Chapter 802 The Prodigal Son of the Navy (3rd update, please subscribe)
Imperial Admiralty Building.
This is a Renaissance building. It is not a new building. It used to be the Argentine Congress Building.
Because the Ming Dynasty did not have a parliament, this building became the location of the Ministry of the Navy.
Although this is the important location of the Ministry of Admiralty, there are many ordinary citizens relaxing and playing in the Navy Square in front of the building, and many children running around the fountain.
"Peace is really the best thing!"
Ma Anwei was sitting in the car, looking through the window at the people playing in the Navy Square, and he couldn't help but sigh in his heart.
The Navy Square was open, but the Navy Department was heavily guarded. After an inspection, the car slowly drove into this heavily guarded military restricted area.
In front of the magnificent Admiralty Building, naval officers and soldiers in uniform can be seen everywhere. This is the heart of the Imperial Navy.
Soon the car slowly stopped in front of the building. At this time, a naval lieutenant with one bar and two stars on his collar walked to the side of the car, opened the door, and said to Ma Anwei as soon as the car stopped.
"Sir, long time no see, the Shangshu is waiting for you."
This naval lieutenant is the adjutant of Navy Minister Lin Yuehu.
Today he waited for Ma Anwei's arrival in front of the building, which showed that the superiors attached great importance to this matter, which was very unusual.
A few minutes later, Ma Anwei walked into the office of the Navy Minister. After entering the office, he saw Lin Yuehu, the Navy Minister who was known as the "Two Tigers of the Empire" together with the Army Minister Sun Hu, standing in front of the model of the "Youzhou-class" battleship, seemingly thinking about something.
So Ma Anwei just stood there and didn't say anything. The "Youzhou class" is the core of the Navy's second phase naval expansion plan.
The "Phase II Expansion Plan" was the second phase plan proposed by the navy in 1874. The core of the plan was to build four new 10,000-ton battleships and four new 10,000-ton armored cruisers. Once the plan was completed, the Ming Navy would have a main fleet consisting of eight battleships and eight armored cruisers.
"Siwei, look."
In fact, Lin Yuehu already knew it when Ma Anwei just came in, but he was thinking about something at the time and did not interrupt him.
"What?"
"This is the plan for the '202 Armored Cruiser' that the Naval Administration Department just sent us."
"Is this an armored cruiser? Not the "102 Battleship"?"
"102" is the "Youzhou-class" battleship. When Ma Anwei approached the model, he found that the two were not quite the same. In comparison, its hull was longer.
"This is……"
Looking up at Minister Sun, Ma Anwei said.
"They are going to install 305mm naval guns on the armored ships!"
"You guessed it right. The experts from the Naval Administration Department believed that since the navy's armored ships need to participate in fleet decisive battles, their firepower can be further strengthened. With a displacement of 10,000 tons, they can be equipped with 305mm naval guns. Moreover, they believed that since there is a new type of armor, there is basically no difference between 180mm and 170mm armor. So what? They made the armor thinner again."
Hearing what the Shangshu said, Ma Anwei said.
"The idea of thinning the armor by adding watertight compartments and new nickel-steel armor is also possible. However, the larger the caliber of the gun, the slower the rate of fire. Our 305mm naval gun has a rate of fire of one round every three minutes, while the 254mm naval gun has a rate of fire of two rounds every three minutes. In terms of firepower, the 254mm naval gun has more powerful firepower!"
Although he was not a technical officer in the field of artillery, Ma Anwei was no stranger to artillery. After all, he was also a naval soldier.
"They believe that within three to five years, the barrel recoil technology will definitely be applied to large-caliber artillery. With the barrel recoil technology, the firing rate will naturally not be a problem. By then, the firing rate of the 305mm naval gun may be faster than the current 254mm."
"But the 254mm will have a faster rate of fire!"
"But the 305mm naval gun is more powerful! The speed of technological advancement is faster than we thought!"
Staring at the model, Lin Yuehu said with emotion.
A few years ago, when the "Nanhua" battleship was commissioned, he thought that steel armor was the best, but just one year later, Dahua Steel Company invented the "nickel steel armor" with extremely excellent performance. The toughness and strength of nickel steel armor are very good. Its performance completely overturned their understanding. Nickel steel armor with a thickness of one can play the same defensive effect as wrought iron armor with a thickness of 1.55.
Nickel-steel armor and recoil-barreled rapid-fire guns, the technological advances in the past two years have been earth-shaking. It is precisely because of the technological advances that the Navy Ship Administration Department made such a risky attempt.
When the voice fell, Lin Yuehu looked at Ma Anwei and said.
"By the way, you said on the phone before that the experiment was successful?"
"Yes!"
Maanvi smiled.
"We have conducted a six-month sea trial. The performance of the kerosene-mixed boiler can fully meet the needs of the navy. In addition, the calorific value of heavy oil is higher and it is more convenient to transport. It can be directly installed through pipelines, without the need for sailors to carry bags of oil. Even at sea, it can be directly refueled through a projectile oil pipe. It only takes one hour to complete the refueling."
While talking, Ma Anwei took out a folder from his briefcase. As one of the few boiler experts in the navy, he participated in the development of the first generation of water tube boilers in the Ming Dynasty. Water tube boilers are smaller and more efficient. They can produce more steam at higher pressures.
In recent years, the advanced performance water-tube boiler has always been the most important export product of the Ming Dynasty, and it is also one of the reasons why the Ming Dynasty Navy has maintained its technological leadership.
However, five years ago, the Navy Department, or more precisely, Emperor Zhu, proposed the idea of "replacing coal with oil", that is, using heavy oil to replace coal. After all, the coal source of the Ming Dynasty was not safe, but there was sufficient oil supply in the mainland. Under such circumstances, the Ming Dynasty would of course choose heavy oil as the fuel for the navy.
It was from that time that the oil-fired boiler became a key research project of the Power Research Institute of the Navy Administration Department. "Oil instead of coal" seems simple, but there are many problems involved. They spent several years to solve many technical problems and manufacture the first oil-fired boiler last year. Heavy oil boilers have many advantages, but... what about the Navy's active warships? Moreover, many overseas ports do not have heavy oil at all. How to replenish the fuel for overseas cruises?
So faced with this problem, Ma Anwei immediately tried to solve these problems by improving the boiler and modifying the ship.
"So, as long as we make the appropriate modifications, our warships can achieve kerosene-fuel combustion?"
Looking at the report in his hand, Lin Yuehu asked.
"Yes, the transformation is not difficult. Although it takes some time, it can be done during the normal maintenance of the warship. However..."
After a pause, Maanvi said.
"The boilers of the Friendship and Tianlong class are too old. They are all old-fashioned fire-tube boilers. From a performance point of view, there is no need to improve them. I even think that if possible, the navy can consider selling them to other countries. After all, they are already outdated..."
Before he could finish his words, Lin Yuehu spoke excitedly.
"What, what did you say? Sell the warship. It's a navy ship! How can you be so wasteful?"
(End of this chapter)
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