Clyde's words dispelled Zhuang Rui's doubts; otherwise, he really wouldn't feel comfortable entrusting the ship to a captain with such unusual hobbies. However, Clyde's idea was rather wishful thinking.
Zhuang Rui said, half-laughing and half-crying, "Alright, Clyde, you're the captain of this salvage ship. Our mission is exploration, to search for ancient shipwreck treasures, not to do what those damn soldiers do..."
Putting everything else aside, the speed of this cruise ship is far inferior to that of those small ships. We can't just launch torpedoes every time we meet without saying a word, can we? Zhuang Rui doesn't have that many torpedoes to spare.
Seeing that Clyde still wanted to speak, Zhuang Rui quickly waved his hand and said, "Alright, go find Li Zhen and tell him it was me who said to connect this monitoring system to the captain's cabin, so you can control it in real time from now on..."
"Thank you, boss..."
Zhuang Rui's actions undoubtedly handed over control of the entire ship to him. Although Clyde didn't understand the meaning of "a scholar dies for one who understands him," he was now determined to serve Zhuang Rui.
"Stop with the nonsense. We still need the crew to work. Go and send out a notice telling them the pirates won't be coming anymore, so they can focus on their work. But... the ship's weapon systems still need to be kept secret..."
If Clyde was so panicked before, one can imagine how panicked the crew below must be. Zhuang Rui was afraid that if he didn't agree to return to port, the crew would probably unload their small boats and row back by themselves.
Upon hearing Zhuang Rui's words, Clyde realized the seriousness of the matter and immediately went to the captain's cabin to issue a notice.
Clyde's authority on the ship was truly exceptional; his voice calmed the restless crew members.
As for the platform staff, their reaction was minimal. The pirate attack only provided them with a novel experience and bragging rights for the future. Many of them even felt resentful for not being able to see the pirates.
After everyone on board had rested for a day, the salvage operation continued. Developing a salvage plan was a rather complicated task, leaving Zhuang Rui and several other experts feeling quite exhausted.
Because the shipwreck is located more than 2,000 meters below the seabed and contains a large number of precious cultural relics, the difficulty of salvaging the entire ship is no less than that of salvaging the Titanic, even though the two are many times larger.
Three days later, thanks to Zhuang Rui's insistence, a plan was finally formulated. The shipwreck was named "Maritime Silk Road No. 1," and the salvage operation was called the "Maritime Silk Road No. 1 Salvage Project."
"Quickly, send down thirty more pontoons. Yes, pump out the air. Make sure all the pontoons are filled with gas simultaneously as soon as possible..."
Two more days passed, and all preparations were complete. Starting at 4:30 in the morning, the crew on board were busy, and the roar of the engines could be heard far and wide.
Zhuang Rui's salvage ship was bustling with activity. The huge platform had been moved to the sea surface, and 160 buoys had been sunk into the sea. Each unit consisted of 40 buoys, and all the ropes were connected together.
Meanwhile, two underwater robots are busy at work. Operated by the platform, the two robots need to tie four specially made ropes to the ancient shipwreck on the seabed. This task alone has taken two days.
It's important to understand that although this ancient shipwreck looks very sturdy, the points where it's secured have to withstand the pulling force of the buoys. If it can't withstand the force, not only will the hull be damaged, but everything on board will also suffer catastrophic destruction.
"Group one, group one, report on preparations..."
"Commander-in-Chief, all preparations are complete, and we are ready to ascend at any time..."
"Reporting to Commander-in-Chief, Group Two is ready..."
"Reporting to the Commander-in-Chief, Groups Three and Four are ready..."
There were four groups controlling the buoys, while the deep-sea robot that had completed the binding work used a specially made fishing net with a length and width of more than forty meters.
This fishing net was originally a seine net used for pulling fishing boats. It was made of steel wire and rope and was exceptionally tough. Zhuang Rui had specially contacted the Macau authorities to have it delivered to them.
"Mr. Zhuang, what do you think? Can we begin?"
In the monitoring room on the platform, although Engineer Zhang was the commander-in-chief, he still had to follow Zhuang Rui's instructions, after all, Zhuang Rui was the real boss.
After two days of debate, Engineer Zhang was extremely impressed with Zhuang Rui. A young man who had never done deep-sea salvage before actually knew every detail.
What impressed Zhang Gong even more was that Zhuang Rui accurately located four reinforcement points simply by using the images transmitted by the underwater robot. After two days of testing, it was shown that these four reinforcement points could withstand the tension brought by the pontoon.
Zhuang Rui was also a little excited as he began to speak. China's shipwreck salvage technology has always lagged behind the international average, especially in the field of deep-sea salvage, where it is far behind developed countries. His attempt would open a new chapter in the maturation of China's deep-sea salvage technology.
Of course, although the ship was registered in Panama and this was international waters, Zhuang Rui still considered this action as a state action.
Zhuang Rui has already contacted his mentor, Professor Zhou, and it is estimated that Professor Zhou will arrive with a group of underwater salvage experts by tomorrow at the latest.
