The shipyard has also carried out a small range of repairs and reinforcements for these sailboats, replaced a lot of damaged and corroded wood, and also in many major positions, such as masts, crossbeams, and various key support parts of the hull, let the company's machinery factory stamped out some steel components, and reinforced them in these key positions to improve the strength of the hull.

The hygienic environment in the cabins was thoroughly cleaned and organized. It turned out that the internal environment of these ten ships was very bad, full of Xiaoqiang, rats and all kinds of parasites, in addition to the captain's room and the upper cabin, the environment of the lower floors was intolerable, and garbage and debris were piled everywhere.

The company's shipyard carried out a thorough cleaning of the ten sailboats, and specially hired the employees of the company's sanitation system to disinfect and sterilize the cabin in a large area. And all the front-loading guns were removed, a lot of space was freed up, and the layout of the cabins was re-optimized. It is also equipped with modern equipment such as diesel generators, drainage pumps, quartz clocks, hand-cranked alarms, and fire extinguishers. Hand-cranked corded telephones were installed and a radio station was installed.

The captain's room is equipped with various nautical calculation tools such as nautical astronomical calendars, sextants, modern charts, mechanical compasses, and early modern nautical supplies. The living conditions of all sailors and naval officers have also been greatly improved, folding bunk beds have been added to the cabins, and each crew member has been equipped with personal storage compartments. Not only does it save a lot of floor space, but it also makes the cabin look more simple and organized.

All cabins are painted with anticorrosive paint, and the bottom layer is also brushed with tar and asphalt, and sprinkled with desiccant and insect repellent to eliminate all kinds of sanitary dead ends. After a fruitful renovation, the crew cabin, cargo hold, storage room, weapons cabin, medical room, galley and other cabins have all been renovated, and the layout is more reasonable.

Each sailboat is flanked by two simple pulley hoisting systems. This system was designed by the technical staff of the company's shipping team at that time in the modern society, and it was also customized and purchased in a large number of professional manufacturers to meet the simple dock berthing in this era, which can ensure that the ship can effectively load and unload the goods.

The armament of the ten sailing ships was relatively simple, except that two DZSU double-barreled 23-mm anti-aircraft guns were installed in the front and rear of the hull, and the base could be rotated 360 degrees, but when the muzzle faced the hull, it would be in a safe state so as not to accidentally damage the personnel and equipment of the ship. There were also 4 HCBC "Cliff" 12.7-mm anti-aircraft machine guns, located in the front and rear of the hull. In addition, 4 detachable PK7.62 mm universal machine guns were installed on the sides of the hull.

A high-powered searchlight was also installed at the front and rear of the vessel. Such weapons are not only enough for self-protection, but also for occasional cameo appearances as pirates.

Most of the armed merchant ships of the Dutch East India Company were Frut merchant ships, and the ten ships captured by the company were also of this type. Originally, this type of ship had the advantages of low operating costs, large capacity, wind and wave resistance, very shallow draft, and could enter rivers, bays and small ports that could not be navigated by ships with deep drafts, and could be operated by few sailors.

But the disadvantages of this type of ship are also very distinct, slow speed, difficult to maneuver, weak armament, and unsuitable for military use or as a pirate ship. As a result, this type of ship is often frequented by poorly armed warships or pirate ships.

However, after this transformation of the company's shipyard, the performance in all aspects has immediately improved by more than one grade. The modification of the bottom of the boat increased the speed of the boat. The improvement of the rigging has increased the efficiency of the lifting sail several times, and also saved a lot of labor costs. With the addition of an advanced rudder and tiller cable system, the handling of the 10 Fruitt merchant ships has been dramatically changed.

It can be said that now these ten sailboats, in addition to the speed is still a little unsatisfactory, other aspects have been ahead of any sailing ship of this era, and in the future, these ten modified sail armed merchant ships can definitely meet the logistics support tasks of the Far East Navy, and can also become an important supplement to the company's shipping capacity.

Li Ming and Qiao Haipeng, accompanied by a group of experts and technicians from the shipyard, walked through each sailboat. Qiao Haipeng said to Li Qicong beside him with satisfaction: "Thank you for your hard work, I didn't expect you to transform these sailboats so well, the current performance can definitely be used for naval warfare in this era, and it will also be of great help to our navy's various combat missions in the future." ”

Li Qicong was originally an engineer in a shipyard, an avid fan of sailing boats, and it is said that there are nearly 100 ship models in his family alone, and he is also the moderator of major nautical forums. It was under his auspices that these ten sailboats were transformed. Coincidentally, he was also introduced by Qiao Haipeng, and the original personal relationship between the two was relatively good.

He smiled and said to Qiao Haipeng: "Thank you for this, if you hadn't recruited me into the Far East Company, I might not have been able to see these real guys in my life, and I could only enjoy the ship model every day, haha......

