Black Pearl
Because of his busy official duties, Joseph set off for home that afternoon. The thoughtful Napoleon even sent a battalion of cavalry to escort him. However, when they saw him off, everyone had a somewhat frivolous atmosphere, like "paper boats and bright candles burning in the sky."
In fact, Joseph did not criticize Napoleon too harshly. He simply pointed out very kindly that Napoleon's desire to protect his brother was certainly good, but his methods were extremely wrong.
"Truly moral people care for others by using morality to demand and restrain them; only ignorant fools show their care for others by indulging and condoning. You and Pauline have both made this mistake! Pauline is still a child, but Napoleon, you are not. You must reflect on your actions and never make such a mistake again."
As for that matter, the responsibility doesn't lie with you. The Leclerc you sent out performed very well, which shows you do have a good eye for people. As for Lucien, you mainly let too much personal bias get into your judgment. You must understand that the world doesn't revolve around our personal desires. However, Napoleon, you are a smart man, better than me in many ways, and I think you should understand that."
As a result, Napoleon and Pauline were let off lightly, but poor Lucien was not only ordered to write a 5,000-word self-criticism, but also given a huge amount of homework. Lucien was still busy writing the self-criticism that had been sent back for rewriting when Joseph was about to leave— Joseph had instructed that Napoleon send it to him in official form after it was finished.
Back at the research institute, Joseph threw himself back into his work, and time flew by. The first crudely made smuggling ship was finally completed.
This was a hastily constructed ship, so many parts have a makeshift feel to them. But that's normal, since this ship was only meant to test technical specifications, and nobody had high expectations for how long it would last.
However, even for a ship like this, a secret launching ceremony is still necessary.
One morning, the small, dark gray-painted boat glided gently into the cove along a tarpaulin-slicked track, stirring up some white waves in the calm water.
"This ship must be fast. Much faster than any ship we've ever seen before," a thin naval lieutenant said, gazing at the white spray.
"Captain Sparrow, are you so sure?" Joseph was watching from the side, asked.
"Because the splash is very small when it enters the water, much smaller than that of a boat of the same size," Captain Sparrow replied.
By this time, the new boat, which had initially swayed a bit after being launched, had stabilized. Captain Sparrow said to Joseph, "General, we're going to test the boat now. Please allow me to leave for a moment."
"I wish you all the best," Joseph said.
Captain Sparrow then led a group of sailors onto two small boats and rowed towards the new ship.
Captain Sparrow was originally a boatswain on the naval frigate "Tirena". During the revolution, he led his men to prevent Captain Rembrandt's mutiny, thus gaining the trust of the revolutionary government. Later, under the government's orders, he commanded a smuggling ship, specializing in smuggling various urgently needed strategic resources between France and Spain.
During these operations, he evaded Britain and Spain warships on several occasions. In one encounter with a Spain cruiser, he lured the Spain into a reef area, causing the Spain cruiser to run aground and be damaged. In Fouché's words, "No smuggler captain was more reliable or capable than Sparrow."
Generally speaking, a small boat of around 200 tons usually has only one mast, and the height of the mast is relatively limited. In addition, there is a foremast for attaching the triangular sail, and several fore and aft sails are hoisted.
These ships are the mainstay of smuggling vessels. They have a shallow draft and operate along the coast, allowing them to go where large ships cannot. If the captain is familiar with the waters in this area, he can use reefs and shoals to escape enemy warships. They are agile and have a strong ability to sail against the wind. Sometimes, even when encountering enemy warships in open waters, they can take risks to seize the windward position and then escape by relying on their ability to sail against the wind.
However, this ship is different because its length-to-beam ratio is very large, which allows it to be equipped with two masts. In addition, the deep V hull shape and low freeboard and superstructure result in a low center of gravity, making the height of the two masts of this ship slightly higher than that of ordinary ships of the same tonnage.
The sailors boarded the ship and quickly unfurled the triangular sails between the foremast and the scuttler. These two sails were also grayish-black. The ship slowly sailed out of the bay in the morning Breeze and onto the open sea. Then the sailors unfurled the foregrips on the two mainmasts and began to sail against the wind.
