RPAGF Chapter 867 The Poor Little Thing Who Wanted to Cry But Had No Tears
Chapter 867 The Poor Little Thing Who Wanted to Cry But Had No Tears
Just as Jiang Xia felt a little relieved because the "resonance" crisis was resolved, and his thoughts even drifted to the doubts about the nautical chart, the "Yuejin" on the sea had already begun to faithfully implement the "homemade method" he proposed.
Inside the driver's cab, the atmosphere remained tense, but the previous panic had turned into orderly busy activity.
"Execute according to the expert group's plan! Xiao Chen, go and organize the manpower to operate the ballast system!" Captain Liu's voice was hoarse, and his eyes subconsciously glanced at the shadowy Suyan Reef that they had just passed, which was faintly visible on the gloomy sea, with lingering fear in his heart.
"Understood!" The first mate immediately accepted the order, turned around and rushed out of the bridge, running up the gangway to the ballast water tank control area located deep inside the hull.
There, several 200cc general-purpose diesel engines produced by Hongxing Comprehensive Machinery Plant were serving as the power source for water pumps, emitting a steady and powerful "putt-putt" sound.
These engines, which were only installed on the ship before departure, proved to be simple, robust, and durable. They drove the water pumps, regularly pumping and transferring ballast water between different ballast tanks according to the rhythm remotely guided by Jiangxia.
The heavy hull shifted with the current, producing extremely subtle but continuous changes in its center of gravity, as if a giant were carefully adjusting its posture to avoid touching the unseen "resonance" demon.
After the first mate left to carry out his orders, Captain Liu strolled to the chart table, his gaze falling on the chart that had just been altered in pencil and was now somewhat messy. His brows gradually furrowed.
His gaze lingered on the new waypoint hastily marked with a red pencil.
After a long silence, the lingering fear and doubts suppressed in his heart, mixed with the panic of almost making a terrible mistake, caused Captain Liu to suddenly lose control of his emotions. He abruptly turned his head, staring fiercely at Second Officer Zhou, and his voice suddenly rose:
"What are you doing, second mate?! Route design and chart correction are your basic responsibilities! I won't even mention the poor maintenance and coordination of the radar and gyrocompass, but you can even make such a huge mistake in the most basic route marking?! You almost sent hundreds of people on board, and this 10,000-ton ship, directly to the reef! Are you even fit to be a second mate?!"
The harsh reprimand sounded particularly jarring in the quiet driver's cab. The other staff members on duty instinctively shrank back, not daring to utter a sound.
Old Zhou already felt he had lost face in front of the crew because he had lost his hat. Now, being publicly attacked like this, his face instantly turned red.
He stubbornly retorted, showing no sign of backing down:
"Captain Liu! I can't accept such a statement!"
You know best how this route came about! Last night, the Navigation Assurance Department called your bedside directly with encrypted phone! You answered it yourself, and you dragged me out of bed to dictate the coordinates and order me to trace them onto the nautical chart verbatim!
The written record and call logs are all here. You're having a bad memory right now and want me to take the blame?!
"You!" Old Liu was speechless for a moment, his face turning ashen.
"You specifically instructed me that this was a serious mission, that it had to be kept strictly confidential, and that I had to sail according to the map... Captain, you... you haven't forgotten all of that, have you?"
The second mate patted the thick logbook on the control panel.
Tsk, he really is a seasoned veteran. That last sentence, drawn out with a long syllable, "You...you haven't forgotten, have you?", was utterly sarcastic.
"I've given you the hell the nerve..."
Captain Liu opened his mouth, uttered a curse, and then fell silent.
Because it's true...
An extremely awkward silence fell over the cockpit. Only the faint hum of the gyrocompass and the sound of waves crashing against the hull outside the window could be heard.
Just then, the intercom on the wall suddenly rang, breaking the suffocating silence.
Still seething with anger, Old Liu grabbed the receiver and replied curtly, "Hello! Driver's cab!"
The excited voice of First Mate Xiao Chen immediately came through the receiver, accompanied by the steady and powerful "putt-putt" sound in the background, sounding full of energy: "Captain! Everything is going smoothly in the hold! Those few 200cc general-purpose engines we were recently issued from the Hongxing Comprehensive Machinery Plant are absolutely fantastic!"
Upon hearing this, Old Liu's expression softened slightly. Taking the opportunity to change the subject, he asked in a much gentler tone, "Oh? How so? It's even better than the imported ones?"
"Durable! Powerful! And responsive!" Xiao Chen's voice carried the enthusiasm unique to young people. "It drives the water pump very steadily, much lighter than those imported ones! With this machine, I guarantee that resonance will absolutely not happen on our ship!"
"Really?" Captain Liu responded subconsciously, with a hint of barely perceptible emotion. "I never imagined that our country could now manufacture such reliable and durable machines."
“Absolutely true!” Xiao Chen said confidently on the other end of the phone. “I heard from Lao Wang in the cabin that this machine is a product of the Hongxing Machinery Factory in Beijing. It seems that the engineer who led the research and development is Engineer Jiang, Comrade Jiang Xia, who just gave us the idea!”
"Jiang Gong?" Old Liu and Old Zhou, who was listening intently, both looked surprised.
"Yes! It's that expert who proposed the 'dynamic ballast water allocation method'!" Xiao Chen's tone was full of admiration. "No wonder even the old man praised him personally! This Engineer Jiang is truly both scholarly and practical! He can solve such a major problem as 'resonance' on our ship, and he can also lead the team to build such a useful and excellent machine! He's really something!"
He seemed to be giving a thumbs-up over the phone line.
This conversation eased the tense atmosphere in the driver's cab considerably.
The group felt a growing respect for this "Engineer Jiang," whom they had never met before. An expert capable of designing such reliable machinery naturally lends even more credibility to his proposed solutions.
In that brief moment when emotions had calmed down—
"Boom... thud..."
Suddenly, an unusually dull tremor came from the hull, accompanied by a short and clear metallic scraping sound, as if something hard had been forcibly pushed from the side of the ship.
Captain Liu's hand tightened on the telephone receiver, his brow furrowing instantly: "Xiao Chen! What's going on in the hold? What's that noise?!"
There was a moment or two of silence on the other end of the phone, as Xiao Chen was clearly trying to confirm the situation, before his slightly uncertain voice came through:
"Captain, over here... it sounds like the water surge caused by our ballast adjustment? We just used four pumps! The machines are running normally, and the instruments aren't showing anything unusual!"
Captain Liu put down the phone with some skepticism and listened intently. The ship's voyage seemed unaffected and remained stable.
He strolled to the porthole, gazing at the occasional unusual waves surging on the distant sea, when suddenly he remembered something and turned to ask:
"Hey, before we set off, the fishermen said that whale echoes have almost disappeared from the fishing grounds around here?"
Seeing that the captain was trying to ease the tension, Second Officer Zhou also took the opportunity to back down:
"Hey! How could that be? Our navy is out fishing with explosives in the coastal waters every few days, making a huge commotion. It scares away not only whales, but probably even all the fish fry!"
"Oh, then you must have hit a whale!"
"That's true. Those big guys were terrified and fled here in a panic. Who knows, maybe one or two of them got confused and crashed into our big guy's shipping route..."
Captain Liu thought about it more and more and felt that this speculation was reasonable: "These navy guys are... never mind, let's continue to observe and operate strictly according to Engineer Jiang's plan!"
……
The massive "Yuejin" continued to sail steadily toward the open sea along the adjusted course, leaving behind a gradually calming wake.
Beneath this wake, in the cold darkness, a poor little thing wanted to cry but had no tears...