WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

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Chapter 85: Buy a Boat (2)

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Broker Jang led everyone from Han's Myriad Commerce to a makeshift pier tucked away in one corner of Sokcho.

"Here she is."

In the smell of the sea, warmed yellow by the afternoon sun, they climbed aboard.

It was a wooden motor vessel about sixteen meters long. The paint along its sides had peeled away in places, making it look shabby at first glance, but the fresh coal tar packed into every seam of the deck looked solid enough to keep out even a drop of water.

Chuk Hong-cheol let out a whistle.

"Now that's something! This could be our company's boat?"

"Wow..."

Im Baechil had never left Sebeom Valley in his life except to follow Han San and Kim Tae-yang down to town. This was his first time seeing the sea. Grinning with his mouth wide open, the country bumpkin savored the slow rocking that traveled up through the soles of his feet.

"Be careful, everyone. You might get seasick."

Han San stood with his hands behind his back, and even his voice carried a trace of excitement.

"Now, look here. This is the wheelhouse, captain's cabin, deck cabin... anyway, it's the cabin that does everything. And this thing attached beside it is the engine-room cover. That chimney is the exhaust pipe.

"The actual engine room is inside the boat. You see that hatch door in the back of that everything cabin? Open it and you can climb down. The engine and fuel tank are down there too, so that's where you pour in the fuel.

"When you need to stack large cargo or load fish, there's a separate fish hold and cargo hold. Open that and put it in. I'll show you later.

"The padlock on that latch is sturdy, but if you lose the key, you'll have to hammer away at it for ages. Don't lose it."

Pointing out each corner of the boat, Broker Jang led Han San down to the engine room.

"The engine's a yakidama type. Feed it fuel and heat it up, then it goes putt-putt-putt. That's why they call these putt-putt boats."

"Ah, so that's where the name came from?"

"I thought it was because it fired cannons with a putt-putt."

The Chuk brothers nodded.

Han San asked, "How do you maintain it?"

"Well, as you can see, it's simple. Feed it and it'll run. If it seems like it won't run, give it a few taps with a hammer and it'll start again."

They looked through the cargo hold as well. It seemed the vessel had only been used as a cargo ship, not a fishing boat. The interior was bone-dry and smelled heavily of wood and straw.

"The engine does eat a fair bit of fuel, though. So when the wind's good, see that auxiliary mast? Put up the sail and you can save yourself a little fuel cost."

"This boat is..."

"Forty-ton class."

At that point, Broker Jang turned to Han San.

"With a hull this size and maintenance in this condition, even one that's been knocked around secondhand should easily go for two or three thousand won."

He paused, then lowered his voice.

"But this boat's up for eight hundred won."

"Eight hundred won!?"

Chuk Jae-seok was startled.

The other Chuk brothers and Im Baechil only blinked. Whether it was two or three thousand won or eight hundred, both were sums floating far above their heads. But Chuk Jae-seok, the college-educated Intelli-Red, knew what an absurd bargain this was.

Broker Jang nodded.

"It belongs to a business partner of mine over in Gangneung. The typhoon wrecked all their warehouses and boats. They needed cash right away, so they had to sell off everything they had left, including this boat."

Someone's downfall was always someone else's opportunity. A collapsed market was a feast laid out for bargain hunters.

Yet the face of the Intelli-Red, who had abandoned his studies abroad to throw himself into the communist movement, held more pity than delight at the windfall.

"But still... this boat's perfectly fine. And intact boats must be very scarce now. If they held on just a little longer, they could have named their price. By the principle of scarcity."

"Not everyone is given time to hold on."

Some people were in no position to follow even that simple economic principle. That was why bankruptcy had never gone extinct from this world.

Broker Jang turned to Han San again.

"Anyway, I remembered the favor you asked of me, so I bought it and kept it here for you."

"...Yes."

Han San smacked his lips and nodded. At the same time, his heart stirred a little.

For Broker Jang's poor business partner?

No, for Broker Jang.

'Just like the chief secretary said, this boat's value is about to shoot up.'

Broker Jang had succeeded in protecting his property from Typhoon 3383. That meant he was in a position to keep holding on to this boat.

Even so, he had decided to pass it on to Han San. Without raising the price a single bit over what he'd paid.

'Even if he did keep his property thanks to my advice...'

The seventy-four-year-old man knew well that gratitude did not last forever. Broker Jang's sincerity had gone beyond Han San's expectations.

Taking that kindness to heart, Han San gave a deep bow.

"Thank you, Broker Jang."

"Mm."

"When do you need me to pay you? I don't have that much cash on me right now..."

The payment for the wild ginseng had not yet come in.

'Even counting that payment, the company's cash on hand comes to around seven hundred won. Add the one nyang of placer gold I haven't sold yet, and that barely makes eight hundred won.

'But I can't calculate it that way either. I need to leave seed money to keep the business running after paying for the boat. At the earliest, by the end of this month or early next month...'

As Han San ran through the company ledger in his head, Broker Jang smiled and waved a hand.

"Pay me whenever it's comfortable."

"Ah... I'm truly grateful..."

"Come on, I'm the grateful one. I told you, you saved me.

"And, well, I made a little money this time too. Can't say it too loudly, though..."

Only then did Han San stop protesting and grin.

"Then I'll come see you as soon as I have the money ready. I'll bring a good gift too."

"A gift? Heh heh, do as you like. Do as you like."

"Yes."

Having completed a transaction on trust, Han San looked around the boat again with a face full of pride.

