"Hey, Kron, is it true what brother said about that atlas being worth a Brigantine?"
"I'm not familiar with the market value of charts ... but Wagenaar is a big name, and with an atlas drawn by his own hand, it shouldn't be an overestimation to say ten thousand pounds."
"God! A full complement of Farsighted, an atlas of equal value to the Farsighted, and £3,000 in cargo and a £1,200 mixed-sail Skooner ... Wouldn't ... what we've earned in a single battle be ... wouldn't ... ..."
The large Keren gave the tiny Pierce an uncharacteristically blank look, "Why do you think you always get rich overnight when you're a privateer? The profits from looting are never comparable to a proper business."
"What's the point of doing business then! Go rob it!"
"We're not pirates!" Keren slapped Pierce Jr. on the head and couldn't help but sigh, "Looting money is good, but it's not good ... because if we lose just once, we have nothing left ..."
Southampton, Drake Chamber of Commerce headquarters, Lorraine was receiving an important guest.
His guest was Jeroen Mindel. Mindel, the blood brother of the local celebrity Viscount Mindel, the president of the Mindel Chamber of Commerce, and Raven's teacher and leader in sailing.
Yello was a gentleman in his forties, with a pair of bright gray eyes, who looked, though meticulous, ridiculously cheerful, not like an Englishman, but like a Scotchman.
Lorraine, who originally could not afford the stereotypical rigor beloved of England, and Yello hit it off right away.
"Valiant, warlike, upright and generous young man, it seems I am really too old to know that a young wild wolf has been penned into the sheepfold at Southampton."
Lorraine smiled bitterly and raised her teacup, "Mr. Mindell, it's only been four or so months since Drake formed the Chamber of Commerce, and even two months since we settled in Southampton. You haven't heard of us because we are not well known, don't be presumptuous."
"Ability has nothing to do with seniority, Mr. Drake Jr." Yello laughed out loud three times, "The Drake Chamber of Commerce has only just been formed, I don't suppose it has joined the Guild of Peers yet?"
A trade association is a kind of self-organized private institution within the industry, often with a president and a board of directors responsible for coordinating internal conflicts.
Members share intelligence and information within the framework, while providing intermediary and headhunting support, which can be of great benefit to a chamber of commerce.
The problem is that joining a guild requires a recommendation, and usually only accepts recommendations from founding members or the council, which predetermines that joining a guild requires the accumulation of contacts and reputation, a system that can only be the icing on the cake, and is incapable of delivering charcoal in the snow.
Lorraine was very self-aware and hadn't considered anything relevant so far. However, listening to Yero's words, it seems that he intends to be Lorraine's recommender ...
Pie in the sky?
Lorraine was a bit flattered and couldn't help but sit upright, "Mr. Mindell, what do you mean ..."
"The Offshore Guild is an ordinary small guild, founded 37 years ago now, with 29 members, mostly small and medium-sized chambers that specialize in offshore trade. The Mindel Chamber of Commerce, as one of its executive members, happens to have the right to recommend people, and also hopes to recommend outstanding young people to a wider stage."
"Grateful for the inexplicable, my sir." Lorraine owed deeply.
"Wait for my good news, young man. The process of introducing you to the President and the other council members will take about a month or so."
"I look forward to it."
...
The naval battle that took place west of Belle Isle touched Lorraine in a great way.
Sinking Kirk-types, burning Skuna-types, and blood, mutilated corpses, and a barrage of gunfire.
He felt keenly that the wide-bottomed merchant ships with their thin hulls and weak decks were no longer adapted to the increasingly severe environment of the Cantabrian.
It just so happened that he had captured the Farsight and finally had the room to adjust compared to a month ago.
Chamber of Commerce fleet realignment.
The First Fleet continued to have the Buttercup as its flagship, and the repaired Fargo was renamed the Cattail Flower according to the Chamber of Commerce naming rules, becoming the sole wingman.
Ramos was reassigned as Captain of the Cattail Flower, still serving as the Fleet's Vice Governor.
As a result, the overall capacity of the First Fleet has plummeted by 20%, but firepower, speed, and response are no longer the same as they were in the old days, dramatically increasing survivability with a limited reduction in route profitability.
The Artis Beauty and the Beverly Merchant were decentralized to the Second Fleet to increase capacity and try to open trade routes between Prussia and Sweden.
Lorraine also formalized the Britannia Home Transit Fleet.
