King of Mercenaries - Chapter 71: Building A Lighthouse

Standing at a vantage point by the coast of ‘t Horntje’s fishing village, looking at the busy Marsdiep at the South, Marin suddenly felt that building a trading port at ‘t Horntje would be a good choice.

“Lord Baron, the Marsdiep south of us is the main water channel the Amsterdam merchant ships travel through…” introduced Auxiliary Bishop Darian of Texel, who had accompanied him on his surveying.

“The Amsterdam merchant ships mainly travel through here into sea? I’ve seen the maps, I remember the space between Western Frisian islands to be much bigger than the space between Texel and Den Helder. Wouldn’t a wider channel be more suited for going out to sea? Marin asked with puzzlement.

“Lord Baron, there’s something you don’t know. Although the distance between islands is wider than Marsdiep. But by passing through those channels, they must first go through a very shallow sea territory — the Wadden Sea is very shallow, and there are many beaches near the sea. If they don’t navigate with a specific route, large vessels with a deeper draft would get stranded easily on Wadden Sea’s shoreline. If they went through Marsdiep, then they won’t get beached so easily, as the depth of the waters here are deeper than most of the area in Wadden Sea.”

“So that’s how it is, in that case, Marsdiep is still the main route for Amsterdam merchant ships to enter the sea?”

“More precisely, it’s the only way for large Amsterdam merchant ships to enter the sea. For smaller trading vessels that have a shallow draft, like the small-sized fishing boats, they can still navigate through the Wadden Sea easily.”

“How are the boat sizes assessed?”

“If the boat is bigger than the Columbus of Italy’s flagship ‘The Santa Maria’ from Western Spain, they’re considered a big-sized boat, I guess…” Coadjutor Bishop Dorian spoke with uncertainty.

The Middle Ages did not have wordings such as tonnage, so they could only seek out references. Dorian had once visited an old friend in the religious circles of Western Spain, and coincidentally saw the flagship when Columbus was departing. Meanwhile, Columbus’ feat of ‘discovering India’ make him famous, that’s why Dorian used that as a comparison.

“‘The Santa Maria’? That’s something with a hundred and several dozens of tonnage…” Marin had actually not heard any of Columbus’ specific deeds in this lifetime.

But he did know of it from his previous one.

“Anyways, ships that are larger than ‘The Santa Maria’ would get beached in the Wadden Sea easily. Ships smaller than it would have no problem in the Wadden Sea.” Dorian said. He had resided on Texel for many years, and was already approaching 50 years old, naturally he was well-informed.

Marin nodded, indicating that he understood. “The Santa Maria” had a draft of 1.98 meters, and wasn’t comparable to future sailboats which had drafts that easily went several meters deep. Which also means, the safe threshold for draft depths in the Wadden Sea was about 2 meters give or take. Of course, that was under the circumstance without anybody surveying the course. If the shallow shores could be determined by surveying, and setting up buoys and lighthouses, and choosing the proper route, even large ships could take that route.

“Bishop Dorian, why aren’t any lighthouses around this area?” Marin asked strangely. “Lord Baron, usually only the larger ports would build a lighthouse…”

“Why?”

“Only the larger ports have a high turnover of boats, only then would they need lighthouses. Like ‘t Horntje or Den Helder right across the sea, we’re just small fishing villages, do we even need to build lighthouses?”

“That we don’t, but don’t Amsterdammers need it?”

“Sir, the Amsterdammers do not have the authority to meddle in the lands here. Only the local Lord can decide whether or not to construct a lighthouse. Besides, the construction cost for a lighthouse is high, same goes for the maintenance cost. Every night, a bonfire must be lit, and that costs a lot of firewood…” Lighthouses needed to have lots of sparks and embers, in order to generate enough light. The embers of the firewood jumps high, and was bright enough, so it was just the right thing for the job. While coal had little to no embers, with the majority of them being inconspicuous blue flames, which isn’t that suited for burning in the lighthouses.

“What about the gains?”

“If a lighthouse was built on ‘t Horntje, certainly many ships would choose to dock here. However, Lord Baron, ‘t Horntje is just a fishing wharf. To become a commercial port, we have to construct several piers which extend into the sea. Having spent a lot of time by the coast, Dorian was also quite experienced.

“That makes sense, how much does it cost to build a lighthouse? What about the docks?” Marin honestly did not have any experience in regards to that. “Building a 10 story tall, stone-based lighthouse would cost approximately 800 gold coins. In the future, the cost of fuel nightly would probably be 10 gold coins… as for the docks, three stone-based piers would more or less cost a thousand gold coins. The main cost is importing stone from offshore, as well as the salary to hire stonemasons and brickmasons…”

“That costs only two thousand gold coins? That’s quite cheap…” Marin curled his lips, indicating that this was no pressure.

“Uh…” Auxiliary Bishop Dorian also stopped speaking, what else could he say in front of a tycoon…

Marin surveyed the area for a while, and realized that ‘t Horntje was certainly an optimal shelter from wind and rain, the water had sufficient depth, and it faced the Southeast, so it doesn’t get threated by the Northwestern Winds so easily.

That’s why, Marin had decided the plan to construct a lighthouse and port on the spot. The lighthouse shall be constructed to the south of ‘t Horntje, on the tip of the hills which extended into the ocean. Under the guidance of the lighthouse, the ships would be able to safely enter ‘t Horntje port even at night. At the same time, the lighthouse could also serve as a directional indicator for ships navigating through Marsdiep.

However, his Financial Administrator Kohler was currently busy searching for the families of the 400 soldiers, so he was currently unavailable for the task. As for Schwartz, that guy is a true-to-standard Officer, and knows nothing about Civil Administration. As for Marin himself, he did not have the spare time to personally oversee the construction of the lighthouse and port…

Marin suddenly had a feeling that it was about time for him to go recruit more talents…

The original government officials who were on the island, had basically left after Marin had taken control of the land. Because, those people, especially the educated ones, were vassals of other nobles, so it was impossible for them to work for Marin. As for the remaining local government officials, they’ll be fine acting as village heads, but for specific tasks, an educated person was needed. First of all, the so-called local ‘officials’, were all illiterate. In reality, they were just accompanying subordinates of the officials who were sent from inland, and were only in charge of running errands.

In The Middle Ages, only the children of Nobles, Clergymen and the Affluent had the opportunity of receiving education. The attendant of nobles, solely because of their job requirements, also had the opportunity of being educated. As for the commonfolk, the majority of families were in terrible financial shape, even figuring out their next meal was a problem, how would they get the option of sending their children to school?

That’s why, even if one was searching for candidates, they can only be chosen between sons of nobility or sons of the wealthy. As for clergymen, they are subordinates of the Pope, and they cannot secularize, so it was impossible for them to offer their services to a secular Lord.

Forced by the circumstances, Marin was starting to ponder whether or not he should promote compulsory education on the island? However, amongst those under his command, only Schwartz had received any education, Kohler could also recognize a few wrods. But if he really wanted to find someone suited for teaching, there really was none. While he himself could become a teacher, that would be too much of a waste for his talents. Besides, he still had wars to fight and territories to develop in the future, there were plenty of things to do, so he did not have much time for teaching…