"Your Majesty, Matsue Port has arrived."

As the warship approached the port, Xu Zhixuan, the captain of the Vanguard, walked into the cabin and reported: "Director Tong and Deputy Director Niu of Xinghe Shipyard are here, and they are preparing to welcome Your Majesty near the port. ”

"They're pretty well prepared."

Li Mingyuan smiled faintly and said to the others: "Let's go, let's get off the ship and go to see what the results of the efforts of all the technicians of Xinghe Shipyard over the years look like." ”

"A 5,000-ton ocean-going ship is a big guy, and I don't know how many immigrants such a ship can carry at one time?"

"How to say that there must be nearly 2,000 people, the 3,000-ton transport ship under the name of the ocean shipping company can carry 1,400 immigrants at a time, and the 5,000-ton ocean-going carrier newly built by Xinghe Shipyard has a displacement tonnage nearly twice that of the former, and the number of standard carrying immigrants is definitely five or six hundred more than that of a 3,000-ton transport ship."

The group got off the warship and chatted as they walked: "The 5,000-ton ocean-going steamship uses a three-expansion reciprocating steam engine as the propulsion power, and each ship is equipped with two three-expansion steam engines, each with 8,000 horsepower and 12,000 horsepower for strong pressure ventilation. The total power of the ship is 16,000 horsepower, the standard speed is 16 knots, and the maximum speed is 20 knots.

The standard displacement is 5,200 tons, the full load displacement is 6,000 tons, and the number of immigrants on board is 2,100 people. Crew 180 people.

Departing from the port of Yishui (Puerto Montt) at a speed of 16 knots, the total distance of the one-way voyage to the Far East is about 19,000 kilometers and takes days. ”

As early as before leaving Chang'an, the technical data of the 5,000-ton ocean-going ship submitted by Xinghe Shipyard were distributed to the chief officials of several core departments of the central government, so as one of the higher-level management departments of civil shipping enterprises, the director of the industrial development department knew more about the technical performance of the new ship than ordinary officials.

"A speed of 1.8 kilometers per hour means that if a ship maintains a non-stop speed of 16 knots, doesn't that mean that it can take only 28 days to cover the entire South America-Far East route?"

As the Director General of the Transport Development Department, who is often involved in maritime shipping management matters, he has always been sensitive to numbers, so after listening to the introduction of the Minister of Industry, he quickly calculated the theoretical data for the new ocean-going ship to be in full swing.

"According to the technical theoretical data, the entire South Pacific route can be run in 28 days, but because the fleet needs to carry out necessary supplies and repairs during the voyage, the total one-way voyage time will exceed 40 days."

Chen Shen, the general director of the Ministry of Industry, said: "Compared with the ordinary ocean-going carriers under the name of the ocean-going shipping companies, the one-way voyage time of the 5,000-ton steamship is shortened by days, but compared with the Western powers, the standard speed of 16 knots and the tonnage of 5,200-ton ocean-going shipping ships are not the first-class industry level.

In May last year, a 10,000-ton ocean-going ship named "Paris City" under the name of the British Enman International Steamship Company completed a one-way voyage from Europe to North America in 6 days and 29 minutes, with an average speed of more than 20 knots.

In April this year, under the name of the German North German Laureide Company, an ocean-going ship with a displacement of 14,000 tons completed the task of crossing the Atlantic route in 5 days and 13 hours, and the average speed of the ship reached 22 knots, setting a record for the maximum sailing speed of a 10,000-ton ocean-going giant ship.

If the British and German civil steamship construction technologies are among the world's first-class, if the local civilian steamship construction industry can meet the average level of the two countries, it will be possible to shorten the one-way voyage time from the mainland to the Far East to less than 35 days. It is also possible that the number of migrants transported per year will increase from 450,000 to 700,000 or even 800,000 per year. ”

"The gap between the local and British and German civil ocean-going steamship construction technology is not a year or two to catch up, and in order to reach the current level of ocean-going ship construction technology in Britain and Germany, the local side still needs to catch up for at least 5 years."

Li Mingyuan was able to face up to the gap between the local civil shipbuilding industry and the British, German and French countries, so he did not have the illusion of catching up with the level of the great powers in a short period of time.

"The local civil shipbuilding industry does not have the technical reserves to build 10,000-ton ocean-going ships for the time being, and the local government cannot afford the huge construction and maintenance costs spent on building ocean-going ships.

The introduction of 10,000-ton ocean-going ship construction technology and reduce the construction and maintenance cost of self-built 10,000-ton giant ship is a difficult problem to be solved in the next ten-year development plan, and now to 1895 before the time period, the task of the local civil shipbuilding industry is to use the annual allocation of civil ship construction costs, control the cost of ship construction, in the next five and a half years, complete the construction task of 5,200-ton ocean-going ships, and gradually eliminate old, backward technical performance of ocean-going carriers. Improve the overall risk resistance and transportation efficiency of ocean-going shipping vessels.

Although a number of ocean-going vessels with a displacement of less than 1,000 tons have been eliminated before, and the number of ocean-going transport fleets has gradually increased to more than 170, due to the limitations of transportation funds and local civilian steamship construction capacity, the ocean-going transport fleet still retains a large number of old ships, of which the number of ocean-going transport ships that are not suitable for steam power transformation alone is close to 20.

