Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 2269

On February 1695, 2, outside Yancheng Port, a steam tugboat struggled to tow a big guy, sailing on the sea at a low speed of two knots.

The big guy is a "Bianliang" class ironclad warship with a standard displacement close to 4000 tons.The ship had just gone through a rigorous anti-strike test. Unfortunately, the central power equipment was damaged, the steam engine stopped working, and had to be towed away by a tugboat from the Hailing Port military base.

"As I said before, it is a crime not to design sail power. With such a large tonnage and such a powerful armament, it would be too ridiculous if it stops at sea because of the failure of the power system." Bian who lost power On the deck of the iron-clad ship "Beam", several ugly-looking naval officers were discussing.

Just now they steered the fully steam-powered iron-clad ship "Bianliang" to a place about one nautical mile away from the fort of Yancheng Port, and then paddled a small boat ashore, leaving the ship standing there alone, receiving more than [-] different guns on the fort. The bombardment of the caliber coastal defense heavy artillery, to see if it can survive the baptism of such an intensity of bullets.

The results of the anti-strike trials were mixed.Under the bombardment of powerful naval guns, some armor fell off—note, it fell off, not was destroyed—but the internal structure of the hull was still maintained.However, in the part where the iron armor was not installed, the degree of damage to the ship was more serious. Many decks and ship sides were damaged or even penetrated, and the hull was seriously damaged.Of course, none of the above was the most embarrassing, because they were all expected by the naval officers. The most embarrassing thing was that the chimney in the center of the hull was destroyed, and two solid shells miraculously fell into the power system. within, successfully paralyzed this expensive warship.

After the test was over, the naval officers rowed aboard the dinghy and carefully assessed the condition of the ship.In other cases, it's okay to say that everyone is mentally prepared, but the situation where the power system is paralyzed makes everyone a little embarrassed.In fact, this is not a big problem at all. We only need to modify the chimney to prevent it from being damaged by shells jumping around. However, a group of officers who oppose pure steam power took the opportunity to attack and accused this "irresponsible design. "Program", which requires adding a sail system on board as a backup power.

And their accusations, not surprisingly, also caused other people to retort: ​​"Come on, when is it, why don't you give up? Look at our current hull layout. The gun positions on the upper and lower decks are all the same. Canceled, replaced by a turret located in the middle of the hull. So now the question is, where do you want to install the mast needed for sail power? Just to remind you, the position of the turret is not good, that will be a huge change, no People will agree."

It is said that the deck layout of the "Bianliang" ironclad battleship is really different.First of all, it canceled the gun positions on the upper deck and the gun windows on the side, and replaced them with a large number of iron armor, which is a huge change.Secondly, the "Bianliang" adopts the layout of the turrets in the middle of the hull, that is, four huge turrets are arranged in sequence in the center of the hull, and each turret is equipped with two artillery pieces in a symmetrical layout with one left and one right.The latest artillery (type 90 breech-loading gun) developed by the Northern Arsenal is used in the turret, so that the gunners can complete the loading, charging and shooting of the artillery without exposing themselves, and the survivability is greatly enhanced.

The design of the layout in the middle of the turret can also concentrate the center of gravity of the battleship here, which is convenient for the ship to perform various maneuvers and strike local targets more efficiently.So, from here we can already see that there are actually not many places to install masts and sails on the ship, unless you change the position of the turret, but this means a series of changes, and even the hull may have to be redesigned-this Obviously impossible.

Also, you can't ignore the extra weight that sail power will bring.Such a large ship is impossible without four main masts. With the dense sails, how much extra weight will be added?You must know that because the hull is covered with too much armor, the weight of the hull is already very large, and the reserve buoyancy has reached a dangerous level-this is a problem. The lower the reserve buoyancy, the lower the waterline. The more trouble there is--if you add a few thick and heavy masts and a lot of sails, the situation of the battleship will be very dangerous, unless you greatly reduce the stock of ammunition and coal, and reduce the weight of the hull, which is what the Navy does. unacceptable.

Therefore, it is basically impossible to add additional sail power to the already very cumbersome warship "Bianliang". The power of "Bianliang" is only those three high-horsepower steam boilers, nothing else!No matter how dissatisfied others are, the design is just like this, and will not be changed again!

