Having defeated the enemy's patrol boat and not being caught, this was enough for Gu Kun to be quiet for a few days.
He believed that no one would bother him in the near future.
It is possible that foreign fishing boats or cargo ships often pass by - because it is not too far from the original international main channel, just a dozen or twenty nautical miles away.
But fishing boats and cargo ships don't mind their own business.
After Gu Kun breathed a sigh of relief, he told his sister: "Take advantage of the free time these days to do your homework, and we will talk about the porcelain knocking when we go back. Panpan, from now on, Long Wu and I will go into the water during the day, and you will go to the water at night."
Help me keep an eye on the place where the boat should be sailed for demolition, and you and Sister Chen should be more careful when you lead others to work."
It's not okay for Gu Pan to do the work, but as long as he gives clear instructions, he can be a supervisor for him. In this kind of thing, loyalty and reliability are the most important.
For the next two days, Gu Kun and Long Wu worked during the day, opening holes suitable for installing buoys on the sunken ship.
The hull, which originally had a large hole cut out of it, was completely dismantled into two sections so that it could be salvaged in sections.
Long Wu originally thought that half of the boat should be fished out first and the cargo unloaded before proceeding. In that case, the operation would be easier in terms of difficulty, and the number of pontoons used at the same time would be reduced by half.
But Gu Kun rejected this proposal:
"I don't want a large amount of cargo to appear on my ship before preparations are complete. What I want is something that can leave within a day or two after getting the first batch of cargo."
The reason why he had escaped the enemy's inspection before was because he was dressed like a scientific research ship and there was no cargo on board. In this case, of course, this condition must be fully utilized to squeeze out the potential of camouflage.
Still number one in stability.
The subordinates did not question him anymore and just worked quietly.
To this end, Gu Kun also gave each sailor at least one thousand US dollars in red envelopes in advance to boost morale. For the most senior confidants, such as Long Wu and Chen Li, they gave at least three thousand US dollars each. The total number of people on the ship
There were more than 10, so Gu Kunguang gave out a red envelope worth 20,000 US dollars at once.
With the prices of goods and seafarers' salaries in 1994, it is already extremely exaggerated to receive so many red envelopes for one week of working at sea. But if the money is not paid in this way, loyalty and confidentiality cannot be guaranteed.
As for how to distribute money, Gu Kun had already thought deeply about it.
First of all, in the past few days, he has mentioned the industry rules to his subordinates openly and secretly. He mainly used Michelle Hatcher as an example.
As mentioned before, every time Hatcher pays the official for salvage operations in accordance with the law, only 15% is actually given, including the 11% upper and lower management.
Gu Kun just wants to let his subordinates, who have never salvaged a ship, know how much profit is divided according to the rules of the salvage industry.
Since he wants to pursue confidentiality, it means that the money he distributes to his subordinates must at least be significantly lower than what he would pay for the public salvage. Otherwise, what is the point of keeping it secret? (In fact, for Gu Kun, confidentiality has other meanings.
But the crew's IQ and foresight are not enough to think of that. The only meaning they can figure out is to save money)
As a result, the psychological expectation of the total profit sharing of all subordinates has been reduced to about 5% to 10% of the income.
In addition, Gu Kun will not let Ma Zai know how much these things will eventually sell for. There is also a several-fold information asymmetry here, and loyalty can definitely be guaranteed.
The people who assisted in selling didn't know how to sell, and the people who assisted in selling didn't know how to make money. Even Long Wu didn't know the existence of Van Bilson. In every segment, only Gu Kun was in control of the overall situation.
…
After two or three days of careful work, all the preliminary preparations were finally completed.
Everyone ushered in the exciting fourth day.
Today's plan was to lift everything up within one day. In order to ensure enough time, they started the lifting operation after nightfall the day before - everything was fixed before dark, and they would just slowly lift it after dark.
To lift, it will take several hours just to pull it up, so don't rush it.