"Groups one, two, three, four, get ready. Inject one-third of the air into the pontoons. Begin!" With Zhang's command, the huge air pump on the cruise ship roared loudly, and the specially connected hoses rapidly expanded, transmitting air into more than a hundred pontoons.
Due to the buoyancy of the pontoons themselves, they only sank to a depth of more than 200 meters in the ocean. After air entered the pontoons, the more than 100 pontoons immediately and slowly floated up.
The ropes connecting the pontoons and the sunken ship gradually began to straighten from their loose state.
Chapter 948 Emerging from the Sea (Part 2)
The process of the buoy inflating and rising was extremely slow. When viewed with the naked eye, the underwater camera could barely detect any movement from the buoy. Zhuang Rui and his group stared wide-eyed at the screen.
Of course, what they were looking at was not the pontoons, but the sunken ship on the seabed. As the ropes slowly tightened, everyone became tense. Whether they could pull the sunken ship out of the seabed mud and sand depended on this one move.
The rope, which had been floating loosely in the water like seaweed, finally began to tighten after seven or eight minutes. At that moment, Zhuang Rui's heart was in his throat, and his eyes were fixed on the monitor in front of him.
"Oh no, the third rope on the right is moving too slowly. Three groups, three groups, immediately fill your group's float with another third of the air..."
Zhuang Rui discovered that the four ropes on the sunken ship were not synchronized. Three of them were about to tighten, while the other was still loose. As a result, the ship would inevitably lose its balance once the ropes tightened.
Zhuang Rui disregarded the fact that Engineer Zhang was the commander-in-chief, grabbed the walkie-talkie, gave orders, then threw the walkie-talkie aside and looked at the screen again.
With the roar of the air pumps on the deck, Zhuang Rui realized that the loose rope had finally caught up with the speed ahead, and he breathed a sigh of relief.
However, Zhuang Rui's heart jumped again in the short time it took to catch his breath, because the pontoon had begun to exert force, and it could be seen on the screen that the ancient ship, which had been silent in the sea for thousands of years, was slowly rocking.
The ship is nearly 30 meters long. According to Zhang and others' measurements, the total tonnage of the hull and the cargo inside is about 700 tons, which is almost equivalent to the power of the drilling platform.
Over the millennia, the seabed must have changed. Almost half of the ship was submerged in the seabed silt. Although the ship rocked, it did not break free of the sea surface as Zhuang Rui and the others had hoped.
The only consolation is that the four reinforcement points chosen by Zhuang Rui were very sturdy, and there was no cracking of the hull. One of the most important difficulties in deep-sea salvage has now been resolved.
After observing for a while, Engineer Zhang looked at Zhuang Rui and said, "Mr. Zhuang, I think we need to increase the buoyancy..."
Seeing that a rigid connection had formed between the pontoon and the sunken ship, Zhuang Rui nodded and said, "Okay, but we need to inject air little by little. If we still can't pull it out, we'll use the floating crane to give us a boost, but we need to be careful in the operation..."
Zhuang Rui chose to use the buoyancy of the pontoons to pull the sunken ship because this method is relatively "gentle" and less likely to damage the ship. In contrast, the power of the floating crane and the push arm is too great, and the sunken ship could be destroyed if not handled carefully.
The sunken ship has already begun to loosen. As long as Zhuang Rui operates carefully, he can achieve his goal. He only needs to lift the sunken ship out of the sea a little bit. As long as he can lay the fishing net underneath, he will have succeeded.
"Begin injecting air into the pontoon, be prepared to stop at any time..."
After Zhang Gong relayed the order, the sunken ship on the screen shook even more violently. At an altitude of several thousand meters, it was impossible to maintain perfect balance, and some utensils in the cabin tilted and slid down.
"Mr. Zhuang, these scattered items can be retrieved using robots later, so don't worry..."
Seeing that Zhuang Rui looked a little pale, Zhang Gong quickly comforted him and secretly rejoiced. If he had followed his method and used a floating crane to pull it up directly, Zhuang Rui would probably have only gotten a pile of junk.
Zhuang Rui shook his head and said, "It's alright, this was expected. If you can maintain your balance, you won't have to go through all this trouble..."
As the buoy's pulling force increased, the seabed churned, and the clear seawater became turbid, making it difficult to see even under the illumination of twelve strong lights.
Suddenly, Zhuang Rui picked up the walkie-talkie and shouted, "Stop! Stop the air injection!" Zhuang Rui's actions stunned everyone. The situation was unclear, so why did Zhuang Rui want to stop it?
"Look at the screen quickly..."
Zhuang Rui didn't have time to explain; his eyes were fixed on the images transmitted by the underwater robot.
Zhang stared at the screen for a long time, but it was still completely blurry. He couldn't help but ask, "What's wrong, Mr. Zhuang?"
"The shipwreck has already broken free of the seabed silt, so stop using the pontoons. Even if they're filled with air, they won't have enough pulling force to bring it to the surface..."
Zhuang Rui stared intently at the screen, which puzzled everyone in the room. They couldn't understand why Zhuang Rui was so certain when they were all looking at the same screen.
