1850 American Gold Baron

Chapter 161 Hope and Water Racing Competition

The route of the water racing competition is a less than 8-mile waterway from the San Francisco Pier to the town of Berkeley.

Since 1850, several villages have been formed around Jinshan 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 be the end point of the water racing event.

The Sacramento was helmed by Vanderbilt himself, while the Hope was helmed by Sven of Universal Shipping Company.

Sven was very excited to have a fast and furious contest with the famous "Commodore".

Major Elvis of the California Infantry Regiment on the San Francisco Port saw that everyone had boarded the ship, took out the revolver in his waist and fired a shot into the sky.

This is the signal for the game to begin.

For the sake of fairness, both racing steamships were equipped with only three stokers. After the gunshots were fired, the stokers skillfully shoveled coal from the coal pile and fed it into the furnace.

The two steamships sounded their piercing 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. There is a thin awning above the low bow, and the driver's cab is located under the awning.

In the middle of the ship, there is a pair of Minglun wings that are tightly covered by arched wooden boxes. Above the wooden boxes are clanking stepping beams, which transmit power from the pistons.

The middle part 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 part of the ship.

The stern is the cabin, kitchen, dining room and rest.

Of course, this is the passenger ship version of the Nozomi. If it were the cargo ship version of the Nozomi, the passenger cabin at the stern would become the cargo cabin.

It is also very simple to convert a passenger ship into a cargo ship. You only need to remove all the seats and beds in the passenger cabin.

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

After all, if a 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.

Always relying on mining companies for blood transfusions is not a long-term solution.

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

A small and fast steam paddle steamer like the Hope will be of great use.

Liang Yao was sitting in the cab of the Hope, looking at Sven's hands tightly holding the steering wheel.

Although Sven is a good sailor in global shipping, today's opponent is the famous Commodore, and he does not dare to slack off at all.

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

Sven urged the stoker.

The Sacramento was firing on all cylinders and rushing forward with all its strength. The paddle wheels on both sides of the ship slapped the water, splashing up waves, and the chimney in the middle of the ship kept billowing smoke.

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

The Sacramento passed the Hope and took the lead.

Liang Yao was certain that it was Vanderbilt's first time walking this waterway, but he seemed to be more familiar with this waterway than Sven, who had walked it several times.

This is nothing surprising. This old captain has personally explored many valuable commercial routes by boat.

Nicaragua's inland waterways were discovered by him when he personally piloted an inland waterway vessel and ventured through the smoky tropical rainforest.

Immigrants from the eastern United States who arrived alive in California owe Vanderbilt a debt of gratitude.

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

Without the Nicaragua route, immigrants from the east would have only two routes to take to reach California, either across the entire North American continent, or by taking a boat around the windy Cape Horn in South America and spending seven or eight months.

Time to sail to San Francisco.

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

The brave 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 created a huge gap between rich and 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.

For this reason alone, these first-generation American industrialists are much more powerful than some of the people's richest people who even want to steal the business of small vendors.

Although they are all capitalists, the pattern of capitalists is also divided into high and low levels.

"The Hope is the protagonist of this game today. Don't add more coal to the furnace."

Vanderbilt looked at the looming small wharf of Berkeley Village not far away and the sparse farmhouses scattered in the Jinshan Bay area, and ordered the stoker to stop adding coal to the fire chamber of the boiler furnace.

He has had enough of his boating addiction.

He is not an unsophisticated person. Only when he is in front of people he hates does he show his determination and unwillingness to give in.

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

Vanderbilt also understood the significance of the Hope to Californians, and there was no need for him to pour cold water on Californians who were excited about it.

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

Jeremiah, a shipbuilding expert, stuck his head out of the cockpit window and sighed as he looked at the Hope stuck tightly behind the Sacramento.

"It is remarkable to be able to build a steamship with such superior performance in less than a year."

Theodore also believed that the Sacramento ship used the most advanced technology five years ago. It is rare that the San Francisco shipyard that started from scratch can perform like this in a racing competition.

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

Sven was not happy to win this water racing competition. He was a little angry and felt that he had been insulted.

As both veteran sailors, Sven knew very well that he could win because Vanderbilt deliberately let the opponent down.

Liang Yao stepped off the Hope amid the cheers of everyone.

He was very satisfied with the performance of the Hope. With a wave of his hand, he distributed a bonus of US$5,000 to the shipbuilding experts, engineers and shipbuilders who participated in the design, development and manufacture of the Hope.

Even if they lose this water racing competition, Liang Yao will give them the bonus, which is what they deserve.

Regardless of whether he won or lost, the Hope met his psychological expectations.

(End of chapter)