I Am Louis XIV

   Chapter 280 Steam Ironclad Ship

It has been ten years since Princess Henrietta of England became the Duchess of Orleans. When the wedding was held, Charles II was still a puppet king who was constrained by many parliaments and Protestants. Although he fought hard, Henrietta's dowry Still shabby and eye-catching, in order to appease the dissatisfaction of the French, Charles II proposed to bring the thirty Calais ships ordered by his father Charles I from the Venetians as dowry to France.

   These thirty Calais ships, to be precise, should be Calais ships, that is, an enhanced version of Calais ships.

  The Calais ship was originally a commercial galley built by the Republic of Venice to carry goods. Since it was built to carry goods, the pursuit of this kind of ship must be the largest cargo capacity, so the Calais ship is short and wide. In the 16th century, the Venetians and the Turks fought frequently, and there were many wars on the calm waterways, so the Venetians transformed the vacant Calais into battleships, which could move freely in a windless environment. Therefore, it can be said to be a victorious general in closed seas such as the Mediterranean Sea, the Black Sea and the Baltic Sea.

The problem is that after the use of hot weapons in naval battles gradually surpassed that of cold weapons, and the waterway that the countries compete for began to shift from the inner sea to the outer sea, and even no longer near the sea, but in the deep sea, the Calais ship showed the biggest two. Disadvantage - first: because its power comes more from the paddlers than the sails, the three-three-one-row method inherited from the Greek-Polish War has thirty seat plates fixed on each side of the silo. There are three rowers on the seat, and three rowers are responsible for one oar. That is to say, excluding sailors and soldiers, there are 180 rowers alone. Even in the later period, these rowers are either convicts or convicts. For the heretics, the captain must provide enough food to ensure that they have the strength to paddle, so in order to ensure supplies, the Calais ship can only travel and fight along the coast; second: that is the too low hull of the Calais ship. After the muskets and artillery were transferred from the land to the ships, the original method of docking became a thing of the past. Even pirates used artillery more to destroy the power system of merchant ships, and then looted them. The Spanish galleon, the galleon with its heavy artillery, played against the Calais like a giant teasing a few gnomes.

But the makers of Calais (mainly Venetians) did not stop there. In the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, they built a Calais boat modeled on, but larger than the Calais. The heavier Calais racing boat, it is a galley with a hybrid drive. The cannons carried in the bow and stern can be imposed on forty, or they can carry hundreds of sailors and soldiers.

In addition, its huge size and terrible weight are also one of the killers. In naval battles, Calais ships will first use artillery bombardment, and then use huge metal rams to ram the opponent's hull. If they still lose, they can still take Traditional pick-up tactics.

Of course, when Princess Henrietta was about to become the Duchess of Orleans, the Calais warship ordered by Charles I from the Venetians was on the verge of being eliminated, so Charles II was almost a rogue (he was determined not to obey himself money from his pockets to make Princess Henrietta's dowry look better). And with the help of the French ambassador - although the gentleman did not quite understand why Louis XIV took this hot potato, the British Parliament finally agreed to transfer the thirty Calais ships to France as the dowry of Princess Henrietta .

   In fact, there were not a few Englishmen who laughed at the eyes of the French who gleamed when they saw the ship. They even looked at the king with a kind of pity, believing that he was mad at the weak French navy.

Poor, of course, before Louis came to power, the national navy created by Cardinal Richelieu had only 500,000 livres a year, and the ships could not be repaired. After Louis came to power, there were only thirty French ships that could barely operate Battleships, only three of which were equipped with more than 60 artillery pieces - in the war to conquer the Netherlands, the scale and strength of the French fleet displayed can be seen, no one knows, the real killer of Louis XIV Not in Dunkirk or Calais, but in Nantes.

Princess Henrietta's dowry, thirty Calais boats were not sold or used as merchant ships after much disappointment to the king of France, as one might imagine, they were sold in the Saint-Nazaire shipyard a few years ago. dismantled, the king needed its keel, midline truss, beams, decks and skins - the spy's reward was that, in view of the generosity of Charles I, the Venetians used the finest oak and teak for the hull keel and beams, deck and The outer panels are made of beech wood, and most importantly, these woods do not need to be processed and treated again.

The Calais boats made by the Venetians have a displacement of about 1,000 tons, high side, wide hull, and deep draft. For the British or the Spanish, the decoration of this overly large warship is better than practical. But it is in line with the wishes of Louis XIV - the wider the hull, the smoother the sailing, the higher the accuracy of the artillery; the deeper the draft, the more suitable for the installation of paddle wheels; the high side, Louis XIV is preparing to shoot the artillery. Move up, so as not to repeat the mistakes of the British warships - the French admiral Victor Marley de Estres carefully observed the situation of the two sides at war (British and Dutch), and in his report he said that the British In order to load more artillery on the ship, the bottom firing port was lowered to less than four feet from the sea surface. This height often made the artillery on this floor unable to fire. Louis XIV certainly learned this lesson, although he The ships are also preset with three muzzles, but the bottom muzzle is at least six feet above the sea.

After all the above advantages, it is the biggest disadvantage. After installing iron plates with a thickness of about three inches on the outer plate thickness of more than one foot, this ship... As some people suspect - it is not simple at all It can be driven by manpower and wind... Of course, the reason why Mr. Dennis Papin was able to participate in this incomparably important project as a Huguenot was not because he created a food that can cook delicious food. Pressure cooker (although this is true).

A priest had been kneeling on the bow of the ship for an hour with two acolytes, and had touched all the masts, sails and other important places with his hands, and sprinkled holy water on every corner except the heart of the ship, the boiler. room, where the eight boilers would provide the giant with power, and the king exercised this power on his behalf, after all at the coronation the Holy Spirit became one with the king - and then they raised the flag of the king and of France , and then asked the king to name it.