'My boat!'

After getting his circumstances in order in his past life, he had ridden fishing boats more times than he could count. But this was the first boat that belonged wholly to him.

'This boat is my boat... Ah, a very funny joke just came to me. I suddenly want to spread it to every employee at top speed, without even a second of delay. So...'

As that gruesome thought flashed through Han San's mind, Broker Jang fortunately raised a hand. It seemed he wasn't done speaking yet.

"Anyway, now that it's your boat, let me tell you a few things you need to watch out for."

Han San put off the joke he had been about to unleash.

"Things to watch out for?"

"Yes. First, this boat might have trouble going far out to sea."

"Ah. That's all right. I'll mostly be traveling along the coast."

And Han San knew all too well what [mostly traveling along the coast] meant.

In humanity's long history, there was perhaps no invention that could stand beside the wheel except the boat.

After all...

'Your range of action changes completely!'

Wonsan. Twelve hours one way.

Busan. Thirty-six hours one way!

'That tiny distance from Sebeom Valley to Inje town takes four or five hours even if you cut through the mountains, and nearly fourteen if you go around by the new road...'

In that time, this putt-putt boat could leave Sokcho, reach Wonsan, and still have time left over!

'And Busan is only a day and a half away. At that rate...'

The secret dynamite warehouse beneath the mulberry grove at the Dongnae villa of the great businessman Hajama Fusataro, whether it did not yet exist or he still had no idea what use he would have for it, was no longer some far-off fantasy.

'The problem is that traveling back and forth isn't free.'

Would a forty-ton boat move on its own?

'Twenty liters of fuel per hour of engine time... In money, that comes to about three won an hour?'

Wonsan. Thirty-six won one way.

Busan. One hundred and eight won one way!

'It has an auxiliary sail, and if I catch the current and wind right, I can save some fuel, but even then, half is probably the limit...'

Just imagining it made him feel as though it was not fuel but blood burning away. Living in a place where not one drop of oil came out of the ground was truly miserable.

Still.

'The carrying efficiency more than makes up for it.'

There was a reason ninety percent of premodern logistics, whether it was hauling military provisions or transporting tax grain, moved by boat across East and West alike.

The maximum load for an ox cart was one ton. Four hundred kilograms on a mountain pass. Three hundred on a rough mountain pass. That had already been discussed more than once.

But this putt-putt boat?

Twenty tons was easy. Twenty-five tons if it was in good condition. If he pushed it, it could take as much as thirty!

Put more simply.

This boat could carry one hundred and fifty seom of rice.

An ox cart? Two seom. That was it.

'But what exactly is an ox cart?'

Surely it couldn't mean some kind of animal abuse where you tied a cart to an ox and made it pull it? Han San, now the owner of a putt-putt boat, could not understand how anyone could move cargo that way...

As Han San lamented humanity's savagery, Broker Jang continued.

"The next thing is the crew. Even if you're sticking to the coast, a motor vessel this size needs proper seamen."

Han San had already considered that.

A boat was, in short, a car that floated on water. To own one, it had to be registered. To operate one, a license was needed.

And as one might guess from the word registration, a license at this time did not only mean sailing skill.

"You mean I need to find a licensed captain."

Registering the boat would be easy. He could simply put it under Han's Myriad Commerce.

But for this boat to complete entry procedures at a proper port like Wonsan or Busan, rather than some up-and-coming harbor like Sokcho, the sailors aboard needed licenses!

'By the book, every crewman needs one. A chief engineer's license, engineer's license, navigator's license, and so on...'

Given the times, he could probably get around most of that through bribes and reading the room. But at minimum, the captain needed a license.

"Is it difficult to find a captain? It seems like sailors would be cheapest right now."

Typhoon 3383 had drastically reduced the number of boats along the peninsula's coast.

When there were fewer boats, sailors were left over. Sailors who had lost their boats would be waiting for new ones in every port.

Their wages would not rise just because they held out. They were falling not because people were desperate, but because there were too many sailors.

Broker Jang nodded.

"That's right. Finding sailors shouldn't be too difficult. If it comes to it, I can arrange some for you."

That settled two points of caution, avoiding ocean voyages and needing licensed crew.

But Broker Jang's face grew stiffer. Han San could feel the air growing heavier as well.

Han San raised one eyebrow, then motioned for the Han's Myriad Commerce employees to move farther away.

"Is there a problem?"

Some problem unrelated to the price of the boat, the boat itself, or its crew?

"Mm."

There was.

Broker Jang looked around. Only after confirming that the employees of Han's Myriad Commerce, the workers at the makeshift pier, and the other sailors were all some distance away did he speak.

"People who put boats on the water around here..."

"Yes."

"They have to pay tribute to the Inwang Gang."

Han San pressed a hand to his forehead.

'Well... sure.'

If they kept a secret harbor near Sokcho, cultivated opium on a massive scale, and traded with the reds in Primorye, then naturally they would have control over at least the basic sea lanes in this area.

'There are greenwood outlaws, so why wouldn't there be pirates? This damned dark-fantasy peninsula.'

He understood, but it still irritated him.

'What should I do?'

[On the way... if anyone with this character written on their headbands blocks your path, give them my name.]

'Should I go and give them my father's name?'

Or else...

[Bring me information if you catch wind of any of those people I mentioned. You're Joseon, so it should be easier for you to mingle among them.]

'Should I help that viper bastard get promoted?'

Footnotes:

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