Fox of France

After all, he was busy with business, so Joseph set off to go back that afternoon. The caring Napoleon also specially sent another battalion of cavalry to escort him. It's just that when sending him away, everyone felt a bit like "burning a paper boat with a candle shining in the sky".

In fact, Joseph did not criticize Napoleon too harshly, he just pointed out very kindly that Napoleon's idea of ​​caring for his brother is of course good, but the way is extremely wrong.

"A truly moral person loves others in a way that requires and restrains others with morality; only those ignorant fools show their love for others in a way of appeasement and indulgence. You, as well as Polina, are guilty of You made this mistake! Paulina is still a child, but Napoleon, you are not, you have to reflect on it, and you can't make such a mistake again in the future.

As for that incident, it is not your responsibility. The Leclerc you sent out performed very well. It shows that you actually have an eye for people. As for Lucien, you mainly put too much personal will in your judgment. You see, the world doesn't move according to our individual wishes. But Napoleon, you are a smart person, and you are better than me in many ways. I think you should be able to understand this truth. "

As a result, both Napoleon and Pauline were let go, only poor Lucien, who was not only ordered to complete a 5,000-word review, but was also assigned a lot of homework. Until Joseph left, Lucien was still busy writing the rewritten review after being called back—Joseph had already ordered that Napoleon pass it to him in an official document after it was finished.

Back at the Institute, Joseph re-entered the research work, time passed quickly, and the first shoddy smuggling boat was finally completed.

This is a temporary boat, so many places have a taste of improvisation. But this is also normal, because this ship is only used to verify the technical indicators. As for how long it can be used, no one has too many requirements.

Even with such a ship, however, a secret launching ceremony is required.

One morning, the boat, painted black and gray, slid gently into the small bay along the buttered slide. Some white waves were stirred up in the calm bay.

"This boat must be fast. Much faster than any boat we've ever seen before." A thin navy captain said, looking at the white spray.

"Captain Sparrow, are you so sure?" Joseph, who was watching from the side, asked.

"Because the splash is very small when it enters the water, much smaller than a boat of the same size." Captain Sparrow replied.

At this time, the new boat, which was still a little shaky after launching, had stabilized. Captain Sparrow said to Joseph: "Your Excellency, now we are going to test this ship. Please allow me to leave for a while."

"I wish you all the best," Joseph said.

Captain Sparrow led a group of sailors into two small boats and rowed towards the new boat.

Captain Sparrow was originally a boatswain on the naval frigate "Tirena". During the revolution, he led the soldiers and prevented the captain Rembrandt from rebelling, so he gained the trust of the revolutionary government. Later, under the government's order, he commanded a smuggling ship, which specialized in smuggling various urgently needed strategic resources between France and Spain.

During these operations, he got rid of several British and Spanish warships, and in one encounter with a Spanish cruiser, he led the Spaniards into the reef, causing the Spanish cruiser to run aground and damage it. In Fouche's words: "There is no captain of a smuggling ship who is more reliable and capable than Sparrow."

Generally speaking, a small boat of about 200 tons generally has only one mast, and the height of the mast is relatively limited. Add a foresprit for tying the jib, and hang some schooners.

Such ships are the main force of smuggling ships. They have a shallow draft and move along the coast. They can go to many places that big ships cannot go. If the captain is familiar with the sea area in this area, he can rely on places such as hidden reefs and shallows. Get rid of enemy warships. They are flexible in steering and have a strong ability to drive against the wind. Sometimes even if they encounter enemy warships in wide waters, they can take risks to seize the upper hand and escape by relying on their headwind performance.

But this boat is different, because its aspect ratio is very large, so that it can be equipped with two masts, coupled with the low center of gravity brought about by the deep V hull shape and the structure of the low freeboard shipless building, making this boat The height of the two masts of the ship is slightly higher than that of ordinary ships of the same tonnage.

The sailors boarded the boat and quickly unfurled the jib sails between the front mainmast and the spar. The two jib sails were also gray-black. The ship sailed slowly out of the bay in the morning breeze and came to the open on the sea. Then the sailors spread out the vertical sails on the two mainmasts, and controlled the ship to sail against the wind.

A sailboat using a schooner can use the Bernoulli effect to sail against the wind while taking a Z-shaped course. But this boat, under the light wind, is obviously accelerating rapidly. The high bow of the ship splits the gray-blue sea surface. It can be seen from the waves thrown up by the head and the long wake left by the stern that even under the headwind, the ship has run at a fairly high speed .

