Chapter 1436: Difficulties and Dangers on the Way Home (Second Update, Please Subscribe)

The vast ocean is... a maze.

The kind that can play hide-and-seek and is hard to find.

In the vast ocean, once a merchant ship deviates from the normal commercial route, it is extremely difficult to find a merchant ship in the ocean even in the 21st century. It is almost as difficult as finding a needle in a haystack.

Moreover, this was an era without satellite positioning and radar, so the difficulty...it was almost impossible to find it.

Crown didn't know how many of the merchant ships that fled like birds and beasts would be able to escape. Two days after leaving the encounter point, everyone finally breathed a sigh of relief. After all, they were finally safe now.

In the past two days, the "Messen" has been rushing northward, and only now can they finally feel relieved.

"Well, God bless us, now the Ming warships can no longer find us."

Crown took a puff from his pipe and then spoke to the sailor beside him.

"Our captain is very experienced. He will definitely not take the merchant ship route."

As long as they don't take the merchant ship route, they will definitely not be discovered. After all, the ocean is so vast that it is unlikely to be pursued or intercepted.

Two days later, the "Masson" began to slowly move northwest towards New York.

"Captain, we are still 150 nautical miles from New York."

Captain Johnson, standing in the bridge, smiled after listening to the first mate's report.

"Well, tell all the crew members that when we enter New York Harbor, everyone will get a $500 bonus!"

After hearing the news, Crown, like all the crew members, shouted excitedly, some even yelled loudly.

"Thank you Mr. Dupont!"

The reason they thanked DuPont is that the bonus was paid by DuPont.

On the "Mason" which was loaded with 12,000 tons of cargo, the most valuable item was more than 6,000 tons of Indian saltpeter, which was produced from DuPont's saltpeter mine in India.

More than a decade ago, Henry, the president of DuPont, and his brother Ramon realized that the supply of saltpeter was related to the national defense security of the United States. Saltpeter was the main raw material for the production of gunpowder, and it almost all came from the Ming Dynasty. Once the war broke out and the Ming Dynasty cut off the supply of saltpeter, the gunpowder factories in the United States would be in a dilemma.

The DuPont brothers, who had monopolized the supply of gunpowder by monopolizing saltpeter during the Civil War, naturally knew the importance of saltpeter. So they built large warehouses, and while storing saltpeter, they also sold and acquired saltpeter mines in India.

When the war broke out, DuPont became the only American company that did not have to worry about saltpeter. However, this did not mean that the company could sit back and relax. As they owned the Indian saltpeter mines, they naturally had to solve the problem of transporting saltpeter.

The "Mason", loaded with saltpeter, was an attempt by DuPont.

In order to motivate the crew to transport the saltpeter back to New York safely, DuPont promised them a bonus of $3 per ton of saltpeter as long as they could arrive in New York safely.

Even after the captain and officers took their share of the pay, the crew still had a $500 bonus.

500 USD!

In this era, it is undoubtedly a huge sum of money, almost 800 grams of gold!

For the sailors who had made a fortune, they were all excitedly and nervously observing the sea during the rest of the voyage, fearing that some accidents might happen at the last minute.

Just as the sailors were vigilantly observing the sea surface, on the sea surface dozens of kilometers away, in the waves, a submarine was sailing at full speed. The waves constantly hit the bow of the submarine. In many cases, the waves always covered the deck, and only the low bridge was completely exposed above the sea.

Standing on the bridge, Lin Qingyuan was searching the sea with a telescope in his hand. They had been cruising in the merchant ships off the coast of New York for half a month. During the past half month, although they had discovered merchant ships again and again, those merchant ships were...neutral ships.

According to the rules of engagement... they cannot attack neutral ships.

The reason for such rules of engagement is that "unrestricted submarine warfare" is still in the plan of the Naval General Staff. At least for now, there is no need for the Imperial Navy to use this tactic of killing one thousand enemies and losing eight hundred of its own. After all, the Imperial Navy also needs to use "neutral" merchant ships to transport supplies and even immigrants.

Suddenly, a trail of smoke on the sea and sky line attracted Lin Qingyuan's attention. It was a merchant ship!

As soon as the submarine encountered the merchant ship, it carried out an emergency dive, and soon the captain Xu Bokun discovered the merchant ship that had entered the sea area through the periscope.

"Norwegian ship..."

Staring at the "Messen" flying the Norwegian merchant ship flag, Xu Bokun muttered to himself.

"This ship is not on the normal route. It's probably a lie. Follow it..."

After making the judgment, the S83 submarine quietly followed the "Messen". The sailors on the ship knew nothing about it. They had no idea that danger had come.

In the cabin lit by a dim red light, the crew members followed the "Norwegian" merchant ship nervously and expectantly.

They are like cheetahs hiding in the jungle, tracking their prey silently and waiting for the right opportunity. Because the tracking time is very long, after nightfall, their batteries are about to run out and they have no choice but to surface and keep a certain distance to continue tracking and chasing.

The pursuit lasted for almost sixteen hours. The next morning, when the distance from New York was less than twenty nautical miles, the officers and soldiers on the S83 submarine, which had re-submarine, became a little anxious. After all, they had been tracking for such a long time, even to the coast of New York, with the Hudson River right in front of them.

“We’re here!”

As the ship was about to sail into the Hudson River and the Statue of Liberty came into view of the crew of the Matson, the captain, smoking a pipe, looked at the Statue of Liberty and said,

"Well, gentlemen, we are finally home, let's raise our flag!"

If one could regret in life, he would definitely regret this decision...

For the sailors on the "Masson" who finally returned home successfully after many twists and turns, raising the American flag was not only to show their identity, but also to tell New York in this way that they had overcome various tests and successfully returned to the United States.

When the American flag was raised, some sailors even sang the national anthem excitedly. Even the old sailor, Crown, looked a little excited when he saw the American flag flying on the ship.

After all, this was a very special time. The ocean was now full of various dangers, and they overcame numerous obstacles and finally brought back the supplies that the United States needed for the war.

In this case, how could they not be excited when they saw the American flag fluttering?

Standing on the side of the ship, he talked to himself.

"Well, we're finally home!"

At this moment, he was so excited that he saw two white bubbles rolling on the sea, heading straight towards the "Messen"...

(End of this chapter)