Chapter 411 Ferdinand Naval Academy
Hearing this, Ferdinand instantly became interested: "How much do you plan to add?"
Ernst: "According to East Africa's development path, we will not invest too much in the military in the next few years, but the navy is an exception. In view of the increasingly severe coastal defense pressure in East Africa, I plan to build the East African Navy into the world's ninth naval force after Britain, France, the United States, Russia, Spain, Austria-Hungary, and Germany before 1880."
In addition to the countries mentioned by Ernst, the Netherlands is currently ranked ninth and Italy is ranked tenth. Before the Italo-Austrian War, Italy ranked fifth.
The strength of the Ottoman Empire's navy should not be underestimated, because since 1860, Sultan Abdullah of the Ottoman Empire has been vigorously developing the navy and purchasing many ironclad ships.
Spain is a lean camel that is still bigger than a horse. It has never fallen from the ranks of world naval powers and is much stronger than its neighbor Portugal.
There are no countries in East Asia on the list. The only two countries in East Asia capable of developing naval power, the Far East, has not yet started. Japan is relatively poor and does not have the money to vigorously develop its navy.
The East African Kingdom had no money either, but Ernst was rich enough to rival a country, and because of the sale of a large number of industries, Ernst had a lot of cash in his hands.
So Ernst said confidently: "We won't buy too many. I think seven ironclad ships is a suitable number, enough to cope with the current coastal defense situation faced by the East African Navy."
"How many? Are you sure it's not a traditional wooden warship? It's an ironclad ship!" Archduke Ferdinand immediately became restless, fearing that Ernst was fooling him.
Ernst said, "Of course, it's ironclad ships, but I have to make it clear in advance that the tonnage of these ironclad ships must be around 3,000 tons. I only plan to build two giant ironclad ships of more than 5,000 tons, and top ironclad ships of more than 7,000 tons are no longer within the scope of consideration."
After hearing Ernst's reply, Ferdinand said stutteringly, "Okay, okay, okay..." He needed to calm down first.
Constantine was also a little surprised. He suddenly felt a little strange about his son. This was still the same Ernst who used to be stingy with the navy! So he said, "Ernst, if you really want to do this, it will not be a small expense. The purchase of warships alone is an astronomical figure."
Ernst signaled his father not to worry: "Father, I'm not just talking nonsense this time. We have sufficient funds."
Constantine asked: "What on earth did you do in North America? Did you rob the U.S. Treasury?"
Ernst said with a smile: "If I really robbed the US Treasury, I would dare to try for the position of the world's number one navy."
Ernst changed the subject and said, "And don't think too much. This money is the navy budget for the next seven years. In other words, a total of more than 200 million East African Rhine guilders will be invested in seven years. Funds are limited, so you need to mobilize the Austrian relationship."
Two hundred million East African Rhine guilders was nearly seven million pounds, while the annual budget of the British Royal Navy in 1870 reached nine million pounds.
On average, East Africa will invest about one million pounds each year in navy construction over the next seven years.
But in fact, the East African government also has to allocate a separate allocation to the East African Navy every year. It's just that the East African government, like the Japanese government, is poor, so the money is not much, but it is more than enough to pay the East African Navy's salaries and improve their food.
Archduke Ferdinand, who was sure that he was not dreaming, nodded seriously and said, "Leave this to me! With this money, I promise to build you a strong navy."
For Archduke Ferdinand, this was truly a battle of wealth. As long as the money was in place, the funding of the East African Navy would immediately reach the same level as that of the Austro-Hungarian Navy.
Although there was no shortage of funds, the advantages of the Austro-Hungarian Navy over the East African Navy lay in its solid financial resources, sound industrial system, complete talent training system, and rich experience.
So Archduke Ferdinand said: "With money, we can do a lot of things, but there is still a problem before us that must be solved, and that is the education system for professional training of the navy."