He purchased a brand new two-masted mixed-sail Skooner type, named the Siren, and renamed the Mermaid Song to the Mermaid, and combined them into a single fleet.
The Governor is Yello's recommended 62 year old Captain Carlo. Merlin, a native Southampton seaman, steady and experienced.
This fleet will be fully responsible for the transshipment of goods from Edinburgh, Southampton and Cardiff, improving the efficiency of the First and Second Fleet's runners, and at the same time focusing on obtaining trade qualifications in Ireland and opening up the Dublin market.
The Chamber's adjustments were nearing an end, and Carmen, the liaison to Porto, had heard back.
As Yacharin said, the Deseret Chamber of Commerce is interested in ransoming people.
But they took issue with Lorraine's offer to bear the pensions of the wounded and dead sailors and to pay the cost of a Kirk-type to the Mindel Chamber of Commerce, totaling £1,760 in ransom, and offered to meet with Lorraine face-to-face.
Proper bargaining was a reasonable request amongst the nobles, not to mention that the other party allowed the Drake Chamber of Commerce to choose the location of the negotiations.
Carmen made the decision in Lorraine's stead, and Guernsey, on the Straits of Dover, was chosen on the spot as the place of negotiation.
This small island, close to the coastline of France and a royal dependency of King George III, which receives the blessing of the Royal Navy but does not have a permanent military presence, is indeed a suitable place for negotiations between the two parties.
In three days' time they were to meet at the seaside castle belonging to Sir Cod on a cliff in the west of the island, to hold a friendly consultation on the question of whether Mr. Yacharin. Mr. Desai should be identified as a pirate or a nobleman in a friendly consultation.
Three days passed in a flash as the First Fleet sailed to the west coast docks of Guernsey and came face to face with a huge Gallant ship.
It was a standard Navy Class V destroyer, 40 meters long, 10 meters wide, with a 28 meter mainmast height and fully rigged transom sails.
This or one of the ship types Lorraine was most familiar with in the world, as the HMS Successor, which he had served on for half a full year back in the Sea Drill, was a Class V Destroyer.
Two watertight compartments, one gun deck, one main deck.
Bounded by the main deck, the bow is two decks down and one deck up, and the stern is three decks down and three decks up.
Total number of decks, seven.
Statistically she only had one more watertight compartment and one more upper deck than Brigantine, but there was a vast difference in their combat power.
She was not a merchant ship, not a high-speed ship, but one that had lived only for the battlefield from the very beginning of her construction, a true battleship.
Expensive military-grade ship timber is mostly elm, oak, oak or teak, selected from centuries-old timber, which is dense and heavy enough to be waterproof and tough enough to withstand shelling.
The two watertight compartments give it extreme weight capacity and balance.
The gun deck was equipped with 20 eighteen-pounders long-range guns, the main deck with 12 twelve-pounders long-range guns, a double deck of stern guns, 2 above and 4 below, all twelve-pounders short, and 2 bow guns, divided right and left, were twelve-pounders medium guns with excellent pursuit performance.
Lorraine saw under the slanting mast among the two bowsprits the bowsprit image of a reindeer with high, forked horns, which at once corresponded to Carmen's intelligence.
She is the former retired French Navy Class V Destroyer Reindeer, the watchword of the Desai Chamber of Commerce and flagship of the Chamber's First Fleet ...
The seafarers of the Buttercup stood silently behind Lorraine and watched as the massive battleship, with all of its minions gathered, swept past, snatched up, and anchored into the harbor.
Keren's voice was a little dry.
"Desai ... Are those Frenchies going to send their watchman's treasure into Cantabrian as well?"
"We eliminated their Third Fleet, and it's not surprising that when the rabbit gets anxious, it chooses to bite."
"But ..." Kron took a deep breath, "Captain, the nine-pounders can't penetrate her hull, and the eighteen-pounders only need one shot to make big holes in our thickest sides . . how do we fight that?"
"This is not something we need to consider." Lorraine's voice was low, "Unlike the other chambers, we have a full withdrawal of merchant ships from Cantabrian. The destroyer is fully rigged with sails and has a top speed of 10 knots with a 2 knot headwind. Normally, she can't catch up with our first fleet of full high-speed ships."
"Is ... the only run?"
"That's all for now." Lorraine stared intently at the sinking sails on the sea level, "With a maximum crew of 250, and a two-meter higher outboard height than Brigantine, she's not a force for our family to contend with just on those two points alone. Bravery ... also needs to be divided into moments."
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