After walking for about 5 minutes during the chat, everyone walked away from the scene of the launching ceremony of the noisy all-steel test ship and came to a new slipway with very tight protection. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

After checking the documents and identities of each entrant, I crossed the checkpoint, turned a zigzag bay, and saw a new, very large slipway in a place obscured by the mountains.

On the slipway is a transport ship with a steel hull, but it's a little bigger.

The ship was not built, but it can be vaguely seen from the steel keel that this transport ship is at least 100 meters long, rich, and much wider than the all-steel test ship that was launched just now.

And from the five already installed, 68-meter-high all-steel keels, it can be seen that this is a giant transport ship with sail power.

When he saw that the craftsmen were using pulleys to lift the wire rope to the mast to act as a cable, Chen Xin's eyes flashed with excitement.

"The products of big industry are really beautiful."

Chen Xin had several professional adjutants, all of whom helped him deal with military affairs, and at this time, the adjutant of the navy looked at this unfinished behemoth with some curiosity.

After a while, he asked suspiciously, "Your Majesty, since the kingdom already has a steam engine and is still moving towards a full-scale steam warship, why do you need to build such a huge sail-powered ship?" Isn't this a step backwards in technology? ”

Chen Xin looked at the miracle of this industrial age in fascination, and slowly explained, "This is not a technological regression, this is a high-tech equipment that can only be manufactured by a complete industrial country."

Except for the treasure ships built in the early years of the Ming Dynasty, any country in Europe, let alone building such a giant sail carrier, they probably can't even think of it. ”

The large steel transport ship in front of him is a "super large transport ship" independently designed and developed with the computing power of a supercomputer based on the "Prussia" sail transport ship that Chen Xin had a slight impression in his mind.

Looking at this beautiful big ship, Chen Xin's mind flashed the information he had seen before the crossing.

The "Prussia" large five-masted full-sail (full-sail, meaning all mainmasts are full of four-cornered sails) steel sailing ship is a cargo ship built in 1902 for a very famous shipping company in Germany by a shipyard in Germany that has not yet completed the unification, and it is also a further improved and developed model of the German five-masted large sailing ship "Potossi" in 1895.

At the time, she was the only five-masted full-sail sailing ship in the world, and the largest classical sailing ship ever built.

In the 19th century, mechanically powered ships were a powerful challenge to the status of sailing ships.

In the 19th century, sailing ships that had previously crossed the seas declined rapidly in just a few decades.

However, the sailing designers of the time still did their best to use the latest technology to build a number of new galleons with performance comparable to the steamers of the time.

These ships were very advanced in the late 19th century and early 20th century.

At that time, the military industry, agricultural fertilizer industry and other projects in European countries had a very strong demand for Chilean saltpeter, so the sailing ship with almost unlimited endurance showed a great advantage in operating costs on this distant route.

The "Potossi" and the "Prussia" and other ultimate galleons came into being.

The name "Prussia" is full of pride in the German Empire, which had just been unified and was flourishing until the start of World War I.

At the beginning of the 20th century, when steamships had long ruled the seas, the magnificent Prussia was the pinnacle and swan song of traditional Western sailing ships.

The Prussia had a total of 47 sails: 30 sails on five masts, 12 ram sails between masts, 4 bow spinnakers and 1 small aftermast, all of which had a total area of 6,806 square metres.

She was a pure sailing ship, with two small boilers and a steam engine only used to drive four steam sail winch, a steam windlass, hydraulic steering gear, water pump, and generator.

With the assistance of the power of steam, it was "only" 45 crew members to drive and maneuver such a behemoth instead of 245 people.

Of course, in terms of the number of controllers, there is still no way to compare with modern ships, which is one of the reasons why she was finally eliminated.

On her deck there is a forebow, a midship, and a stern. There were two small boilers in the small deckhouse behind the foremast.

The dry and well-ventilated amidships are located in the crew living quarters, galley and chart room, with the 1.9-metre-high twin hydraulic main steering wheel at the top of the amidships. In front of the stern mast there are four lifeboat davits.

According to the common practice of ships of that era, the stern was equipped with a nearly 2-metre-high twin manpower emergency steering wheel.

However, when the stern steered, the waves were a threat to the helmsman. Scattered on the deck are four huge cargo hatch covers, which can carry everything from saltpeter and oil drums to pianos.

Construction began in August 1901, the Prussia was launched and named on 7 May 1902, and left Bremen on 31 July of the same year on its maiden voyage to Iquik. She was successfully used in the saltpeter trade with Chile and set a record for speed.

The ship is sturdy and can sail in stormy weather, even in force 9 winds

(At this time, the eight big men had to work together to hold the steering wheel, and the five-masted transport ship independently developed by the kingdom according to the characteristics of the Prussia was slightly changed, and here, a steam-powered limiting device was added, which could stabilize the steering wheel through the steam engine.) ）

Because of her elegant appearance and unrivalled performance, the Prussia was called "the queen of seas" by sailors.

The Prussia could reach a top speed of 20.5 knots, and it was common for the Prussia to run thirteen or fourteen knots.

The longest 24-hour voyage was recorded for 392 nautical miles on the way to Japan in 1908 and 426 nautical miles in the South Pacific in 1904.

British sailors at the time found her to be faster than the Potosi (with a top speed of 19 knots), making it the fastest cargo galleon since the clipper era.

On November 6, 1910, the Prussia suffered a bad luck on its 14th voyage: in the English Channel, a small British steam-channel ferry, the Brighton, underestimated the Prussia's high speed of 16 knots and crashed into a collision.

Here, Chen Xin, a supporter of conspiracy theories, believes that things are not so simple, and this marine traffic accident is likely to be John Bull deliberately lame Hans Meow.