Chapter 1086 - Troubles At Sea
~Shwah. Shwah. Shwah. Shwah.~~
The splashing of several sh.i.p.s, striking the rough waters, sounded out loudly.
Even with all the heavy snow that fell during all this time, the salty ocean waters remained as wet as ever, hardly forming any blocks of ice whatsoever.
Only the regions closer to land or the regions closer to the Poles.
~Grah. Gray. Grah.
The men aboard the sh.i.p.s began shovelling and disposing of the heaps of snow across the deck that were now mountains.
The last few days had been hell, keeping them indoors for 4 whole days.
It snowed and snowed non-stop, alternating between heavy and medium.
There was never a time when the snow decided to go full easy mode and drizzle down gently.
Finally, the snow had eased off, as from the direction they were heading to and what they predicted, they should have 3 more days of no snow whatsoever.
The men quickly got to work, clearing all the snow and the place.
Today looked like another ordinary day... That is until their radar picked up something worth concern.
Head Captain Morgan, the main Captain overseeing all their Navy sh.i.p.s in formation, hastily got up after getting a few reports from several sh.i.p.s.
He quickly got up, looked at the radar and picked up a communicating device: "This is Head Captain Morgan from Main control. All battlesh.i.p.s are to slow down ship speed to 40 Knots, stay in formation and stand by, waiting for more instructions. I repeat! All battlesh.i.p.s are to slow down now!"
"Roger that. Over."
With that, several other Captains in the other sh.i.p.s hastily gave out their orders, which in turn made their teams run around as well.
Everyone did as they were told, carefully making adjustments staying in formation while lowering the ship's speed to 40 Knots.
.
As for what a Knot was?
That was just how speed was defined.
Landon had called it that using earth's understanding as well.
Ancient sea travellers used to measure the ship's speed by something called 'Chip Log.'
It was basically a log attached to a rope with several knots equal to the interval.
Anyway, the log attached to the knotted rope would be dropped in the water at the ship's aft/ very front.
And the moment the log was dropped, a sand hourglass would begin a countdown.
With that, they sailed alongside the floating log, wanting to know how long it would take the ship's bottom to pass the log.
Of course, they used the knots as a form of distance measurements as well.
Now, since they knew the distance between each knot, they would add up the distances.
And now, distance divided by time would give speed, no?
Even though they used sand hourglasses, they had estimations like how many breaths one could do in a second or even one minute.
In short, Ancient earth sea travellers had come up with the analogy of their one way of knowing the speed of their sh.i.p.s and boats.
And they called the Speed, 'Knots!'
Of course, modern people did a few calculations and adjustments, concluding that 1 knot was equivalent to 1.852 km/hr.
And that's how speed was monitored and used in all vessels.
Each ship type had its speed as well.
For example, most cruise sh.i.p.s had a speed range of 20~25 knots, and container sh.i.p.s were 16~24 knots instead.
But of course, battlesh.i.p.s or any military sh.i.p.s generally had way higher knot speeds.
The current sh.i.p.s they were on had a Top speed of 63 Knots (73 mph or 117 kmph) and a sustainable or moderate speed of 40 Knots.
But this didn't mean that there was no room for improvement.
.
With his orders issued out, Head Captain Morgan quickly took out his Walkie Talkie and switched the station, instantly contacting Landon and a few others.
Landon and Lucius, who were sparring, quickly stopped when they heard Morgan's voice.
"So the radar picked up images of 2 opposing fleets?"
"Yes. Your majesty. From what we can tell, it should be 2 distinctive fleets since their formations are also different. One team seems to have twice as many sh.i.p.s than the others."
"Head Captain Morgan, do you think those people are in any danger? Or are they just meeting up out here in the open with no land nearby whatsoever?"
"Hmmm... Warden Mitchen, it's hard to say since from this far out. But if we move a little closer their way, we should be able to use her binoculars and get a clearer idea of things. The only question now is whether we should deflect the matter, going around the chaos... Or continue heading on straight. Again, I should've also mentioned that from the angle of position that one of the fleets took, it's most probable that they came from the continent of Zohl."
Zohl?
Landon's eyes glowed with interest.
.
Landon couldn't help smiling when he pictured these people from Zohl.
Seeing them live in the flesh truly made him excited.
Nonetheless, he wasn't about to jeopardize everything just to see them.
It was already February 11th, and 3 days from now, they should already be crossing Devil's gate.
Even though they would be crossing it 4 days before the expected occurrence, for all they knew, they could still be passing by in a bad time.
Anyway, from the system, coupled with Javis' words, it wasn't a set date per se but a range.
The earliest recorded time the Laypires popped out was on the 18th.
In other years, they came out on the 23rd instead.
That's why even though they moved at top speed and would eventually get to Devil's gate on the 14th, for all they knew, that could be when the Laypires decided to come up.
Again, at the same time, they couldn't just disregard human lives or any people in need.
"Head Captain Morgan... For now, move closer in their direction until we can access the matter clearly.
If it's a meetup, quickly branch away.
But if there are people in need, we can't just sit by and watch.
My guess is that one of the fleets there should belong to the pirates!
They control the seas and are practically everywhere... Even this far out.
So if there are people who need our help, it wouldn't kill us to use a few hours to deal with the matter and quickly move on.
Once matters are confirmed, get the men ready.
Things might get a little rough."