"The reliability of steam power is actually very high now. In the system on our ship, many precision components with high requirements are said to be processed by electric machine tools. I have relatives who live in Weihai County, Dongdian Company A power station was built there, so Heishan Industrial Company produced some electric-driven machine tools, assembled and debugged them in Weihai County, and then processed many parts for the use of the "Bianliang". Don't tell me, the quality is still low. It's really good. The old Hou in the engine room told me that the frequency of replacing parts has been greatly reduced, and the reliability has also increased. There are not as many big or small problems as before, although these problems don't affect much Sailing." Another lieutenant officer interjected: "According to me, it is impossible to have a backup power system, and the 'Bianliang' is actually very reliable, that's all. With the ironclad warship officially entering service, the shipyard is also very impatient with our endless proposals for changes. Now everyone is exhausted and doesn't want to make any more troubles. The "Bianliang" will go to sea trials for another year and a half It is almost ready for mass production.”

Well, the 'mass production' that the man said is actually not accurate.Because of the high cost, the navy does not have enough funds to order ten or eight ships. In fact, only three "Bianliang" class ironclad ships will be built, namely "Bianliang", "Luoyang" and The "Daimyo" are all deployed in the First Fleet, as the winner of the naval fleet's decisive battle.

It is not that the shipyard has not persuaded the navy to order more, and clearly pointed out that the more they buy, the lower the price of a single ship, but the navy is unmoved. They spend too much money, not only the annual expenditure of the three major fleets There are countless, and the cost of offshore forts is also staggering, not to mention other expenses such as personnel training and new base construction. It is really impossible to spend too much money to order such a gold-swallowing monster as the "Bianliang" class ironclad ship.

However, they also admitted that this kind of warship equipped with only eight artillery pieces is powerful.The solid armor is its biggest reliance, and there are also new breech-loading guns and high-horsepower steam engines. Although the speed is still a bit slow, it is impossible for the enemy to destroy.Just think about it, in a battle where hundreds of warships and tens of thousands of naval officers and soldiers gathered on both sides, the "Bianliang" class ironclad warship suddenly emerged and rampaged. But the shells created terrifying gaps one after another in the hull of the enemy ship. Can this battle still be fought?How much courage does the enemy have to fight back after being beaten?The answer is obvious.

"After the battleship is finalized and built, the Cape Verde Islands should be the first to be deployed, right? Hehe, the guys from the Marine Battalion will start rehearsing the landing battle to seize the island next month. At that time, our ironclad ship will suddenly be able to attack the island. Ruz Port, silence their forts, and then allow the marine battalion to land calmly and occupy the entire island in one fell swoop. The Canary Islands will be in our pocket sooner or later..." The tugboat continued to drag Battleships, the topic of discussion among naval officers, has shifted from backup power systems to how to use ironclad ships to fight.And this is undoubtedly very popular with these young officers. They participated in it one after another, discussing how to use the "Bianliang" class of big killers at that time to break the balance of the war and win a quick victory.

And on a sea not far from them, a merchant ship belonging to New Courland that purchased goods from the north and headed south was slowly passing by.The sailors and officials on board naturally also saw this battleship covered with a lot of iron armor, and naturally, their faces showed emotions such as fear and joy.Fear is easy to understand. No one will be afraid of this war monster armed to the teeth, because it can easily break the balance of power between the two sides and become the winner or loser of the battle.At the same time, they were also thankful that they were on the side with the people from the east coast, and that the two sides were friends rather than enemies, and that was enough.

At this time, some senior officials in the colony also recalled that Grand Duke Frederick wanted to marry Moscow.At that time, the people on the east bank were furious, and Ambassador Zhao Gui almost pointed at the Grand Duke's nose and scolded him, threatening him not to be ungrateful and forget who was protecting his regime.At that time, the Grand Duke was still very unconvinced, and some people in Courland were also dissatisfied with the arrogant attitude of the people on the east coast, and some of them were standing on the deck today.But now all dissatisfaction disappeared. His Excellency the Grand Duke married a Polish noble lady, and the people on the east coast proved the correctness of the Grand Duke's choice with an iron-clad battleship.Otherwise, they only need to sail to Jakobshaven, and the Courlandians have nothing to do but submit.

For a country whose maritime trade is its lifeline, it is true that maritime powers have more influence than land powers, and Courland has indeed made the right choice.What about ironclad warships, hehe, is there anyone in Europe who can resist them?

(End of this chapter)