The underwater resistance is very large, and if you pull it too fast, there will be eddies. A diver must always be watching in the water. If you find that your posture is unstable, you must stop and adjust.
It took from 8 o'clock in the evening to dawn before the first section of the hull, which weighed nearly 100 tons, was lifted out.
This is a Galenic sailing ship with a total weight of over 500 tons in its original complete state. Among the Galenic sailing ships running the Manila route, it is already relatively small.
Historically, the tonnage of Galenic ships ranged from 300 tons to more than 1,000 tons, but those with more than 300 tons generally only appeared in the 16th century. In the 17th century, the tonnage was generally more than 400 tons.
Moreover, those with a weight of around 400 tons are for the Atlantic Triangle Trade Route, and the ones coming to Manila must be at least 500 tons, otherwise they are not cost-effective.
However, when the ship sank, the superstructure such as the mast and sail tower collapsed.
The poop tower and other structures were already in dilapidated condition. After sneaking in to observe, Gu Kun found that there was no cargo in the poop tower, so he tore off the poop tower and left it in the sea.
What he fished out this time was mainly the sections containing the cargo hold, so each section would not exceed 150 tons, and there were two sections in total.
After the things were fished out, no one dared to check them immediately. Because Gu Kun and Long Wu were still underwater, they had to replace and fix the noose on the big ship's winch to the pontoon in the second section of the hull to be salvaged, and wait for the second
The section also starts to boost, and then I have time to come back and slowly check what goods are in the first section.
In order to prevent diving sickness and oxygen poisoning, the divers had to go up and down for another five or six hours, so by the time the cabin was opened for inspection, it was already nine o'clock in the morning the next day.
Gu Kun, who had not slept all night, did not dare to slack off at all. He asked the other two divers to go into the water to observe the posture and maintain the lifting balance.
Regardless of the intense labor for more than ten hours, he continued to count the money himself diligently.
"Take those boxes out one by one and stack them! Be careful! If you break one box, your red envelope will be deducted! If you break two boxes, you will be deducted your low salary! Those cabin planks are useless, so throw them away again.
Just go into the sea."
"Brother, just throwing a wooden board will float on the sea. If someone sees it nearby in the future, will they be suspicious?" Gu Pan was very careful this time and took the initiative to remind Gu Kun.
Although Gu Kun had thought about it, he was still quite relieved that this sister finally used her brain to help him.
He pointed with confidence: "Who told you to throw it away directly? Pick out those large ship plates with metal hoop attachments. The counterweight is enough for it to sink. Also, these bronze doors are completely rotten and out of shape.
The cannon can also be tied to the counterweight ship plank and thrown into the sea."
Nearly 20 cannons were also lifted from the ship, because Galen merchant ships from the late 17th to the 18th century were also equipped with firepower to prevent pirates.
If these cannons are well preserved, they can certainly be regarded as cultural relics. If some of them are so rotten that their shape cannot be seen at all, they are worthless, because selling scrap bronze is worthless. It is better to throw away some in order to reduce the target.
In addition, if the cargo boxes you fished out contain silk, and the silk has completely rotted, you can also throw away the boxes together. As for the tea leaves, they have no value, so you can only throw them away.
In this way, dozens of tons of waste were processed. More than 50 tons of cargo boxes were sorted out from the ship, as well as 20 to 30 tons of garbage, mainly wooden ship boards.
These planks do not have enough counterweight, so they can be thrown farther away on the return voyage, so that no one will find out where they came from in the vast sea.
"There were a total of 300 large boxes of porcelain and lacquerware, less than half of which were broken. Six bronze cannons in good condition, and dozens of boxes of silk that were soaked in water but still in relatively complete shape."
"This half of the hull is near the stern, and there should be more cargo. The half that will be fished out in a while is the bow, and it would be good to have more than half of it. It is estimated that we can get a total of 500 boxes of porcelain. Pick out the ones that are intact and not broken.
300 boxes would be good.”
The income from this trip was at least ten times more than that of the previous immigrant ship that was officially harvested.