Maybe someone would ask - why not establish a trade base at the estuary of land? In fact, the Portuguese have also tried this question.
However, Senegal is not the same as the Gulf of Guinea. The West Africa region of the Gulf of Guinea is surrounded by tropical rainforests along the coast. There are rivers not rare there. And the Portuguese colonists climbed onto the land, and the locals didn't care much.
But Senegal is different. It has a tropical savanna climate. A little north of the north is the Sahara Desert. This is a semi-arid area, and rivers are very precious. The estuary area is also a treasure land. If the Portuguese dares to land without authorization, it will attract attacks from local indigenous people. After all, the Portuguese established colonial strongholds at the estuary, which will affect the local people's water withdrawal. It may be fine in places where there is no water shortage. If the construction of colonial sites without authorization in places where there is no water shortage, it will be beaten by the locals.
In addition, the input and output ratio is not worth it. You should know that in this year, the golden resources in the Senegal region have not been discovered. The Portuguese mainly exchanged for sands with the locals in the northern shore of the Gulf of Guinea. Without gold, the Portuguese would not risk landing in and building castles and fighting with the locals. The resources of ivory and rhinoceros horn are obviously not enough to allow Portugal to send troops to fight with local indigenous people.
Therefore, Gore Island is just a relatively useless stronghold. Here, limited ivory and rhinoceros horns can only be purchased from local indigenous peoples, and a lot of money is spent on repairing ships every year, which is not very cost-effective. Therefore, no large family pays attention to it, and only small families are willing to take over. Now, Jorge de Renkastre, Duke of Coimbra, wants this small island, and the Sereu family decisively exchanged it for part of the interests of the Madeira Islands. After all, the Madeira Islands are a place close to the local area and relatively stable income.
...
Eschweiin’s transformation of the dock was actually to solve the problem of shipworm gnawing at the bottom of the ship…
His solution is very simple - it is to dig two small ponds with gates on the dock, which can just accommodate the ships to moor. After the ship enters the small pond, close the gates.
Then, Eschweiin asked the workers to carry bags of quicklime from the boat, take out some, and pour it into the pond...
Suddenly, the pond began to boil. Limestone and seawater reacted violently, and a large amount of hot air and bubbles emerged, rolling in the pond. The water temperature in the pond also rose sharply.
Then, all the maggots attached to the bottom of the two ships were boiled to death...
Because the pond has a gate, it isolates the sea water outside. Therefore, even the shipworms in the sea outside cannot enter. Before the gate is opened, the ship can stay in the pond for as long as possible, and there is no need to worry about the harm of the shipworm.
This method was seen online in Marin's previous life. I can't remember what era it was invented, but it is definitely not very popular at present. Because, according to records, during Columbus' fourth voyage in 1502, Columbus had to park his fleet in the Caribbean for a long time because of the serious harm caused by shipworms.
The most famous shipworm damage incident was the Battle of the British and Western Seas in 1588. The Spanish Invincible Fleet, due to the strong decay of the shipworms on the warships, seriously damaged the hull structure of the Spanish warships. Some warships were hit by British shells, which damaged the shipworm's severely calcined hull, resulting in water leakage and silence. Some were simply hit by wind and waves, causing water leakage to sink.
The powerful "Invincible Fleet" lost to the weak England at that time due to the help of shipworms. The British also became confident and began to challenge Spain's hegemony in the Americas. Historically, the British, the first colony in North America, was not established until 1607.
...
In other words, European countries actually do not have mature plans to deal with sea maggots at present. Otherwise, Spain would not lose to the British in 1588.
In fact, Marin has mastered the method of using nickel iron to prevent shipworms from gnawing at the bottom of the ship. But the problem is that the fur company on Gore Island is a joint venture between Marin and Jorge de Renkastre, Duke of Coimbra.
In other words, on the base of Gore Island, there are not only Marin's people, but also people under Jorge de Lentelle, Duke of Coimbra. After all, both sides have already agreed that the fur belongs to Marin, and the ivory and rhinoceros horn belong to Jorge de Lentelle, Duke of Coimbra...
Therefore, when there are outsiders, Marin does not want anyone to see the Beihai Kingdom solve the problem of shipworm harm. Even if the nickel and iron sheet on the bottom of the ship is painted, it is easy to see the clues. Therefore, Marin needs a compromise solution to prevent people from seeing their own secrets.
After thinking about it, Marin thought of a stupid way to use quicklime to cook shipworms to death. Although this method is not clever enough, it can protect ships to a large extent and enable Gore Island Pier to berth sea boats for a long time.
Anyway, when sending a ship from the local area, you can just bring more quicklime. Every time you clean the shipworms, you don’t need a few bags of quicklime. As long as you put the rapidlime at the bottom of the ship, the heat released when the quicklime reacts with water, and the strong alkalinity of the ripe lime are enough to kill the shipworms attached to the bottom of the ship.
As for small and medium-sized ships traveling to and from the mainland, Eschweiin also has a corresponding plan - if the boat is back and berthed, it will be directly hung with pulleys, so that the boat will be suspended and dried. The shipworms cannot survive in a waterless environment and will naturally die.
Finally, the medium-sized ship was difficult to hang with pulley sets. So, just dig a few small ponds and install a gate. The principle of killing shipworms is similar to that of large ships. Moreover, the amount of quicklime is used even less.
Quicklime is not valuable, and it doesn't cost much every time it is used. Compared with expensive ships, the value of quicklime is not worth mentioning. Of course, it is not cheap. After all, labor costs in Europe have always been very high.
This chapter is not over, please click on the next page to continue reading! But Marin's original intention was not to use this method to deal with shipworms, but to confuse Jorge de Renkastre, Duke of Coimbra.
Although the two are commercial partners, they are not from the same country after all. Perhaps one day, Marin will turn against Portugal and war will break out between the two sides. At that time, it is hard to say whether Marin can still maintain friendly relations with Jorge de Rencaster, Duke of Coimbra.
Although Jorge de Rencaster, Duke of Coimbra, had a bad relationship with the current Portuguese king Manuel I., Jorge de Rencaster was a Portuguese after all and also lived in Lisbon.
If Marin knew about the method of nailing iron on the bottom of the ship to defend against shipworms, Jorge de Rencastre, he would definitely imitate it. Then, his ship would always return to Portugal, right? As long as he returned to Lisbon to moor, this secret would not be kept. At that time, the Portuguese would learn this technique.
Obviously, Marin did not intend to tell the Portuguese this secret. So he came up with a compromise - to moor ships using a closed pond and to kill shipworms by boiling lime.
This method seems simple, but it also has many restrictions. For example, it is okay to use it near Europe. If it is too far away from Europe, the transportation of quicklime alone will be a huge problem. The cost is high and the amount is small. After all, if you can't even find a parking point with fresh water in a place too far away from the country, it will be even more difficult to obtain quicklime...
Therefore, the method given by Marin seems to be very good, but there are actually many restrictions. Only areas like Senegal, which are closer to Europe, are more suitable for this method. Moreover, this method also has a considerable cost. Unlike the ones like the nickel-iron sheet on the bottom of the ship, it can be done once and for all...
In addition, Marin also intends to use this method at the port of Ayuen near the Canary Islands. Spanish ships often pass by, and Ayuen's ships transporting phosphate ore often replenish fresh water and food in the Canary Islands. Therefore, using the method of boiling lime water can also confuse the Spanish...
Chapter completed!