Chapter 319: Traveling with Whales

"Wow, look it's a whale!"

Some crew members shouted excitedly.

"This is a good sign, Your Highness the Grand Duke. There is a legend in my distant hometown that encountering a whale while out at sea is a sign of good luck."

At this time, Oshiosugi Ne had changed back to her previous miko uniform. It seemed that the assimilation policy had not erased the cultural imprint on her body, but presumably Thalia was not a very good executor.

Just at this time, a whale jumped out of the water, and then hit the sea hard, causing a wave of waves and causing the sailors on the ship to exclaim.

Afterwards, a burst of singing from the ocean continued to spread around, warming the hearts of travelers who had been tortured by the long and boring voyage. Ethereal, sad, and distant, it seems to be a call from ancient times, but it is also as scary as the gaze into the abyss.

While everyone was concentrating on admiring the spectacle of the giant beast, a discordant sound sounded on the ship.

"Quick! Open the gun doors and get everyone into combat positions!"

As the commander-in-chief, Friedrich's order immediately made the entire ship busy. Sailors and middle- and lower-level officers began to quickly run back to their posts to prepare for battle. Even Franz was nervously searching with a telescope. against the enemies on the sea.

But according to common sense, with the size of this fleet, pirates should not have the guts to attack, unless some of them can't wait to see God.

A maritime regiment consisting of one super first-class battleship, four quasi-first-class battleships, and more than ten other escort and supply ships is enough to defeat the navy of a medium-sized country.

The only people in the Indian Ocean who may pose a threat to the Austrian Imperial Navy are the British.

The Royal Navy deployed 25 battleships in the Indian Ocean. Although the vast majority of them were third-class battleships, it was almost impossible to escape their pursuit through the Strait of Malacca and return to Kampong Som.

Of course, that's just a common sense estimate. The imperial fleet, which has all been replaced with steam power, has been completely transformed, and its sailing speed is far beyond what the British sailing battleships can match.

However, Franz, whose thoughts returned to reality, did not notice that there were malicious warships around. Soon other sailors also discovered this, and everyone looked at the captain who gave the order in confusion.

"Didn't you all see those giant beasts? You know, we haven't fired a single cannon along the way. If we don't use it anymore, the cannonballs will probably expire!"

Friedrich roared, but no one answered.

"Uncle Friedrich, please don't let your bad thoughts tarnish this rare landscape in front of you. These poor animals are no threat to you."

Before Franz finished speaking, Paul Davin, the vice-captain from Venice, said at the side.

"The captain is right! The whole body of a whale is full of treasures! Whale oil and whale bones are valuable goods! Even if we drag them to Bombay and sell them to the British, we can still make money! Captain is wise!"

He is right. The whaling industry during this period was not only quite developed, but also very profitable.

At this time, whale oil was one of the most important lighting methods in the West and the most important lubricant in industry. It can also be used in the manufacture of textiles, leather, paints and varnishes and even soap.

A gallon of whale oil can be sold for 3-5 florins, but the price fluctuates greatly with supply and demand.

There were a variety of lighting fuels at that time, each with its own merits: paraffin, beeswax, suet oil, turpentine... but only whale oil produced almost no smoke when burned, could produce a stable light source, and had no odor.

Among them, sperm whale oil is the best. It not only has a bright flame, but also has a faint oily smell.

The main material for the fine candles used in Schönbrunn Palace is sperm whale oil. Although there are paraffin wax candles nowadays, the price is very high due to the limited technical means and backward refining process of paraffin wax at that time.

Of course, this is only lower than spermaceti, and is still a luxury product that is beyond the reach of ordinary people. In addition, due to the limitation of underdeveloped technology, industrial lubricants are mainly refined from whale oil.

If you are a fan of the Industrial Party, you should understand how huge the role of lubricants in industry is. It can even be said that without lubricants, the industrial revolution would not be able to proceed smoothly.

The UK consumes more than 500,000 gallons of whale oil on textile machinery every year. According to American calculations:

Large bowhead whales can produce more than 300 barrels of whale oil, and the average can reach 150 barrels, much more than sperm whales and right whales, whose averages are 25 barrels and 60 barrels respectively.

(One barrel equals 42 gallons.)

In other words, in order to meet the industrial needs of the United Kingdom, at least 3,333 bowhead whales must be killed every year, 8,333 right whales, and 20,000 sperm whales.

Whale bones were also a very popular commodity in the 19th century, with a wide range of uses including but not limited to:

Sun hat, whip, parasol, tongue scraper, pen holder, fishing rod, divining rod, umbrella, bow tie, walking stick, garland, top hat, suspenders, folder and paper knife, painter's wood grain comb, feet on the soles of boots Bow supports, shoehorns, brushes, mattresses, elastic linings on the inside edges of pool tables. Even training swords used by nobles to practice their swift swords.

Of course, these are not the most valuable uses of whale bones. The tutu skirts and women's tights that were common in the 19th century (men also wore tights at that time) also used whale bones, but the demand was relatively small.

(Whalebone actually refers to whale baleen, not real fish bones.)

Why didn't Franz know about this treasure?

The answer is:

The Austrian Empire was not a normal country. It almost did not consume whale oil for lighting, because Galicia and Transylvania had a tradition of using oil.

As for public lighting, Austrians used gas lamps.

Whale oil was almost unpopular except for the nobles and Italians living near the sea. The oil for lubricating machinery was a mixture of rapeseed oil and petroleum. Its output not only supplied and met domestic demand, but also sold well in German states.

As for whalebone, Austria imported a large amount of this raw material from the United States because it made hats and mattresses all year round, and used it to make women's petticoats and tights.

At that time, there was a very strange phenomenon, that is, the whalebone used to make hats and mattresses was a few tens of times the price of the whalebone used to make women's petticoats and tights, and there was almost no actual difference between the two.

Except for a few suckers, almost all clothing merchants and tailors chose the cheaper whalebone.

Back to the point, Franz felt that firing a cannon to fry fish was the behavior of a disobedient child and was unlucky, so there was really no need for him to do so.

"Uncle Friedrich, whales are a symbol of good luck. Don't you agree? Miss Shanyin."

When Franz turned his head to look at Da Yan Shanyin, the latter was holding a knife and fork with an expression as if she was ready to rush down to eat, and she didn't listen to the former's words at all.

Franz couldn't help but hold his forehead. He forgot that the woman in front of him was a Japanese. It was probably because she hadn't touched sushi for a long time and wanted to have a whale to satisfy her tooth.

It seemed necessary to let her have a big meal. After all, there were only river fish near Vienna, and there were only two ways to eat them-roasting and frying.

Austrians are one of the few peoples in Europe who like to eat freshwater fish, but they also have a very bad impression of fish bones like other Europeans and hate them very much.

The solution is also very simple and crude, that is, to directly roast or fry the fish, so as to minimize the tediousness of picking fish bones.