On the ship, every inch of space is precious, and usable space is limited.
The ship doctor's room serves as both a simple clinic and operating room, as well as the doctor's resting place.
Next to the wardrobe and a hardwood table is the doctor's bed and his luggage box.
Unlike Robinson, the ship doctor clearly did not pay much attention to hygiene; his bedding was dirtier, and his luggage box was left open, allowing mold and insects to breed inside.
Chen Zhou pulled out a jacket and immediately noticed the dark, shiny dirt accumulated on the collar and cuffs, throwing the garment back into the box in disgust.
With such a doctor, if the sailors got sick, they would be considered "lucky".
If he were to treat them with his few long needles for bloodletting, they might not die from the disease but from wound infection.
From the cleanliness of the bedding and clothes, one could understand the doctor's living habits. Chen Zhou could already imagine how sloppy this person's shoes would be; he chose not to search any deeper, just made a simple round.
The ship doctor's room was nowhere near as tidy as Robinson's room.
Short hand saw, small hooks, short knives, branding irons, metal tubes...
Various small tools of unknown use and large and small bottles scattered everywhere, with most of the contents unidentifiable. The only things Chen Zhou recognized were the dried lemons and tomatoes in a glass jar on the bedside table.
The dried fruits were unpreserved, becoming extremely crisp after being thoroughly dried, snapping easily.
Chen Zhou thought this was a unique food preference of the ship doctor, but it was not.
Sailors or workers at sea in the 17th century were not all skilled "water dragons"; a significant number of them suffered from seasickness, feeling like death during long voyages due to dizziness and vomiting. This led to the emergence of the "special seasickness medicine" of dried lemons and tomatoes.
Perhaps due to psychological reasons, after using these remedies, the symptoms of seasickness seemed to improve, leading more sea workers to rely heavily on these remedies. The ship doctor was one of them, placing the jar of dried lemons and tomatoes conveniently at the bedside for use.
However, unaware of the context, Chen Zhou was filled with wariness towards any food in the room after witnessing the doctor's poor hygiene habits.
So after opening the lid and seeing what was inside, Chen Zhou simply put the glass jar back on the bedside table.
Then Chen Zhou rummaged through the drawers in the cabinets, attempting to find paper and ink but found nothing.
Thus, with a bad impression of the ship doctor, he left the room to continue exploring further.
Pushing open the door, the first feeling Chen Zhou had about the third room was "organized".
The tabletop was neatly cleaned, placed against the wall, the chair tucked under the table, the back of the chair also snug against the tabletop, and the bedding on the bed simply folded into a long strip. Though there were also stains, at least it looked comfortable.
In one corner of the room were two wooden boxes, larger in size than Robinson's luggage box. Inside, Chen Zhou found the much-needed ink, parchment, and quill.
Aside from the paper and pen, the box also contained a straight ruler, a triangle ruler, and smaller saws, hammers, planes, chisels, and nails of various lengths, bolts, iron brackets packed in wooden boxes...
All these tools showed obvious signs of use. The nails were both straight and bent, and there were rusty and damaged defective bolts, seemingly discarded parts removed during ship maintenance.
At the bottom of the box was a small cast-iron machine, its design rather complex, with a solid ring-shaped base at the bottom, and the upper part shaped like a cylinder that narrows at the top. It was quite weighty.
Chen Zhou picked up the small machine, saw it had a wooden handle, and turned it a few times.
The machine immediately made a creaking sound, and the screw rotated through the nut, slowly lifting the top part.
Having been away from school for some years, Chen Zhou had forgotten much of the knowledge he'd learned, but he could still identify it as an old screw jack, commonly known in modern terms as a "jack".
Unlike the modern hydraulic jack, the old screw jack used a purely mechanical structure, lacking in stability and compactness compared to the more common hydraulic jacks.
Nonetheless, this antique jack could still serve its purpose, providing convenience for lifting heavy objects that human strength alone couldn't manage, through its simple use.
After opening a total of six boxes, the items in this box were undoubtedly the most valuable so far.
Having found paper and pen, Chen Zhou pulled out a chair, unscrewed the ink bottle, and sat at the desk to carefully catalog and record all the materials he found.
On his first use of a quill, an ancient writing tool, Chen Zhou found himself somewhat unacquainted with its lightweight feel.
With sufficient ink, he wrote the date solemnly at the top of the parchment—October 1, 1659.
This marked the second day since the challenge officially began and the second day of the countdown from 10,300 days. In the long process of the challenge, the passing of a single day was a hardly perceivable small step.
But for Chen Zhou, enveloped within it, even the lengthiest marathon was built on solid steps, and he needed to record the passing of each day, transforming each fleeting milestone into hope to sustain him in persevering.
Beneath the date, Chen Zhou roughly categorized all the materials into six categories.
These were tools, resources, food, weapons, clothing, and valuable items, which would help him prioritize and organize the storage and transportation of materials.