Chapter 553: Just Ballast
To put it in a rather confusing way, if the 'Titanic' is not the 'Titanic', then it is a ship that has no salvage value. This is not because Xiao Peng is too ambitious, but the consensus of all ocean exploration companies: a simple passenger ship is not worth salvaging.
But a cruise ship is not just a passenger ship. Those who sit in first and second class cabins are all rich people, so if you are lucky, you may make some great discoveries.
The place in the world where class differences are most evident is on cruise ships.
Many people say: "Cruise is not expensive!" If so, you should buy a first-class or second-class ticket to experience it. Oh, now it should be called "VIP cabin" and "first class". After all, third class is not as nice as second class. In fact, they are the same thing.
What's the difference between first, second, and third class? Take the Titanic, for example. Back then, a first-class ticket cost $4,350! Second-class was $1,750, and third-class? $30!
Those third-class passengers were actually just "ballast" from another perspective.
Using living people as 'ballast' sounds cruel, but in fact this method has been used on ships for a long time, and some people still do it now.
There was a tragedy in the Mediterranean.
A smuggling boat was intercepted and people were surprised to find many corpses in the cabin.
These bodies were all from refugees who had been beaten to death after arguing with the crew on the stowaway boat. Their bodies were not thrown into the sea but placed in the boat's hold. By the time they were discovered in the scorching Mediterranean weather, their bodies had already stank, yet they were still kept in the hold, acting as ballast.
People who don’t know much about ships may not know that when a ship is unloaded, it must have sufficient draft to maintain its stability, just like a tumbler must be heavy enough to ensure the safety of the ship. If the deck is full of people and the cabin is very light, the ship may sink with a slight wind and wave.
When the ancestors of the Chinese people discovered this, they placed large stones in the cabins, commonly known as "ballast stones". At the ruins of the Nanjing Longjiang Shipyard, which was the shipyard that built the ships needed for Zheng He's voyages to the West, people found stone balls used as ballast stones.
Chinese fishermen are also quite clever. Today, many wooden fishing boats have a cabin that is directly filled with water, called a live water cabin. This not only ensures the freshness of the fish but also serves as a "stockpiling" function.
However, both ballast and live water tanks suffer from a problem: they reduce the ship's cargo capacity and space. Consequently, technological advancements led to the development of ballast water, which uses pumps and pipes to introduce water into the ship's hold for ballast. For example, when a cargo ship is unloading, pumps pump water into the ship. Once the cargo is gone, the ship's full tanks maintain a stable state of water. When loading, water is removed as the ship is loading.
In fact, there was also a "ballast tank" on the "Titanic", but the ship was too big and the upper space was so high. In order to keep the ship stable, the best way was to use a large amount of ballast on the entire bottom of the ship. Instead of wasting space on ballast, it would be better to fill the bottom with people and make as much money as possible.
Capitalists are sometimes so cruel.
Xiao Peng didn't find any ships worth salvaging this time, but he did discover an interesting shipwreck. He discovered the Lillian Gish, a "Liberty Ship" loaded with Willys Jeeps and Harley-Davidson WLA motorcycles. The salvage value of this ship is zero, but it's a wreck worth exploring. There are so many interesting stories to share. Xiao Peng will broadcast it live in the future if he has the chance. Even if he doesn't, he'll have Fabian film a documentary about it.
First of all, let's talk about the cargo on the ship. Both the 'Willis' jeep and the 'Harley WLA' motorcycle are well-known. The former appeared in countless World War II movies, and the latter was even ridden by the Marvel superhero 'Captain America' when he went out... Of course, these cars on the 'Lillian Gish' had been soaked for too long and were severely corroded, so they were not worth salvaging at all. However, seeing so many scrapped cars scattered on the seabed is still very shocking.
Why are these scrapped cars scattered on the seabed? Because the ship carrying them disintegrated. Why did the ship disintegrate? Because it was a "free ship."
The 'Liberty Ship' is a product of World War II.
At that time, the threat posed by the German submarine force to shipping routes was too great, so the Allies needed a cost-effective cargo ship to transport goods. The "Liberty Ship" was born in this historical context.
These ships looked simple, yet they could carry a large amount of cargo. They were assembled entirely on assembly lines, using welding instead of traditional rivets. From 1941 to 1945, 2,751 Liberty ships were built in 18 American shipyards. On average, a ship took just 42 days from start of construction to launch. At the peak of construction in 1943, three Liberty ships were launched per day. Most of these ships were provided to Britain through the Lend-Lease Act.
An interesting thing to say is that for those American shipyards, the most difficult thing is not the production of the "Liberty Ship", but naming the "Liberty Ship".
Naming a ship isn't difficult, but naming nearly 3,000 of them was a real challenge for the shipyard workers. Initially, these "Liberty Ships" were named after famous politicians, scientists, and navigators. The first "Liberty Ship" was called "Patrick Henry," one of the principal authors of the "Declaration of Independence." The name "Liberty Ship" also came from his famous "Give me liberty or give me death" statement. Just like this ship's "Lillian Gish," "Lillian Gish" is also a personal name, one of the screen goddesses of the silent era.
At first, these "Liberty Ships" were named after famous people, but later on, the names were just random. For example, there was a ship called "Mark Hammer." Was Mark Hammer a famous person? No, he was the welder of that ship.
To this day, many people still see the Liberty Ships as one of the wonders of World War II, a symbol of American industrial might. This is especially true for those public intellectuals who constantly use the Liberty Ships to criticize them: What does it mean to "dumpling the dumpling"? The Americans launched 2,751 ships in four years! Each one was so large it could carry 250 trucks at a time! That's what "dumpling the dumpling" means!
This statement can only fool the ignorant. Why did Xiao Peng want to live broadcast the "Liberty Ship"? Because this type of ship happened to be one of the bad deeds of the old Americans. The British who rented the "Liberty Ship" back then were really screwed by it!
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