Chapter 16: Course
Catherine was soaked through, her white linen shirt clinging to her body and faintly revealing her skin tone.
The curves of her entire upper body were vaguely visible. The most striking thing was that she wore no other clothes underneath, making it impossible to resist the urge to peer at the important areas.
Combined with the rough ropes tightly cinched around her waist in loops, the scene was extremely alluring.
“Damn pirates, let me go!” Seeing Lin Qian arrive, Catherine shouted.
Lin Qian remained silent, just staring at her.
Catherine glanced at her own body and immediately panicked, shouting loudly: “Bastard, look away, don’t look! I’ll have Father hang you all and dig out your eyes to feed the seagulls!”
Lin Qian stepped forward until he was only a fist’s distance from her, their breaths mingling.
Catherine felt her face burning intensely. She averted her gaze from his and cursed: “Damn bastard, murderer, you’ll all be hanged!”
“Forgot what I told you when you boarded the ship?” Lin Qian whispered in her ear as he extended his hand.
Catherine was both ashamed and startled, hurriedly saying: “No! Don’t… I was wrong, spare me…”
But Lin Qian’s movements showed no pause whatsoever.
Catherine closed her eyes as if resigned to her fate. Tears streamed down her face as she softly pleaded: “Spare me, please, sir…”
Lin Qian leaned closer and closer. Catherine felt her heartbeat pounding ever more fiercely, as if it would leap from her chest.
But after waiting a long time, she felt the ropes binding her body loosen. Her whole body went limp, and she slumped to the ground.
Opening her eyes, she saw Lin Qian looking at her coldly.
“This is east of Manila, surrounded by ocean on all sides. Jumping ship would be suicide. I advise you not to entertain that thought. If you behave better, once Father pays the ransom, I’ll let you go. But if you try to be clever, the consequences will be dire.”
Catherine curled up, arms shielding her chest, and said softly: “I understand.”
After speaking, Lin Qian turned to leave. Catherine called after him: “You… please give me a piece of clothing. I still need to go to the small room…”
Small room? Though Lin Qian had never heard the term, from Catherine’s expression, he roughly guessed it meant the toilet.
“Come with me.” Lin Qian headed toward the stern cabin, and Catherine followed, covering her chest.
Lin Qian brought her into the cabin and selected a black silk robe from the wardrobe for her. This was the former ship captain’s clothing. The sleeves were wide, inconvenient for moving about on the ship, so Lin Qian only wore it occasionally when going ashore.
The former ship captain’s concubine’s clothes had long since been thrown away by Lin Qian. With no women’s clothes on the ship, Catherine had no choice but to wear this.
“The toilet is right there.” Lin Qian pointed to a chamber pot and said, “Let me say this upfront: when using it, find a secluded spot yourself. Don’t dirty my room.”
Catherine felt inwardly humiliated and furious but didn’t dare retort. She clutched the robe with both hands and stayed silent, which counted as acquiescence.
Lin Qian had no interest in what she thought. After speaking, he took the sextant and left the room.
Yesterday’s route first headed south, then east, then south again, before encountering a storm.
After breaking free of the storm, the ocean stretched endlessly in all directions. They couldn’t determine their position and could only roughly guess they were east of Luzon Island.
This sea area was near the central Pacific Ocean, with few islands. For Great Ming seafaring ships, it was a forbidden zone, never before visited.
Even for all humanity to date, probably only Spanish navigators had ventured there.
The most urgent task now was to determine the latitude.
Today was March 26.
He had measured the solar declination angle just yesterday at 18.9 degrees. Using that data directly for the calculation should yield little discrepancy.
Lin Qian picked up a small wooden stick and stood it on the ship, waiting for the shortest shadow, which marked local noon.
At that moment, observing with the sextant, he calculated the sun’s altitude angle at 85 degrees.
Plugging into the latitude formula yielded a latitude of 23.9° N or 13.9° N.
Lin Qian’s departure latitude had been 15° N, followed by a night of southerly sailing. It was impossible for them now to be at 23.9° N.
At local noon here, the sun was in the northern sky, confirming this location was south of the subsolar point.
Thus, the final calculated latitude was 13.9° N.
Factoring in the Fuchuan ship’s speed of about 4 knots, this result was basically reasonable.
Now Lin Qian had two choices.
One was to sail southwest, reaching southern-end islands of the Luzon Islands, such as Samar Island or Mindanao Island, in at most one or two days.
This route was the most reliable technically, but it was too close to Luzon Island, still within the Spaniards’ sphere of influence.
Given yesterday’s track, the Spanish governor would guess Lin Qian was sailing west and would surely dispatch warships to patrol around Luzon Island.
The other choice was to sail southeast, reaching the Caroline Islands in about seven or eight days.
This archipelago lay between 1° N and 10° N, southeast of the Luzon Islands. Even in later eras, it was little known.
According to the previously acquired Spaniards’ sea charts and sea logs, they had little knowledge of this archipelago.
This route could effectively avoid the Spaniards, but the navigation difficulty was high.
After all, Lin Qian’s current technical capabilities allowed only latitude determination. Sailing too far east would make finding land difficult again.
After some deliberation, Lin Qian decided to head for the Caroline Islands.
He would follow a right-angle route: first south to 10° N, then east.
This might take over ten days but was the most reliable.
For this voyage, Lin Qian had prepared ample water and food on the ship, enough for forty days’ consumption. Even if the Caroline Islands weren’t found, there would be sufficient supplies to return to the Luzon Islands.
“What is that instrument?”
As Lin Qian pondered, a female voice sounded.
Lin Qian looked toward the voice and saw Catherine standing on the sterncastle, gazing at him curiously.
The black silk robe on her body resembled a black silk nightgown, showing no looseness at all—especially with the waistband tied tight, accentuating her slender waist that seemed a mere handful, her long toned legs faintly visible, her curves enticing.
“This is a star-gauging board.” Lin Qian stowed the sextant in the box and replied offhandedly.
As far as he knew, the Spaniards likely hadn’t invented the sextant yet. Such an important instrument naturally couldn’t be revealed to Catherine.
“Star-gauging board?” Catherine repeated. Lin Qian had spoken in Chinese, which she didn’t understand.
From Lin Qian’s posture while observing the sun, she roughly guessed its purpose.
But compared to the astrolabe commonly used by Spaniards, this so-called “star-gauging board” Great Ming instrument was clearly more refined—perhaps even more accurate for angle measurement.
Still, with just a fleeting glimpse, she couldn’t grasp the instrument’s working principle. She simply found Lin Qian even more enigmatic.
“I’m hungry.” Catherine changed the subject.
At her words, Lin Qian realized his own stomach was also empty. From yesterday afternoon until now, he and everyone on the ship had gone without food.
“Bai Langzai.” Lin Qian called.
“Sixth Brother.” Bai Langzai responded from the deck.
“Tell the cook to serve the meal.”
“Okay.” Bai Langzai replied.
Lin Qian returned to the cabin carrying the box with the sextant. Just inside the door, he saw two sodden garments spread on the floor—Catherine’s discarded shirt and horse trousers.
This era had no panties or such undergarments. Spanish women’s underclothes were typically corsets and petticoats.
Dressed in men’s clothing, Catherine naturally couldn’t wear those.
Didn’t that mean she was now wearing only the black silk robe from head to toe?
