I want to be emperor

In November of the 30th year of Chengshun, on the Central Pacific Ocean, a passenger ship sprayed a faint white mist, and at the same time, the sails of the four masts were all spread out. The waterline was black, the superstructure was white, and the chimney and mast were painted orange. Heading east.

This is the luxury liner Sheng Hua owned by Jiangnan Shipping Company. It is carrying out the No.12 trans-Pacific flight mission since it entered service.

In the white superstructure, in the cockpit ahead, seven or eight staff members wearing blue crew uniforms are manipulating this huge passenger ship to sail at high speed.

And in the boiler room at the bottom of the shipyard, a group of shirtless men are continuously putting coal into the combustion chamber of the boiler. The high-quality coal put into the boiler burns and emits hot heat. The water boils and produces high-temperature and high-pressure steam.

High-temperature and high-pressure steam enters the cylinder of the steam engine through the pipe, driving the huge piston to reciprocate.

When the piston reciprocates, it drives the huge steel spindle to rotate.

The rotating main shaft drives the propeller with a diameter of several meters to rotate at the tail of the ship, continuously pushing the sea backward, and the huge Shenghua uses the reverse thrust to continuously advance.

In the cockpit, Fang Xian, wearing the captain's uniform, looked at the endless sea ahead through the glass in front of the cockpit!

Although there are some storms and waves on the sea at this time, they are not big, and it can be regarded as calm for the huge Pacific Ocean.

But even so, he did not relax his mind, but asked the lookout on the top of the mainmast to continue to pay close attention to the situation in the surrounding sea area.

This is not to worry about any enemies or land, icebergs and the like, it is purely to guard against the weather in the surrounding sea areas.

When sailing on the sea these days, the biggest enemy is always the changeable and complicated weather on the sea. Once a storm is encountered, it will be very troublesome.

Although it seemed to be calm at this time, the sky was overcast with no sunlight, and the air seemed a little dull. This was a typical call for an approaching storm.

Fang Xian was a little worried that there would be a big storm!
Even a big ship like the Shenghua is just a flat boat on the vast sea, and it can dodge when it encounters wind and waves.

After repeatedly looking at the nautical chart and asking the experienced crew members in many ways, Fang Xian finally gave the order to turn north by [-] degrees.

After many people observed the weather and the weather in the surrounding sea area, they concluded that the center of the storm may be ahead, so it is necessary to avoid it in advance.

The Shenghua began to turn to avoid the storm, Fang Xian still did not relax, but continued to keep a close eye on it, especially let several crew members who have rich experience in sea weather changes pay close attention to the weather changes.

Compared with the intensely working crew members in the cockpit, the passengers in the Shenghua are the same as before, some are walking on the deck, some are watching a play in the small theater on board, and some are dining in the restaurant on board .

----

As a new generation of ocean liner put into operation by Jiangnan Shipping Company three years ago, Shenghua is extremely representative.

Since the 20th year of Chengshun, the overseas immigration of the Great Chu Empire has increased year by year, the trade volume has also increased year by year, and the demand for ocean shipping has increased year by year.

This allowed many shipping companies in the Great Chu Empire to see an opportunity to grow and invest in large-tonnage ocean-going passenger ships or cargo ships to increase investment in ocean-going transportation.

The tonnage of ocean-going merchant ships is getting bigger and bigger, let’s not talk about cargo ships, let’s just talk about passenger ships for the time being.

The ocean liners of major shipping companies, Chengshun 20 years ago, had a full load tonnage of less than 1000 tons, and they were all wooden pure sail ships.

Twenty years after Chengshun, steam engines began to enter the field of ocean liners, and steam-engine-sail hybrid passenger ships began to appear.These ships are also sometimes called motor sailboats.

At the same time, steel technology has further matured and been applied in the shipbuilding industry. The full-load tonnage of ocean liners has gradually increased from more than 1000 tons, to more than 2000 tons, to more than 3000 tons, and then to four to five thousand tons. Now it has developed in the direction of [-] tons.

It is against this background that Shenghua was invested and built.

The ship was built by Luohua Shipyard and is the first ship of the Shenghua-class passenger ship under the Jiangnan Shipping Company. There are currently five ships of the same class, which are respectively operating on the Pacific or Indian Ocean routes.

The registered tonnage of the ship is [-] tons, and the full load tonnage is [-] tons. goods.

The ship is equipped with a reciprocating steam engine from Tianjin Machinery Company, with a maximum power of [-] horsepower, single-shaft and single-propeller propulsion, and four towering masts. Together, the steam engine and sail power can provide the ship with maximum power. Fourteen knots.