Ernst agreed with this point. This was indeed the biggest shortcoming of East Africa, so he asked Archduke Ferdinand for advice: "Father-in-law, why don't you speak out your thoughts?"
Archduke Ferdinand: "The Kingdom of East Africa has absolutely no foundation in this regard, so it must introduce a complete naval education system from Europe, build a naval school, and train professional naval personnel. My idea is to build a complete naval education system on Pemba Island."
"Pemba Island! It's really a nice place."
"Yes, Pemba Island can better simulate the naval combat environment. It is large and convenient for replenishment. There is also a ready-made military base for students to practice..."
Pemba Island reminded Ernst of the Etajima Naval Academy in a Japanese movie in his previous life, which is still called the Japanese Naval Academy.
Speaking of Japan's establishment of a naval school, it was actually a rather helpless thing, because at that time Japanese naval students were rejected everywhere. The specific reason is unknown, and it may be due to racial reasons.
However, the Kingdom of East Africa does not have this problem. Since Archduke Ferdinand founded the East African Navy, the East African government has organized students to study abroad at the Austrian Royal Naval School every year.
Not to mention Archduke Ferdinand, even for the sake of Constantine and Ernst, other European countries would also recruit East African students. At least there would be no problem with those countries that had good relations with the Principality of Hechingen in the past.
However, Archduke Ferdinand still believed that East Africa should have its own naval training system, which was also in line with Ernst's idea of independence!
It’s just that Ernst didn’t attach much importance to the navy before, so he didn’t think of this matter. Now that Archduke Ferdinand mentioned it, he might as well do it all at once.
Ernst: "Sure. I'll have to trouble you with the specific details. The funds for building the naval school will be funded by me alone, and will not be drawn from the previous ship purchase funds."
"No problem. As for teacher resources, I think with my connections, I can recruit a lot of outstanding talents from Austria."
Ernst and Archduke Ferdinand reached a consensus on poaching Austrian talents, which was actually a good thing for Austria.
The Austrian Navy has never been taken seriously. Although it had previously defeated Italy and recovered the Venice region, the funding for the Austro-Hungarian Navy did not increase (it was even reduced during this period in history).
An important task of the Austro-Hungarian Navy was to suppress the Italian Navy. Now that Italian unification was impossible, the Austro-Hungarian Empire had even less motivation to invest in the navy, which made the Imperial Navy Commander von Tegetthoff quite worried. (History has changed, and von Tegetthoff did not die young.)
This is also an important reason why the Austrian Navy accepted the order for the "Archduke Ferdinand". Since they do not have the money to build warships, it is better to build them for East Africa. This way, they can accumulate experience and avoid the loss of Austria's warship building capabilities. At the same time, they can experiment with new technologies. If they cannot use them now because of lack of money, they will not lack them when they are needed in the future.
Generally speaking, countries will not easily sell top-level warships like the "Archduke Ferdinand", after all, it involves military secrets. Of course, if you pay extra, it's another matter.
However, there is no such concern when selling to East Africa. First of all, the two countries have close relations. Secondly, East Africa does not have such capabilities for the time being. Finally, Archduke Ferdinand is, after all, the Emperor's younger brother and former leader of the navy.
Archduke Ferdinand: "Let me tell you one last thing. What should this naval school be called?"
Ernst: "Let's use your name, Ferdinand Naval Academy. After all, the East African Navy was established under the leadership of your father-in-law."
Ernst told the truth that there were few top talents in the world more suitable for developing the navy than Archduke Ferdinand, and Archduke Ferdinand's re-employment in the Navy of the Kingdom of East Africa really helped him a lot.
Without Archduke Ferdinand, the development of the East African Navy would have been absolutely difficult. Take the Far East Ocean Fleet for example. It was fooled by the British and took a lot of detours during its establishment, spending more money but getting nothing done.
"Ferdinand Naval Academy!"
Upon hearing the name given by Ernst, Archduke Ferdinand was obviously very happy. This could be regarded as a recognition of his achievements over the years.
(End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com