The arguments in the conference room intensified, from day to night.

In order to stimulate his brain, Haight even went out to pick up the design team members who had been idle at home for more than half a year and were looking forward to Haight's escape.

Tall, short, fat and thin people in a dozen people sat among the gold coins piled up randomly, burning tobacco, pouring coffee, red eyes, and stalking their necks, and the chaos of the conference room scene can be imagined.

But in any case, they succeeded.

At 11 o'clock in the evening, as Humphreys wrote the last strokes on scratch paper, everyone celebrated with a deafening cheer.

Haidt was the first to report to Lorraine.

"Mr. Kenway, my specialty is high-speed ships, and I'm going to report to you on our thinking at speed, speed, and flexibility."

With a thud, he turned around the blueprints and the stacks of drafts in front of him.

"First of all, the sail is fitted, and the Bermuda sail mode is fully adopted on the basis of the original part of the Bermuda sail, and the bow mast is lengthened to 15 meters, so that it can accommodate the five-sided triangular sail."

"The overall sail layout is as follows: seven narrow-sided sails on the mainmast, six on the foremast, four on the aftermast, full-wing sails, five large triangular headsails, four wind-catching sails on the foremast, three-sided windsurfers on the mainmast, and a soft longitudinal sail on the twenty-meter-high rear mast."

"At the same time, we have abandoned the original white glue line coating and replaced it with the most expensive undership copper, the copper sheet is 1 inch (2.5 cm) thick, which is expected to speed up by 20%, and the wind and flexibility can meet your requirements!"

Clen then stood up: "You know that I am good at warship design in the traditional field, so I will report on the offensive and defensive arrangements." ”

"In terms of firepower, we still maintain the design of the single-layer gun bay, but we have comprehensively upgraded from the gun door to the caliber, reaching 54 guns on the whole ship."

Among them, the gun compartment uses a total of 30 32-pounder long-range guns on both sides as the main gun, the main deck has three front and four aft, and a total of 14 24-pounder short guns on both sides are the melee secondary guns. The bow guns were double-decked, with two 68-pound mortars and two 18-pounder guns, and the stern guns were double-decked, with two twelve-pound guns and four 18-pounder guns. ”

Lorraine rolled her eyes when she heard this: "Clen, the thirty-two-pound long and sixty-eight-pound mortars are both non-civilian, and the unheard of twenty-four pound short, where are you going to find it?" ”

Clen raised his hand and pointed at Haight: "The twenty-four-pound short is a great creation of the Rostannis Gun Factory in Boston, which has changed the disadvantage of small-caliber and low-loading of the upper guns, and greatly improved the cutting power of high-speed ships." It is ridiculous that the US Navy has so far no warships suitable for its use, and powers such as Britain and France are now unaware of its existence. ”

"But after all, it's a Boston specialty, and the general manager said he can get it, and even the equipment license approval in the United States can be prepared."

"As for the thirty-two pounds...... Plymouth had a design at that time, that is, to apply special retreat rails and gun mounts for heavy artillery on medium-caliber and small-caliber naval guns, just like increasing the loading speed of heavy artillery, to achieve British speed in small and medium-caliber guns, and further widening the gap between Britain and other countries in artillery loading speed. ”

Clen shrugged: "This plan was naturally aborted because of cost and cost performance, but it formed two products. First, a mature and reliable alternative to the additional gun mount is in my head; Second, the heavy artillery mount became a separate commodity, and for unknown reasons, it has not been included in the non-civilian list. ”

"So my plan is to buy a gun mount from England, and then buy a French thirty-two pounds through the Earl of Galvez and modify it myself."

"The French guns are light and accurate, have a long range, high durability, and with the blessing of British speed, even if it is a medium-range bombardment of 300 to 500 meters, our battle cruisers will not lose to the third-class ships of any country."

Lorraine was stunned by the crazy idea to bring to life the world's best thirty-two-pounder cannon with British speed and French precision......

Importantly, the solution is feasible and has a high probability of success, with little to no difficulty in the process.

But he quickly thought of more critical issues, and couldn't help but gasp.

"From this date onwards, this renovation plan is classified as top secret at the shipyard and is not allowed to be circulated by anyone, nor to be applied to any individual or country ship without the special permission of the Board of Directors. At the same time, the outsourcing involving the transformation of castings has to be mixed with other projects, and even the transformation can only be carried out secretly by the people present. ”

"In short, if you don't want to become a mortal enemy of the Royal Navy, this plan is rotten to the heart, and even your wife and children are not allowed to reveal it! I need you to swear by it. ”

……

Such a blatant concern was raised, and of course, the smart people present would no longer be unable to think of the key to it.

Everyone swore solemnly, and many still swore poisonous oaths. Faith, soul, family, reputation, all sorts of valuable things were put on the altar to convince Lorraine and her companions that they would keep secrets.

