African Entrepreneurship Record

Chapter 1129: Chapter 138: Titanic

In short, small farmers lacked start-up capital, and the larger the investment, the greater the risk, which was something that ordinary people could not bear. Therefore, early East African agriculture could only concentrate them and implement a form of agriculture similar to the large farms of Europe and America.

Of course, under East African governance, the quality of life for farmers could only be said to be standard. Against the backdrop of accelerated urbanization, even if the countryside had better living conditions, the East African Government would try every possible way to compress these conditions, thereby differentiating urban and rural life.

For a country that has not completed industrialization, if the population does not flow into the cities, then the country’s industrialization process will inevitably become more difficult. France is one of the typical examples, not only affecting population growth rates but also causing a relative lack of urban labor in its own country, thus losing competitiveness with German industry.

Of course, France faced many problems, for example, the cost of industrial development increased significantly because regions like Lorraine were ceded to Germany, losing domestic cheap iron ore supplies.

So industrialization is a very complex social transformation process that requires adjustments in many fields to be compatible with industrialization. East Africa took a considerable amount of time exploring this road before gradually forming the current situation.

...

Atlantic Ocean.

The North Atlantic is almost an area that East African ships rarely ventured into, with its extremely prosperous trade routes dominated by American and British shipping companies monopolizing most of the business.

Additionally, East Africa’s own shipping capacity is limited, with an emphasis on maritime trade between East Africa and Europe, the Far East, and South America, making the North Atlantic not a primary focus of East African shipping.

Previously, the East African Navy was also not active in the North Atlantic, mainly due to the initially weak naval strength, but as the East African Navy developed, it could not always be confined to the small territories of the Indian Ocean.

At this moment, on the North Atlantic route, an East African warship is sailing, the ”Luanda” cruiser, whose main task is to accumulate ocean navigation experience, and more importantly, to investigate the hydrological conditions of the North Atlantic, adding hydrological data and intelligence to the East African Navy.

It is now late at night, and most of the crew on the Luanda are already asleep. Of course, as a warship, the duty process is still quite strict.

In the communications room of the Luanda, it is brightly lit as Antonio and his colleague are on duty in strict accordance with regulations.

”Beep... beep... beep...”

The warning light suddenly sounded, breaking the silence of the communications room. Antonio was not surprised by this and began operating the radio to see what information this unknown signal was conveying.

As the signal in his headphones gradually became clear, Antonio’s expression became serious. It was the general distress signal sent out by international ships in distress.

”Karl, did you hear the distress signal over there?”

Karl was Antonio’s colleague, and the two were sitting relatively nearby, so Karl was the first person Antonio asked.

”It should be a distress signal from a civilian vessel, with the signal source showing it is about twenty nautical miles away from us,” Karl replied.

After confirming the accuracy of the message, Antonio dared not delay. He said, ”We should report the situation to the superiors first. You continue to be on duty, I’ll go to make a report.”

Antonio went to the telephone room and reported the information directly to the command room of the Luanda.

”A ship to the southwest of ours has sent a distress signal, possibly about twenty nautical miles away...”

Upon receiving the message, Captain Galland of the Luanda only hesitated for a moment before starting to issue orders: ”Change direction, head towards the unknown accident vessel, enter combat readiness, and fully observe the surrounding sea conditions.”

Since a ship is in distress at sea, it indicates that there may be unknown risks in the surrounding sea area, so Galland is quite vigilant.

As a newly commissioned cruiser, the Luanda is relatively fast, and in less than fifty minutes, the Luanda reached a position closer to the accident site.

”Right ahead, at ten o’clock position, a lifeboat spotted!” An eagle-eyed sailor exclaimed.

Soon, the Luanda rescued the personnel from this lifeboat, which was crowded with people, and their faces were full of horror at this moment.

”Who are you?” Galland asked the group of shipwrecked personnel.

Seeing that it was a warship that rescued them, these people’s uneasy hearts finally settled down. A man said, ”Your Excellency, I’m a sailor of the Titanic. Our ship collided with an iceberg and has started to sink. Many people have not yet been rescued; please, you must help those poor souls!”

Galland carefully examined this group of people’s clothing, which clearly indicated they were rich or noble, while the sailor reporting to him was in his own uniform and should be the lifeboat’s operator.

”Titanic!” Galland silently repeated, suddenly realizing this was the highly publicized cruise ship recently.

And upon learning that the shipwrecked vessel was the Titanic, recalling the previous promotional slogans of the Titanic, made Galland’s mouth twitch slightly.

Because previously, Europe had publicly promoted the Titanic as ”unsinkable,” yet it encountered a sea disaster on its maiden voyage and would sink to the dark bottom of the Atlantic Ocean.

”Where did your ship sink?” Galland continued to ask.

No one could answer this question, as during their time adrift at sea, they had long been confused and disoriented, unable to recognize directions. The Luanda had to continue the rescue mission on its own.

Ten minutes later, based on the oral accounts from other lifeboats, the Luanda cruiser finally reached the accident scene, and it was already one o’clock in the morning.

The collision time between the Titanic and the iceberg was at eleven o’clock last night, and now two hours have passed.

The Titanic had not completely sunk yet, with a large part remaining above the water surface, although the stern was already beneath.

The arrival of the Luanda undoubtedly brought hope to everyone. At this time, many people on the ship were unable to evacuate, gathering at the bow.

Upon sighting the Luanda warship, the people who had been desperate seemed to grasp their last lifeline, frantically waving and calling for help toward the Luanda.

And the Luanda cruiser quickly responded by dispatching lifeboats to approach the Titanic.

The Titanic could sink at any moment, so the sailors of the Luanda cruiser had to complete the rescue mission in a very short time.

The experienced East African sailors, under orderly command from their officers, systematically transferred people from the Titanic to the Luanda.

At one fifty-four, the remaining personnel on the Titanic were finally all rescued, and by this time the Titanic’s tilt angle had become too large. Luanda dared not stay too close to avoid being affected by the Titanic.

The Luanda’s displacement was only over three thousand tons, while the giant Titanic’s was more than forty thousand tons. In front of the Titanic, the Luanda seemed like a tiny speck, and if the Titanic sank, the resulting whirlpool could pose a threat to the Luanda.

This also made the deck of the Luanda cruiser overcrowded for a time. Originally, there were only over six hundred East African officers and sailors on the Luanda, but the number of people rescued by the Luanda alone exceeded over a thousand, which had greatly surpassed the limit of the Luanda.