Upon the deck.
Quan Yi and the others could see the smoke from the exhaust pipe becoming thicker, and the whistling sound from the ship's planks under their feet becoming louder.
Huo Wu, however, looked at the few crew members standing still on the deck with a face full of surprise.
She whispered, "Xiao Yi, this ship doesn't have any sails. Does it rely on the steam engine to turn the paddles on both sides?"
Quan Yi smiled mysteriously and said, "Don't worry, you'll see soon enough."
Jiang Jun walked to the center of the deck and gripped the circular ship's wheel.
After a while, three urgent whistling sounds came from inside the cabin.
Jiang Jun's eyes narrowed, and he shouted loudly, "Set sail!"
Then, he quickly turned the ship's wheel.
At that moment, the entire wooden ship vibrated slightly, and the ship slowly left the shore in Huo Wu's astonished gaze.
"Wow! What principle is this?"
Huo Wu was so shocked that her jaw dropped. She shook Quan Yi's arm repeatedly, wanting Quan Yi to tell her the secret of this sea ship.
Quan Yi couldn't resist Huo Wu's coquettishness, so he led Huo Wu and the others towards the stern of the deck.
He walked directly to the stern, reached out and pointed to the surface of the water at the stern, and said, "Look carefully here, and you'll know how the sea ship moves."
Huo Wu, Quan Yue, and Quan Li stretched out their bodies and looked at the sea surface. They saw a rapidly rotating black shadow under the clear seawater, causing ripples.
"Are you saying that the steam engine is turning such a small device?"
Huo Wu said in disbelief.
It's no wonder Huo Wu was surprised, just because the stern was connected to a rotating metal blade.
Moreover, this device was too small compared to the entire ship. According to intuitive feelings, it was hard to imagine that such a small device was propelling the huge ship forward.
Quan Yi explained, "This thing is called a propeller.
Quan Yue didn't seem surprised, but Quan Li looked at the propeller at the stern with a look of astonishment, revealing a surprised expression.
Driven by the propeller, the ship quickly rushed out of the shipyard's channel.
As time passed, the propeller's speed became faster and faster.
At this moment, the weather was clear, and there was no wind at sea. However, everyone standing on the deck could feel the breeze brought by the speed blowing on their faces.
"So fast!"
Huo Wu had been on sea ships before and had her own understanding of their speed.
Generally, in the absence of wind, the speed of a sea ship is almost zero.
However, now, the sea ship they were riding on rushed into the vast sea at an extremely fast speed from the time it set sail.
Quan Yi also felt the breeze, calculating the speed of the steam sea ship.
The average speed of a sailboat is about ten knots, which is roughly eighteen kilometers per hour.
However, the speed of this steam sea ship had already exceeded that of a sailboat by a factor of one.
Reaching twenty knots, which is a speed of thirty-six kilometers per hour.
Don't underestimate the difference of only a dozen kilometers, if you multiply it by time.
The difference between the two will become larger and larger.
Moreover, sailboats are severely affected by the weather. The amount of time that sailboats can sail at their best speed within the same amount of time is very short.
In contrast, as long as steamships have enough fuel, they can maintain a stable speed for a long time.
On this point, the two types of ships will create a huge difference.
What's more, this is not the limit of this ship.
The boiler in the cabin had just been heated up and had not yet reached its maximum speed.
You must know that the steam engine was forged from soul-guided metal refined by Quan Yi himself.
Due to the addition of the extraordinary factor of soul power.
The strength of the steam engine even exceeds the level of the previous life.
The soul-guided metal forged by Quan Yi has extremely high strength and toughness. At the same time, this metal is mixed with the ultimate fire attribute, giving it the effect of enhancing the power of the flame.
This greatly enhances the performance of the steam engine.
The combination of a steam engine and a propeller was a product that only appeared in the early nineteenth century in the previous life.
It is a device that appeared after several generations of upgrades.
Its appearance has an overwhelming advantage over the current sailboats.
Quan Yi and the others returned to Jiang Jun's position.
"Young Master, I wonder how this ship is performing?"
Jiang Jun looked at Quan Yi expectantly.
Quan Yi didn't hesitate to praise him, and directly gave him a thumbs up.
"With this ship, the sailing time of our Quan family will be reduced by at least half in the future.
However, I would like to ask how long it takes to build such a sea ship?"
Jiang Jun said, "It took us roughly more than three months to build this ship.
However, more than half of the time was spent on research and design.
The time actually spent on shipbuilding was very short. The most important power device can be replicated extremely quickly under the production line mastered by the blacksmiths.
Instead, it was the ship's hull manufacturing that took too much time."
Quan Yi nodded and pondered.
Then he raised his head and casually asked, "Then how long would it take to transform the existing ship hulls into steamships?"
Jiang Jun didn't answer quickly, but paused slightly before replying, "Our shipyard currently has nearly a hundred sea ships.
Since the overall framework of the ships is similar, the transformation is not difficult.
If we want to transform all the ships into steamships, it will only take a year."
Quan Yi turned to look at Quan Yue and said, "Father, it seems that we can transform the sailboats into steamships first.
This way, our time will be greatly reduced."
Quan Yue nodded in agreement, "Okay, I will promote the transformation of the ships."
The time that Quan Yi was talking about here was actually the time for the island's development.
"However, while transforming, don't forget the manufacturing of iron ships.
Transforming wooden ships is ultimately a transition. In the future, we will still need harder and larger sea ships.
Factory Director Jiang, I hope you can keep this in mind."
Quan Yi said these words to Jiang Jun.
After hearing this, Jiang Jun's body trembled inexplicably.
His complexion was slightly bitter, "Yes, I will obey the Young Master's instructions."
Seeing that Jiang Jun's complexion was slightly dim, Quan Yi also had confidence in his judgment.
He opened his mouth and said, "Factory Director Jiang, I think you should have also seen the potential of iron ships from my drawings.
However, in these two or three months, you have found another way to find a compromise solution.
This is certainly worthy of praise, but can I assume that you have not focused your energy on the research of iron ships?"
And a clue that corroborates Quan Yi's point of view is that Jiang Jun did not choose to transform the original wooden ship, but instead, re-made and designed a wooden steamship.
As for why he would make such a behavior.
Quan Yi also had speculation in his heart.
That is, the manufacturing of iron ships will require more blacksmiths to participate.
Workers who originally made a living by manufacturing wooden sailboats would lose their livelihoods.
Perhaps, Jiang Jun represents the interests of this group of shipwrights.
The sea ship had sailed to an uninhabited sea area, completely away from the land.
However, Jiang Jun felt an extremely heavy atmosphere, which made him break out in a cold sweat.