However, the biggest feature of the ship is not big, nor is it simply luxurious, or some kind of ocean liner.

There are so many ocean-going ships that it is not worth mentioning.

Speaking of large, there are still many passenger ships with a full load of more than [-] tons in contemporary times. In the past two years, other shipping companies have also served some large-tonnage passenger ships with a capacity of [-] to [-] tons.

In terms of tonnage, the Shenghua class, which was put into use three years ago, is no longer the largest. It can only be said that it is still in the first echelon.

In terms of luxury, it's not really considered luxurious... Donghai Shipping Company invested in the construction of a real luxury passenger ship Dongri, which was used to carry out domestic domestic coastal routes.

With a full-load displacement of more than 5000 tons, the number of passengers is only more than 300. The decoration is extremely luxurious, and various services are also top-notch. Of course, the ticket price is also extremely high...so they are running on the street, and they are suffering miserably.

Now it has returned to the shipyard for transformation, preparing to transform those flashy luxury cabins into cheap and ordinary third-class cabins.

In the contemporary ocean liner market of the Great Chu Empire, the purely high-end passenger transport business cannot support the operation of large-tonnage ocean liners.

Basically every shipping company tried has suffered.

However, this is not the case for the Shenghua-class passenger ship produced by Jiangnan Shipping Company. Their cabin layout is a traditional compartment system.

In addition to luxurious first-class cabins, there are also moderately priced second-class cabins, and even third-class cabins that can carry a large number of low-end passengers. At the same time, there is a large-capacity cargo warehouse at the bottom...

By dividing first-, second- and third-class cabins and setting up a large number of cargo warehouses, they have well balanced the needs and affordability of high-end passengers, mid-end passengers, and low-end passengers.

At the same time, it also balances the problem of empty ships when returning from overseas territories. In fact, most of the ocean-going tourists from Chu State these days are immigrants from the mainland to overseas, and they are basically one-way tickets. Those who go there will not come. kind!

As a result, the number of tourists returning to China from overseas is very small, only some business people and people visiting relatives.

In order to solve the problem of empty loads on the return journey, Shenghua-class passenger ships have set up large-capacity warehouses. When these warehouses run from the mainland to overseas routes, they are used to carry the needs of passengers such as fresh water, food, salutes, mail, and some cargo.

But when they come back, they carry a large amount of overseas specialty goods in the freight yard, such as grain, cotton, timber, etc. in North America, so that the shipping company can make up for part of the loss caused by the lack of return passenger traffic.

When an ocean liner returns on its return trip these days, it doesn't lose too much but it earns!
As for the real source of profit, or
The real profit lies in the passengers from the mainland to overseas ports. For this reason, Jiangnan Shipping Company, um, and even other shipping companies' passenger business are similar.

This is also the case that the shipping business in the Great Chu Empire has first, second and third class cabins.

The third-class cabin is generally dedicated to those immigrants going overseas, and the fare is affordable. Of course, the service is not good, but it can carry a large number of people, winning by volume, and it is also very profitable when it is full.

Second-class and first-class cabins obtain higher added value by improving the living space and service level.

In this way, it has been recognized by different passenger groups, plus the overall service level is good, the large-tonnage ships are safe, the shipping is comfortable, and the speed is also fast. At the same time, the ticket price also has a competitive advantage as a whole. These are the successful operations of the Shenghua-class passenger liner. Foundation.

This class of ships has been greatly recognized by passengers since it was put into operation. When the first ship, Sheng Hua, was on the Nanyang route for the first time, it was immediately full of passengers.

When the third ship, the Shenghua, started its Pacific route last year, it was also full of passengers.

The same is true for this trip to North America, all tickets are sold out.

The successful construction and operation of the Shenghua also means that the ocean liners of the Great Chu Empire have basically entered the level of a full load of [-] tons.

Moreover, passenger ships of this level are very cost-effective.

Twenty-seven years after Chengshun, the shipping companies in the Great Chu Empire tended to build merchant ships between 27 tons and [-] tons and put them into service one after another.

At present, merchant ships of this tonnage are relatively mature in technology, and the price per ton is not expensive, and the greater transportation capacity brought by the larger tonnage of the ship can reduce the transportation cost per ton.

Therefore, the cost performance is very high, and it is welcomed by various shipping companies.

The reduction in shipbuilding costs is mainly due to the continuous construction of cruisers and battleships of more than 20 tons by the Great Chu Empire after [-] years of Chengshun.

These large-tonnage warship orders have allowed shipyards, steam engine manufacturers, steel companies, heavy equipment companies and other supporting companies to improve various supporting facilities.

