duo could hear a lot of pride in his humble words, which was indeed something to be proud of. After all, even a spellcaster wouldn't have a good solution when encountering sea monsters at sea.
Running away is almost the only option, and if you want to successfully run away in the vast sea, it is almost impossible for ordinary spell casters to succeed.
While Evans continued to introduce the ship's past, Chateau noticed that Bill, the old captain, looked lonely.
After listening to Evans' narration, he roughly understood the origin of Bill's loneliness.
Mainly speaking, this is actually one point. Last year, the Kingdom of Netheril and Denzo cleaned and rectified the underground passage connecting Zenis and Askor, and eliminated most of the underground creatures that threatened the caravans.
At the same time, tolls have also been significantly reduced, which has made ocean shipping somewhat useless.
Apart from the short time, there is no other obvious advantage.
The trade between Netheril and the Kingdom of Danzo is mostly concentrated in raw ores, metals, weapons, grain, wine, etc. Netheril mainly exports raw ores, grain, wine, imported metals, and weapons.
The main metal is mithril.
Ore, metals and the like have little shelf life, but even for grain and wine, the shelf life is enough to cover the entire land transportation time.
If any high-speed transportation appears in the future, maritime transportation will completely decline.
The ship "Yuanyuan" was abandoned by its original owner for this reason, and Captain Bill recently lost his job because of this reason.
It is difficult for Chateau to evaluate such a result. Although air transportation exists on earth, sea transportation is still prosperous. The reason is nothing more than large transportation volume, cheap freight, and safety.
In this magical world, before the sea monsters can be effectively dealt with, shipping by sea is somewhat luck-based. Of course, the land route may not be safe, and there will also be a large number of wild monsters attacking caravans.
But relatively speaking, the land route is safer.
Even if an environment, technology, and shipping similar to those on Earth appear in the future, it may not be possible again. You must know that magic exists in this world.
It is of course impossible to carry out space teleportation on the earth, but here, Xia Duo just used the teleportation circle to come from the south!
Once transportation costs are significantly reduced, both sea and land transportation will have to stop.
As a senior arcanist, Xia Duo knew exactly where the difficulty lay. Basically, there was only one difficulty, and that was cheap resources.
Mithril, gold, colorless gems, arcane crystals, etc., as long as they are cheaper, it is easy for the teleportation circle to be commercially used.
And this is very easy to achieve in the foreseeable future!
For a while, Xia Duo didn't know how to describe this kind of society that was both developed and backward, but this made him more determined to develop a magical civilization.
Only magic is the primary productive force; only civilization can maximize this power.
…
Before setting sail, Evans disembarked from the ship with the Tower of Time version of the communication tool that Shado gave him.
On the deck, Shado waved to Evans, then took Niya to the bow of the ship. As the sea in front of him continued to part at his feet, the "Yuanyuan" gradually sailed away from the Severnton Port.
"Shado, look! Is that a dolphin?"
Following the direction of Niya's finger, Xia Duo turned around and saw five or six dolphins leaping out of the sea. After gliding through a curve, they hit the water again, causing a splash of water.
After that, he jumped up again, and after several times, he disappeared.
In Netheril, there is also a saying that encountering dolphins at sea will bring good luck, but this is the first time Niya has seen dolphins. After confirming it with Shado many times, Niya became extremely excited.
"Look, they're here again!"
Xia Duo looked back and saw that not only had they come again, but they had also been swimming with the "Yuanfang" for a long distance. At the closest point, the five or six dolphins were only more than ten meters away from the "Yuanfang".
After the dolphins gave up following the boat, Niya cast spells to search for them, but unfortunately, ordinary detection spells did not work well in waters or mud.
Looking at the place where the dolphins disappeared in the distance, Niya suddenly said: "I have decided to create a detection spell that can detect underwater information!"