His fishing boat sitting still would not arouse suspicion, either. Everyone knew he had fishing pots and shrimp pots set around the area anyway. If they happened to bring their boat over and see him, he could say something had snagged on the bottom and he was going down to have a look. That would work too.
He only had to keep this up for two or three months until jellyfish season anyway. When the time came, he could pay them a little more.
Who knew how many typhoons there would be in July and August, or how many days they could even go out to sea?
One passing typhoon could affect the weather for ten days before and after it. If two came in a row, even just brushing past, bringing intermittent rain, wind, and waves, they could forget about going out for that entire month.
By the time they returned from Zhejiang Province, the weather would have cooled and it would no longer be suitable for diving. Then he and his father could each take a boat again.
He paced back and forth, thought it over, and felt this arrangement would do for now.
Once his large ship was delivered next year, he would rent those two boats to them, one to each partnership. That would give them a helping hand too.
He would just have to find a few more boatmen then. He had grown familiar with these men and felt a little reluctant to suddenly let them go off and run other boats. But he could not keep them tied to him, either. Of course they should get first pick of a good opportunity, or they would lose heart.
With that in mind, he settled on this for now. They could always switch things around later