In early September, two new warships, were launched from the Emden shipyard. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 infoThese two battleships, both 500-ton "Hoffmann-class" battleships, were built with dense dragon ribs and thickened sides. In addition, the ship is equipped with 40 12-pounder iron cannons, which are full of protection and attack power.

Moreover, because of the 4:1 aspect ratio, the speed of the battleship reached 10 knots, which was higher than that of the 250-class armed merchant ship with 9 knots.

It can be said that this kind of "Hoffmann-class" warship, which refers to the later British Galen ships, has high protection, strong attack power, and exceptionally fast speed......

In short, in this era, it is the most perfect battleship......

After the launch of the first Hoffman-class battleship in October last year, Marin was satisfied, so he arranged for Emden Shipyard to start using high-temperature steam boxes and molds to start bending the ribs needed to build the warship in batches, according to the data previously recorded. Because it was washed by the hot steam for several hours, the inside of the wood was completely soaked. For this reason, this batch of boat ribs needs to be air-dried for several months before they can be used again.

Therefore, by the spring of the following year, the ribs of these ships could be used for shipbuilding. It just so happened that Marin's caravan purchased two 30-meter-long main keel timbers from Eastern Europe, and the construction of two new warships began. By the end of August and the beginning of September, the two ships were finally ready to be launched......

Marin visited again and boarded the ship to feel good. As a result, the two warships were officially put into service and were designated as Hoffman-class ships No. 2 and No. 3.

The sailor on board has no problem maneuvering both the full sail (middle sail, nose and tail jib, for downwind sailing) and the full spinnaker (for upwind sailing). Because, the sailor school founded by Marin trained a large number of young Frisian fishermen to become sailors. For a battleship, the sailors needed to control the sails are only 60 people, and Marin has trained two or three thousand sailors, which is completely sufficient.

Of course, the artillery on the ship is somewhat difficult to train. Marin set up an artillery training camp on land to train artillerymen. However, firing artillery on land and firing artillery on a warship are completely different things.

If you use the guns of the battery, there is no such thing as "reset" when firing artillery on land, and it is extremely simple. Because, the stone foundation of the battery can completely absorb the recoil of the artillery, no matter how large the caliber of the artillery.

However, it was different on the ship, and the four-wheeled gun mount "designed" by Marin according to the pictures seen by later generations must have retreated after firing the cannon. Otherwise, if it is fixed to the hull, all the recoil will react to the hull, and once a volley is fired from the side side, it is easy to cause the ship to capsize......

Moreover, behind the four-wheeled gun mount, before firing the gun, a rope had to be tied. After the cannon was fired, the four-wheel gun carriage was violently recoiled and broke the rope. Of course, the breaking of the rope at this stage will also absorb a large amount of work done by the reaction force. Then, tie a knot of the broken rope and continue to use it......

The muzzles of the guns on the ships must have protruded from the gun doors on the side and under the plywood. However, because it was a front-loading gun, it was simply impossible to load gunpowder and shells from the muzzle if the muzzle remained outside. Therefore, the retreat of the four-wheel gun carriage also allows the gun muzzle to return to the ship, which is convenient for the gunner to load gunpowder and shells.

Therefore, the retreat of the four-wheeled gun carriage and the breaking of the rope were very useful both in reducing the effect of gun recoil on the ship and in terms of ease of loading.

But after the reloading of the retreating four-wheel gun mount, there was another step - repositioning, which required several gunners to restore the heavy naval guns to their original positions and tie ropes behind the gun mounts......

Fortunately, the four-wheeled gun carriage has wheels, although it is not a round wheel (the round wheel is unstable and will run), it is a regular polygonal wheel (mainly to increase the resistance and prevent the gun carriage from automatically retreating and sliding), but it is also much easier to push the gun carriage with wheels than to simply carry the heavy gun body. If you lift the cannon body, how heavy will it be? But the 12-pounder gun, because for safety, was designed according to the barrel of an 18-pounder gun, which weighed 2 tons. Even if 10 people carry it, they can't lift it. Because, a person has to carry 200 kilograms of weight, which is equivalent to 400 kilograms, and ordinary people really can't do it......

And with the four-wheeled gun mount, although it was not easy to push, 5 gunners could do it. After all, that's with wheels......

In fact, in this era, artillery is still an era of one barrel and artillery to carry. Because there is no need for gun mounts, and the use of light Furlong cannons is now popular on warships, the number of guns on many warships now reaches dozens. When the cannon was fired, everyone just lifted the guns of those light Furlong cannons to the side of the ship and set them up, and it was okay to squeeze them a little.

It's just that these "skinny" small-caliber guns have no power in naval battles, so they can only bully small boats. When encountering large ships, it is difficult to have results. The Portuguese were able to defeat the combined Indo-Egyptian fleet in the Battle of Diu because most of the ships were small boats, many of which were simply troop carriers, and many of them were simply small fishing boats forcibly requisitioned from fishermen...... Therefore, the Fran cannon of the Portuguese can make a contribution......

