flstandardbreds Chapter 752
Chapter 752
No one can tell what will happen if a person becomes desperate in such a steel cage in the ocean!
Zhou Jianghai and Mu Mu also knew the seriousness of the matter, and apart from telling their family members, they did not tell or discuss it with anyone else.
Captain Chen smiled, a smile appearing on his face, but it quickly disappeared.
Zhou Shuwan asked, "Captain Chen, how is the crack?"
Captain Chen also trusted Zhou Shuwan and didn't hide anything from her: "Xiao Zhou, since you're one of us, I'll be honest with you. The crack is very deep and in a bad location. If we weld it with ordinary materials, it will likely break again. So the problem now is how to find the right metal material."
Repair is not difficult, the difficult part is finding the matching material for welding!
The quality must be up to standard!
Otherwise, given the intensity of this natural disaster, the welded parts would have fallen apart in a few days!
This is also the most difficult part for everyone!
Captain Chen pointed at the crack as he spoke. The crack meandered along the edge of the deck like a hideous scar, and it looked particularly shocking in the dim light.
The sea breeze was howling around us, and the tiny ice chips were hitting our faces, causing unbearable stinging.
Captain Chen rubbed his brows wearily, his tone heavy, "The crack isn't too big. Our maintenance crews are all top-notch. If we had the right materials, we could weld it back together in a few days and make it as good as new! But our resources are limited right now, and I'm afraid we don't have the necessary materials in stock!"
Zhou Shuwan was silent for a moment.
She thought of the new alloy metal that Qi Mingyu had brought people to collect from the oil field before: "Captain Chen, will that work?"
Captain Chen shook his head. "Their maintenance staff have already discussed this. That metal is indeed very resistant to high temperatures and extreme cold, but we don't have the corresponding metallurgical equipment! So it's currently difficult to forge it into a usable metal!"
There was a hint of helplessness in his tone.
Zhou Shuwan glanced at the other person sharply.
Since Captain Chen said that it is difficult to forge at present, it means that there are actually many new metals in stock that Qi Mingyu and others brought back!
The fleet had gone to the oil field to store fuel before. Could it be that they collected it that time?
Seeing Zhou Shuwan's confusion, Captain Chen just smiled and didn't say anything else.
Zhou Shuwan asked what to do now?
Captain Chen said, "We still have some composite materials in stock. Let's use those to fill the gaps. They should hold out for a few months, preventing the sea breeze and water from invading the cracks. Then we can slowly find a solution."
Zhou Shuwan nodded, as long as they could get back to the island first.
"We are not too far from the oil field now. The distance from the oil field to Hope Island No. 2 is half a month. After half a month, we will be home!" said Captain Chen.
Zhou Shuwan stared into the distance in a trance. After a long while, he asked, "Captain Chen, do you think there's still a place for us to live on the island?"
The reason why everyone fled to the mother ship was because the island was flooded to the waist by seawater.
After they left home, thunderstorms occurred several more times. Hope Island No. 2, which carried all their hopes, had also disappeared in the vast ocean!
In the end, Captain Chen did not answer her.
But while the repairmen were welding the usual composite materials, he also sent the navy to the warehouse to bring up the new alloy.
The warehouse is located at the bottom of the mothership, with narrow passages and damp and cold air.
The warehouse was filled with all kinds of supplies, and the air was filled with a mixed smell of metal and oil.
A dozen sailors found the new alloy and worked together to carry it.
Those metal blocks were heavy, weighing several hundred kilograms.
When they brought the alloy back to the deck, Captain Chen and several engineers were already waiting.
An engineer said: "This alloy's toughness and hardness far exceed those of ordinary steel. It is also resistant to high temperatures and corrosion, and can be used to weld cracks in the deck. However, we need a simple furnace to melt it."
Engineers began to discuss the feasibility and tried to design a simple furnace using existing equipment and materials.
Zhou Shuwan was very concerned about the progress of the repairs and paid special attention to the movements on the deck.
Because the deck is undergoing maintenance, no one is allowed to enter or leave at will.
Zhou Shuwan and Qi Mingyu are the exceptions.
They still come here for a walk in the evening.
Zhou Shuwan soon discovered that the engineers used the mother ship's previously abandoned missile launch tubes, piled up the inner walls with refractory bricks that Zhou Shuwan and his team had collected from the volcanic rock area on the seabed, and opened holes in the bottom to connect to the ventilation ducts.
Then dismantle the hydraulic motor of the shipborne crane, connect the discarded fan blades, and drive it with a small fuel generator to provide continuous oxygen for the furnace.
After several days of intense construction, a simple furnace was finally completed.
This furnace is built in the storage cabin below the deck. It has a high space, is easily ventilated, and is far away from the core system of the mothership. It is the most suitable place on the entire mothership.
The furnace has been built, but whether it can forge the required materials depends on luck.
So we did not relax at all on the deck, and it has been almost repaired with composite materials in the past few days.
Then the maintenance personnel began to repair the mother ship's power system.
Although it had been drifting at sea for almost a month, the mother ship still had a wealth of supplies in its inventory after a year or two of rest.
There was no suitable storage location on the island, and it was frequently attacked by waves and sea breezes, so basically three-quarters of the supplies originally stockpiled were in the mothership's inventory.
The mother ship's stocks of fish and staple food are all frozen. In recent times, the power system has been damaged and there has been no electricity, but the temperature itself is very low, so there is no need to worry about the supplies going bad.
The mothership has plenty of supplies, but that doesn't mean the survivors below don't lack supplies either.
Who would want to live in an underwater dormitory where they can't see the sky or the earth every day? So when the land was divided on the island, basically most of the survivors went to the island to farm and fish to survive.
Therefore, when they escaped to the mother ship again, the supplies they had were pitifully few, and they could only hold out for a few days.
Fortunately, the Chinese army has always taken care of the people. On the fourth day of boarding the mother ship, Captain Chen issued an order to provide relief to the people who had no supplies and provided them with two meals a day.
Each meal was given a piece of compressed biscuit or a small piece of smoked fish the size of a palm.
This amount is definitely not large, but it can meet the basic survival needs of an adult.
If you want more, work on the Mothership!
You can sign up to participate in cleaning, equipment maintenance, planting, medical care, etc.
Salaries are paid on these work carriers.
However, the navy on the mother ship has always been eating from the same pot.
So far, there has been no food crisis on the mothership.
The Zhou family never went to collect relief food, and claimed that there was a box of smoked fish and a box of potatoes stored in the dormitory.
If you save some, it will be enough for them to eat for two months.