The Seagull sailed steadily along the Pontar River, its surface broad and its current gentle.
On deck, fifteen regular army soldiers stood watch in two rotating shifts along both sides of the vessel. The twelve sailors had been selected from the regular army and Crow's Nest veterans.
Most were Skelligers, crisp and efficient in handling sails and steering. The first mate, a red-bearded man, was crouched by the rail, sharpening a short blade with a whetstone.
Inside the cabin, Erwin set his ledger on the table and began his report with the equipment Calradia was currently producing.
Longswords, cuirasses, plate armor, chainmail, helmets, spears, and Kalarad Staffs. Since the water-powered forging hammer had gone into operation, production of every type of equipment except chainmail had steadily increased.
The iron rings for chainmail had to be hammered and drawn by hand. A skilled apprentice could produce only a few meters of wire in a day. Shaping the rings, weaving them together, and riveting them all relied on manual labor, leaving production bottlenecked at that stage.
Ron sat quietly to one side and listened. Then he reached into his coat, took out a blueprint, and spread it across the table. It depicted a new linked mechanism.
It resembled the water-powered forging hammer, though its details differed. A waterwheel drove the main shaft, which housed a set of gears.
The gears drove a reciprocating wire-drawing clamp. The clamp gripped one end of a thick iron bar and dragged it through a row of conical holes in the drawing plate, each smaller than the last, gradually pulling it into fine iron wire.
Erwin pulled the blueprint closer and bent over it for a while. His finger followed the lines of the transmission gears all the way to the drawing clamp. Then he looked up,