Carthaginian Empire--Episode 2: Homecoming
The half circle of men facing Hanno were grim faced. The delays had been getting to them all. Never a man to lose his temper quickly he waited for the explanation of the delays.
"It's like this First. The trees around here yield a very strong wood. It is not so easy to work as our own."
"You mean it's a hardwood?"
"Well ... No ... Not exactly"
"What do you mean then?"
"The locals have a name for it. They call it oak. It's not a hardwood like ebony but it is much harder than our native trees. It takes twice as long to cut as we would expect and even longer to shape."
"So it takes twice as long, but the delays are more than that."
"Not only does it take us twice as long to cut but it wears the saws blunt much quicker too."
Elfdeer stirred from her place behind Hanno. Since joining the camp, she had proved adept at learning their language and her position as a chieftain's daughter meant she was prepared to interrupt where most other women, particularly Carthaginian women, would not.
"Oak ... very strong wood ... Make strong shields." Her Carthaginian was not yet fluent but certainly enough to get her point across to the elite carpenters of the galley crews.
A germ of an idea was now beginning to form at the back of Hanno's mind.
"Does that mean it will be stronger in use as ship parts?"
"Aye First, it appears to be much stronger, and weight for weight too."
"Huh?"
"What I'm trying to say, Hanno, is that whilst it is heavier, the increase in strength is greater than the increase in weight. We can make some of the pieces thinner to make them the same weight but they would still be stronger. Conversely, we make the pieces the same size, which increases weight but increases strength even more."
The idea now crystallised for him.
"So if we were to build a complete ship out of this wood, we could do so such that it could be much stronger without riding lower in the water?"
"Yes First, we can."
"Or we can build it lighter and faster without sacrificing strength?"
The nods and accompanying grins around the semicircle showed that these men were thinking along the same lines.
"And the Iberian, Sagun, has no idea of this?"
"No and his crew does not contain a carpenter now either. The only one they had died of the flux soon after their landfall. The natives have no idea; they have no shipbuilding capability and only use coracles for fishing."
Elfdeer frowned at the last, she had not understood the entire conversation, it had been too fast, but the last comment had disparaged her clan.
"Your pardon, we meant no insult to the Durotriges. You have had no need for the skills we discuss."
"Right, warn the men, quietly, no word of this must get out. If we can maintain a monopoly on this timber supply then we will make the True Sea a Carthaginian lake!"
"And Sagun?"
"As soon as his usefulness as a translator is finished, I think he and his crew are going to have a major case of the galloping flux."
This time the grins were wider still.
"This is what we are going to do..."
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