Nowadays, there are sufficient [-]-ton dry docks, gantry cranes and other large shipbuilding equipment in major shipyards, such as Songjiang Naval Shipyard, Guangzhou Shipyard, Lishi Shipyard, and Luohua Shipyard.

Steam engine manufacturers can also provide large steam engines that drive ships with a full load of four to five thousand tons, and the cost is not too high, such as the three major steam engine manufacturers.

Iron and steel enterprises can also supply sufficient shipbuilding materials in large quantities and cheaply, such as several major domestic iron and steel enterprises.

Some heavy machinery processing enterprises, such as Zhenjiang Heavy Machinery Company, can also provide sufficient and relatively cheap large-scale steel parts, such as hull load-bearing parts, propellers, drive shafts, etc.

The combination of these has also allowed the cost per ton of large-tonnage all-steel or iron-ribbed wood-hulled merchant ships with a full load of more than [-] tons to continue to decline.

In this way, 27 years after Chengshun, the shipbuilding industry began to provide the shipping industry with merchant ships with a full load of between [-] and [-] tons.

As for large-tonnage ships between [-] tons and [-] tons, there are still many problems at present, resulting in too expensive construction costs and relatively low cost performance.

The major shipping companies basically only order one or two ships to be used as flagships, but the main force of transportation is still those merchant ships with a full load of between [-] and [-] tons.

As for the merchant ship with a full load of more than [-] tons, there is currently only one luxury passenger ship Jiangnan under the Jiangnan Shipping Company, and the ship is still under construction, because the technology is complicated, the construction is difficult, and it is positioned as a luxury passenger ship. Decoration, especially decoration will be very time-consuming and other factors, the most optimistic estimate will be able to put into use after two years.

Therefore, in the Great Chu Empire, which has been in succession for 30 years, the newly built large-tonnage ocean-going merchant ships are basically the mainstream with a full load of [-] tons, relatively few ships with a full load of more than [-] tons, and only one ship with a full load of more than [-] tons.

As with cargo ships, so with passenger ships.

As for the merchant ships in operation, the average tonnage is even lower, and there are still a lot of ocean-going vessels with a full load of two to three thousand tons.

As the leading shipping company in China, Jiangnan Shipping Company currently has only twelve passenger ships and cargo ships with a full load displacement of [-] to [-] tons, and three of them are coal carriers... In the domestic shipping business, coal transportation is a big part , is the focus of competition among major shipping companies.

And more ocean-going merchant ships, many of which are registered tonnage of several hundred tons to more than 1000 tons, are fully loaded with ships between [-] to [-] tons to [-] tons.

On the whole, the shipping industry of the Great Chu Empire is in a period of rapid development. At the same time, due to the rapid development and short time span, the shipping companies have a large number of ships with seemingly large technological gaps.

For example, there are many pure sailing ships in Jiangnan Shipping Company, and motor sailing ships have not completely replaced pure sailing ships.

At the same time, there are still many wooden hull ships, and even some newly built ships have many pure wooden ships.

For the time being, all-steel ships have not fully unified the shipbuilding industry, but are widely used in large-tonnage ships, while small-tonnage ships still widely use wooden hulls. This is because iron rust prevention is difficult and costly. Small and medium-sized ships without armor protection requirements, especially civilian ships, are not as simple and trouble-free as using wooden hulled ships.

This is the result of a combination of technology and cost.

Even in the field of warships, the newly built warships in the Great Chu Empire today, that is, the new generation of battleships, use all-steel hulls, while others, including cruisers of more than 2000 tons, still use wooden hulls.

The main reason is that the price of steel is still a bit expensive, and the quality of iron is not good, and the processing cost of large steel parts is also high. It is not easy to manufacture large-area iron plates for ship hulls, and the price is also expensive.

Then the problem of rust prevention of steel ships is very difficult. Until now, in fact, the Great Chu Empire Navy has not been able to solve the problem of corrosion of steel hulls well. It can only be said that it can be solved through technical mitigation and frequent maintenance.

However, its construction cost and maintenance cost are still relatively high, and the military can accept it, which does not mean that private shipping companies can also accept it.

Therefore, the current mainstream of merchant ships is mainly iron-ribbed wood-hulled ships.

However, the [-]-ton Jiangnan passenger ship under construction is an exception. The Jiangnan Shipping Company doesn't care too much about the cost, as long as the performance.

What they need is a top-level flagship that can completely overwhelm the flagships of other domestic shipping companies!
It's acceptable to be more expensive, but some other merchant ships under construction in Jiangnan Shipping Company still use iron-ribbed wooden hulls honestly...