Chapter 1282 – Analyzing
“Boss, our target this time, is that gold fleet?”
After explaining the origin of the gold fleet to Peng Fei, Captain Clyde’s tanned face, a red luster appeared on his face, obviously he was full of hope for this salvage.
The reason why Clyde was so excited was also based on Zhuang Rui’s reason, no matter whether it was the salvage of the Song Dynasty shipwrecks or the salvage of the “Apo Maru” after decades, the final result was exciting.
Therefore, although Clyde did not understand Zhuang Rui’s other magical places, but based on those two strikes alone, let him have full confidence in Zhuang Rui.
Zhuang Rui nodded at his words and said: ”That’s right, back then there were a total of seventeen galleons loaded with treasure that sank to the bottom of the sea, and there were at least hundreds of cabins filled with gold alone. However, according to the records, only two shipwrecks have been salvaged in these centuries, which means that there are still more than a dozen shipwrecks full of gold, silver, and jewels at the bottom of the sea. If we can successfully salvage a few shipwrecks, then I think that this salvage can become one of the major events that will shock the twenty-first century.”
“That’s right, boss, our names, too, will definitely be recorded in the history of navigation, this will be a great salvage operation.”
Zhuang Rui’s words, hearing Captain Clyde’s fists clenched tightly, as if the shipwreck had already been found and the gold had already been salvaged, how could he look like an old captain who had lived at sea for decades?
“Ahem, Clyde, it will be, I have confidence.”
Zhuang Rui was said by the bearded captain and coughed several times, this foreigner is also too easy to be brainwashed, right? It is Zhuang Rui himself, now on the specifics of that shipwreck, in fact, are not very clear.
This shipwreck treasure, or Zhuang Rui from Africa to “Xuan Rui Island” when noticed, but due to the route at that time from Vigo Bay is still far away, Zhuang Rui just vaguely perceived in that piece of sea, there is a rich aura.
At that time, Zhuang Rui was in a hurry to return to “Xuan Rui Island” and did not pay much attention to it, and did not know that it was the treasure left behind by the sea battle in the 17th century.
But from the conversation with Huangfu Yun, know that he has been poor almost no rice to cook, Zhuang Rui searching for, is not to ask for wealth from the sea?
Thinking back to the treasure of several Pacific shipwrecks that he remembered, Zhuang Rui found that those shipwrecks treasure less gold, most of them are some cargo ships, these hundreds of years down the line, the goods inside even if they do not decay, it is estimated that they can not sell at any price.
After thinking about it again and again, Zhuang Rui remembered the coordinates of that place in the Atlantic Ocean, so he found out the map, detailed inquiries about the coordinates of that point, and found that the sea, from the seventeenth century gold fleet sank, the distance between them is only more than a hundred nautical miles.
Compared to the several shipwrecked treasures that Zhuang Rui wrote down in the Pacific Ocean, it is obvious that the rumor of the gold fleet is more attractive, so Zhuang Rui made that “nautical chart” overnight, which made Clyde as excited as a gorilla in heat.
Peng Fei, who was sitting by the side, saw Zhuang Rui and Clyde discussing heatedly, and couldn’t help but point at the map and ask: “Brother Zhuang, the coordinates on this map, which country does it belong to?”
“In the Great Age of Sail, Vigo Bay belonged to Spain, however, now it should belong to Portugal, because not far from here is the Azores, which is a Portuguese territory.”
To be honest, Zhuang Rui could not tell which country’s territorial sea it actually belonged to, and at that moment, he turned his gaze to Clyde.
“That’s right, at that time, after Spain’s defeat, its sea power was greatly reduced, and many of its colonies were divided up by the later British Netherlands as well as Portugal.” Clyde nodded, as a European, he knew more details about these histories than Zhuang Rui.
“Ahem, I say Brother Zhuang, since that is Portugal’s territorial waters, can others let you salvage the shipwrecks with great fanfare? Let’s see, don’t send out warships to drive us away at that time, that would be a big trouble.”
After hearing Clyde’s words, Peng Fei revealed a puzzled look, these European countries are not like small countries like Congo, blatantly running to someone else’s territory to search for treasure, it’s definitely not that easy.
“Peng Fei, you don’t understand, for one thing, this coordinate point, may not be within Portugal’s territorial waters, it may also be on the high seas, for another, even if it is within Portugal’s territorial waters, they won’t interfere with our treasure hunting operations.”
After hearing Peng Fei’s question, Zhuang Rui laughed, seeing Peng Fei still with a slurry expression, and then said: “The laws of foreign countries are not quite the same as our country’s, they advocate private exploration and treasure hunting actions, and the government will also give a certain amount of help.”
