Chapter 30: The Azure Sea
Seeing the ricocheting shot heading straight for their own ship, the Spanish soldiers immediately fell into chaos.
Their merchant ship had small tonnage and thin planks, unable to withstand this shot coming from the bow.
But in that instant, they could not react in any way, only instinctively praying to God.
Perhaps God heard the pious prayers of His people; a hundred paces astern of the merchant ship’s stern rail, another splash erupted.
The cannonball miraculously flew over the top of the merchant ship.
Fortunately, the civilian merchant ship’s rails were low; otherwise, this shot would surely have hit.
The Spaniards who had narrowly escaped death hurriedly turned the rudder to evade.
Although everyone knew that the previous shot had been pure luck and that even staying put, they could not be hit by another cannonball on the same trajectory.
But no one dared to bet on it.
The instinct for survival drove them to turn.
The Governor of Manila on the ship roared in anger: “Do not turn, board the ship quickly!”
But it was too late; the merchant ship had already come hard to port, hiding behind the tall hull of Holy Justice.
“Damn coward!” Alonso raged.
……
On the dock, Catherine kept holding the telescope, closely watching the situation on the sea surface.
When she saw a cannonball heading straight for her father’s ship, her heart leaped to her throat, and she cried out in alarm.
Seeing that the merchant ship was not hit, she finally relaxed.
She then turned the telescope toward the galleon.
Along the galleon’s port side rails stood a row of pirates, all seemingly watching the result of this shot.
Catherine strained to make out their faces, but they were too far away; even through the telescope, she could only see tiny figures the size of grains of rice.
Suddenly, she saw a pirate at the ship’s rail holding a telescope, looking in her direction.
Catherine’s heart skipped a beat, as if caught doing something wrong, and she quickly lowered the telescope.
By the time she calmed down and raised the telescope again, the galleon had turned to starboard, presenting its stern cabin to her.
“Goodbye, Lin Qian.” Catherine’s red lips moved slightly as she said wistfully, “One day, I will catch you with my own hands!”
……
After the shot, Lin Qian ordered the galleon to come hard to starboard.
In the age of sail, the larger the ship, the more cumbersome the turning maneuvers.
So, while the hull had not yet swung broadside, it was necessary to promptly straighten the course.
That previous shot had not been useless; the Spaniards on the merchant ship were clearly scared half to death and had now turned to port, shrinking behind Holy Justice.
This delay meant Holy Justice would have to remain anchored in place for a while longer.
Meanwhile, Lin Qian’s galleon had sailed to the mouth of Manila Bay.
At this moment, the sunlight was perfect, sea breezes blew at his side, and seagulls circled overhead.
The bow cleaved the waves, splashing cool, salty mist onto the deck.
Ahead, the deep blue sea stretched endlessly to the horizon.
“Hard to starboard, course due north!” Lin Qian ordered loudly. He could not help reaching out to stroke the galleon’s teak handrail; from this moment on, this was his ship.
“Understood!” Chen Jiao replied, then shouted to the deck: “Hard to starboard, course due north, port side running, rope men change sails!”
More than twenty rope men came to the starboard rails and skillfully hauled tight the starboard sail cables.
As the ship turned the rudder, the yards gradually swung to starboard, eventually reaching the perfect angle to the wind.
Lin Qian silently watched all this; in his previous life, he had mostly played with lateen sails and knew little about the complex sail cable systems of these Western square sails.
Although the principle of harnessing wind power was roughly the same, he was completely ignorant about which ropes to pull for specific wind directions and which sails to use.
Once they escaped the pursuing Spaniards, Lin Qian planned to stay up five or six nights in a row to figure out these complex ropes.
The galleon sailed north, running at full speed with the southwest wind.
Lin Qian estimated the current speed at around eight knots, twice that of the old Fuchuan ship, with room for further improvement.
For example, changing the courses to several lateen sails, lengthening the mizzenmast, converting the spanker to square sails, lowering the stern cabin, freeing up more sail space, reducing beam, and so on.
In the age of sail, the pinnacle of ships was the 18th- and 19th-century ships of the line.
This Manila galleon even bore some traces of the carrack, with much room for improvement compared to top ships of the line.
Thinking of this, Lin Qian crouched down and lightly stroked the galleon’s rough wooden deck with his fingertips, a satisfied smile curving his lips.
At this moment, Bai Langzai’s voice came: “Sixth Brother, I’ve counted: three brothers dead this trip, two seriously wounded, over a dozen lightly wounded.”
Lin Qian said solemnly: “Record the names of the dead and wounded brothers; compensation comes from the public accounts.”
“Got it.” Bai Langzai paused, then asked: “Sixth Brother, what to do with that freeloader?”
“Freeloader?” Lin Qian was somewhat puzzled.
“That white freeloading bare-assed foreigner.” Bai Langzai reminded him.
Lin Qian then remembered Jose.
Lin Qian glanced at the shore and said: “Didn’t he say he could swim? Throw him overboard.”
The galleon turned poorly and could not dock just for one captive, but luckily they were only about five hundred meters from shore; he should not drown.
“Right away.”
Moments later, Jose was brought out from the cabin. When he saw himself being pushed step by step toward the ship’s rail, he let out terrified screams: “No, don’t push me down! Stop!”
It was in broken Chinese; Lin Qian then realized he knew some Chinese.
Lin Qian, in a great mood, mocked him in Chinese: “Don’t worry, swim fast and the sharks won’t catch you.”
Meant as a joke, but Jose hurriedly said: “I’m not afraid of sharks! I want to join you, I want to sign on!”
“Hahaha…” The ship workers around burst into laughter.
The two crew members escorting Jose did not stop, pushing him all the way to the rail and pressing his head outward, but Jose clung to the ship’s rail and would not let go; for a moment, they could not push him off.
Lin Qian restrained his smile: “Just jump down; you won’t die from this height.”
Jose spoke rapidly: “If I go back now, the governor will hang me. I can’t leave. Since you’ve captured me, you have to take responsibility to the end… I demand to sign on. I know seamanship. My family was once Columbus’s owner. You’ll need me…”
“Columbus was over a hundred years ago. I’m not interested in old navigation techniques.” Though Lin Qian said this, he quietly signaled the two crew members escorting Jose to go easy and not actually push him off.
Jose’s mind raced, and he added: “For the goods on the galleon, you need to find buyers. The hull is damaged; you need repairs. I have connections with the Portuguese!”
“Don’t worry about sales and repairs.” Lin Qian bluffed; in fact, he had no real plan and had intended to dock at Yazhou first, then find buyers.
Unexpectedly, it was like sleeping and meeting a pillow—Jose had appeared just in time.
Half of Jose’s body was already over the hull, looking at the splashing waves by the rail as he urgently said: “Ship repairs absolutely need the Portuguese; galleon technology is complex, not something yellow-skinned… not Great Ming shipwrights can handle.”
“Pull him back.” Lin Qian ordered.
Jose was hauled back by the two crew members and sat on the deck, making the sign of the cross over his chest with lingering fear.
Lin Qian walked up to him and said: “Tonight, come to the captain’s cabin.”
“No problem, respected…” Jose started to say, then suddenly felt a chill down his spine. He scooted to the ship’s rail, clutching his buttocks: “You… what do you mean? I… I… I…”
