Chapter 39 The Secret of the Black Pearl!

Of course, merchants exist to make money, but these *jian* merchants are too ruthless. Although a single-masted sailboat is a low-grade item, it can be easily converted into a fishing boat. According to Old Sea Dog, building a new ship would only cost a few hundred pounds, and even with depreciation and black market sales, two hundred pounds would be a fair price.

These *jian* merchants directly offered a purchase price of twenty pounds... This truly had the nonchalant, magnanimous style of mixing melamine into milk, a truly top-notch, quintessential approach.

When Old Sea Dog heard the clerk's words, an inexplicable fire rose in his heart. He slammed the counter forcefully.

"Which eye of yours saw that we came to sell a single-masted boat?"

Old Sea Dog was now full of confidence, and his scolding already had some imposing manner. The clerk didn't dare to neglect him and quickly said:

"Then, may I ask what the guest needs?"

Old Sea Dog said loudly:

"Go ask your boss, two British Royal Navy galleon-type oar and sail ships, third-rate ships, plus sixty-three brand-new Krupp military factory cannons, some one-pounders and some three-pounders. What price can he offer?"

The clerk's eyes widened, and he immediately shouted at the old guy surrounded by the crowd:

"Dick, you idiot! It wouldn't matter if those small businesses waited a while. I'll give you a five percent cut if this deal goes through!"

Fang Senyan and Reef were immediately stunned. So the guy with the black headscarf was the boss, and the old man was an employee. As soon as the boss spoke, old Dick immediately looked relieved and squeezed out. He nodded and bowed to Fang Senyan and asked them to sit down.

Of course, those contractors cursed angrily. There were at least a dozen of them at this time, belonging to three groups. Before coming, they were already annoyed by the queue, but they didn't expect someone to cut in line, so they were naturally unhappy. Fang Senyan simply ignored them and chatted with Reef and Mogansha, treating them as if they were air.

Those contractors ultimately had no way to take action here, because Tortuga, for contractors, was similar to the Hell's Gate camp in the Avatar world; it was a safe zone. Therefore, they could only grit their teeth and leave angrily. At this time, Fang Senyan sent out Gold Mine to have a face-to-face, intense negotiation with old Dick. As the saying goes, with Gold Mine out, who can compete? He directly pulled out a stool and placed it next to old Dick, then jumped on it and put his arm around old Dick's shoulder affectionately.

"My dear friend, these two ships are of excellent quality, *xing* feeling full, round, and well-proportioned. The price you're offering is really unreasonable. Each of the twenty-one three-pound cannons is worth three hundred pounds, which is more than nine thousand pounds..."

After Gold Mine's verbal bombardment, he then took out a Chinese abacus and calculated for a while, finally reporting a number:

"How about this? Originally, it's a total of four thousand one hundred and thirty-five pounds and seventeen shillings. Just give me four thousand five hundred pounds."

Old Dick always felt that something was wrong, but he still vaguely made a successful transaction with Gold Mine. The four of them immediately took the money and left. Not far away, they suddenly heard a scream from inside!

"Heavens! Even a brand new three-masted galleon only costs a little over two thousand five hundred pounds!"

Hearing this heartbreaking scream, Fang Senyan and Reef looked at each other and smiled knowingly, then quickly disappeared into the crowd. A few seconds later, old Dick rushed out from inside, shouting in exasperation:

"What's wrong with me today? Why did I give this money so muddleheadedly? Damn swindler, you better pray I don't catch you!"

Then, Old Sea Dog took Fang Senyan to another shipyard in Tortuga. Here, the prices and services were fairer. Fang Senyan also made his request to the owner of the shipyard, which was to completely abandon the ability to fight at long range, only seeking speed, and asked if he could further accelerate the ship on its current speed, and the price was negotiable.

The owner of the shipyard was called Lohan, a big-bearded man in his forties, with a booming voice and full of vigor. After listening to Fang Senyan's words, he went to see the *Sam* in person. He guaranteed Fang Senyan that the modification could be completed by this time tomorrow, and the ship could be accelerated by another 20%. Of course, the price was also very expensive: five thousand gold pounds.

That five thousand gold pounds was probably an astronomical figure for ordinary contractors. Fang Senyan had sold less than five thousand gold pounds for his previous two fully armed, newly launched third-rate ships, but for Fang Senyan at this time, it was just an amount that needed a little thought.

