Feng Ye stopped thinking about the broken diesel engine and, like A-Can, started prying barnacles off the boat.
He can easily distinguish between goose barnacles and ordinary barnacles, so he can selectively pry them off.
On the outside of this ship, goose barnacles mainly grow around the waterline.
Further down, the area near the bottom of the boat is mostly occupied by common barnacles and oysters.
Mixed in were some other shellfish, such as mussels and clams...
According to his estimate, after prying it off, the weight of the goose barnacles would be no less than 20 kilograms.
At 50 yuan per kilogram, this windfall is quite substantial.
The flathead screwdriver kept swinging, prying off one goose barnacle after another and throwing them into the auger, making a constant "thump thump thump" sound.
The ship was indeed rotten to the bone from ship maggots.
The accident happened when Feng Ye pried the waterline a little above it.
It pried off a large piece of wood along with it.
The surface of the wood was covered with countless tiny holes, and white maggots could be seen wriggling inside each one. Disgusting, isn't it? These are ship maggots.
Shipworms look like a type of worm, but they are actually a type of clam with a thin, small, white shell on its head.
The front part of this small seashell has many fine and neat teeth, resembling a wood file.
Shipworms use repeated spinning and rubbing to burrow into wood, where they live, feed, and grow.
The size of shipworms varies greatly depending on the type of wood used.
The smaller ones are only 2 to 3 centimeters long, while the larger ones can grow up to 1 meter long.
Shipworms are terrorists that destroy wooden structures in the ocean, targeting things like wooden piles, embankments, and docks.
It has existed on Earth for as long as human civilization, and countless wooden ships have been ruined by it. Its gnawing has also caused many mysterious maritime disasters.
As an ancient perpetrator, it once controlled Genghis Khan's warships during his eastern expeditions against the Japanese invaders, and it also destroyed the expeditions of the maritime carters.
Columbus also suffered heavy losses on his fourth voyage due to damage from shipworms.
The most devastating damage caused by shipworms in history was the destruction of the Dutch seawall in 1730.
As early as 350 BC, the ancient Greeks recorded this inconspicuous enoki mushroom growing on the bottom of a boat.
The Phoenicians and Egyptians tried coating the hulls with bitumen and wax.
The Greeks and Romans used lead and tar.
But for ship maggots, it's all considered an extra meal.
In the 19th century, people used copper alloys instead of copper plates to line the bottom of ships.
Fishermen along my country's coast often use discarded pots and iron nails to prevent insects from entering their boats, or they use fire to heat the bottom of the boat to kill them.
But eradicating shipworms remains a cherished dream.
It wasn't until fiberglass was invented and used to wrap the bottom and keel of ships that the damage caused by ship maggots was significantly reduced.
Later, humans coated the bottom of the ship with a layer of red paint containing highly toxic substances such as cuprous oxide and mercury oxide, which completely solved the problem of marine organisms parasitizing the hull.
However, over time, more and more marine parasites have adapted to this toxicity and evolved corresponding resistance to it.
Barnacles, for example, need to be removed manually using a high-pressure water gun.
The ship maggots are even more amazing; they can't be killed, eradicated, or eaten indefinitely, making people both angry and craving them.
The root cause lies in the fact that the diet of shipworms changes much faster than the development of human navigation technology.
Metal boats are like health spas for shipworms; wooden boats are practically their spas.
Shipworms can secrete an enzyme that can digest wood.
This enzyme can slightly corrode metals, and some extremely hungry shipworms can even eat stones.
They eat stones and excrete sand; their back-to-basics approach has provided necessary assistance to the human building materials market.
There are many types of ship maggots, but they all generally prefer to collect three resources commonly found in strategy games: wood, stone, and iron.
Common ship maggots are usually 2-3 centimeters long, while some king maggots on large ships can grow to more than 1 meter in length.
The most vicious one is a kind of maggot that lives in the soil and directly gnaws on the minerals; if you didn't know, you would think it was a giant python.
It's just that the name of this thing is too disgusting; otherwise, given the food-loving nature of Chinese people, they would definitely eat them to the point of needing to be specially bred.
The sight of the wriggling ship maggots made Feng Ye's stomach churn, and a feeling of nausea rose in his throat.
He suppressed the urge to vomit and threw the piece of wood he had pried off onto the Rising Sun.
"Brother, you're in for a treat!"
Feng Xuan picked it up and was immediately overjoyed: "Wow, there's quite a lot in here."
"Bro, have you ever tried this stuff in its original, unprocessed form?"
"What's the meaning?"
Feng Xuan's eyes widened. "Eat it raw?"
"Most seafood can be eaten raw, right? This should be okay too, why don't you give it a try?"
Feng Xuan said irritably, "Are you trying to make me a guinea pig? This has to be cooked before you can eat it."
Although he likes to eat this stuff, he can't stand eating it raw!
He had never heard of anyone eating this stuff raw.
"There's a saying that goes, 'Eating raw food is a tribute to the Creator, and blanching it in water and making a cold salad is an ode to nature.' So why can't we eat it raw?"
"You talk too much. Why don't you let your husband eat one and show me?"
Feng Xuan rolled his eyes, picked up a boat maggot, and made as if to throw it at Feng Ye.
Ah-Can, never one to shy away from stirring things up, added fuel to the fire, saying, "Oh my, this is a natural delicacy, it would be a shame to miss it. Brother Ye, hurry up and try some!"
"Damn it, what's it to you, Ah Can? Why don't you eat it first and let my brother and I see?"
Feeling disgusted, Feng Yeqiang used a screwdriver to pick out a ship maggot from the broken part and hung it on the screwdriver.
Then he stood up and walked over to Ah-chan.
Ah-Can felt disgusted looking at the maggots on the screwdriver.
His pupils constricted: "Holy crap, Ye-ge, can't you stop being so disgusting?"
Didn't you say you wanted to try something new?
A playful smile appeared on Feng Ye's lips as he gently shook the screwdriver in his hand, causing the ship maggot to swing back and forth at its tip.
"No, no, I was just kidding, just kidding, Brother Ye, don't get agitated."
Ah-Can waved his hands repeatedly, and looking at Feng Ye who was getting closer and closer, he stood up and backed away with a look of fear on his face.
"I'm taking care of you. I heard this stuff is very nourishing, especially good for men, it's an aphrodisiac."
Feng Ye's smile widened.
He deliberately moved the screwdriver closer to Ah-Can, and the ship maggots drew a disgusting arc in the air with his movement.
"No, I'm young and don't need aphrodisiacs yet. Let's save them for Brother Xuan."
Ah-chan was so frightened that he flailed his arms wildly, his face filled with rejection.
"Oh, looks like you won't get to enjoy this. Only my brother can."
Feng Ye shook his head regretfully, flicked the screwdriver, and tried to shake off the ship maggots hanging from it.
He dared not touch such a disgusting thing.
The shipworm was indeed thrown out.
However, it flew towards Ah-Can.
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