Chapter 67 - Macaw.

 This massive attack by vampire bats cost the expedition dearly.

 There were four who fell into the water one after the other, and seven others who did not fall into the water but were injured to varying degrees, including Yacharin.

 Falling into the water or not seems to be the criteria for determining the severity of the injury.

 Because those who did not fall into the water were generally not seriously injured, and those who did ...

 Two of the four died because of blood loss, and the other two were fished out with more air in and less air out, and at first glance, the medicine and stone were useless, and only one step away from death.

 The injuries are so gruesome, mainly because the saliva of bloodsucking bats contains hemolytic enzymes.

 This particular enzyme kills platelets in large quantities, preventing blood from clotting and making it easier to inhale.

 Their alienated fangs and foraging habits are again adept at tearing huge wounds near blood vessels, further accelerating the flow of blood.

 When these two coincided, everyone knew that even if Lorraine immediately aborted the expedition and sent them back to the Buttercup, it was impossible for them to survive the night.

 With their consent, Lorraine ordered their lives to be ended, relics to be collected, and bodies to be sunk into the sea to go where each sailor belonged.

 The funeral cast a shadow over the minds of every one, the procession lost the laughter that had been so sporadic, and paddled forward in silence and peace for another half hour or so, when at last the sound of the waves lapping the shore was heard.

 The shore wave represents their arrival at the end of the waterway.

 "Reel in the oars!" Lorraine's voice echoed through the deep, murky waterway, stirring up echoes that reached everyone's ears.

 Lorraine stood up, stepped over the wobbly boards straight to the bow, and raised her torch to the tall dark figure before her, shaking it a few times.

 "Is this the ... sailboat?"

 They found a Brig at the end of the waterway ...

 Standard two-masted, fully rigged transom frigate, 30 meters long, 8 meters wide and 5.5 meters high.

 Her twin gun doors were closed, and she was moored at the end of the undulating, dark channel, like a silent beast lying at the entrance to hell.

 It took Lorraine out of her thoughts for a moment.

 The standard sailing ship is the warship classification system after the maturity of the rise of fashion, the origin can only be traced back to the 17th century before the middle of the Anglo-Dutch war of supremacy on the sea stretched over several years, its history is not long.

 In that era, the British and Dutch warships took to the battlefield with bareboats and plundered their rivals' merchant ships in a frenzy on the vast sea, in order to cut off their rivals' trade routes.

 Merchant ships could only maintain trade with the escort of warships.

 In order to adapt to the speed and formation of fully rigged sail battleships, merchants were forced to give up the primitive style of building ships in quantity, and flew to form a new standard of shipbuilding industry in which offshore merchant ships were built casually and ocean-going merchant ships were unified as much as possible.

 That's when the term "standard size" came into being.

 A Brig frigate of recent modern construction, appearing out of nowhere in a 9th century treasure cave, and still with all the portlights out and seemingly empty posture ...

 Lorraine couldn't help but lick her lips.

 "Lean to the side. Noa and I will board first, Haina will take the rear, and Acharin will take command of the sailors."

 He ordered softly.

 The two dinghies drew together and the four sailors jumped into the front boat while Noa and Hina switched to the back boat.

 They approached carefully from port and starboard, casting up their hooks and ropes.

 Lorraine was the first to board from the port side, clanking out her sword and holding her torch aloft.

 Waiting not long, Noa also ascended from the starboard side, and the two escorted each other fore and aft, probing the cabin as fast as they could, but finding not a single figure.

 Everything was neatly stowed away, the anchor chain rusted, and the small four-, six-, and nine-pounders were wrapped in tarps and stowed in the gun compartment.

 There was no one, living, dead, or skeletons for that matter.

 Lorraine found in the bulkhead of the captain's cabin a privateer's license, issued by the Kingdom of Ireland in 1659 and granted to John. Captain Nasbolt's license for privateering.

 All mysteries solved ...

 Lorraine returned to the deck with Noa and signaled to both sides.

 The sailors boarded under the seaman and gathered around Lorraine, waiting for orders.

 Lorraine's voice sounded extraordinarily low, "Search the entire ship carefully. This is the Macaw, John. Nasbolt's missing flagship, the Macaw ..."

 ...

 Unoccupied cabins are naturally easy to search, not to mention the fact that the sailors involved in the expedition are the best of the best on Lorraine's ships.

 The condition of the ship and the various discoveries converged on Lorraine one by one.

 The ship was indeed the Irish-born expedition ship Macaw, lost in the Atlantic a hundred years ago, standard Brig type with fully rigged two-masted transom sails.

 Her ship's timber is expensive military ship timber, 100 year old oak.

 The caves are an odd environment of high ammonia, which is corrosive to wood, but strangely, even after hundreds of years of unrestored work, the ship's timbers and keel have managed to remain old and well preserved.

 Still, her sails, rigging, and rubber were thoroughly weathered, and it would require tedious and meticulous tending to get back out on the ocean.

 Other than that, the 28 guns were in good condition, mostly small caliber guns that were prevalent a century ago, the main battle being nine and six pounders, and the main deck and bow and stern guns were even four pounders, which had long since been phased out.

 The four anchors, on the other hand, were completely ruined, the winches and chains rusted into a heap, and the only way to sail the ship was to find a way to discard the anchors.

 Lorraine was basically certain that the Macaw's crew had left the ship in a well-prepared condition.

 Because each cabin was neatly organized, important items such as charts, captain's diaries, octants and compasses were wrapped in tarpaulins and carefully stowed away.

 The sailors also found about eighteen pounds worth of gold, silver, and copper coins, which Lorraine didn't take a penny for and distributed directly to the sailors of the expedition.

 In addition they found a closed seaman's cabin belonging to the charging captain who had died on the voyage, and the weapons of his life had been packed away as relics, including two Dublin short muskets and a quality bayonet of gleaming silver.

 They became Yacharin's first harvest, and Yacharin was beaming.

 A hundred years of loneliness, with only so much left on the ship that could be used, Lorraine made a fortune.

 First, the boat, which Lorraine could certainly tow out of the sea hole, and it was up to Keren to see if she could get her back to sea-worthiness under the existing conditions if she could bring it back to Southampton.

 Secondly, there were the charts, and Nasbolt's charts had well-established high-latitude transatlantic routes from Ireland to the West Indies, equating to open up routes to the New World for Lorraine.

 The third is Nasbolt's logbook.

 Confidentiality aside, Lorraine saw in the diary the complete account of Herbasi's expedition.

 Nasbolt and his crew made two trips to the island and not only explored the whole island, but also saw for themselves the ancient treasures in the sea caves.

 He called sea caves "wizards who like to give gold coins to sailors."

 Yet witches are not as friendly as he proclaims them to be.

 On the first landing, his ship rioted because of the unequal division of the spoils, and Nasbolt was lucky enough to put down the riot, killing many and severely wounding himself as a result.

 With heavy losses, the Macaw lost the ability to continue its exploration and had to leave the island with a heart full of regrets and tired scars until two years later, when it revisited the same place.

 The diary comes to an abrupt end here.

 Nasbolt didn't recount the results of the second quest in it, but the fact that the Macaw had lurked like a ghost in the midst of the sea cave for a hundred years had revealed to Lorraine the results of the second expedition.

 All out ...

 Lorraine closed the journal and tied the tarp tightly as Hina's emerald eyes looked at him, her gaze all searching.

 "From here you can go straight to the treasure site, which is well preserved, dry and closed." Lorraine mused for a moment and whispered to Haina, "There may be great unknown risks on the way. Nasbolt took forty sailors in, and none of them made it out."

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