Chapter 121 Mwanza Shipyard
January 3, 1868.
Mwanza, Great Lakes Region.
The Great Lake (Lake Victoria), with a water area of nearly 70,000 square kilometers and an average water depth of about 40 meters, has good navigation capabilities.
If you want to develop the Great Lakes, you need advanced ships. I don’t say how advanced they are, but at least they have to be better than the canoes used by the indigenous people.
Moreover, there are more than a thousand islands in the lake, many of which are suitable for human habitation and naturally inhabited by indigenous people.
These natives make a living by fishing and may live on the island all their lives, which is naturally not allowed by the East African colonial government, which pursues "zero clearance" as its ultimate goal.
Therefore, in order to develop and utilize the Great Lakes and to clear the indigenous people on the island, it is necessary to establish East Africa's own inland lake troops.
Whether it is fishermen fishing or establishing inland lake troops, they cannot do without boats.
Even in the past, the main mode of transportation on Lake Victoria was still ferry. Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania all built ports along the shores of Lake Victoria. Relying on the vast waters of the lake, they established many large port cities. These lake ports were not inferior to some seaports in Africa.
The Great Lakes also have rich freshwater fishery resources. With the development of East African colonies and the restrictions on the consumption of wild animals in East African colonies, it was inevitable to find new sources of meat alternatives.
At present, Ernst has two ideas: one is to develop pastures and engage in animal husbandry, and the other is to develop fishery resources in freshwater lakes in East African colonies.
The development of animal husbandry would take time, but the fishery resources in the East African lakes were readily available, the Great Lakes, Lake Solon, Lake Malawi and even Lake Turkana, any one of which would be sufficient to meet the current meat needs of the East African colonies.
As for the fishery resources in the ocean, it is true that the fishery resources along the coast of East Africa are very rich, especially when the Somali cold current passes through, large-scale fishing grounds will be formed.
However, the current conditions in the East African colonies do not allow for large shipyards, and if the fishing boats are too small, they will not be safe on the ocean.
It would be more cost-effective to develop fishery resources in inland lakes, after all, inland lakes are not as turbulent as the ocean.
Ernst planned to build several small shipyards in inland lakes to produce ships that could not only meet the needs of the fishing industry but also accelerate the development and expansion of East Africa.
After all, these lakes are large in area and have vast waters. If you want to go to the other side, you have to go a long way by land. If you have a boat, you can save a lot of time.
At the same time, ships have large cargo capacity, which facilitates the transportation of goods and personnel and can effectively reduce losses.
Currently, the most important means of transportation in East Africa are horse-drawn carriages and ox-drawn carts. In places where a lot of construction is taking place, there are also many wooden wheelbarrows (mainly powered by manpower to transport food and other supplies), which are also important means of transportation in East Africa.
The site for East Africa's first shipyard was chosen to be Mwanza on the shores of the Great Lake (Lake Victoria).
This is the result of comprehensive consideration of many factors.
Currently, two important cities in the East African colonies are located on the shores of the Great Lakes, one is Mwanza (the capital of the Great Lakes region) and the other is Kisumu (the capital of western Kenya). Connecting the two cities can accelerate the development of the Great Lakes, and connecting the two cities naturally relies on ships.
At the same time, the indigenous people living on the islands on the Great Lakes also need to be addressed. There are no similar needs in Lake Solon and Lake Malawi, so there is no need to rush to build factories.
In addition, the strategy for conquering the northwest also requires the navigability of the Great Lakes, so control over the northwest can be strengthened in the future.
Finally, there are Mwanza’s own excellent natural conditions. Relying on Mwanza Bay, Mwanza itself is a natural and excellent lake port.
Previously, the Sukuma tribe (known in reality as the "Gypsies of Tanzania" and the most populous ethnic group in Tanzania, which has more than 120 ethnic groups) lived here. Later, the East African colonies directly took over and occupied this place.
In the subsequent "purge" campaign, the Sukuma people were expelled from the entire Great Lakes region and were driven by the East African colonial government to the largest tribe in the eight north-western countries.
The Mwanza Shipyard is located southwest of Mwanza City, on the south side of a small peninsula extending westward in the Mwanza Bay. The area is calm and the lake is deep, making it very suitable for building a dock based on the peninsula.
…
Coming to East Africa is definitely a tough job for those who can stay in Europe.
Therefore, Ernst directly assigned Chinese interns from his own shipyards in Europe to go to Africa to guide the shipyard construction work.
These Chinese interns were all students of the Hechingen Military Academy, so they obeyed Ernst's orders unconditionally.
Compared with the days of displacement and daily hunger in the Far East, the conditions in East Africa are also poor, but for these young Chinese who once lived in dire straits, it is not bad at all.
