In the dockyard of the Navy, a worker joked with his colleagues while working: "The progress of the Navy is really fast, the sailing ships stopped when they said stop, and Lawrence came back and went south, this time he took more than 30 sailboats, presumably he could bring back more rubber." ”

His colleague was also busy with his work, and replied without raising his head: "Because I saw the rubber of the whole three ships, this time the navy can be regarded as raising its eyebrows." The tire factory is waiting for rubber, and many steel projects have to make way for the Navy's new warships. ”

This time, after the navy came back, it did get the attention of the people above, after all, although there are many alternatives, it is indeed much less troublesome to have natural rubber. Therefore, the enlarged meeting of the Navy was in full swing.

Interestingly, the Commander-in-Chief of the Navy did not attend the Navy's development meeting again, and Lawrence went south with his own warship, resting only for a morning on land.

This time, the number of fleets heading south was very large: not only 10 sailing ships specially built by the navy that could carry things, but also three previous warships, and 20 pure transport sailing ships that were not armed.

In order to improve the efficiency of a trip south, Lawrence even requisitioned five large fishing boats to go south to Dothan to transport rubber together. This time, even if it is conservatively estimated, he can loot back tens of thousands of tons of rubber from the Dosen Empire.

In order to support the navy's southward strategy of transporting rubber, Deser Gurlo and others supported the navy in arms expansion. In their opinion, as long as the navy does not want oil and too much steel, everything is negotiable.

It was against this background that the Navy approved a crazy shipbuilding plan and decided to launch 20 all-metal multi-purpose warships in one go, and another 20 fast transport ships. Plus 50 large transport sailing ships and 50 low-armed sailing ships cobbled together a huge fleet with transportation as the main force and naval warfare as the auxiliary.

Of course, this is just a grand shipbuilding plan, and it is still unknown whether or when it can be completed, but the first multi-purpose warship that fell on the head of the navy, which was unimaginable before, began construction a month ago.

"yes, look over there, the one in the dockyard! I heard that 1,000 tons of rubber can be transported back in one go, and it is made of all-metal, which is very scary! The worker pointed to the big guy in the dock in the distance and said to his colleague.

The colleague looked in the direction of his chin and saw the huge ship, which had been welded for most of the hull, lying quietly in the dock.

A boiler the size of a house has been installed inside the hull, a huge chimney has been fabricated and placed next to the hull, and at least hundreds of workers are busy on the ship, every part of which is precisely installed in its designated position.

The modern steel giant ship is definitely a systematic precision engineering, including the attention to ventilation pipelines, power line layout, fire extinguishing system, drainage and self-rescue system, each of which is a condensation of the wisdom and exploration of countless generations.

The good news is that, with the help of the Magic Ball of Knowledge, naval designers have directly inherited this design experience, and they have designed the first all-steel ship of Iran Hill to be almost flawless.

A brand-new battleship, in fact, does not look very large in tonnage, this kind of battleship has a full load displacement of 7500 tons, and it is not a fully armored main cruiser. Because he knew that this kind of battleship would be eliminated, the battleship that Chris chose in the end was a cheap alternative.

The plan he came up with was the design of an auxiliary cruiser, which could transport personnel and supplies in peacetime, with spacious cabins and excellent living conditions. Moreover, this kind of warship can use coal as fuel, which is very suitable for Iran Hill.

The new warship was equipped with three turrets, six of the latest naval 105 mm guns, and 10 30 mm guns on the side of the ship.

In this way, this kind of warship has a good sea attack capability, as well as a strong air defense capability, it can be said that the only depressing thing about the sea hegemon in the new era is that the main business of this sea hegemon also includes freight and passenger transportation.

The newly designed battleship was built in less than six months, after all, this kind of transport ship is just a kind of freighter at heart. It doesn't have very heavy armor or powerful large-caliber artillery, but it's still a formidable sea supremacy.

The only difference from the auxiliary cruiser is that this type of battleship is equipped with an aiming device, which allows the six main guns to attack distant targets more accurately. So, in a sense, this cruiser was the first type of warship that could "accurately attack distant targets."

This battleship has 4 huge chimneys, which looks like the Titanic cruise ship, and its side is very high, which also means that it has a huge tonnage and can carry many things and people.