Zhuang Rui said the truth, may be a lot of countries in Europe, in the Middle Ages when the sea looting to make a fortune, even in modern times, they still have the spirit of adventure in their bones.
Therefore, the laws enacted by many countries in Europe, including the United Kingdom, allow private individuals to conduct exploration and archaeological excavations.
As long as you report to the local authorities, you can carry a shovel and excavate on non-privately owned land, and all the excavated things belong to the private sector, without paying a penny of tax.
Of course, this kind of excavation, there are many restrictions, is not to damage public facilities and the surrounding environment based on the excavation, if you dig up the city hall, the crime of destroying public property is certainly not escape.
In the United Kingdom there is a retired old man, all day with a shovel around, more than ten years down, actually dug up a million pounds worth of antique art, which if placed in China, that is a millionaire ah!
“How can there be such a thing? If China allowed this, I’m afraid there wouldn’t even be a single tile left inside Qin Shi Huang’s tomb.”
Peng Fei tsked in wonder as he listened, but it was obvious that this situation was definitely not suitable for China, otherwise with China’s population base and urgent desire to get rich, one person would go down with a shovel, and it was estimated that there wouldn’t be a single piece of intact land except for the cities.
Zhuang Rui sniffed and said: “The national conditions of the countries are different, many European countries have a short history, there are not many civilization sites or tombs under the ground, so you can pass this law, like Egypt and Greece those countries, you go digging try? Directly arrest you and throw you in jail.”
You know, China is not the only ancient civilization on this planet, many countries in the west don’t have a much later civilization history than China, the term grave robber also applies to those countries.
“Right, Captain Clyde, please inform the relevant countries that we are going to search and salvage the sea where the gold fleet sank in Vigo Bay, and ask for their cooperation.”
After explaining to Peng Fei, Zhuang Rui turned his face to Clyde, he wasn’t sure if the place where the sunken ships were found on the bottom of the sea was the high seas, if it wasn’t, it was still necessary to coordinate with the countries of the sea area to which it belonged, after all, territorial sea was sacrosanct just as the homeland.
“Alright, boss, don’t worry! Just leave these things to me.”
Clyde nodded his head repeatedly after hearing Zhuang Rui’s words, in some European countries, making an expedition declaration was just like a ship docking at a port, it wasn’t a very complicated matter.
After nearly five days of sailing, “Xuan Rui ship” finally arrived at the sea near Azores.
Zhuang Rui did not let Xuan Rui ship directly go to the coordinates on the chart, but around the Vigo Bay sea around nearly 800 nautical miles, back and forth around a circle, which in turn used up two days of time.
Others do not know what Zhuang Rui this is the meaning of, but these two days of time, has let Zhuang Rui this piece of nearly a thousand nautical miles of the sea, are given to touch clearly, those shipwrecks of the specific location, but also by Zhuang Rui to find.
Just let Zhuang Rui some strange is that, these wrecks, actually are not in the Vigo Bay, but away from the Vigo Bay almost three hundred nautical miles, are piled up in a like undersea volcano around the bulge.
More let Zhuang Rui some confused is, and some other underwater volcano around the survival of a large number of living creatures is different, this sea area within the marine life is very little, even the plankton are rarely seen.
However, Zhuang Rui did not care about this, the ocean is far more mysterious and complex than the land, perhaps the water quality of this sea is not suitable for the survival of marine life!
“Clyde, this coordinate point of the sea, have you determined its nature?”
Sitting in Clyde’s spacious captain’s room, where he could see the sea in front of him very clearly through the glass window in front of him, Zhuang Rui was currently staring at a nautical chart spread out on the table, with a red mark labeled on one of the coordinate points on it.
Clyde didn’t know why Zhuang Rui marked a mark on the map, that mark seemed to be quite a bit off from the nautical chart that Zhuang Rui had taken out, but still answered honestly, “Boss, that’s the high seas, it doesn’t belong to any country, but a hundred and twenty nautical miles to the north, that’s Portugal’s territorial waters.”
“What was recorded centuries ago may not be true.”
Zhuang Rui looked at the bearded captain with a perplexed face and said, “According to that Spanish admiral’s dictation, all the ships sank within Vigo Bay, but I think that this might be his deliberate attempt to lure those Anglo-Dutch allied forces, right? Otherwise, how could it be possible that only two shipwrecks were found within Vigo Bay? That’s why I judged that most of the wrecks of the gold flotilla at that time, all washed out, only to sink somewhere else due to the severe damage to their hulls.”
To be honest, Zhuang Rui was also puzzled about the location of those wrecks, obviously they were sunk in Vigo Bay, why would they appear three hundred nautical miles away? Only for the sake of this salvage operation, Zhuang Rui could only make up some nonsense, and he didn’t expect Clyde to believe it.