Moreover, while they were in school, they were ready to go through fire and water for the principal. However, they were unable to go because their spoken English (German) was too poor. The translator should at least be able to communicate without any obstacles.
Therefore, many students who are not proficient in the language stay in Europe to continue their German studies. However, the school cannot support them forever, so they can only go to companies under Hechingen for internships and learn German while working. This is faster than learning in school. After all, most of the colleagues around them are Germans, and the language environment is better.
Those students with excellent academic performance (good German) were transferred to East Africa to join the army and local government to be responsible for coordination work.
Since local European students were recruited late, all the Hechingen students who interned in the Hechingen factory in the early days were Chinese.
Rob Lee was the candidate chosen by Ernst. Just by hearing his name, you can tell that he was Chinese.
Rob Lee previously interned with German workers at the Venice Shipyard, and was later transferred to work with them in Hamburg.
As one of the few Chinese students working in a shipyard, he was selected to go to East Africa to guide the shipyard construction work.
Although Rob Lee only had more than one year of work experience, the shipyards in Venice and Hamburg both built large ocean-going ships, and Rob Lee also learned the experience of building large ocean-going ships.
Therefore, going to East Africa to guide the work of the Mwanza Shipyard is like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut.
Hundreds of workers, under the guidance of Rob Lee and German technicians, leveled the land along the coast, cut down trees and cleared rubble.
This time, not only Rob Lee himself came, but also a Deutsche technician. However, he was only responsible for the work in the first few months and would have to return to Deutsche later.
This German technician came to East Africa only because of the huge reward and took the risk. As an old sailor, his economic conditions in Germany were not bad and were much better than those of ordinary people.
So he just planned to make some quick money and leave. After all, the conditions in East Africa were too harsh, and there wasn't even any entertainment venues. In addition, given his limited knowledge of Africa (geography was included in compulsory education in Prussia), he naturally didn't plan to live there permanently.
Soon, under the command of the two, workers cleared a large area of open space on the south side of the peninsula, and reserved land for buildings and roads was planned around it.
In order to put the shipyard into production as soon as possible, Rob Lee decided to start construction on land and in water at the same time, building the shipyard's land buildings and roads while constructing the dock relying on the water.
The Great Lakes basin has abundant rainfall, dense forests, and an inexhaustible supply of timber.
The Mwanza government organized people to cut down trees to provide raw materials for the construction of the shipyard.
These trees are high-quality materials that have grown for many years, but the indigenous productivity is backward and they are unable to develop these trees on a large scale, which benefits the East African colonies.
The design scale of the shipyard is not very large, and the technical requirements are not too high. Most of the materials used to make the hull are local wood.
Although it is a shipyard in Africa, the production equipment still has to be imported from Europe. Although the production equipment imported from Europe is not easy to transport due to its geographical location, the impact is not significant.
In addition to production equipment, some spare parts, including ship nails, ship paint... also need to be imported.
Although the Mwanza Shipyard is not large and is not well-known in Europe, it will be recorded in history in the future as the first to use engines and special propellers produced by Berlin Energie Power Company.
Currently, many technologies of Berlin Energy Power Company are stored and not used in Europe. However, there is no need to worry about East Africa at all. This is Ernst's territory and there is no need to worry about leaks.
This special boat engine was tested here, and its measured data and performance were very good, which can be regarded as opening up an additional water track for future Berlin Energy Power Company products in advance.
At present, these important components are manufactured in closed factories under the Berlin Energy and Power Company and then transported to East Africa by ocean.
East African shipbuilders only have to complete the assembly according to the design drawings.
This type of boat equipped with an engine is actually a small speedboat. The hull is made of wood and is shaped like a willow leaf. After the engine is started, it runs very fast.
In the previous life, this extremely simple boat, which could be copied by an ordinary person with enough materials, would be absolutely nothing.
But in this era, this type of ship that uses a petroleum engine is the most advanced ship of the same size.
The power required for these speedboats is generated by oil, which needs to be imported, but if you are not in a hurry, you can also use oars to slide slowly.
In addition to this type of engine-equipped boat, the Mwanza shipyard mainly produces small fishing boats without engines.
Speedboats with engines will be used first to form lake troops (navy), while traditional powered boats will be provided to fishermen in Mwanza and Kisumu.
Although Kisumu is not very close to Mwanza, once the ships are built, a large number of ordinary small fishing boats can be pulled to Kisumu by speedboat and ropes.
Therefore, once completed, the Mwanza Shipyard will be sufficient to supply the demand for ships in Mwanza and Kisumu (after all, the two cities have small populations, currently a total of more than 26,000 people).
In the future, Mwanza and Kisumu will both be positioned as important cities in East Africa. The local environment has a large carrying capacity, sufficient water resources, and rich products. Africa is suitable for population concentration, and the development of fishery resources is an important step in its development.
(End of this chapter)
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