By the time the circle of people finished swearing, most of the excitement in the conference room had dissipated.

No one mentioned anything about the thirty-two-pound length, and even the sixty-eight-pound mortar was put on hold for the time being, and Lorraine only let the gun position vacate, and Lorraine slowly figured out how to do the rest.

Clen continued his debriefing.

"In terms of defense, we are ready to introduce a full-coverage gun door scheme."

"Building gun bays on the main deck gun emplacements is now the mainstream design of small and medium-sized military ships. On the one hand, it can reduce the process of preparing for gunfire on the upper deck and improve the overall reaction speed of the battleship. On the other hand, it gives the upper gunners better protection, allowing them to focus on the enemy with maximum concentration. ”

"In the second step, we are going to apply armor on the outside of the hull, especially on the front line of the gun compartment."

"Nowadays, the mainstream armor is generally cast iron, with a thickness of 1 inch (2.5 cm), 2 inches (5.1 cm) and 2.5 inches (6.4 cm), but only 2.5 inches can defend against a 24-pound direct attack at a distance of 50 meters, so that is our only option."

"In terms of implementation, the use of patch ironclad to defend important parts of the hull is the latest retrofitting technology in recent years, but it is not a military technology. We can easily find good craftsmen in Europe, the only thing we need to invest is money. ”

"And finally, the third step, mast protection."

"Considering the situation in which it is necessary to engage with a first- or second-class ship in a special situation, we analyze that due to the huge height difference between the freeboard of the two sides, the type of ammunition that is most likely to deal a fatal blow to us will be chain bullets."

"Once the mast is broken by a chain bullet, we lose the speed we need to escape, and this is our biggest dead end."

"So the key to dealing with this situation is the protection of the mast. Our solution was simple, with an iron guard at the base of the mast, connected by rivets and a thickness of 2 inches, taking into account both the protection performance and the center of gravity of the mast. We believe that this solution is sufficient to protect the mast from breaking at the root. ”

"That's all there is to it on the offensive and defensive ends!"

Amid the applause, Clen took her seat, and Humphreys, the last master in the room, stood up to face Lorraine.

He said with a full sense of emotion: "Mr. Kenway, I am the best at building mathematical models and adjusting the center of gravity, so this time I will make the final summary. ”

"Based on the above transformation plan, the final theoretical data of the battle cruiser is 62.2 meters long, 13.6 meters wide, 7.5 meters draft, 2,500 tons of displacement, and 400 people with a full load."

"It can reach a speed of 13 knots on the wind, 4.5 knots against the wind, turn on the spot for 15 minutes, and the steering radius is no more than three hulls, taking into account speed and agility."

"In terms of firepower, its preset main gun is 32 pounds long, the secondary gun is 24 pounds short, and the strongest firepower is the bow 68-pound mortar gun, which can inflict a devastating direct attack on the first-class ship at close range."

"In terms of protection, the core part can resist three direct attacks from the 24-pounder cannon and one direct attack from the 32-pounder cannon at a distance of 50 meters. It is better than all the current fourth-class ships as a whole, and can effectively suppress the third-class ships. ”

"Due to the small adjustment of the hull of the transformation plan, there is no need to customize new wooden components, the main body is expected to be built in 18 months, and the special transformation is 18 months, and the construction budget includes labor, ship installation, wear and tear, sea trials, etc., totaling about 15-180,000 pounds, which is nearly twice the basic cost of a first-class ship, and more than 30% of the full allocation price."

"Is it more expensive than a fully equipped first-class ship......" Lorraine opened his mouth, but he couldn't say the word of giving up, so he could only grit his teeth, "Isn't it just to make money...... Earn! That's it! ”

The suppressed and restrained cheers rang out, and Lorraine knew that it was the heartfelt gratitude of a group of tech nerds when they found the wronged leader.

Humphreys's face flushed with excitement, and even his voice trembled faintly.

"After preliminary calculations, most of the renovations can be successfully completed, and only the thirty-two-pounder cannon ......"

"What's wrong with the cannon?"

Humphreys gritted his teeth: "The recoil of the thirty-two-pounder cannon is too large, and the length-to-width ratio of the new ship is larger than that of the average capital ship, so in the environment above the middle wave, it is estimated that there may be a large elevation angle, which will have a significant impact on the stability of the shelling." ”

"There are two plans now, one is to remove at least four main guns per string and reduce the total number of guns to 46, and the other is to replace a total of 8 guns on both sides of the gun bay with 18 pounds, but it will greatly reduce the firepower of the experimental ship......"

Lorraine blinked: "Is it just because of the aspect ratio?" ”

Humphreys nodded: "The draft and tonnage are sufficient, only the aspect ratio ......"

Before he could finish speaking, Lorraine had already picked up the stubble in confusion.

"Since it's just a matter of aspect ratio, why don't you consider stabilizers?"