"Knock, knock, knock..." Someone knocked on the door.
"Come in!" a voice called from the study.
Tom entered the room carrying two telegrams. Ernst was handling East African documents. As the Crown Prince of East Africa, he naturally could not let his aging father toil himself to the bone, so many affairs were handled entirely by Ernst before being sent to Constantin for direct implementation. This also allowed Ernst to discuss any matters he could not decide with Constantin.
"Your Highness, telegrams have just arrived from the Hamburg and Trieste branches. All idle vessels under the Hechingen Ocean Fleet have been freed up, but this small number of ships may not be enough to complete the task you assigned."
"I know that. How many ships have they prepared?"
"Sixty-four in total. The rest must handle other business, such as the recent exports of grain and goods to Marseille. So this mobilization of ships has already affected the company's overall operations."
"Mm. Contact our old friends first, those Dutch shipowners. Let them temporarily handle the immigrants from North Germany; they are no strangers to the route. For Austrian and Italian immigrants, contact the other fleets in Trieste. They should be able to shoulder some of the burden as well. Now that the Suez Canal has opened, it will not be too difficult for ships that roam the Mediterranean Sea to reach East Africa. As long as the price is right, there should be no problem. As for our cargo shipments, let the Italians handle the portion going to Marseille. If that still is not enough, find solutions in other countries—Greece and Spain will do!"
A shortage of ships might have been possible in the Far East, but around the Mediterranean Sea and in Northern Europe, there were heaps of so-called maritime