Chapter 207 The Age of Ironclad Warships (Second update, please subscribe)
"What a coincidence this time,"
Hearing this, Liang Mingwei smiled.
"My Lord, you want to transform the Great Eastern, and I also got some inspiration from the Great Eastern."
After unfolding the drawing, Zhu Xianhai still saw the structure of the hull.
"This is?"
"My lord, this is the hull structure of the Great Eastern. When the Great Eastern was built, it pioneered the longitudinal inner frame structure and the grid double bottom structure. The double hull is formed by more than 30,000 19 mm iron plates. This double hull is extremely strong. When it was sailing to New York, although it ran aground outside the harbor and the hull was cut 28 meters, it still did not affect its navigation."
Why did Zhu Xianhai dare to convert the "Great Eastern" into a high-density immigration ship and cram 40,000 to 50,000 people into the ship? To put it bluntly, it was because of his trust in the safety of this double-hulled steamship. If Brunel had not designed a double hull for the "Great Eastern", then the "Great Eastern" might have been another "Titanic" in 1862, when it accidentally hit the reef of Long Island. This accident caused a crack in the outer hull that was more than 60 times larger than the one when the Titanic hit the iceberg. But because of this safety structure, the "Great Eastern" not only did not die in the sea, but was also able to safely reach New York with its own power.
"However, my lord, what really attracts me is its all-iron shell structure."
Liang Mingwei said this as he flipped open another drawing.
"At present, whether it is the ironclad 'mosquito gunboat' we have built or the ironclad ships of other countries, either the outer layer of ironclad is lined with wooden boards, or the ironclad is directly nailed to the wooden shell. If there is no sufficiently reliable technology to isolate the wood from the iron, the result will definitely be the wood rotting and the ironclad rusting. So, I am thinking, since the 'Great Eastern' is an iron ship with a pure iron shell and iron ribs, why can't we build a real ironclad ship?"
A real ironclad ship!
Zhu Xianhai glanced at Liang Mingwei. Wow, he has quite big ambitions. Nowadays, all warships are "hybrid structure" warships with wooden hull linings. Even the two iron decks that the same company is negotiating to purchase in the UK have 8-10 inches of oak lining behind the 4.5-inch main armor.
This is the mainstream in the world, but Liang Mingwei wants to build a real "ironclad ship".
"So, my idea was to learn from the structure of the Great Eastern, especially the construction of the double-hulled ship, and replace the 19 mm thick double-layer iron plate with a 25 mm thick double-layer iron plate to build an iron-framed and iron-clad "mosquito gunboat."
It's still a "mosquito cannon boat"...
Looking at the drawings of the "mosquito gunboat", Zhu Xianhai's expression became a little complicated, but he did not interrupt Liang Mingwei's introduction.
"...In this case, its tonnage is about 600 tons. In my opinion, with Nanhua's current shipbuilding capabilities, there is absolutely no problem in building an iron-hulled ship of about 1,000 tons. After all, many of our employees have participated in the construction of the Great Eastern, from engineers to workers."
Liang Mingwei looked at his silent master a little nervously, then he walked to the window, seemed to be looking at something, then turned around and said.
"About a thousand tons..."
Zhu Xianhai said,
"We are now negotiating the purchase of two ironclad ships in the UK."
"My Lord, are you referring to the two Confederate ramming cruisers that were confiscated by the British?"
Liang Mingwei said.
Last year, Captain James Bullock of the Confederate Navy of the United States ordered two twin-turret ramming ironclad ships from Laird Shipyard in his private name to break the Union Navy's naval blockade of the Confederacy. The two ships were built in April of that year and were named North Carolina and Mississippi. However, the matter eventually attracted the attention of the British Foreign Office, so Foreign Secretary Lord Russell informed Bullock that if the two ships would become the fleets of the warring countries, then Britain would not allow the two warships to be launched.
As a result, Bullock had to transfer the ownership of the two ships to a French bank. In name, the two ships were ordered for Egypt and renamed Toussaint and Manasseh. But as everyone knows, this was just a cover and they would definitely be delivered to the Confederacy in the end. At the constant urging of the American ambassador, the two ships were later seized by British customs.
"Yes, those two ships."
Zhu Xianhai nodded and said.
"The telegram from London shows that in order to ensure the legality of this matter, the British Navy plans to purchase two ships. However, the Navy does not seem to have extra money to buy these two ships. Considering the needs of our naval construction, I have instructed to purchase these two ships."
Those were two ironclad ships of nearly 3,000 tons! Of course, even in this era, these two ironclad ships were not very impressive. After all, there were already ironclad ships of nearly 10,000 tons in Europe.
But this is South America!
The navy here basically uses wooden-hulled ships. With these two ironclad ships, Nanhua’s navy will be basically invincible here, at least in the next few years.
After all, the ironclad ship's attack on the wooden ship was a complete dimensionality reduction attack.
Although the lord did not say it explicitly, Liang Mingwei still guessed what the lord meant. Perhaps there was no money to build a new mosquito gunboat.
"My Lord, I understand..."
"Understand what?"
Looking at his lost look, Zhu Xianhai smiled.
"You think I meant to stop you from building new ships?"
"My lord, the company must have spent a lot of money on those two ironclad ships."
"25,000 pounds each, just for the hull, not including the weapons."
Zhu Xianhai smiled.
"But we don't need British weapons. After all, our cannons are much better than theirs. 25,000 pounds is cheap! If it weren't a "second-hand ship", it would definitely not be bought at this price! To be honest, we should thank the Confederacy!"
"25,000 pounds is really not expensive!"
Liang Mingwei was relieved. It seemed that it didn't cost much. There was still hope for the all-iron mosquito gunboat.
"But you can't buy a navy by just buying ships. The navy of the future must build its own ships as much as possible."
The lesson in the simulator was too profound. After the United Kingdom and the United States imposed an embargo on South China, the weak shipbuilding industry made it difficult for the South China Navy to make up for the losses in the war. This was also the reason why Zhu Xianhai increased investment in the shipyard and introduced a large number of talents and equipment. It was to promote the construction of the shipyard and have the ability to build ships in future wars.
"Your idea of building an iron-hulled warship is correct. We have the same idea."
Zhu Xianhai said,
"But you also know that we sell mosquito gunboats to others to make money. At most, we accumulate some technology. But if we use them ourselves, we certainly can't use such a small boat. What we need is a warship with navigation capabilities, not a small gunboat. Of course, it can also sail, but its seaworthiness is very poor. So, since we have the ability to build a ship of about 1,000 tons, why don't we consider a bigger ship? Of course, we can build it a little later, but there is not much difference between 600 tons and more than 1,000 tons! After all, it is a start."
When saying the word "after all", Zhu Xianhai waved his hands to emphasize his tone.
"After overcoming all difficulties and making this start, we will be able to build bigger and more warships in the future!"
I've been having a bit of a writer's block these past two days, so I can only update twice today. I'll update more another day!
(End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
