Chapter 158: Hope and Water Speed ​​Race

The route of the water race is a waterway less than 8 miles from the San Francisco Pier to the town of Berkeley.

Since 1850, several villages have been formed around the Golden Bay, and Berkeley is one of them.

Berkeley is a small village located northeast of San Francisco, across the bay from San Francisco.

Today, the small pier in Berkeley Village will become the end of the water race.

The Sacramento is personally steered by Vanderbilt, while the Hope is steered by Sven of the Global Shipping Company.

Sven was very excited to have a speed and passion contest with the famous "Commodore".

Elvis, a major of the California Infantry Regiment at the San Francisco Port, saw that everyone had boarded the ship, took out the revolver at his waist and fired a shot into the air.

This was the signal for the start of the race.

For the sake of fairness, the two steamships participating in the race were equipped with only three firemen. After the gunshot, the firemen skillfully shoveled coal from the coal pile and sent it into the furnace.

The two steamships sounded shrill whistles, slowly accelerated, and headed towards the village of Berkeley in the east.

The Hope is 30 meters long and 8 meters wide.

The bow is relatively low, and above the low bow is a thin awning, and the cab is located under the awning.

In the middle of the ship, there is a pair of Minglun wings tightly covered by an arched wooden box. Above the wooden box is a clanging walking beam, which transmits power from the piston.

The middle is the most critical part of the ship. The chimney, copper boiler, hot boiler furnace fire chamber, and piles of coal are all located in the middle of the ship.

At the stern are the cabins, kitchens, restaurants and rest areas.

Of course, this is the passenger version of Hope. If it is a cargo version, the cabin at the stern will become a cargo hold.

The method of converting a passenger ship into a cargo ship is also very simple. You only need to remove all the seats and beds in the cabin.

At the beginning of the design, Liang Yao took into account the versatility of Hope, so that it can be easily converted between passenger ships and cargo ships.

After all, if the shipyard wants to operate for a long time, it must launch products that are popular in the market and make profits as soon as possible.

It is not a long-term solution to always rely on mining companies for blood transfusions.

In the future, many villages, towns and even cities like Berkeley will be formed around Jinshan Bay, and the population will also be distributed along Jinshan Bay. Shipping will become one of the main modes of transportation to connect the settlements around Jinshan Bay.

A small and fast steam paddle steamer like Hope will be very useful.

Liang Yao sat in the cab of Hope, watching Sven holding the steering wheel tightly with both hands.

Although Sven is a good sailor of global shipping, today's opponent is the famous commodore, and he dare not slack off.

"Add more coal! Damn it! The Sacramento is going to overtake us!"

Sven urged the stoker.

The Sacramento was running at full power, rushing forward with all its might. The paddle wheels on both sides of the ship slapped the water, splashing waves, and the chimney in the middle of the ship kept emitting thick smoke.

Vanderbilt's old friends, Theodore and Jeremiah, shouted provocatively at the people on the Hope at the stern of the Sacramento.

The Sacramento surpassed the Hope and took the lead.

Liang Yao was sure that Vanderbilt was taking this waterway for the first time, but he seemed to be more familiar with it than Sven, who had been there several times.

This was nothing strange. The old captain had personally explored many valuable commercial routes.

The inland river routes of Nicaragua were explored by him personally driving an inland shipping ship through the smoky tropical rainforest.

All immigrants who arrived in California alive from the eastern United States should thank Vanderbilt.

Vanderbilt almost single-handedly shortened the original voyage from the eastern United States to California from seven or eight months to the current two or three months.

If there is no Nicaragua route, immigrants from the east have only two routes to reach California, either crossing the entire North American continent or sailing around Cape Horn in South America, which is windy and rough, and taking seven or eight months to sail to San Francisco.

Vanderbilt provided these immigrants with a more efficient and faster route.

The brave and fearless pioneering spirit and strong enterprising spirit of the first generation of American industrialists in the 19th century laid a solid foundation for the rise of the United States in the 20th century.

They monopolized wealth and caused a huge gap between the rich and the poor in the United States, but they also created wealth, created new industries and jobs, and turned the United States from a backward agricultural country into a powerful industrial country.

Just for this reason, these first generation American industrialists are much stronger than some people's tycoons who even want to snatch the business of small stalls and hawkers.

Although they are all capitalists, there are also differences in the pattern of capitalists.

"Today, the Hope is the protagonist of this game. Stop adding coal to the furnace."

Vanderbilt looked at the Berkeley Village dock looming in the distance and the sparse farmhouses scattered in the Jinshan Bay area, and ordered the boiler operator to stop adding coal to the fire room of the boiler furnace.

He has had enough of sailing.

He is not a person who does not understand the ways of the world. He only appears to be nimble and unwilling to give in in front of people he hates.

And Liang Yao is not the kind of person he hates.

Vanderbilt also knew what the Hope meant to the Californians, so there was no need for him to pour cold water on the Californians who were in high spirits.

"Your decision was very wise." Theodore looked at the crowd waiting at the terminal and said, "Sometimes winning or losing is important, and sometimes it's not so important."

Shipbuilding expert Jeremiah stuck his head out of the window of the cockpit and sighed at the Hope that was tightly attached to the Sacramento.

"It's already very remarkable to be able to build a steamship with such superior performance in less than a year."

Theodore also agreed that the Sacramento used the most advanced technology five years ago. It was rare for the San Francisco shipyard, which started from scratch, to have such performance in the racing competition.

Due to Vanderbilt's release of water, the Hope finally surpassed the Sacramento in the last half mile and arrived at the finish line, "narrowly beating" the Sacramento.

Sven was not happy to win the water race. He was a little angry and felt insulted.

As an old sailor, Sven knew that Vanderbilt deliberately let him win.

Liang Yao walked off the Hope amid the cheers of the crowd.

He was very satisfied with the performance of the Hope. With a wave of his hand, he gave a bonus of $5,000 to the shipbuilding experts, engineers and shipbuilding workers who participated in the design, research and manufacturing of the Hope.

Even if they lost the water racing competition, Liang Yao would still give them this bonus, which they deserved.

Regardless of winning or losing, the Hope met his psychological expectations.

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