These old, technologically backward ocean-going vessels are more dangerous than newer ones and must be phased out.

The old ships that have been eliminated and can be maintained and renovated will be sold to local private enterprises at a low price after transformation and used as offshore and inland river transportation, fishing and hunting vessels. ”

"Most of the ocean-going carriers owned by the mainland are old-fashioned ships sold to us by European countries at low prices, and although many of them have been transformed by steam power to increase their speed, there are more than 170 ocean-going carriers, 120 of which are more than 20 years old, and 20 of which are 10 years old.

The service life of ordinary wooden sailing ships is 30 years, and the service life of wooden steam engine ships that have been transformed by steam power has been increased by three or four years, and the time from being eliminated is not more than ten years.

At the beginning, there was a lack of ocean-going shipping vessels in the country, and in order to increase the amount of immigrants imported, they could only choose to buy the old-fashioned wooden sailing ships eliminated by Western countries, but now the local government is gradually financially abundant, and the development of the civil shipbuilding industry can also basically meet the construction tasks of ocean-going transport ships. ”…………

The group chatted on the road for seven or eight minutes, and met Tong Longfu, Niu Shangzhou and others who were standing in the port to greet them, and then, under the greeting and escort of Tong Longfu and others, Li Mingyuan and his party came to the offshore dock of Xinghe Shipyard.

"The construction period of 5,200-ton ocean-going ships is one year and three months, and the average construction cost of each ship is 570,000 Han Yuan (equivalent to about 300,000 taels of Kuping silver. ），

Xinghe Shipyard has 1 5,000-ton military dock and 4 3,000-ton military docks. There are 2 civil 8,000-ton docks, 4 civil 5,000-ton docks, and 9 civil 3,000-ton docks.

Among them, there are two docks with the ability to build new ocean-going ships, and the construction tasks were completed in the first year. It is expected that the annual construction period of 5,200-ton ocean-going ships will be shortened to one year, and Xinghe Shipyard will be able to complete the construction of two 5,200-ton ocean-going ships per year from the second year. ”

Facing the direction of the dock, Li Mingyuan admired the huge white steamer while listening to the introduction of Niu Shangniu, deputy director of Xinghe Shipyard.

"At the current level of technology, there are two local civil shipyards that are qualified to build 5,200-ton ocean-going ships, one is the Xinghe Shipyard, and the other is the Han Ocean Shipping Company (controlled by the royal family) under His Majesty's name.

The ocean shipping company has a total of 4 shipbuilding bases, 183 supporting related enterprises, 3,100 industrial employees (excluding crews) and 2,400 industrial workers. 1 8,000-ton civil dock, 3 5,000-ton civil docks, and 8 3,000-ton civil docks.

It has the capacity to build one 5,200-ton ocean-going ship per year. ”

"With the construction capacity of the Xinghe shipyard and ocean shipping company. How long will it take to increase the number of migrants transported to more than 550,000 per year? ”

"Based on the number of immigrants imported 450,000 last year, the two shipyards complete the construction of three 5,200-ton ships every year, each ship carries 2,100 immigrants, each round-trip voyage takes three months, each ship travels back and forth to South America and the Far East four times a year, each ship transports 6,300 people per year, and three ships transport 18,900 immigrants per year, and then taking into account factors such as the weakening of capacity caused by the elimination of some old ocean shipping ships, it will take about 7 years to increase the number of immigrants transported to 550,000 people per year."

"No, seven years is too long, the situation in the Far East is volatile, and the mainland is likely to usher in a larger wave of migration around 1894, and in order to meet the wave of immigration that will come in the next few years, the construction plan of 5,200-ton ocean-going ships must be accelerated."

Li Mingyuan thought of the war that changed the Far East International five years later, and urged: "Xinghe Shipyard and ocean shipping companies have insufficient production capacity, so expand the dock and increase the shipbuilding capacity of the shipyard, and private shipping enterprises have been developing rapidly for more than ten years, and there are many enterprises with basic technical talent reserves.

Xinghe Shipyard and Ocean Shipping Company are not only state-owned enterprises only responsible for the construction of ships, but also an important part of the national industrial development strategy.

After all, private shipping enterprises are the main force to undertake the task of local inland waterway shipping, and helping private enterprises develop is beneficial to the local shipping industry and national economic development. ”

"Your Majesty's teaching is that there are also many private shipbuilding enterprises in the local area that are relatively well run, such as the South Pacific Shipping Company, the Shengchang Steamship Company and other companies have independent shipyards under their names, if Xinghe Shipyard comes forward to help them expand and renovate the dock, I believe that in less than two years, the local area can add at least three private shipping enterprises with the ability to build 5,200-ton ocean-going ships."

"The South Pacific Shipping Company is an industry run by the concubine's father, although Mr. Zhang is the father of the concubine, but you can not be partial, when choosing a private company to undertake the construction of 5,200-ton ocean-going ships, we must take the company's comprehensive technical reserves as the basis for judging, and there must be no abuse of power for personal gain."

"Yes, Your Majesty, the Ministry of Industry and the Ministry of Railway and Transportation Development will cooperate with the two state-owned shipping companies to screen suitable private shipbuilding enterprises in full accordance with Your Majesty's instructions and standards." …………

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