He sold the fruit of the giant kelp for a high price of one hundred and sixty thousand gold pounds. At this time, after deducting various expenses, including the pirates' dividends, and the previous extravagance of buying food for Paul, he could take out more than one hundred thousand pounds of liquid funds at any time.

Therefore, facing Lohan's request, Fang Senyan readily agreed. After paying, he casually asked Lohan:

"I wonder if there is any way to build a ship that is faster than the Black Pearl?"

Lohan was stunned for a moment and shook his head:

"That's almost impossible."

Fang Senyan wondered:

"Why?"

Lohan probably knew that Fang Senyan was a big spender, so after thinking for a while, he smiled, poured a cup of coffee for everyone, and invited them to sit down:

"If you want to talk about this matter, then it's a long story. In fact, there are many legends about the Black Pearl, but the most convincing one is its well-deserved title as the fastest ship in the Caribbean, so much so that it's regarded as a symbol of freedom! But has no one analyzed why the Black Pearl can consistently maintain its position as the fastest ship in the Caribbean? Of course that's impossible. In fact, every shipbuilding craftsman, when they first come into contact with this industry, has the ambition to build a ship that surpasses the speed of the Black Pearl!"

"When I was studying shipbuilding under Master Jason Rhys, a special royal craftsman, I discussed this matter with a friend. He told me that when the Black Pearl was first launched, it was just an ordinary five-masted armed merchant ship. If there was anything special about it, it was that it had a very high-quality keel!"

"Keel?" Reef said in surprise. He didn't know much about shipbuilding terminology either.

Lohan probably wanted to keep these big clients and make them spend more money, so he patiently said:

"The keel is a longitudinal member that connects the stem and stern posts in the center of the ship's base when constructing a ship. Above the keel are transverse ribs for reinforcement. It's like the spine of a human or animal, with ribs distributed on both sides. The keel is the backbone and core of a ship. With it, the ship has a backbone."

Seeing that Fang Senyan and the others generally understood, Lohan said seriously:

"After the Black Pearl was launched, it was initially used as an armed merchant ship. You should understand, right? The meaning of an armed merchant ship is that it's a merchant ship when it encounters the navy, and it uses its arms when it encounters other merchant ships or pirates that it can beat."

"According to our speculation, the successive captains of the Black Pearl were all guys with strong shipbuilding skills and vision. So, after conquering the other party's ships, they not only plundered wealth, but also could easily find ship components made of rare and precious materials from the other ships and install them on the Black Pearl. Even if they couldn't tow the other ships away, they wouldn't hesitate."

After hearing Lohan's words, Brother Hei and Reef looked at Fang Senyan at the same time, apparently thinking that he could also plunder precious components from other ships. Fang Senyan was also thoughtful, and Lohan continued:

"We can be sure that the owners of the Black Pearl must have had a paranoid love for speed! So, during the Black Pearl's long plundering process, they robbed countless ships and equipped the entire ship with various precious parts. These parts were obviously all for enhancing speed. So, in this long-term plundering process, it slowly changed from quantitative change to qualitative change, and finally formed the current speed king of the Caribbean, the symbol of freedom: the Black Pearl!"

Brother Hei couldn't help but interject:

"It doesn't sound too difficult. So, theoretically speaking, if you just have enough money, you can surpass the Black Pearl by buying enough speed-increasing accessories, right?"

Lohan laughed loudly after hearing this:

"That's why I mentioned that keel at the beginning of the story! For a ship, it's also a whole composed of thousands of precise components! It's definitely not as simple as stacking precious components.

"Believe me, friends, some precious and sophisticated ship parts even have their own souls! Can you imagine a band without accompaniment, only a singer? If you like sweetness, would you ask for a spoonful of Malaysian cane sugar in a fragrant black pepper steak?"

"The reason why the Black Pearl has become the unique king of speed is because it has had a unique keel from the very beginning when it was built and launched!!! Only such a magical keel can strongly support the spine of the entire ship, suppress the conflicts and backlash of those precious parts, and like the commander of an army, perfectly integrate those parts, thus creating the speed king of the Caribbean! Without that keel, the accessories installed on the Black Pearl would have crazily clashed long ago."