Jochen and Ferdinand walked through the opulent corridors of Miramar Castle, followed by the guards respectfully holding a paper tube.

"By the way, Jochen, you just talked about the personnel of the navy, and I hope you can support the personnel training of the two battleships." Ferdinand, who was walking side by side with Jochen, said.

The Croatian-Slovenian Royal Naval Academy was basically built after the Royal Ocean College of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, but because there was only one naval academy in Croatia, it was also built with the teaching of other subjects in mind, rather than training naval officers like the Royal Ocean College.

Rather, it hopes to be a comprehensive naval academy like the Kiel Naval Academy in Germany, and the German side is also very cooperative with this, not only sending some teachers from several other professional naval academies in the Austro-Hungarian Empire to Croatia to teach, but also allowing the Kiel Naval Academy to regularly communicate with the Croatian-Slovenian Royal Naval Academy.

However, the size of the Croatian Navy is too small after all, and the two battleships need about 1,500 officers and men, which is a big difficulty for the Croatian Navy, and the suitability of the future will have new battleships that have never been touched before, so it can be said that all the knowledge must be learned from scratch, so Ferdinand can only ask for help like Germany, the provider of the battleship.

"This is not a problem, we will compile a list of personnel who need to work in battleships for you at that time, and you will transfer some people from the navy who meet the needs of these positions, and then we will train them into technical backbones, and they will help you when the time comes." "You can send people in now, and it will take about three years for the new ship to be completed, and your people can be trained in the system first," Jochen said. Then go on the ship for internship, and after all the German class is completed, there will be enough ships to arrange internship positions. ”

"Then I'll be relieved." Ferdinand nodded: "After we go back, we will do our best to arrange personnel." ”

"Although it is better to send more people, it is considered as a supporting service for the purchase of warships, and we will not charge you tuition." Jochen joked, "That's a big deal." ”

"Then I'm welcome, don't ask me for food when the time comes." Ferdinand laughed in the same way.

While talking and laughing, the two came to the door of the small auditorium in Miramar Castle. "That's it." Jochen reached out and pushed the door open.

Ferdinand saw a number of tables in the empty auditorium, which had been put together to form a huge long platform, and Jochen said to the guards who followed him, "Put the things on the table and stay at the door." ”

"Yes, Your Majesty."

After the guard saluted respectfully, exited the auditorium, and closed the door, Jochen pulled out a scroll of drawings from the drawing paper tube, and slowly spread it out in front of Ferdinand, several drawings filling the entire platform. Each of the battleships depicted on the drawing, which was nearly 4 meters long, caught Ferdinand's eyes tightly.

The first drawing is a side view of the entire battleship, the second is a top view of the entire battleship, followed by a side view along the central axis of the battleship and a top view of each deck inside the battleship's hull, and finally a left-hand view of the keel positions from the bow of the ship, which depicts every detail of the battleship at a scale of 1:50.

The British drew detailed battleships using a quarter of an inch equal to a foot in reality. That is, a ratio of 1:48, while the Germans use a better calculated ratio of 1:50.

"These light blue translucent areas on the side view and the thick black lines on the top view indicate the armor. The thick brownish-yellow translucent line represents the teak layer, the thin black line represents the bulkhead, the red line is the central axis, the black thin line represents the bulkhead, and the light blue curve indicates the angle of rotation. Jochen pointed to the drawings and explained them to Ferdinand.

The drawings are so large and detailed that they are even detailed to the top view of how the doors in each cabin are opened. The lines of different colors not only do not seem dense and illegible, but make the drawings look more delicate and accurate, and such detailed depictions can easily sketch in the mind the majestic and majestic figure after it was built, and then be shocked and fascinated by it.

“ViribusUnitis？” Ferdinand looked at the German to the right of the title written in bold bold on the drawing, and asked suspiciously.

"That's right, ViribusUnitis. His Majesty Joseph's original favorite motto, which we used as the tentative name of the ship when we designed it. Jochen explained.

"ViribusUnitis?" Ferdinand muttered a repetition that seemed to be in memory of the kind old man: "What a good name, and a very fitting name for the present Kingdom of Croatia-Slovenia." ”

Ferdinand's words made Viribus Unitis the official name of the ship, although she and Jochen's impression of Viribus Unitis were very different.

Once the name of the ship was decided, Ferdinand began to scrutinize every detail of the drawings, while Jochen acted as a commentator.

"Because the sea conditions in the Mediterranean Sea are better, the freeboard height of the battleship has been appropriately reduced compared to the German class, and the battleship uses a new steam turbine, which is already used in our Ron-class No. 4 ship and the soon-to-be-completed Scharnhorst class, and our next battleship will also use this equipment, so there is no need to worry about reliability." Jochen introduced with a smile.

