flstandardbreds Chapter 172 The Old Lock Ship
Chapter 172 The Old Lock Ship
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After hearing Gao Jie's explanation, Liu Ye was relieved. Since the impact on production capacity wasn't too significant, the focus shifted to its value. He asked Liang Xiaoming, "So, what is the value of these small boats?"
Liang Xiaoming said, "If we use the standards of the next century, a 500-ton warship would not be a mainstay at all; it would be at most a sixth-class ship. We only have it now because our opponents are too weak. In the future, whether we are facing the Dutch and Spanish or Zheng Zhilong, we will need more and larger warships. As far as I understand, these small ships have no advantage against the Dutch gunboats and Zheng Zhilong's naval tactics."
Gao Jie became excited because Liang Xiaoming's opinion was enough to sway Liu Ye's decision: "Sir, our sailors need more training, instead of spending all day on the ship scrubbing decks. In the future, we will be facing a powerful pirate gang, not the small-time pirates who were only half-fishermen. We need to be stronger, don't we?"
Liu Ye reassured him, "I understand what you mean, please calm down."
He asked Liang Xiaoming, "Gao Jie's idea of training the team is correct. After all, apart from small groups of pirates, we have only fought against government fleets, so our combat and seafaring experience is limited. Our future opponents, whether it's Liu Xiang, Zheng Zhilong, or even the Dutch, are all seasoned pirates who have been through countless battles. Since we are less experienced, we can make up for it through training. Only the slowest bird can fly first. Can you think of a way to design a ship type that can meet the training needs without taking up space on the Wuyi-class warships, and preferably also have some firepower, so as not to waste production capacity and materials?"
After pondering for a long time, Liang Xiaoming clapped his hands and said, "We can consider the old lock ship! This way, it can meet our training needs and also have a certain combat capability, forming a high-low mix with the Wuyi-class warships."
"The old lock ship?" the three asked at the same time.
"Yes, it's the old lock ship!"
When discussing ship design, Liang Xiaoming became excited: "To achieve the goal of training sailors while avoiding becoming a purely training ship, we can choose this type of ship from the Portuguese, with a displacement of 200-300 tons. Because it uses Chinese-style sails and a Western-style hull, it is relatively simple to build. Most importantly, in addition to having a certain attack capability, it can also be used as a patrol or anti-smuggling vessel due to its excellent coastal seaworthiness!"
"Western-style hull with Chinese sails? A smuggling vessel?" Liu Ye and Gao Jie were a little confused.
"Yes. After the Portuguese came to China, they found that although raising the Chinese hard sail was laborious, it was quick to lower it by its own weight and was highly efficient in utilizing crosswinds. It had an advantage over soft sails in complex coastal waters. So they combined the Chinese hard sail with the Western hull and created this type of ship—called a Lorcha in English, and also called a slag dredging ship by the Cantonese—which was relatively simple to build and maintain. It was very good for patrolling coastal waters and could even be used on inland waterways. The old lock ship was still the main type of anti-smuggling ship until the Qing Dynasty."
"The Qing Dynasty? Which country is that?" Gao Jie asked, puzzled.