Chapter 1106 Acupuncture and Compass Sailing and Accidents

"Bodhisattva! It turns out that what you are using is an ancient water-floating fish!... If you boil the iron needle until it is hot, and then cool it suddenly, it will float on the water in the bowl, almost pointing to the south... This is It’s an old method that’s been used for some years, but it’s easy to get inaccurate…”

"Oh! You still rely on the sun during the day and the stars at night to indicate the direction of the sea? And then write down the mountain peaks and rivers along the way, and the appearance of the seashore?... This is also a commonly used method... However, there is no exact needle. Road, then you must sail close to the coast and not dare to go too far from the coast, let alone sail into the open sea..."

"What! You have a sea chart that was divined after the 'Great Witch Hall's Spiritual Enchantment', so you know the general coast and the way forward?!...Ah this! God! You relied on divination all the way, and you know What will be on the sea ahead?!... Lord God! There are such efficacious gods and Buddhas? Is there such a great shaman with infinite power?..."

"My lord!... You still recruit sailors and guides from the savage tribes in various places? Ask the local tribes for information about the waterways, and then move to the west coast little by little... Bodhisattva! You are really like this , just like this... relying on gods, Buddhas and tribes... sailed twenty thousand miles all the way!!..."

The coast of Alaska in the north is vaguely visible in the sky. Those towering peaks are the most eye-catching navigation beacons for hundreds of miles. The sea breeze blowing from the southwest is blowing through the longitudinal sails tilted to face the wind, carrying the lonely shelter boat towards the east without stopping.

The strong southwesterly wind not only brought eastward wind, but also forced the entire ship to tilt to the north from time to time. The three people on the side of the boat have long been accustomed to this level of bumping and rolling. They all bowed their waists slightly, stretched out their legs and feet, and while maintaining their balance, they gestured loudly and talked.

"God bless you! Pu Fanjiang, the compass in your hand is originally used to point... Then it has twenty-four grids, that is, it has twenty-four recorded directions?..."

"Yes...Sir! This is a twenty-four-digit water compass, also called that...oh! 'Single-needle compass'. Use the azimuth and distance recorded by it to record the detailed sea route, ship speed and time, which is the best way to sail a ship." Needle Road...'Zi Guichou Gen, Yin Jia Mao Yi', 'Zi' means due north, 'Gen' means northeast, and 'Mao' means due east. Our ship is heading east now. But look carefully at this The bow of the ship is actually between 'Gen' and 'Mao', which is about the position of 'A'...that is, six from due east and one north..."

"In total, according to this position, we have already traveled today...well, three hours!...Ah? You ask how to determine the time? Look at the 12 o'clock sundial on the bow of the ship. It turns three grids, that is three An hour…”

Sailmaker Pu Shunfan carefully pointed to the 24-digit compass in his hand, then to the sundial specially placed at the bow and the direction pole marking the direction of the bow. The direction of the pole corresponds to that on the compass, and it is indeed pointed at position 'A', which is due east by north, 75 degrees.

"God bless you! When you sail, you actually remember twenty-four angles?...Ah! You also need to remember the time of sailing?!..."

"Sir, sailing on this sea is inherently stormy and unpredictable. If you can't even determine the direction and time... you don't even know where you will end up!"

Speaking of this, sailmaker Pu Shunfan pulled his hair, recalled what he had seen at sea, and replied with emotion.

"The compass on our ship is just a simple twenty-four-position... Some old 'navigators' on the Ming Dynasty's ship will use a double-needle compass to record the route to Nanyang..."

"We have seen that kind of compass before, with forty-eight directions... and according to the notation of the double-needle compass, the current heading is the 'Jia Mao' position (82.5 degrees) between 'A' and 'Mao'... They On the boat, there is also a leakage of flowing water, which can know the exact time and moment..."

"O Lord God! Pu Fanjiang, write down the forty-eight navigation directions down to the specific moment... You are really a tribe that is good at navigation!..."

"Uh... Sir... what you are saying is... you are the... star in the sky descending to earth!... Even without any tools, you can go to sea smoothly. Even the Dragon King in the sea does not dare to accept you... No! Xiao Xiao You are stupid... you... you are... that... auspicious person has his own destiny!..."

Having said this, sailmaker Pu Shunfan gritted his teeth and gave himself two hard slaps to suppress the disrespectful thoughts in his mind. Then, he swallowed hard, and then looked at the "big man of the two classes" who looked surprised and curious, and seemed to have never seen these navigation tools before.

"Sir! That...this...the wind is very good right now! Very good!...In one hour, you can travel that...forty or fifty miles!..."