Sailing ships using forked sails can take advantage of the Bernoulli effect to sail against the wind while following a zigzag course. This ship, however, was clearly accelerating rapidly despite the light wind. The high bow cleaved through the gray-blue sea, and the spray from the bow and the long contrail left by the stern showed that the ship was achieving a considerable speed even against the wind.
The sailors threw the knotted rope into the sea and began measuring the ship's speed. Joseph saw through his binoculars that the rope was washed into the sea in a very short time.
Then the ship furled the mainmast sail and began to turn using the triangular sail at the bow. The ship drew a large circle on the sea and turned downwind.
By this time, the sailors on board had retrieved the rope they had thrown into the sea to measure the ship's speed, and they had unfurled the mainsail to test the speed with the wind. Even from Joseph's perspective, it was clear that the ship was even faster with the wind.
"It's like flying!" exclaimed Bernard, the shipbuilding engineer beside Joseph. "I think it's over ten knots! Anyone want to bet me?"
A burst of laughter erupted nearby, and a voice said, "Bernard, isn't this obvious? What's the point of betting? If you ask me, there are at least 12 quarters. Want to bet or not?"
"No bet," Bernard said without hesitation. "The speed is still increasing; it should be more than 12 quarters now..."
By this time, the ship had already traveled quite a distance. Looking into the distance, its gray-black hull and sails seemed to blend into the gray-blue sea and the dark clouds filling the sky.
This is precisely why Joseph insisted on painting the ship this color. Compared to warships with their snow-white sails, this ship is very inconspicuous. Even in good light, it's difficult to spot it from a distance, and in the dim light of dawn or dusk, it might slip right under someone's nose without them noticing. This is extremely important for a smuggling ship.
By this time, the speed test with the wind was also completed. As usual, the ship furled its mainsail, slowly turned around, then unfurled the sail again and sailed back.
Upon reaching the bay, the ship furled its mainsail and one triangular sail, slowly approaching the dock using only a small triangular sail at the bow. The ship appeared exceptionally clumsy when docking, taking a considerable amount of time to finally manage to bring itself to rest.
Once the ship was docked, Captain Sparrow led the way off the ship, and everyone went to greet him.
"How is it?" Joseph asked first.
"The ship is very fast, very fast. It reached nine knots against the wind. That's faster than most cruisers with the wind. As for with the wind, it reached a top speed of thirteen knots. I think it could actually go even faster, but I'm not familiar with this ship yet, so I can't go any faster."
"Actually, at this speed, it's already the fastest ship in the world!" someone laughed.
"That's right, even at that speed, no warship can catch up with it," Captain Sparrow replied.
"Very good. Apart from speed, what about the other aspects?" Joseph asked again.
"Other situations? Hmm, this ship is incredibly clumsy when it slows down, making turns extremely difficult. Turning this small boat feels like piloting a first-class warship. Even a first-class warship is more agile at low speeds. However, once the mainsail is unfurled and it accelerates, it's like a galloping horse. Therefore, I suggest that this ship avoid near-shore areas and smuggling docks. It should remain in the open sea, using sampans to transfer cargo. That would be much safer..."
At this point, Captain Sparrow paused slightly and said, "We didn't expect this ship to be very seaworthy. But judging from what we've seen so far, things seem to be better than we anticipated. The ship is rocking quite fast, but the amplitude of the rocking isn't actually that great. Hmm, on another warship, a single side-to-side rock might take half a minute or more, while this ship can rock back and forth seven or eight times in that time, but the amplitude of the rocking isn't actually that great. I even think that if we're only using it in the Mediterranean Sea, we could raise the mast a bit more, and then we could go even faster."
"This speed is already sufficient. Adding more mast to increase speed would be of limited use," Joseph said. "We'd better leave some redundancy."
Historically, clipper ships were most widely used on the route from North America to Europe. While their seaworthiness wasn't bad, they were not comfortable at all. The high frequency of swaying and the rough Atlantic Ocean on deck made them feel almost like being submerged in water. Even when transporting slaves, clipper ships were never used (the mortality rate would be drastically higher, significantly reducing their market value).
"Well then, the trial voyage of this ship can be considered a success. We should give it a name. Hmm, Captain Sparrow, you are its first captain, so you should name it," Joseph said.
Captain Sparrow gazed at the greyish-black ship, thought for a moment, and said, "Since this ship is entirely black, why not name it the 'Black Pearl'?"