Struggle in the Steam Age

"What's going on here?" Lawrence, who had just returned to the temporary office, hadn't dismounted yet, when he heard the sound of a horn in the distance. Then I looked up and saw the red flag raised on the lighthouse flagpole. "I haven't heard of any pirates doing activities nearby!"

"Could it be an extraordinary sea beast or a marine creature?" Safiel had done his homework beforehand, so he proposed a possibility. "If I remember correctly, this area has formed a fishing ground because of the confluence of two ocean currents, so it is very normal for some monsters to be attracted."

Although there are various speculations, the specific situation still needs to be seen in person. So Lawrence and the others simply rode straight to the port. Then took a small armed steamboat patrolling the port and drove towards the lighthouse. At the same time, Nora had already gone one step ahead to investigate.

"There is a sailboat approaching the port, but it is not following the correct course to enter the port." Just as Lawrence and the others were floating on the bay, Nora had already arrived at the lighthouse. After asking the sentinel guarding the tower, she started Speak to Lawrence through a spiritual connection. "Because it was worried that it would block the channel or collide with other ships after entering the channel, the warning flag was raised on the lighthouse side to alert the port."

"Why didn't that ship listen to the call?" Lawrence asked an important question here. "Is it caused by some kind of accident or because the other party is a hostile camouflage attack ship? If it is the kind of camouflage attack ship that is hostile to us, we will sink that ship immediately. If it is an accident, then the tugboat on the fort will Just drag it away to avoid a collision..."

"It's not clear yet, because the other party is still some distance away from us." Nora said, "But now I find that there is no one on the deck of that ship, which is obviously abnormal. I guess they must have encountered something But the specific situation can only be determined after boarding the ship for inspection."

For safety reasons, Nora first flew to the tugboat to slow them down temporarily, and then boarded the sailboat for inspection. A few minutes later, Lawrence stood on the bow of the armed boat and saw that all the sails of the sailboat were retracted, and then the anchor of the ship fell.

Because the distance between the two sides was getting closer, Lawrence also saw clearly at this time that the ship was a two-masted fast sailing ship that is relatively common in this area. This is also the ship with the smallest tonnage that can cross the ocean and head to the Old Continent. Don't look at the fact that steam engines have slowly become popular in this era. But most of the ships traveling on the sea are pure sailing ships.

In particular, the popularity rate of steam engines on small ships of 200 to 300 tons is lower. At least Lawrence has not seen this type of steam engines on ships other than warships and some special ships, especially those merchant ships that pay attention to economic efficiency. I will not buy those terrible steam engines that are expensive in terms of price and use cost.

But this situation also caused some troubles. For example, Lawrence found that the original name on the ship's side had been severely peeled off due to use, and only a few letters could be seen clearly. The boat itself is also the most popular type of boat in the area. Under such circumstances, it is difficult to determine the original identity of the ship.

"The situation is a bit abnormal." At this time, Nora's voice rang in Lawrence's mind through the soul link. "There is no one on the deck or in the upper cabin. I am searching the middle cabin. I hope to find some living people. If there is no one, I hope the other party can leave me some clues. I think if there is no accident, I will wait for you to catch up." I should have finished inspecting the boat when we get there, and then you can come up and have a look."

Sure enough, when Lawrence and his boat approached the sailboat ten minutes later, the little puppet had already checked the entire boat and determined that it was safe enough. Following the rope ladder lowered by the little doll, Lawrence climbed up to the deck with Safir, and then successfully joined Nora who had come before at the bow of the ship.

"The situation on the ship is very strange." After seeing Lawrence and Safiel boarding the ship, Nora said while showing them around the whole ship, "Look, we can see that this line is from the traces on this deck. The ship was underway, and the sailors disappeared from their posts almost simultaneously."

Following the direction of Nora's finger, Lawrence checked the work positions of the sailors on the deck one by one. Sure enough, I found that there were no traces of struggle in these places, and everything was so normal. Even Lawrence found a peeled and half-eaten, slightly shriveled orange by the side of one of the sailor's berths.

"Is there anything wrong with this orange?" Seeing Lawrence looking at the apparently broken apple with probing eyes, Safiel also came up. "If I'm not mistaken, this orange seems to have been placed for about a day and a half, and it has begun to rot. At most, it can only prove that the boat was in an accident a day and a half ago."

"You're right, but this half of the orange also shows one thing, that is, when these people disappeared, everything was very normal, and it can even be said that everything was calm." Lawrence added. "Because it's the only time these sailors manning the cables have time to eat some fruit."

"To be precise, it's time for dinner." Nora said after hearing Lawrence's words, "Because I found the extinguished fire and the half-simmered mush in the kitchen below, and there was a metal plate next to it. It looks like fried bacon and something stewed with red wine and beans for the ship's well-known people."

"Have you found anything on the ship that proves the identity of the ship, such as tableware with the name of the ship printed on it?" Lawrence asked. The reason for his inquiry is very simple, because when ships are launched in this era, according to the custom, the shipyard will present those ships with a batch of tableware engraved with the name of the ship and the name of the shipyard.

"No, I didn't find anything." Nora said seriously at this time, "All the tableware on the whole ship feels messy, as if everyone uses their own tableware, and there is no original tableware from the shipyard. There are only two possibilities in this situation, either the ship may have passed through the hands of many ship owners, or the ship is a smuggling ship.”

"Why not a pirate ship?" Safir asked with some incomprehension. "If I remember correctly, those pirate ships will also eliminate all traces of the original ship to avoid being identified. And in this area, this kind of two-masted fast sailing ship and another kind of sloop are the two most common A pirate ship."

"You'll find out when you go to the lower deck." Nora beckoned to Lawrence and the others to follow her, and then walked down the deck together. "I found some very interesting things below the deck. You can take a look. This is a relatively rare ship. At least the internal structure should be modified. It is not a normal two-masted sailing ship."

Sure enough, after going down to the lower deck, they discovered at first glance that this ship does not have 4-6 small artillery pieces for defense like a conventional merchant ship, nor does it have 12 or even 16 artillery pieces like a pirate ship. This ship didn't have a single cannon, and all the gun emplacements were actually fake cannons made of wood.

In addition, apart from the two decorative knives in the captain's room, there are only a few palm-sized sailor's knives that can be used as weapons on the entire ship. The whole ship looks as peaceful as some churches prohibit ships of any kind from carrying weapons.

You know, there are a lot of dangerous supernatural creatures in this world besides pirates. Therefore, no matter how stingy a businessman is, he will carry a large number of weapons on board and install artillery, so that he can have the possibility of giving it a go when he encounters those enemies. A complete disarmament like this is clearly abnormal.