"Huh? Boatman Pu, what are you talking about? How fast is this boat going now?..."

"Uh, this... the boat travels... that... from here to here... one moment is... one hour... that is... about... a little half faster than when you first got on the boat and went from the first island to the second island..."

The sailmaker Pu Shunfan stammered, gesticulating and narrating, and Watanabe also translated along with him. The two talked for a full two-quarters of an hour, and Mickey, the knowledgeable man, finally figured out what the speed of the ship was.

"Lord God! It turns out that this wind god's ship can actually travel faster?!..."

"Yes! Sir! This ship sails eastward. If it goes against the east wind, it can only travel more than ten miles in one hour. Summer days are long, and the sun on the North Sea is especially long!... We can travel five hours a day. , if the wind is against the wind for one day, it is only fifty or sixty miles. This boat was half facing the south wind, and it can travel thirty miles in one hour. With the wind against the wind for one day, it is about one hundred and fifty miles!"

"As for now, this boat is following the southwest wind, and it can travel forty or fifty miles in an hour, and more than two hundred miles in a day! And if it is following the west wind, completely following the wind, it can go faster than it is now! In an hour, you can even travel sixty miles, and in a day with a favorable wind, you can travel three hundred miles!…”

"Shipmaker Park, what are you talking about?! If we go completely with the wind, we can travel three hundred miles in a day?!... Lord God! This is really a fast ship blessed by the wind god!..."

Hearing such incredible boat speed, Mickey the Knowledgeable touched his nose, it was really incredible. This is almost three times the speed of the kingdom's longships...

In fact, in this era, Chinese-style ocean shelters using longitudinal sails had a limited load capacity, but they were very light and stable, and were good at borrowing wind power. Generally speaking, it can operate at 2 knots against the wind, 4 knots at half wind, and up to 7 knots downwind. It is a medium-sized boat that is very suitable for offshore sailing.

The ocean-covering ship that everyone was on set off from Shenshuangyan Port at 158 ​​degrees east longitude at the end of May, and arrived at Shendadi Port at 163 degrees west longitude at the beginning of July. This Chinese-style ocean-covering ship maintained a speed of 3-5 knots in half wind and traveled through the Aleutian Island Chain, which spans 39 longitudes and 5,000 to 6,000 miles. It only took more than a month or 40 days. . Now that the wind has turned from half wind to downwind, the boat's speed has become faster. To travel the more than 6,000 miles of the far north coast, it would probably only take a little over a month...

"God bless you! If everything goes well, we will be able to travel across the entire far north coast in mid-August and arrive at the northernmost point of the west coast, the whale port of the Kingdom! And when we arrive at the whale port, even if we don't meet The third batch of fleets supported by the kingdom can at least know the details of the supporting fleets from the missionary priest Zuyu who stayed here!…”

Thinking of this, Mikey, the knowledgeable man, felt ups and downs, his face was full of impatient desire, and his eyes also had a look of longing.

The kingdom's ports on the far north coast have only been established for less than a year and contain only one or two hundred tribes. There were no redundant longships in the port to accompany the owner of the Zheyang ship back home, nor could it provide much supplies. Even the news from the West Coast came before the freeze last year. After all, the extreme northern coast is too desolate and bitterly cold. There is almost no large tribe of a thousand people, which is far inferior to the warm climate and numerous tribes on the west coast.

Only when they arrived at the west coast, which is open to navigation all year round, and met the kingdom's support fleet, could this ocean-covering ship, fully loaded with the harvest of Shenqi Continent, truly and safely fall into the hands of the kingdom! At that time, he and Zuvalo's exploration achievements will be completely settled, and will be passed to the kingdom and recorded in the divine epic! …

"Priest! Priest Mi! It's not good! It's not good!..."

Mikey, the knowledgeable man, was thinking about something when he suddenly heard a flurry of footsteps and panicked shouts with a Japanese accent.

"The Lord God witnesses! Something happened! Something bad is going to happen!..."

"Huh? What's wrong?! Are you... the horse breeder Ichiro?... What happened?"

"Yes! Priest-sama! The young one is Suichiro..."

The horse breeder, Sukeichiro, was barefoot, wearing a leather robe and a golden sun amulet. His face was full of uneasiness and fear. Then, with a "pop" sound, and smelling of horse manure, he knelt down on the sloping deck and kowtowed several times. The "bang bang" sound was like smashing the deck with your head. And his voice was full of anxiety, and you could even hear the cry of fear.

"Master Priest!...The horse...the big horse...that big Jurchen horse...something happened!..."