   "Royalty," said Louis.

A few minutes later, the royal family, except Louis, disembarked, and they were led by the Duke of Orleans to the heights, from which workers could be seen running from everywhere, the hull fixings were withdrawn, and the With a loud crash, the eldest princess looked worriedly at her father who was still on the boat, and turned to look at the Duke of Orleans.

   "Don't be afraid, child," said the Duke of Orleans, stroking the princess' hair, "you should be proud, Your Highness, for your father and king."

Louis took the golden cup presented by Marquis Senierai, and the bright red wine inside kept shaking with the movement of this behemoth. It was very slow at first, so slow that it could hardly be seen, but it seemed that in an instant, The bow of the ship where the king was sitting suddenly shifted from the shadow of the roof to the dazzling sun. The king had no time to hold the cup when he felt a violent vibration. He was first pushed back and then thrown high. In Tang's exclamation, the king still remembered to drink the wine in the golden cup, and then threw it into the air.

The golden cup has not yet landed, and the "Royal Power", which rushed to the sea along the lowered slideway, has completely escaped the shackles of its creator. The scorching light immediately wrapped the king tightly, and the terrible inertia pushed him heavily On the ground, Bontang grabbed the rope that was hanging down from somewhere, staggeringly trying to help the king, but saw the king turn over and lie on his back on the deck, laughing happily and without dignity. !

  ——

According to tradition, whoever snatched the golden cup that fell, almost all the workers of the shipyard came. Even Mr. Papin was a little moved when he saw it. This golden cup weighed at least two pounds, and it almost fell. In the water, a brave young man rushed up desperately and took it at the risk of being hit by a ship. His eyes moved, his heart moved, and he walked over and bought this golden cup for three times the price.

The Duke of Orleans looked at him and smiled. He really deserved to be the son of the cunning Colbert. If the king knew that the golden cup he threw to bless the ship had brought the lucky man a calamity, He must be very unhappy. With a calm face, Senere stuffed the gold cup into his pocket. "We have prepared a boat," he said. "Please allow me to take you to the Kingship, Your Highness."

   In fact, the only one who can stay with the king on the Kingship is the Duke of Orleans, because the next drill is dangerous, the children just need to watch from a distance.

   "It doesn't look good." The Grand Princess.

"I think it's very beautiful." The Grand Duke presided over the objection, and the boys all agreed. Of course, the ironclad boat can never be compared with the wooden boat in terms of beauty. In addition to the original color and texture of the wood, there are other Even at this time, the warships are decorated with beautiful carvings, and sometimes they are plated with gold and silver foils. Although the armor plates of the iron-clad ships have not had time to rust, they are not beautiful in terms of color and shape. To describe it, and because it is connected and fixed by riveting, it looks like a big ship with leprosy.

But the eldest princess and the boys have different views. In their eyes, it is like a strong knight wearing heavy armor, wearing a helmet, holding a heavy lance, and even the knight under him. The war horses were all wrapped in chain armor, so majestic and mighty, they watched it slowly move forward to the vast sea, and as a strange smoke rushed into the sky, its speed became faster Faster, faster..."How many knots do we have now?" asked the Duke of Colonna.

   "There are six knots," replied the captain.

   "Not the fastest." Little Eugen said intently, the telescope seemed to be stuck to his face and couldn't be removed.

"But it's dangerous." The captain of the ship, who was also a naval officer, could of course see at a glance just how dangerous this large ship was. It might not be as fast as a light ship, but its weight and size were a An impenetrable mountain - think of such a towering mountain rushing straight towards you...

The Kingship is indeed rushing towards a target ship, which is also a Calais ship, only a third smaller than the Kingship, but before the Kingship's black iron hits the corner, it is as fragile as A toy ship made of thick paper, the King Power, rode directly over its wreckage. Although the King Power had to sway violently for a while, and the ship was full of scars, the feeling of crushing the enemy directly into the sea The people on the boat couldn't help but cheer.

  The children were also shouting loudly, and even the grand county master didn't think the dark ship was ugly.

Then the king ordered the Kingship to shell another target ship, which was more miserable than her comrade. After a violent and intensive shelling, the sea was full of charred wood and rags. On the real battlefield, there should be sharks who follow them - those torn bodies and blood will stain the sea red.

   "What is this?" asked the Duke of Orleans curiously, the aftermath of excitement had not yet passed from his eyes, but he did not understand why a cannonball had to be brought to the king to see.

   "You'll find out later." Louis said softly.

The third target ship appeared, and the gunner loaded the shell into the cannon and fired it out. This shelling may only have eight or nine rounds, but they were not solid shells. There was a small explosion, and dozens of white smoke trailed into the air with long tails. Wherever they landed, fires would ignite.

   "What is that?" asked the Duke of Orleans in astonishment.

   "White phosphorus." Louis replied. In fact, the Duke of Orleans also thought of it. He put down the telescope and asked a little hesitantly: "Yes..."

   "No," said Louis, "Charles II."

  The Duke of Orleans was silent for a while: "Oh," he turned to the large ship that had been turned into a torch: "It's an Englishman."

   "The English, artisans, scholars, and their wizards."

   "Damn it!"

The Duke of Orleans' childish answer made Louis laugh: "You can't just let me use wizards, any king, as long as he has such a heart and courage, can use anyone he wants and who he wants to use for him. "

   The Duke of Orleans took a deep breath: "Our enemies will become more difficult."

   "Although this is not what I hope," Louis looked at the burning ship, the fire in his eyes: "But there is only one way to defeat the enemy."

   "That is to make yourself stronger, always stronger."

   (end of this chapter)