Sailors threw knotted ropes into the sea and began to measure the speed of the ship. Joseph saw through the telescope that the rope was washed into the sea within a short period of time.

Then the ship took up the mainsail and began to steer with the jib at the bow. The boat drew a big circle out to sea and turned to tailwind.

At this time, the sailors on the ship had put away the rope that was just thrown into the sea to measure the speed of the ship, and opened the mainsail to test the speed when the wind was down. Even from Joseph's point of view, it can be clearly felt that the speed of this boat is even faster when the wind is downwind.

"It's really like flying." Beside Joseph, the naval engineer Bernard exclaimed, "I think its speed exceeds ten knots! Anyone willing to make a bet with me?"

There was laughter from the side, and a voice said: "Bernard, isn't this obvious? What is there to bet on? Let me tell you, there are at least 12 knots. Bet or not?"

"No bet." Bernard said without hesitation, "The speed is still increasing, and it should be more than 12 knots now..."

By this time the boat had run a considerable distance. Looking from a distance, the gray-black hull and gray-black sails seem to blend into the gray-blue sea and the cloudy sky.

That's why Joseph insisted on painting the boat that color. Compared with those warships with snow-white sails, this ship is very inconspicuous. Even when the light is good, it is difficult to see it from a long distance, and if it is early morning or dusk when the light is dim , I'm afraid that if it slips past people's noses, they may not be able to find it. For smuggling ships, this is really important.

At this time, the speed test of the ship with the wind had also been completed. As usual, the ship furled the mainsail, turned around slowly, then spread the sail again, and sailed back.

Once in the bay, the ship furled its mainsail and a triangular sail, and slowly approached the pier relying only on a small triangular sail at the bow. The ship looked extremely clumsy when it docked at the pier, and it took a lot of time before it was barely close.

When the ship was stable, Captain Sparrow took the lead to disembark from the ship, and everyone went up to meet him together.

"How?" Joseph asked first.

"The ship is very fast, very fast. When the wind is upwind, it knocks down the speed of nine knots. This is faster than the average cruiser when the wind is down. As for the time when the wind is downwind, the fastest it can run is over 13 knots. I think it is actually still It can be faster, but I'm not familiar with this boat, so I can't run faster."

"Actually, at this speed, it is already the fastest ship in the world!" A person laughed.

"That's right, even at this speed, no warship can catch up to it." Captain Sparrow replied.

"Very well, what about other conditions besides speed?" Joseph asked again.

"Other situations? Well, this ship is very clumsy after slowing down, and it is very difficult to turn. Such a small boat, when turning, I feel like I am controlling a first-class warship. Even a first-class warship, at low speed It is more flexible than it when it is on the ground. But as long as it spreads the mainsail, it speeds up like a horse. Therefore, when this ship is in motion, I suggest not to enter the shore or stop at the smuggling dock. It should stop at In the open sea, use a sampan to transfer the goods up. This will be safer..."

Speaking of this, Captain Sparrow paused for a moment and said: "We don't expect the seaworthiness of this ship to be very good. But just now, the situation seems to be better than we thought. The ship is shaking very quickly. , but the magnitude of the shaking is actually not too great. Well, it took a warship to shake from side to side, it may take more than half a minute, and this ship can shake back and forth seven or eight times during this period, but it takes In terms of shaking, it’s actually not that big. I even think that if it’s only used in the Mediterranean, we can make the mast a little higher so that we can run faster.”

"This speed is enough, and adding a higher mast to increase the speed has limited meaning." Joseph said, "We'd better leave more redundancy."

In fact, in the original history of flying clippers, the most widely used route was the route from North America to Europe. This kind of boat can cross the rough Atlantic Ocean, and its seaworthiness is not bad. However, when it comes to comfort, because the frequency of swaying is too high, and the waves on the deck are severe, it is almost the same as being soaked in water, so the comfort of this boat is almost a mess. Even for slave transport, no one would use a clipper ship. (If you use it to transport slaves, the death rate of slaves will increase significantly, resulting in a large reduction in the money that can be sold.)

"Then, the sea trial of this ship is considered a success. We should give it a name. Well, Captain Sparrow, you are its first captain, so it is up to you to give it a name." Joseph Say.

Captain Sparrow looked at the gray-black ship, thought for a while, and said, "This ship is all black, why not call it 'Black Pearl'."