Chapter 1058: Magadha class Steam Boat (2)
28th March 1688
Gajendra and Shankar Nath, two small-time merchants, got down at the port of Mangaluru amidst the hustle and bustle of the financial capital of Vijayanagara, the richest state in the empire. Looking around, there were people everywhere hurrying around, merchants could be seen angrily yelling at the labourers to quickly load the goods for fear of the Port Authority pasting a large fine on them, port authorities walked around the port like hawks, waiting to see if any merchant would violate the rules and regulations of the port, and amidst all this, at the end of the port where the eyes meet the horizon, a large crowd could be seen gathering.
Gajendra and Shankar Nath looked at each other, their eyes bright. The next moment, cutting through the crowd of people like a hot knife through butter, they made a beeline to the goal and passed through several sections of the boat and reached the new area of the port whose construction was about to be completed.
Reaching the part of the port where the conference was being held, both Gajendra and Shankar Nath took a big gulp. If the crowd, when they had just disembarked from the ship, was a wave, then what they were seeing in front of them was no less than a tsunami. The last time either Gajendra or Shankar Nath had seen such a scene was during Makara Sankranti in Sabarimala.
” Nath, maybe we should have left a day earlier.”
Hearing those words, Shankar Nath immediately became furious. ” It’s easy for you to say, but in order to get the ticket for the ship, I had to pay twice the premium.”
Gajendra waved his hand in exasperation and shrugged, ” Alright, forget it, let’s quickly join in. If more people come later, maybe we won’t even get a seat.”
Gajendra and Shankar Nath, like a pair of wolves pouncing into a flock of sheep, acted together, rushed into the crowd, trying their best using their tough physiques to get to the front so that when the police allowed entry, they would be guaranteed to get a seat.
Surprisingly enough, such scenes were not exclusive to the Mangaluru Port, as they could be witnessed in the Puducherry port, the hometown of Bhagath Shipyard, the port of Kochi, the stronghold of the Shivaji Shipyard, the port of Colombo, the headquarters of the Chola Shipyard, Vishakapatnam, the main base of Ashoka Shipyard, Mumbai, the headquarters of Southern United Naval Design Bureau, a design bureau under the three second-tier shipbuilding companies of the empire, and the port of Chennai, the new capital of the Berunda Shipyard.
In all these ports, as soon as the police opened up the gates, the crowd of merchants and elites outside threw decorum into the dustbin, and rushed in like they were entering the theatre for the first day first show of Bahubali. The police tried their best to restrain the crowd, but unfortunately, as everything had to be organised in a hurry, and the port authorities underestimated the number of people, the number of personnel they requested was not enough at all.
Getting into the event area of the port, Gajendra and Shankar Nath immediately saw the seating arrangement that was made out of wood. They looked around, there were no ships to be seen, but the people who rushed before them had already ran to the front seats and occupied them, so without hesitation, they too ran and finally got seated on the third row.
Shankar Nath, finally seated, looked around with a nonchalant expression as if the people who were running around looking for seats had nothing to do with him. But when he inadvertently saw Gajendra from the corner of his eye, he was taken aback because Gajendra looked like he had seen a ghost. Observing more carefully, Gajendra seemed to be staring in a particular direction, so out of curiosity, Shankar Nath also looked over. At first, he did not notice anything, but when he saw who was sitting on the balcony of the building, even he couldn’t control his emotions as his eyes widened and his lower jaw fell uncontrollably.
It was His Majesty the Emperor himself. Now, what was even more shocking was the demon sword of the empire, His Highness Raja Sarvesh Ranavikrama, and the previous Prime Minister Vinod, both sitting next to him.
They were too stunned to understand when it started, but when they came back to their senses, the crowd around them was already chanting, “Ranavikrama, Ranavikrama, Ranavikrama!” And after some time, the name of Vinod began to ring out.
As if all the ports were connected to the same algorithm, the crowd that had gathered in different ports started to cheer on their beloved previous commanders like Ramayya Senapati, Lachit Borphukan, Yogendra Singh, Gangadhar, and others.
Although the chants stopped fairly quickly due to the ceremony kicking off, with the announcers taking the centre stage, all the kings of vassal kingdoms whose names and chants were called had their lips upturned, and the pride they felt at that moment was immeasurable.
At the port of Mangaluru, in the event held by Raya Shipyard, the person who kicked off the event was none other than the designer of the ship, the old man Danior Boswell himself.
While at the other ports, great heroes who commanded the reverence of the people, like the vassal kings, had to stand up and calm the boiling crowd, since the owners of the shipyards, Jennifer Molin of Shivaji Shipyard, Nikhil Khalyan of Ashoka Shipyard, and others, could not command the same respect, and the people would not immediately listen to them, at least not when they were so excited. People, however, immediately listened to Danior Boswell. Though there was a reason for it, as he was unofficially called the father of the Bharatiya Navy.
Many of the earlier ships, and even the most technologically advanced and best ships of the Bharatiya Empire, were entirely designed by him. So even if most people did not care who designed a certain ship, when an image depiction of a face appears so many times in newspapers across the empire over the span of three decades, people are bound to remember.
” Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you all for attending this auspicious event. I know all of you are eager to witness the new Magadha Class Steamboat, so without any further ado, let me introduce all of you to the ship, which is at the frontier and bleeding edge of naval technology in the world.”
” The Abhaya ”
Although no ship appeared in front of them, all the people still clapped in order to honour the efforts of the old designer. But by the time the claps stopped, everyone’s eyes widened. Even Sarvesh, who was curiously looking around, suddenly stood up, his face completely serious.
Right before everyone’s eyes, a metal ship moved past them at such a speed that within a few seconds it disappeared behind the hill.
” What the hell happened? ”
” Did you guys see it?”
Shankar Nath, listening to the comments beside him, began to doubt his own eyes, ” Hey Gaja, do you think we are hallucinating, or did we just see a metal ship move past right in front of us? ”
Gajendra was stunned as well, his face looking like someone who had seen a unicorn.
” We shouldn’t be hallucinating, look, the smoke in the air is still visible and the waves are hitting the harbour much stronger.”
The next second, after reality set in for most people, exclamations and screams rang out. And such reactions were not only from the common people. Even distinguished guests like Ramayya Senapati in Vishakapatnam exclaimed without holding back, and Yogendra Singh in Kochi directly rubbed his eyes to make sure that he was not hallucinating. As for Lachit Borphukan and Jayadwaj Singha, who had finally reunited at the port of Chennai, they both looked at each other in stunned silence as if their eyes alone could communicate, “Did you just see what I saw?”
Danior Boswell, feeling extremely proud, continued,
” I hope everyone liked the glimpse of what you saw.”
” The new generation of ships of the empire, all equipped with steam engines and all made up of metal hulls.”
” It is my belief that with these Magadha Class steamboats being produced across the empire through various shipyards building various variants, we have officially set foot into the new age of travel.”
Applause immediately rang out.
” Let me first explain what people can expect from this new class of ships.”
” The model of the ship can vary, but any ship carrying the class name of Magadha will have several things in common.”
” And that includes being powered by the Bhairavi J1 horizontal twin-cylinder marine engine, output of 170 to 190 horsepower, maximum speed of 15 knots, all-metal hull construction, screw-type propeller, fire-tube type boiler with superheating and saltwater condenser, draught weight of under 1000 tonnes, and coal as a fuel with oil assistance for ignition.”
” Apart from these features that can be seen in every ship, everything else is different in different models, ranging from the type of metal used, the design philosophy used, the target audience, and many other things.”
” We at Boswell Design Bureau, collaborating with the Raya Shipyard and the Bhagat Shipyard, bring forward The Abhaya.”
” The Abhaya is a general cargo transport ship capable of long-distance voyages across the sea, able to reach any country in ASEAN in a single trip without refuelling.”
” It is built using compartmentalisation technology, so it is best suited for valuable goods.”
” The ship uses the new proprietary Samudra Loha MS 1, the marine steel grade one, for the construction of the hull, which is 35% stronger than Loha MV One when it comes to tensile strength, 40% better corrosion resistant, 12% lighter than Chamundi FSC Mark 2, which is the same steel used in the construction of the Bhairavi engines, and it is a metal developed exclusively to handle saltwater exposure. Under the waterline, we have added 15 millimetres of thickness, and 12mm thickness for the main deck.”
” Abhaya is a single-chimney ship without need for any sails. It weighs over 950 tonnes fully loaded, with a cargo capacity of 600 tonnes, and since the sails are not required, the crew has been cut down drastically to 24 personnel, and instead of a watchtower, retractable Pillai binoculars have been added.”
Just as he ended his introduction, two magnificent ships appeared from opposite directions, slowly gliding toward the crowd at a diagonal angle. The sight of them made the people leap to their feet, cheering and shouting in sheer excitement, their voices rising like a wave of sound that swept across the port.
Looking at the sharp hull that shimmered in the sunlight like silver, Gajendra and Shankar Nath were left breathless. Even though they only came in order to take a look at the so-called new ship that is made of metal and sails without a sail, they had an irresistible urge to own one of the ships for themselves.
Even those who could not afford it were like that, and the people who could actually afford it were unable to hold themselves back, especially since the models of Magadha Class were extremely diverse. While the two shipyards of the royal family concentrated on long-distance cargo ships with compartmentalization, the variant of the Shivaji Shipyard focused on deep-sea fishing operations, the Chola Shipyard focused on grain transportation from agricultural regions to urban centres and export terminals, the Ashoka Shipyard focused on mixing cargo and passenger service on established trade routes, which became the favourite of all the logistic companies who deal with immigration of people who not only come by themselves but also bring a lot of luggage with them.
As for the Berunda Shipyard, it was entirely focused on the transport of heavy industrial equipment, machinery, metal castings, and similar things. As for the Southern United Shipping Consortium, a temporary organisation built to manufacture all-metal steam-powered ships, they focused, true to their nature, on high-volume agricultural, mineral, and crude oil transport, becoming the candy in the eyes of major agricultural companies, Raya Refineries, and the mining companies.
The very next day, as soon as the events of the conference were made public, the discussions in the empire, which had calmed down, suddenly blew up and once again catalysed a new round of crazy industrial investments and stock market expansion.
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