However, it is clear that Ferdinand was more concerned about other aspects of performance: "What about firepower? What is the caliber of the main gun? What is the thickness of the armor? ”

Jochen pointed to the thick black line on the drawing and said: "The armor belt is made of 280 mm armor, although it is 20 mm less than the 300 mm of the German class, but we are going to change the original vertical arrangement of the armor belt, and we are going to tilt it outward by 10 degrees, which can produce better results, and its protection ability is much stronger than the 300 mm vertical armor belt of the German class." In the same way, our battleships of the next class are ready to adopt the same pattern of arrangement.

The turret armor frontal 280 mm, the top 120 mm, the upper armor deck 50 mm, the horizontal part of the dome 50 mm, the inclined part of the dome 70 mm. The underwater mine-protected compartment is exactly the same as the German class. ”

Although Jochen was trying to introduce the protection system of the battleship, Ferdinand's mind was obviously attracted by something else, but he was too embarrassed to interrupt Jochen's introduction again.

I noticed that Ferdinand's eyes were staring directly at the naval guns on the drawings, and he knew that he would not listen to what he continued to say about protection, so he had to change his tone: "The main gun uses the new SKL/53 283 mm 53.22 times diameter (British standard 50 times diameter) naval gun developed by Krupp Company, the weight of the shell has been greatly improved, the muzzle velocity has also been improved to a certain extent, and the power has been greatly improved compared with the 45 times diameter naval gun of the German class." This naval gun will also be the main gun of choice for the battleships we are going to build next. ”

Jochen played a game of words here, and Krupp's naval guns were indeed the main guns of the battleships to be built below. However, it was intended for high-speed battleships, and in order to save weight, only the smaller caliber 283 mm naval guns could be used, while the successor to the German class, the main armament ships, would use the 305 mm naval guns of the Skoda company as the main gun.

"The 4 main turrets adopt a backpack layout of 2 front and 2 rear, so that each turret will have a ± 150-degree firing range, the original Wittelsbach class and the current German class have a limited firing range of the middle turret of the hull, and it is relatively inconvenient for the Wittelsbach class to find the dead angle of the firing boundary of the middle turret in actual use."

This naval gun was clearly born out of Krupp to compete with Skoda, and the SKL50 naval guns of the Moltke-class and Cedritz battlecruisers were only 47.4 times the diameter according to the British standard, firing 302 kg shells with a muzzle velocity of 880 mps. But now because he knows that Skoda has developed a 283-mm partition threaded gun bolt naval gun and is still developing a naval gun with a larger caliber, Krupp, who wants to win back a game, naturally feels the pressure.

This 283 mm 53.22 times diameter naval gun is a product of competitive pressure. According to the heavier shells required by the German Navy, the new naval gun uses 330 kg shells, with a chamber volume of 180 liters and a standard propellant of 119 kilograms, which can also reach a muzzle velocity of 880mps.

In the face of such a number jù Jochen is very satisfied, and in such a situation. Skoda's 305 mm naval guns also had a slightly higher number than the historical K10, making Jochen have to sigh that there is competition to improve.

"This is really a perfect battleship, and with her, the combat effectiveness of the Croatian Navy will make a qualitative leap." Ferdinand said excitedly.

"With the possession of two such warships, for quite some time to come. The Croatian Navy will be the most powerful force in the Mediterranean. Jochen complimented.

Of course, whether the naval strength is strong or not depends only on the performance of the two capital ships, not to mention Britain, France and Italy, and even the relatively weak German Mediterranean Fleet will not be something that the Croatian Navy with two new battleships can shake, but the deterrent power of unified all-heavy artillery battleships will be multiplied by the impetus of Britain and Germany, so that those countries that do not have similar warships will not dare to act rashly.

The new battleships of the Italians and French will not be completed until 1913, while the new battleships of the Croatian Navy will have a deterrent power for about three years, and it is not too much to call it the first navy in the Mediterranean, and everyone wants to listen to good words.

Unlike Jochen, who was a regular naval officer, Ferdinand, although he was extremely supportive of naval construction, his own knowledge of the navy was very shallow, and such kind words could obviously make him happy, and only a few words could make the big benefactor happy, so why not?

If there is a Croatian naval officer here now, he will not only look at the armor and firepower, but will care about the speed and endurance of the battleship, because the Croatian Navy is obviously not satisfied with only being a navy operating in the Adriatic, so the range of activities of the main ship of the navy is also an indicator of great concern to them.

However, professionals will soon come to the meeting, "I am very satisfied with this design." The smile on Ferdinand's face showed that he was in a good mood: "I think House would be very happy with her, too." (To be continued......)

PS: Although I didn't want to write Skoda's 305, I know that if I don't write it, it will take a long time to mention 305, and I guess there are many people who say that I still use 283! So it's a spoiler here.

That's what Viribus-Unitis is written in German, don't complain about how you use English