In the days that followed, Gibbs and Billy truly experienced what it meant to have their horizons broadened.
Under Roger's command, the ship repair work officially began.
But the process of repairing the ship was completely different from what they had imagined.
On the first day, Roger did not let them touch the hull.
Instead, he instructed them to throw all the large quantities of timber bought from Tortuga into the simple stone-built pool.
The pool was already filled with seawater, and Roger had people pour bags of sea salt into it, stirring it evenly.
"Mr. Roger, what is this for? Pickling wood?"
A pirate asked, confused.
"This is to quickly dehydrate the wood and increase its toughness," Roger explained.
"Soaking it in high-concentration saltwater can draw out the resin and water from inside the wood, while the salt penetrates it, providing initial preservation and insect repellent properties."
The pirates listened, bewildered, but still followed his instructions obediently.
On the second day, Roger had them build a huge stove and place the soaked timber over the fire, slowly baking it over a low flame.
The baking couldn't be done haphazardly; Roger gave them an hourglass and strictly stipulated the baking time for each piece of wood.
Not a minute more, not a minute less.
"This is for shaping," Roger said.
"After baking, the internal structure of the wood will be more stable and less prone to deformation in humid environments."
On the third day, the baked timber had to be immediately coated with a black, sticky substance.
That was the waterproof and anti-corrosion coating Roger had personally mixed using tung oil, rosin, and some mineral powders.
The entire shipyard was filled with a pungent smell that made the pirates' eyes water.
"My god, what the hell is this stuff? It smells worse than a latrine!" Billy complained while brushing on the coating.
"Stop complaining, Billy," Gibbs, however, was full of vigor.
"Haven't you noticed?"
"The wood coated with this stuff, after soaking in water for a day and a night, came out still dry inside! This is truly amazing!"
After going through these several processes, the ordinary timber had changed in the pirates' eyes.
They seemed much harder, much lighter, and even sounded crisper when tapped.
After all this preparatory work, it was finally time for the formal hull repair.
Roger took out the blueprints he had drawn and assigned tasks to everyone.
"Gibbs, you and your men are responsible for cutting the new ribs; the dimensions must strictly follow the blueprints, not a millimeter off!"
"Billy, you are responsible for sanding the planks; the curvature of each piece must be compared against the template I made for you until it fits perfectly!"
"And the rest of you, go pull out all the rusted iron nails from the hull; we're replacing them all with new ones!"
The pirates, holding those blueprint-like pieces of art, were all dumbfounded.
"Brother Roger... these... these dimensions are too precise, aren't they? What do you mean not a millimeter off?"
"Yeah, usually when we build things, don't we just eyeball it, measure with our hands, and 'good enough' is fine?"
"Shut up! Do exactly as Mr. Roger says!"
Gibbs had now become Roger's most loyal supporter.
He held the blueprints as if they were imperial edicts.
"However Mr. Roger tells you to do it, that's how you do it!"
"If anyone dares to slack off, I'll be the first to kick his balls!"
Under Gibbs's supervision, the pirates had no choice but to bite the bullet and start working.
They discovered for the first time that being a carpenter was harder than being a pirate.
Cutting, sanding, drilling... Roger demanded perfection in every step.
Even a slight flaw meant starting over.
For the first two days, the entire shipyard was filled with complaints and curses.
"Damn it! I've never been so frustrated in my life!"
"I'm not doing this anymore! This isn't repairing a ship; this is pure torture!"
But when they installed the first plank, made according to Roger's requirements, into the hull's damaged section, all complaints vanished.
The new plank was neither too big nor too small, neither off-center nor crooked.
It fit perfectly into the damaged spot.
It was seamlessly aligned with the surrounding old planks and the ship's keel, without even a tiny gap.
No adhesive was needed; the wood's own mortise and tenon joint structure created a flawless connection.
Combined with long nails, it was simply impregnable!
"My God..." Billy caressed the smooth, flat new plank, his hands trembling. "This... did we make this?"
"It's too perfect... it's practically a work of art..."
All the pirates involved in the construction gathered around.
Looking at the fruits of their labor, their faces showed incredible surprise and immense satisfaction.
They finally understood Roger's intention.
It turned out that doing things to the extreme felt like this.
"Is this even carpentry! This is wizard's magic!" a pirate muttered to himself.
From that day on, no one complained anymore.
Everyone was like a person possessed, fully immersing themselves in the ship repair work.
They began to enjoy the pleasure of creation, the satisfaction of watching a pile of rotten wood transform into precise components in their hands.
The atmosphere in the shipyard became unprecedentedly harmonious and efficient.
Roger watched all this, nodding with satisfaction.
He wanted more than just to repair the ship.
Through this process, he also wanted to forge this group of unruly pirates into a truly disciplined and skilled team that belonged to him.
Everything he had done before was also to raise his prestige among these people.
These men were his capital for dominating the seas in the future!
Days passed, and a month went by in a flash.
The repair work on the explorer was almost halfway complete.
Its port side was completely renewed, looking like a new ship.
That afternoon, as Roger was guiding the crew in installing a new mast step, a familiar single-masted sailboat slowly sailed into the port of Tortuga from the distant horizon.
It was the sea serpent.
Barraba was back.
Roger narrowed his eyes; he knew the peaceful days were about to end.