Exploring Technology in a Wizard World
Chapter 430 - 429: Nighttime Racing

Chapter 430: Chapter 429: Nighttime Racing

Sailing at night, colloquially... night sailing.

Night sailing—it’s not just a simple term.

In this world, similar to the medieval era, where nautical skill is extremely primitive, it’s not just that there’s no modern Earth GPS or radio communications; there aren’t even Sextants to calculate longitude and latitude, nor accurate sea charts.

You should know, in the history of Earth, nautical technology didn’t leap forward until after the medieval era, in the Age of Discovery. Under the temptation of immense wealth brought about by geographical discoveries, there were substantial developments in shipbuilding, astronomy, hydrology, navigation, and trade.

In this current world, without such geographical discoveries, naturally, everything is at a standstill, and navigation is in an absolute dark age. Perhaps wizards have some special ways of sailing, like using Prophecy Magic to detect specific locations and guide ships. Ordinary merchant ships have no such means and mostly rely on experience and nautical logs from unknown sources for their navigation.

Most of these logs will not inform the user of when to sail to a specific location since the writers themselves don’t know. The most common type of nautical log generally reads: Depart from Sem Port, sail in the northeast direction for about three days, and you’ll encounter a white seabed.

Crossing this area, turn northwest and continue for two days, and you’ll encounter a reef. Spend half a day circumnavigating the reefs, then head north straight on; four days if the wind is favorable, about five if against the wind, and then you should be able to see the Shadow of Dax Port.

If you can’t find it, you may have missed it. It’s advised to turn left and search along the land. And if it’s still not found... hrm, hope that the gods you believe in will watch over you because I don’t know where you might be.

...

Under such backward conditions, choosing to sail at night can indeed speed up the journey, but the consequences are often hard to bear, ranging from minor incidents like hitting reefs or grounding, to serious ones like getting lost.

Imagine yourself in the vast, open sea, suddenly unable to confirm your precise location, not even knowing on which side the continent lies. As the food supply dwindles, and freshwater runs low, a sense of desperation will envelop everyone.

Therefore, the term "night sailing" represents absolute danger.

But for Captain Morgan at the moment, with a Ghost Ship of unknown origins persistently chasing them, he has no choice but to try to shake them off with night sailing.

Because he has a premonition that, once caught by the Ghost Ship, things will not end well. Additionally, he has confidence in his abilities, believing that with him at the helm, in command, even night sailing will not be too problematic.

And if night sailing really succeeds, not only is there a great chance of completely losing the Ghost Ship, but also significantly expediting the journey.

For this voyage, he had already heard a great deal of concerning news about the impending hostilities between the Black Holy Mountain Kingdom and another country, which could lead to a blockade of the sea at any moment. If that indeed happens, the cargo on his ship would be stuck, causing heavy losses, a situation he cannot stand to occur. So, the faster they move, the less the risk.

Having made up his mind, Captain Morgan quickly thought through various scenarios for night sailing and ordered First Officer Williams and the rest of the crew to prepare, while he quietly awaited the arrival of nightfall.

...

In the blink of an eye, it was dark.

Numerous torches were lit on the deck, and after a brief rest, Captain Morgan returned to the helm, reenergized, to steer the ship forward, constantly attentive to the direction of the wind and issuing commands to adjust the sails.

"Wind on portside, turn the main sail to the right by eight degrees, the jib sail by ten degrees to the right, and the mizzen sail by seven degrees to the right."

"Aye," responded the sailors, quickly getting to work.

After a flurry of activity and with the sails adjusted, the sailors took a breath of relief. A sailor walking on the deck suddenly saw Richard standing in a corner, looking towards the stern of the ship, seemingly peering into something.

"Hmm?" Curiously, the sailor approached and after glancing at Richard, asked, "Sir, what are you looking at?"

"Ghost Ship," Richard answered.

"Ghost Ship? Can you see it?" The sailor was incredulous. How could one see another ship on the sea so far away on such a dark night?

Richard naturally could see it, after all, his vision was exceptional, but he offered no explanation and simply pointed, saying, "Look in that direction, look closely, and you’ll see it."

"Really?" The sailor was skeptical but looked anyway. After staring for a long time, just when he was about to lose patience, his eyes suddenly widened as he spotted something.

"That is..." His complexion changed, and he turned and ran towards Captain Morgan, shouting, "Captain, Captain, look!"

"What?" Captain Morgan’s eyebrows shot up. After hearing the sailor’s words, he turned around and squinted his eyes.

He saw a faint blue light appearing in the sea behind the "Naru Glory Fisherman," amidst the darkness. At first, it was only the size of a pea, like the flickering will-o’-the-wisps in a graveyard, which could go out at any moment. But soon the light grew a bit larger, indicating that it was getting closer to the "Naru Glory Fisherman."

"Captain, that must be the ghost ship chasing us; how can it be faster than us? How is that possible! It was slower than us during the day, could it be that a demon is pulling it at night?" The terrified sailor asked a bit frantically.

Captain Morgan glared sternly at the sailor, keeping his composure as he said, "It’s not that a demon is pulling it, nor that it’s gotten faster, but we’ve slowed down. Night navigation inevitably has its impact; we can’t change course as freely, and we certainly can’t match our daytime speed.

I didn’t expect that they could maintain their daytime speed... Moreover, I didn’t expect them to be so persistent—chasing us even when we navigate at night. They are even more relentless than the greediest pirate! Really not afraid of running aground? Hmph!"

"Captain, what should we do?"

"Mm—" Captain Morgan pondered for a moment before making a decision, "If they want to chase, let them chase. I refuse to believe that they can defy the odds in this night! Now that we can see the blue fire on their ship, they must be able to see the torches on ours. So... extinguish all the torches at the stern, extinguish the torches on both sides of the ship, and only keep the torches for illumination at the bow.

That way, with the sails blocking their view, they won’t see any light from us and will lose sight of our ship. I’ll take a detour, and I guarantee they’ll end up further away."

"Yes."

The sailor quickly set to work, while Captain Morgan began to turn to the left, issuing orders.

"Turn the main sail three degrees to the left, the jib five degrees to the left, the mizzen sail eight degrees to the left..."

"Understood!"

In no time, the "Naru Glory Fisherman" was nearly enveloped in complete darkness, emitting a "creaking" sound as it turned to the left and continued forward.

Richard on the deck watched Captain Morgan’s maneuvering and couldn’t help but think: According to normal logic, with such efforts by Captain Morgan, they should indeed be able to shake off the ghost ship, so he wouldn’t have to worry about trouble coming their way.

But...

With this thought, Richard stood on the dark deck, looking back for a little while, and then his brow furrowed.

"A hallucination?" Richard said aloud, then shook his head, "No, not a hallucination. The ghost ship really is closer."

Yes, closer.

...