Zhuang Rui was certainly certain. Although his spiritual energy couldn't directly see the sunken ship, by sensing the spiritual energy of the objects on the ship, he discovered that an object he had been focusing on had fallen in a straight line with the center of the ship's cabin, which meant that the bottom of the ship had detached from the seabed.
After the buoys stopped pumping air in, the frequency of the shipwreck's rocking decreased significantly. After about twenty minutes, the silt stirred up by the shipwreck finally settled, and the seawater returned to its clear state.
"It's...it's really out..."
"Oh my god, it's out, it's out!"
"We succeeded, we pulled it out."
Upon seeing the scene on the screen again, the platform's monitoring room erupted in excitement, as light could be seen from the bottom of the shipwreck, meaning that the ancient ship had broken free from the silt.
How to pull the sunken ship out of the sea intact is the biggest challenge of this salvage operation and the most debated point when formulating the plan.
Now Zhuang Rui has proven himself right with his method. At this moment, everyone, from the staff operating the robot to the staff adjusting the camera, looked at Zhuang Rui with admiration and spontaneously applauded.
Engineer Zhang also held Zhuang Rui in high esteem, clapping as he said, "Mr. Zhuang, well done! If you were to enter this industry, we'd all be out of a job..."
"Alright, Mr. Zhang, stop flattering me. You're the expert in salvage and equipment. Let's move on to the next step and get the sunken ship to the surface as soon as possible. Only then will our work be truly finished..."
Zhuang Rui has been in the limelight for the past few years and has accumulated a lot of titles. He didn't take Zhang Gong's flattery to heart, but was thinking about the next step of his work.
However, Zhuang Rui's words made Zhang Gong look at him even more highly. At such a young age, he was so humble and composed. No wonder others were able to build such a large business from scratch.
The next task was relatively simple. Under the operator's control, two underwater robots slowly laid a large net under the sunken ship. Due to buoyancy, the net immediately wrapped the sunken ship.
Upon seeing this, everyone cheered. If nothing unexpected happens, the first deep-sea shipwreck salvaged by the Chinese may well be their work.
"There's still a lot of work to be done, everyone must be extremely careful, and absolutely cannot allow this ancient ship to suffer any damage..."
When Zhuang Rui saw that some people had already started celebrating, he quickly poured cold water on their enthusiasm. The sunken ship hadn't reached the surface yet, and there were still many variables. If a storm broke out at sea, it would be a very troublesome and difficult problem to solve.
"Well, once this job is done, I'll personally give everyone a reward of 50,000 RMB each..."
While wielding the big stick, Zhuang Rui also offered a sweet treat. His words immediately made everyone's eyes light up. Fifty thousand yuan was half a year's salary for many people in the room, and this reward was quite substantial.
After the ropes connecting the fishing net and the floating crane were finally secured, more than 10 hours had passed.
It was already past midnight, but everyone in the monitoring room was working with complete focus, without the slightest slackening. It has to be said that Zhuang Rui's reward played a significant role in this.
"Mr. Zhuang, we can finally breathe a sigh of relief. As long as the sea is calm tomorrow, the sunken ship should surface around noon..."
After the finger-thick steel cable on the floating crane began to wind, Zhang rubbed his bloodshot eyes and let out a long sigh.
The sunken ship is currently rising to the surface at a steady pace. Considering the pressure on the seabed, this speed is very slow. At a depth of over 3,000 meters, it is estimated that it will take several hours for the ship to surface.
"Thank you, Engineer Zhang, thank you everyone." Zhuang Rui's tense heart finally relaxed. He stood up and bowed to everyone, but in his heart he was calculating whether to spend some money to poach these people.
Everyone has their own area of expertise. Zhuang Rui could only talk the talk, but he knew absolutely nothing about the actual operation. He knew that if he relied on himself, he probably wouldn't even be able to salvage a shipwreck that was more than 30 meters deep, let alone 3,000 meters deep.
"President Zhuang, please don't say that. This is our job, and didn't you even give us an extra bonus?"
"Yes, Mr. Zhuang, it's so much more satisfying to work for you. Damn it, those guys at head office never care about our lives..."
These people had become quite familiar with Zhuang Rui over the past few days, and upon seeing his actions, they all started shouting loudly. Zhuang Rui was increasingly pleased to hear this, thinking, "I'm not afraid of your emotions; otherwise, I wouldn't be able to poach your people."
Time flies, and in the blink of an eye, it was already bright outside. Everyone in the monitoring room stared at the monitor with bloodshot eyes, looking nervously at the monitor.
As the shipwreck drew closer to the surface, the atmosphere in the monitoring room grew increasingly tense. The moment the ancient shipwreck surfaced would rewrite the history of China's inability to conduct deep-sea salvage operations, a truly thrilling moment.
Just as the atmosphere in the monitoring room was tense, Peng Fei suddenly walked in and whispered in Zhuang Rui's ear, "Brother Zhuang, two ships are approaching us. Li Zhen just made some contact; they're research vessels from China..."
"Damn, they really know how to rush!"
Zhuang Rui muttered something to himself and stood up. Although he had asked for help on his own initiative, the timing of their arrival was just too perfect.