The entire ocean is my fishing ground.

Chapter 141 What does a fishmonger know about shipbuilding?

"President Lin."

Lin Chen put the diary away and turned around.

Lu Guoqiang stood not far away, followed by more than a hundred workers.

They are all key personnel at Sihai Shipyard, including welders, fitters, crane operators, and designers.

Everyone was wearing blue work clothes. The shipyard had gone bankrupt and hadn't paid wages for months.

Now, a young man in his early twenties has become their new boss; he made his fortune selling fish.

No one spoke; the hundred-plus workers just stared at Lin Chen.

Just as Lu Guoqiang was about to speak, Lin Chen raised his hand to stop him.

Lin Chen's gaze swept over everyone as he spoke, "I know what you're all thinking. A fishmonger, what do you know about shipbuilding?"

Several people in the crowd laughed.

"That's right, I sell fish," Lin Chen said. "But the fish I sell can be delivered alive and kicking from the Dragon's Backbone Trench to the dinner tables of Beijing. The boats I sail can return right under the guns of armed salvage vessels. The steel I use to build ships is a special titanium alloy that you've never even seen on blueprints before."

The smiles on the workers' faces disappeared.

They just stared at Lin Chen.

"I don't care who you worked for before, or how many years you've been in this business. From today onwards, this place is called Longji Ocean Heavy Industry."

Lin Chen continued, "I'll just say three things."

"First, all the wages owed to you will be doubled and deposited into your accounts within three days."

The crowd began to buzz.

"Double?"

"Really?"

"Secondly, the salary for all positions will be increased by 30%. Bonuses will be calculated separately, depending on how quickly you complete your work."

The crowd fell silent immediately.

More than a hundred workers stared intently at Lin Chen.

"Third," Lin Chen paused, glancing at the massive keel, "I want to build a ship."

He closed his eyes.

A message popped up on the system panel in my mind.

The first phase of the construction blueprints for the deep-sea exploration mothership "Leviathan" has been unlocked!

A three-dimensional structural diagram unfolded in his mind, with every module, part, and circuit clearly visible.

[The main keel of the ship must be made of special high-strength structural steel with a yield strength of not less than 690 MPa.]

[Outer shell coating: We recommend using "nano-scale graphene-based supercavitary anti-corrosion coating," which can greatly reduce water flow resistance and also has a physical isolation effect against the attachment of marine organisms.]

[Power System: The first phase uses four improved all-electric propulsion pods, each with a power output of 3.5 megawatts, powered by modular high-density lithium battery packs.]

[Operations Modules: 12 standardized interfaces for deep-sea operations modules are provided, including the "Deep Diver" series submersible deployment and recovery platform, heavy-duty robotic arm base, moon pool system, etc.]

Lin Chen opened his eyes again.

He walked to the temporary engineering command center next to the dock, a room converted from a shipping container.

Lu Guoqiang and several technicians followed him inside.

An engineer surnamed Wang handed over a stack of drawings and said, "President Lin, this is our preliminary keel structure plan based on the dimensions you provided earlier."

Lin Chen took the blueprint, glanced at it casually, and tossed it aside.

"The plan won't work."

Engineer Wang grew anxious: "General Manager Lin, this is the best solution we can offer. We plan to use EH40 grade high-strength marine steel, which is the top-tier material for civilian shipbuilding in China, with a yield strength of 390 MPa, which is definitely sufficient..."

"Not enough," Lin Chen interrupted him. "What I need is 690 megapascals."

"What?!" Engineer Wang exclaimed. "690? Mr. Lin, are you kidding me? That's the standard used only for the pressure hulls of military nuclear submarines! Let alone that we don't have that kind of steel, even if we did, our factory's lousy equipment simply can't weld it! If we try to weld it by force, the weld will develop cold cracks, and the entire keel will be scrapped!"

"That's right! Mr. Lin, shipbuilding isn't like building a house; you have to take it one step at a time," another fitter added.

Lu Guoqiang stood to the side without saying a word.

Lin Chen didn't explain. He walked to the front of the blackboard and picked up a piece of chalk.

"Engineer Wang, you say the EH40 is sufficient. Then let me ask you, when the hull is 8,000 meters underwater and encounters the 'death spiral' upwelling unique to the Dragon's Back Trench, how much torsional shear stress will be generated between the seventeenth and twenty-third ribs in the midsection of the hull?"

Engineer Wang couldn't answer.

Lin Chen then began drawing on the blackboard. He drew a keel structure line freehand, then added a mechanical analysis diagram, labeling it with arrows and data representing stress, pressure, and shear force. The blackboard was covered with calculation formulas and structural diagrams.

Everyone in the command post was dumbfounded.

"With conventional keel designs, stress is concentrated too much at the joints in the middle and rear of the hull." Lin Chen pointed to a spot on the blackboard with a piece of chalk. "Using EH40 steel, when the simulated water pressure reaches 70 MPa, the metal lattice here will begin to undergo irreversible plastic deformation. To put it bluntly, the keel will bend before the ship even reaches the intended depth."

"If it encounters the kind of updraft I just mentioned, the torque will instantly exceed the fatigue limit of the material. There's only one outcome."

Lin Chen threw away the chalk and dusted off his hands.

"The boat will twist in two."

Engineer Wang stared blankly at the force analysis diagram on the blackboard. Lu Guoqiang was also staring intently at the diagram on the blackboard.

"I've got the steel ready," Lin Chen said. "Three hundred tons of special titanium steel plates, with a yield strength of 720 MPa. The welding equipment will arrive from Germany in three days. All you have to do is forget about the old methods and follow my blueprints."

He glanced around at the old craftsmen.

"What I want to build is neither an ordinary fishing boat nor an ocean-going freighter."

"It is 120 meters long, 28 meters wide, and has a full-load displacement of 15,000 tons. It can withstand a Category 12 storm and can dive to the deepest part of the Mariana Trench. It is a mobile deep-sea platform used to explore the last secrets of this planet."

He added, "Its name is 'Leviathan'."

The workers just stared at Lin Chen.

A young worker asked in a low voice, "General Manager Lin... money..."

"Money is plentiful," Lin Chen said. "I just want speed. I want the gantry crane in the dock to run 24 hours a day."

After a brief silence, someone shouted, "Beat it!"

"I'm going all out! Double pay, plus a 30% raise! I've never been this rich in my life!"

"Build it! We must build it! I'd rather die on this ship!"

Inside the command post and the dock outside, the workers began to cheer and applaud.

At this moment, the system blueprint in Lin Chen's mind changed.

He focused his attention on that direction.

A locked module whose state is changing.

[Unlocked Module: Sea Eye Resonance Chamber]

[Module Function: Unknown]

[Unlock Condition: Unknown]

[Warning: A weak resonance has been detected between the physical parameters of this module and the 'high-energy material' carried by the host...]

Lin Chen reached into his robes, where he found the bronze fish talisman left behind by Lin Dafa.

The fish-shaped symbol is engraved with an emblem of a spiraling, monstrous fish.

Just then, Lu Guoqiang squeezed out from the crowd.

He was holding a piece of paper in his hand, a draft that Lin Chen had dropped on the ground while drawing.

He held up the sketch depicting the stress points of the keel and began to speak:

"President Lin...this...this design of the keel's stress points on the blueprints..."

"It's exactly the same as what Brother Dafa drew on the blueprints for 'Pathfinder I' thirty years ago!"