Empire of India: Rise of the Ruthless Prince

The port city of Viskhapatnam was brimming with activity as the merchants flocked the stalls and ships were anchored in the bustling port. The workers lined up to unload goods from the cargo ships of the merchants.

Merchants from Arabia and Europe were negotiating and buying wares from the stalls set up in the city.

There were many roaming around the city looking for the goods in unfamiliar places in the city for a better deal.

A young man was walking, feeling the salty breeze towards the edge of the city towards the shipyard.

It was Ashwin. He had some parchments and notes for the designs of ships.

After the Emperor had visited their shipyard, their lives had changed drastically. The once desolate shipyard had transformed completely into a working machine. The workers were rehired, and his father was given charge of supervision of the shipyard.

His father accepted the offer. Ashwin and his father, Shankar, were astounded by the speed of the change. The shipyard was fixed and given new supplies almost immediately.

He also saw the nobles publicly whipped in the city for the corruption of funds and later thrown in jail. It was a funny sight to see the haughty nobles cry out and beg to stop in the public.

Ashwin felt like the noble deserved it for tricking the other people who poured the heart and soul trying to work and earn a living for their family.

He later found out that all the shipyard supervisors were arrested for similar charges, and their assets were seized by the Empire for corruption.

But now they didn't have to worry about the funds, as the butler of the Emperor took care and gave them funding.

Another supervisor was appointed, but this time the supervisor was just a proxy to the Butler of the Emperor that ensured that he couldn't really fire anyone and change anything in the shipyard.

The ship-making efforts were beginning to take off as the shipyard began to start their first assembly of the third-rate Dutch ship.

The ship was being reverse engineered under the order of the Emperor.

This process included the repair of the ship and it's testing in the water. After testing the ship, they were hauled back to the shipyard, where they were disassembled piece by piece.

During the disassembly, they were extensively mapped and measured.

Then comes the assembly part. The ship is reassembled by the workers with the designs and parts that were mapped out and measured.

After the re-assembly, they test it out to see if the ship was working as intended, like before.

This was a basic procedure.

Ashwin entered the shipyard to find his father already working on the ship with the other workers.

The workers greeted him with a warm smile.

"You are early again," asked one carpenter measuring the wooden parts of the ship.

"Hehe, I was excited to work on the ship." He mumbled to the carpenter.

"Didn't the Emperor give you permission to test out the designs, boy!!" asked another carpenter.

"Yeah!!" He exclaimed with a bright smile. "You should have seen the Emperor. He was so cool."

"HAHA, you rambled a lot to the Emperor," added his father, looking over at the scene with a smug look.

"You also did the same, Father! Don't blame me!" Ashwin said with a pout.

Shankar went silent as the other workers also laughed and teased him for trying to embarrass his son.

He finally cleared his throat, trying to hide his embarrassment. "Come on, No time for banter. We have to work."

The workers listened to Shankar as he treated them like family It felt great working for the shipyard, as the man was bright and understanding. He also helped a lot of new carpenters and workers.

Ashwin, on the other hand, was working more on his designs. Since the Emperor had checked his designs and said it was great to test. He was making new designs.

He created small wooden replicas the size of his palm to test the viability of the design in the sea.

As time passed, he was understanding the workings of the ship structure.

He dreamed of making big man-of-war ships like the Europeans. He had the chance to see a man of warship in the port city of Goa. He was astonished by the size of the ship and was very curious about how it's working but he never had a chance to work on those.

Now the Emperor had given him a chance to fulfill his passion. He wanted to make a big ship such as the Portuguese with his designs. It was his goal to achieve that capability from scratch.

His design included a smaller ship mimicking the design of the Dutch ships. The Dutch galleon or the third-rate ships had three masts with square sails and often were used as a support for bigger ships and merchant carriers.

The cannons used on the ship were also lighter and could be operated by a relatively smaller crew. There were also deck guns for the galleon for support.

Ashwin saw an opportunity to make a smaller version of the galleon for coastal operations and huge inland waterways.

He made two designs.

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One was a single-mast ship with a square sail for better speed. It also had an open deck and was relatively small in size. It was a great addition for the inland waterway patrols and close coastal patrols.

The hull was built from teak and had a shallow draft. He also designed slots for swivel guns and cannons from the Dutch ship for the patrol ship.

Another design he had come up with was a bigger version of the single mast ship but smaller than the Dutch galleon. He intended it's use for extended coastal patrols but not that big to travel to other areas.

It was a two-mast ship with a mainmast and foremast. The rigging used in the ship would be a square rig along with a gaff sail that ran parallel to the ship's length.

It also had two decks for crew quarters and supplies during extended patrols. The hull was streamlined and sleek for a moderate draft.

He also wanted to test this design using square rigs for the mainmast and fore-and-aft rigs for the foremast to know how it would increase the capability of the ship.