Chapter 273: Sea Guide
"Moving on, I present to you the second invention... the spark lighter!"
After the initial transaction regarding the glass magnification tool was finalized and the item was transferred to the buyer, the auction proceeded directly to the second object on the schedule, which Gyda presented to the gathered rulers as a spark lighter.
In his mind, King Donald the Second immediately evaluated the practical applications of such a tool for a marching army, considering that the traditional methods of creating fire required completely dry conditions and a significant amount of manual effort from the soldiers.
King Donald the Second turned his body to face his family, which consisted of his wife, his several younger children, and his eldest son Daniel, who was responsible for managing the financial resources and troop supplies for their kingdom’s army.
King Donald the Second pointed his finger directly at the small metal tool resting on the flat wooden table.
"This invention is very useful and will improve the speed at which our troops set up their camps during our wars..."
Daniel nodded his head in agreement. "I will calculate the necessary silver coins we have available to purchase it from the host of this auction."
Despite the interest shown by the Scottish royal family, Erik, the ruler of Norway who held the status of a vassal king, also recognized the utility of the spark lighter for his own military forces and raised his hand to submit a financial bid for the object.
After all the initial bids were placed by the various leaders in the room, a competitive financial exchange occurred between Erik and Daniel, wherein they sequentially offered higher quantities of silver coins to the designated auctioneer until Erik decided that the price exceeded the allocated budget for his infantry supplies.
And so, Daniel successfully acquired the spark lighter for his father, and the transaction was recorded in the official ledger by the scribe who sat on a wooden chair nearby, confirming that the Scottish royalty now possessed the metal fire-starting device.
With those tasks handled, the auction progressed to the next phase, and Gyda retrieved a new invention from a wooden box, which she identified to the audience of kings and military commanders as a telescope.
Gyda requested the attention of Erik, knowing that the Norwegian king focused the majority of his military strategy on naval conquests and required accurate visual information regarding coastal defenses and the movements of enemy fleets.
Gyda extended her arm and offered the hollow cylinder to the Norwegian king.
"Stand at the window and look through this cylinder toward the harbor."
Erik accepted the glass and metal cylinder, holding it with both of his hands as he walked over to the standard glass window that faced the ocean and the military docks.
Despite his internal skepticism regarding the object, Erik placed his right eye against the smaller glass lens at the end of the cylinder and pointed the opposite end toward the water, following the exact physical instructions provided by Gyda.
And so, the visual input provided by the lenses caused a sudden physical reaction in Erik, because he was able to see a warship approaching the harbor with complete clarity, observing the specific wooden planks of the hull, the cloth sails, and the individual sailors standing on the wooden deck as if the vessel were located immediately in front of his face.
While this was happening with the Norwegian king, the other kings and dukes in the room looked out the same window with their unassisted eyes, and they could only perceive a small, undefined point on the distant water horizon, completely unable to identify the object as a ship or determine its size.
Erik lowered the cylinder from his face and looked at the other men standing in the room.
"I can see the men on the deck of that ship clearly!"
The other kings immediately processed this new information and realized the profound military implications of possessing a tool that magnified distant visual targets across open terrain or large bodies of water.
’Whoever possesses this invention will never be defeated in any naval or land battle...’ Erik thought.
After all, the basic principles of warfare in the ninth century dictate that early detection of enemy movements allows a commander to position his infantry and cavalry in advantageous locations, and this tool would allow a ruler to observe the marching columns of enemy armies or the sailing formations of enemy fleets days before the enemy could visually detect them in return.
With all these strategic advantages confirmed by the demonstration, the rulers inside the room engaged in a highly competitive bidding process, offering massive quantities of silver and gold currency to acquire the telescope for their respective military campaigns and coastal defense networks.
After securing the sale of the telescope to the highest bidder among the gathered lords, Gyda signaled for her assistant to bring forward the final invention scheduled for this specific portion of the auction.
Daniel’s cousin, a man named Arnold who was a member of the Scottish nobility and possessed a strong professional interest in naval logistics and maritime warfare, stepped forward to assist Gyda with the demonstration of the new object.
Arnold recalled the numerous conversations he had shared with the other northern kings regarding their greatest military vulnerability, which was the loss of their transport fleets and supply ships during periods of severe weather on the open sea.
The standard method for directing a ship across the ocean relied entirely on observing the positions of the sun during the day and the specific alignment of the stars during the night to determine the correct direction of travel.
Despite the reliability of the stars on clear nights, whenever thick clouds, heavy rain, or dense fog covered the sky, the commanders of the ships lost their visual reference points and frequently sailed their vessels in incorrect directions, resulting in delayed troop deployments, depleted food supplies, and ships crashing against hidden rocks along the coastlines.
Consequently, Gyda and Arnold presented the new invention to the crowd, which consisted of a small metal needle that was floating on a small piece of wood inside a bowl filled with water, and they explained that it could also be mounted on a vertical metal axis inside a circular container.
Arnold placed the bowl of water on the flat wooden table so that the kings could observe the physical behavior of the metal needle.
"This is a magnetic compass, and it will solve your navigational problems on the water."
The kings stood up from their wooden benches and gathered around the table, watching as Arnold manually rotated the bowl of water in different directions using his hands.
The kings observed that no matter how Arnold moved the bowl or the container, the metal needle floating in the water consistently returned to the exact same position, pointing in a singular, specific direction.
Gyda pointed her index finger at the metal needle to direct the visual attention of the rulers toward the object in the water.
"This needle always points north, regardless of the clouds that obscure the stars..."
"This invention will make my fleets masters of the oceans, day and night!"
The ability to sail a fleet of troop transports through a thick fog or a winter storm without losing the intended course meant that an army could launch surprise attacks against enemy territories during weather conditions that would normally halt all military movement and force ships to remain docked at their harbors.
Furthermore, the commanders would no longer need to sail their ships close to the dangerous coastlines to maintain their bearings, allowing them to cross open bodies of water safely and reduce the travel time required to transport their soldiers to the locations of their wars.
With all these factual realizations occurring simultaneously, the gathered kings and dukes began to organize their remaining financial resources, preparing to offer massive amounts of currency to secure the magnetic compass for their own naval forces!