When fully loaded, it can run a terrifying speed of 35 kilometers per hour, which is about 19 knots when converted into knots, which is faster than a serious high-speed sailing warship. This is a fully loaded situation, and if it is in combat state, such a speed can be increased to about 38 kilometers.

Compared to the previous sailing battleships, this new auxiliary cruiser could concentrate six 105 mm guns on either side and shoot more accurately at long range. So in terms of firepower, it was more powerful than a sailing battleship with 10 75 guns on one side of the ship.

If you include the 30 mm caliber high-level dual-purpose guns distributed on the side of the ship, the combat effectiveness of this new type of warship is simply off the charts.

Compared to a sail battleship, it can run at full speed in any situation, and it doesn't have to worry about the direction of the wind, which is another huge improvement.

The emergence of the first generation of steel warships in Irlanhill had a specific background and mission needs, because of the enemy's insufficient combat power and the limitations of the mission, Irlanhill's navy was full of confidence in crushing the enemy on the sea.

Their weapons and equipment in their hands have been stronger than each other for a decade or even several years, so they have no pressure from the other side's navy at all, so they focus on other aspects.

In the vast sea, whether it is the task of purchasing rubber in the south or the task of plundering the coastline of the other party, it has a long mission time, requires a certain speed and large endurance.

At the same time, they only need a moderate amount of firepower to fight against the slow, unarmored enemy sailing ships in naval battles. These tasks would be a waste of resources for Iran Hill to build regular cruisers that can cruise at high speeds and have large-caliber guns.

From the point of view of production, if a real warship is built, it will not only waste valuable steel and artillery production capacity, but also waste the speed of producing warships. Under the same production time limit, auxiliary cruisers can be built almost a dozen times a year, but it is estimated that only one or two regular cruisers can be launched.

The regular warships that have been painstakingly built cannot control the coastline because of their scarcity, and the regular cruisers are not very suitable for the southward escort and transportation mission of Iran Hill, because the superior speed and firepower of the regular cruisers are completely overflowing in the face of the sailing enemy, and they cannot get more benefits.

At the same time, the endurance and loading capacity sacrificed by regular cruisers for the installation of heavy armor and large-caliber guns, as well as the living conditions of sailors, became even more important when supporting long-term sea activities.

ァ新ヤ~(8)~1~Chinese 網ωωω.χ~8.~1zщ.còм

To put it bluntly, the enemy is too weak, and it is a complete waste to use a cruiser, and the long route makes the endurance and comfort of a regular warship waste on armor that cannot be used......

After much deliberation, Chris found that the high-speed cruise ships and merchant converted auxiliary cruisers that began to appear in the late nineteenth century were just right for tasks like Iran Hill: these ships were fast, generally 1826 knots, had excellent endurance, and had a natural radius of movement, but more importantly, there was plenty of space on these ships, comfortable to live in, and enough space for the crew to live and move around while carrying enough supplies, so as to maintain enough morale during long and boring cruises.

The best thing is that these ships are all coal-burning! They don't need to waste precious diesel or heavy oil, and only need more coal from Irlanhill to sail on the sea, which is very convenient and fast.

More importantly, the auxiliary cruisers converted into such ships can be used for shipping in obsolete or peacetime, they can transport large quantities of supplies and personnel, and after dismantling weapons, they can be used as cruise ships, which is very economical and practical.

After all, the technology of Iran Hill is developing very quickly, and it is definitely a matter of routine to knock out some warships. This kind of wasteful behavior, which consumes steel and is immediately eliminated, must still be avoided by Alan Hill, whose production capacity is still limited.

"When we have more and more warships, the Endless Sea will become the ocean of our Iran Hill!" The boatman who spoke first said with a smile. He had no reason not to laugh, after all, he had been working overtime every day lately, and his salary was enough to feed his entire family.

This treatment is much better than his treatment before, and it also makes him very satisfied: he works hard in exchange for ample wages and bonuses, isn't this the happy life he dreamed of in the past.

"Yes, when our ships are more and more and fills the endless sea, we can go and see what is on the other side of the sea?" The other boatman smiled and looked at the sea in the distance, and said word by word.