Chapter 174 Poetry Collection

Zhang Heng returned to the captain's cabin on the Jackdaw, and wiped off the rain on his head with a towel, while Annie on the other side also quickly changed her clothes.

Zhang Heng poured a glass of rum for the red-haired girl to warm her up, and then drank it himself. This wine is standard for sailors, but the taste is not very good. Although it is sugar cane It is brewed from juice, but it is a bit bitter, far less good than wine and brandy, but it is cheaper and has a longer shelf life than fresh water.

Generally, the bottled water on the ship will become unpalatable after one month, and various plankton will grow in it, but rum can be stored for one or two years, which is a must-have item on the ship.

After drinking a cup, Zhang Heng's stomach immediately felt warm, but at this moment, there was a knock on the door.

Billy walked in with a somewhat awkward young man.

"This is Mr. Vincent," the helmsman made a brief introduction, "I asked the crew on the ship to read the notebook you gave me. We were lucky, Mr. Vincent happened to know the note on it. Word."

Zhang Heng also recognized the other party. He is the ship doctor who just boarded the ship this time. Billy personally recruited him. However, he seems to like botany more. He was hijacked by a group of pirates on the way to conduct research on the ship, and he was forced to become the other party. A year later, that group of pirates disbanded and merged into another pirate group. Vincent regained his freedom, but he had to stay on the island because he was afraid that his pirate experience would be found out.

He lived next door to Billy, and usually made money by keeping accounts in taverns, brothels and the like. Under Billy's persuasion, he finally decided to go to sea again with the Jackdaw.

"This is a list of cargo, but it is written in Dutch. It records the cargo carried by a ship every voyage. They are all common things, such as cotton, woolen cloth, or timber." The young man said. It was the first time for the ship doctor to speak to the captain, and he seemed a little nervous. He was worried that Zhang Heng would not believe his words and explained, "My father is from Scotland, but my mother is from the Netherlands. I lived in the Netherlands for a while when I was a child, so I also understand Some Dutch.

"What about these?" Zhang Heng also gave Vincent the other two notebooks.

Annie was about to leave, but she also stopped at this moment. She was very curious about the mysteriously missing crew members on the ship and wanted to know what happened to them.

The young ship doctor took the notes, opened one of them, looked at two pages and said with some uncertainty, "This should be... a collection of poems."

"Poems?"

"Yes, and they are love poems." Vincent turned a few more pages, "Most of them are written to a woman named Betty, but the level is not very good. This is the first time I have seen someone describe himself as a storm. My lover, and most of the descriptions are...very explicit."

The young ship doctor blushed first after speaking.

"Can you read us one?"

"Oh, yes... yes, no problem." Vincent secretly glanced at Annie, who was at the side, but the red-haired girl didn't respond at all.

The young ship doctor rummaged through, found one that looked good, and cleared his throat, "Betty my love\I praise you\I adore you\You are the storm\My master\Your chest is bent The fruit of the branches\Your...uh, your legs are like valleys flowing with honey\..." After reading this, Vincent's forehead was also dripping with sweat, and he couldn't help but relax himself. collar, raised his head and asked Zhang Heng, "Should I continue to read?"

"Since you've read this far..."

"Okay," the young ship doctor touched the hot ears, and continued, "You wrap me with your body\Whispering in my ear\Let me fly\I love you so much\Regardless Everything \better than my own soul\ I would like to be with you for the rest of my life... nothing else." Vincent said, "If you like Dutch poetry, I can find much better than this."

After the young doctor finished speaking, he found that the three people in the room were all looking at him, so he obediently picked up the third notebook, and said after a while, "This one looks like a record of their replenishment at various ports. There are port names, dates, and supply statistics."

"So there's no captain's log in here?"

"I don't think I've seen anything like it." Vincent shook his head.

"Could it be that you forgot to take it?" Annie asked.

"It's unlikely. In that room, I checked all the books that fell on the floor. Except for these three books, there are no handwritten ones, and they are all printed."

Zhang Heng asked the young ship doctor again, "Are the handwriting in these three notebooks the same?"

"There are two similar books. The cargo list and supply records are different." Vincent flipped through them again, and then affirmed, "Yes, these three notebooks should come from two people."

Billy said, "The first two are usually the work of bookkeepers. Unfortunately, without the captain's log, it is difficult for us to know what happened on that ship at that time."

As soon as he finished speaking, Vincent said suddenly, "Wait, it's a bit strange here."

The young ship doctor still held the last supply record in his hand, with a look of doubt on his face, "I know these two ports, they are quite far away, and it took almost a month for me and my brother to go by boat. Time, how could it be less than 15 days between the two replenishment times, the speed should be more than nine knots, is there such a fast cargo ship in that era?"

"Based on the state of the ship, it should be able to sail at full sail and full speed." Billy said, "But in reality, this is impossible at all. The wind is exactly maintained at the same level for fifteen days. Not breaking the mast and just giving you the maximum speed you need for sailing is about as likely as a thousand gold coins falling right in front of you."

"It seems that the captain of that ship doesn't think so."

Vincent pointed to the line above and recorded, "They only replenished the fresh water and food needed for the 16-day voyage at the first port, and it was only a day and a half away from the last voyage."

"Ha, no wonder they had an accident at the end."

"But when we boarded the ship, their supplies were still abundant, and the ship was obviously not caused by the captain's arrogance." Zhang Heng said, and then Billy said, "I remember that there is a more complete navigation chart on the ship. Find it out, and let Vincent see if he can mark the ports he's called along the way, and calculate his average speed, so we'll know if his previous sailing time was an accident."

Sorry, it's just an update today