This is just a preliminary retrofit plan, and we want to install a steam unit next. Of course, because the hull cannot be modified, it can only be installed with a small one to ensure that the sailboat enters and leaves the port, or when it is engaged in maritime operations, it can be used for a short time. In normal times, you have to rely on sail power to sail. ”

Li Ming also nodded and said, "This is already a big progress. In the event of a naval battle, with the help of steam power, this is definitely a powerful weapon to determine the victory or defeat of the sea. Now, these ten sailing ships, with good captains and sailors, can sweep the East Asian oceans. ”

Li Qicong listened to Li Ming's words, his face became heavy, and he said helplessly: "The sailboats of this era are definitely not so fun. If you don't have good captains and sailors, you don't want to sail across the oceans. The captains of the sailing ships of this era were successive generations, and they all knew how to rely on ocean currents and trade winds to navigate windless areas, mainly the near equatorial areas off the west coast of Africa, and the windless areas of the Indian Ocean.

Since there is no clear margin of the wind belt, and it changes from time to time, the annual experience can only guarantee that it is roughly the same, so the sailing schedule is very inaccurate, and the so-called route of modern ships does not exist in this era. At that time, the ocean-going trade was very long, and the time was uncertain, so if the monsoon was missed, it would have to wait until next year.

If you want to find a particular port, you have to rely on the currents and monsoons to bring the sailboats there, and if you don't follow them, you can't go anywhere, you have to wait where you are. The sea is as barren as a desert, and the currents are the great rivers of the sea, and only the most experienced sailors know how to follow them.

So without experienced captains and sailors, these sailboats are just decorations, and it would be nice to be able to go around the waters near our doorstep, and other times they have to rely on a few landing ships to tow, even if you modern navy, you may not be able to figure it out. ”

Qiao Haipeng also nodded with a wry smile and said, "You really think highly of us, how can we figure out these sailboats." The next step is to invite the Dutch sailors to be instructors, and the navy recruits, and all the officers and men are to learn on sailboats. This is a lesson that we must make up, after all, we will not always rely on modern ships to win the world in the future. ”

When Li Qicong heard this, he also became excited, he smiled and said: "When the time comes, I will also learn, it is easy to say that controlling a sailboat, it may be slowly familiar with it in a year or two, the key is to learn the knowledge and experience in the minds of those captains, this is the prerequisite for our intercontinental navigation in the future."

We have completed the transformation of the two 350-ton sailboats in accordance with your requirements, and you can use them as training ships at any time, if these experienced Dutch captains and sailors really teach you, it is estimated that there will be a year or two for you to master these sailboats, at least with the arrival of modern ships in Daming, there is no problem at all, and you can run more at sea in the future, and accumulate some experience as much as possible. The construction of the Navy is by no means an overnight thing, and decades are short.

Our two sailboats will be assembled next summer, and by that time, you will be able to operate them directly, and those two ships are much more advanced than these sailboats, and they are easier to operate, and if you can skillfully control these sailboats, you will definitely make our two sailboats form a combat force in the shortest possible time. ”

Qiao Haipeng nodded heavily, and said with a solemn face: "I'll go back and gather the bunnies of the Navy for a meeting, everyone has to go on the ship for internship, even I have to start learning from the most basic deck wiping." If you don't study hard, you don't want to get on the boat in the future, just stay honest with me on the shore, don't think that we are modern people and can be empty-eyed, we still need to learn a lot of things. ”

Li Ming glanced at Qiao Haipeng, and said with a smile to Li Qicong next to him: "It seems that Old Qiao is really anxious this time, and now he is in person, haha......"

At this time, Van Bit and his group of Dutch sailors were sitting in the tent sorting out their personal belongings. They are very happy with the conditions here. Compared to the Japanese labor camps, it is simply the difference between heaven and hell.

At noon, they also went to the navy canteen for lunch, and they ate a large bowl of white rice and snow-white bread at will, four dishes and one soup, two meat and two vegetarian food standards, so that they almost ate their tongues with them.

The food in the Japanese concentration camps was also full, but compared to the food here, the food there was pig food. Although these dishes do not have the taste of their European homeland, these sailors have been floating at sea all year round, and they can eat wherever they go, and they don't care about the taste. The food here tastes the best they've ever tasted in their lives.

Even if it was a dish at the banquet of the nobles of Europe, it was nothing more than that. In addition to delicious and filling meals, delicious juices and sweet water are also provided, but there are some bubbles in the water that make them a little uncomfortable and burp vigorously.

A group of foreign devils surrounded the side of several juice soda machines, holding cups and looking at each other, and they studied for a long time and didn't figure out how to get the sugar water inside.

A group of naval officers and men sat there smiling and watching the excitement, and no one went to help for a long time. In the end, it was easy for someone to lose it and go over and teach them how to use it, but they immediately got a middle finger from the navy ruffians. R1152