At the current stage of "lifting the barrel", if you get a heavy gun, the sailors will not be able to lift it. Even if the sailor lifts it, because it is too heavy, everyone has no strength to lift it several times. Far inferior to the four-wheeled gun carriage designed by Marin, it relies on pushing, which saves much effort than lifting, and can fight for a long time......

Therefore, the four-wheeled gun mount "invented" by Marin was actually ahead of its time and was very suitable for heavy artillery. It's no wonder that Marin clearly looked at the gun mount drawings of those famous sail battleships in the 18th century and copied them, how can it be unreasonable?

And in this era, other countries in Europe, not to mention naval warships, are also in the form of human cannon construction even on land. They all marched with the barrels of the guns in the wagons, and when they arrived at the battlefield, they were asked to carry the barrels off the carriages and bury them in front of the battle...... Only the French invented the cannon lugs and began to use low-level four-wheeled carriages for the placement of artillery, but there were many gun mounts that lagged behind Marin's three-pounder guns......

In short, in the way the artillery is placed, Marin is already a generation ahead of this era......

In order to make the gunners accustomed to firing and aiming on the battleship, Marin ordered that these three ships should be trained to fire more and not be afraid of wasting ammunition. Moreover, Marin also intends to train more naval gunners. Therefore, he mobilized more gunners from the artillery training camp than needed, and boarded the ship to learn how to use and operate the ship's guns. Because, Marin intends to build more warships......

In fact, Marin had prepared more boat ribs before. The Emden shipyard previously bent the ribs needed to build 10 warships. However, it was the lack of a 30-meter-long main keel that only three battleships were built first. If the number of main keels is sufficient, it is no problem to build 10 ships......

At present, probably aware of the prosperity of maritime trade, the royal families of many Western European countries now regard the old oak trees that are higher than 20 meters as a strategic resource of the country. Even if Marin wanted to buy it, it was hard to get it.

In fact, in the interior of Europe, there are many old oak trees that are twenty or thirty meters high. However, if it is too inland, such a large trunk may not be able to be transported to the sea......

After all, the trunk is tens of meters long and weighs more than a dozen tons. Such a heavy thing must also be handled as a whole, and it cannot be cut, so how difficult is it?

Therefore, even if there are such big trees in the inland mountainous areas, they cannot be transported. Even if it is shipped out, the price is staggering......

And in this era, the keel required for shipbuilding. Those oak trees tend to grow on the seaside, which is easy to pull to the sea, or on the banks of rivers that connect to the sea. In this way, after the old oak tree is cut down, it can be allowed to float on the surface of the river and down the river to the sea......

As for the old oak trees hidden in the mountains, I'm sorry, I can't transport them if I find them; Shipped out, the price is also unacceptable...... And most of the old oak trees that grow by the sea and the big rivers have long been discovered and cut down by the craftsmen of those shipyards, and will not wait for you to find them......

Therefore, it is difficult for Marlin to collect the main keel material with a length of 30 meters. The Americas are different, the Americas are almost undeveloped (the Indians have very little damage to nature), and there are more old oak trees tens of meters high by the sea and river. Looking for a keel, Garland said that even though Cape Breton Island is dominated by coniferous forests, it is still possible to find many old oak trees that are more than 30 meters long that are suitable for keels.

Just before Garland left Cape Breton Island and returned to East Friesland, he instructed the emigrants to cut down a dozen centuries-old oak trees thirty or forty meters long (note: Marin had previously popularized the use of new weights and measures such as meters, kilometers, kilograms, grams, and acres), and organized everyone to carry them together to the designated air-drying position. For this reason, everyone is almost exhausted. However, after a year or two, Marin will add a dozen keels suitable for building large ships.

The problem is that these newly cut down old oak trees will have to be dried for a year or two before they are suitable for shipbuilding, and Marlin will have to wait......

However, while Marin was anxiously waiting, the ship that went to the Teutonic country to sell salt came back, and it also brought back a surprise to Marin......

It turned out that Marin had previously allowed the old Sten. Sturley sent young officers into Schwartz's leading new army to train and learn new tactics. Sturley was grateful.

In return, old Sten. Stuley, from a shipyard in Sweden, found five huge oak logs up to 30 meters long and gave them to Marin to be used as the main keel of the new battleship.

These logs, which have been air-dried in shipyards in Sweden for a long time, have reached the needs of shipbuilding. And, in fact, the Swedish shipyards do not plan to build ships of four or five hundred tons, but only two or three hundred tons of ships, which are currently in vogue. So, the 5 logs were originally intended to be sawn a little shorter. Thankfully, old Sten. Sturley finds out ahead of time and gives it to Marlin in return for his support.

So, the ship sent by Marin to the Baltic Sea region, and when it returned, the street Sweden informed that it would go to Sweden and tie these five huge logs to the side of the ship, and bring them back to East Friesland with a wobble ......

After obtaining these five huge oak logs, Marin immediately organized craftsmen to process them into the main keel of the boat. With the ribs and other materials of the ship that have been prepared long ago, the new 5 battleships can also be built at the same time. By the beginning of next year, five new 500-ton "Hoffman-class" warships will be launched. At that time, Marin, who had 8 large warships equipped with heavy guns, could also be called a small overlord of the sea......