Chambers's words made all the people in the Navy Construction and Maintenance Bureau look at each other, indeed, the group of old stubborn members of Congress could not bypass the fixed indicators, and the standard displacement of 16,000 tons was too tight, which meant that the new battleships must maintain the same level in hull as the Connecticut class, but there must be a qualitative leap in firepower, which is too embarrassing.

The Naval Construction and Maintenance Bureau, which has experience in the design of the Connecticut-class class, understands that if it wants to increase the secondary main gun from 8 8-inch guns to 8 10-inch guns while the tonnage of the hull remains unchanged, and the tonnage to be increased from the gun profile type to the rotating turret type is not a little bit, and the structure and linearity of the hull will also have to change dramatically.

It is not even a matter of asking Congress to increase its displacement, and even the 16,000-ton standard is a compromise condition of the Navy and Congress after negotiation, otherwise the old stubbornness will make the Navy only build 13,000-ton battleships, just like the Mississippi class being designed.

It may not be clear to the public now what a failure the Mississippi class was built after retaining the firepower of the Connecticut-class and reducing the 8-inch gun turret to 13,000 tons, so that she only served in the U.S. Navy for only six years.

But now it is known that the standard of 16,000 tons is not enough. How to control the displacement? This has become a huge problem for everyone here.

"If we learn from the Germans, we should be able to effectively shorten the length of the armor belt, thereby saving displacement." Washington, then the chief shipbuilding expert of the U.S. Navy and the director of the Bureau of Construction and Maintenance? Major General Capus suddenly spoke.

"Learn from the Germans?" Capus's words stunned everyone present, what to learn from the Germans? Everyone was puzzled by Capus's clueless remarks, but fortunately, Capus's next words made them understand what Caps meant.

"The long bow design adopted by the Germans on their armored cruisers. The two main turrets in the aft took advantage of the deck drop to form a knapsack, a design that they had built for a total of multiple levels of armored cruisers, and the same design for their newest battleships, so it was clearly mature and successful. Capus said.

Although he said so, he knew it. The U.S. Navy has never been exposed to this kind of design, and it has to admit that there is still a gap between the American shipbuilding technology level and the European powers, and the mature design of the Germans may not be able to be used well in the United States, if it is not for the 16,000-ton standard card that is too dead, and they do not have to risk proposing a more radical design.

"This design effectively reduces the deck area occupied by the turret. The defensive arrangement can also be more compact without affecting the range of naval guns, while at the same time increasing the utilization of the number of naval guns invested in broadside shooting. Although it was a flash of inspiration under the forced desperation, it was also a process of self-persuasion that Capus explained to everyone.

The more he explained the benefits of piggyback design, the more firm his mind became. As he spoke, he even believed that he was like this.

"So we take the Germans a step further and adopt this design in the bow as well, raising one turret to form a knapsack with the bow turret, so that we can equip the shortest hull with the strongest firepower, and this design allows all turrets to be put into broadside firing, which reduces the number of turrets, and also reduces the armor tonnage required for protection, which is undoubtedly the most economical and efficient design."

"But then the center of gravity of the hull will be raised. It is not good for stability. Such doubts have been raised.

Before Capus could speak, Chambers spoke first: "Although this design raises the center of gravity, it saves the weight of the superstructure. In general, even if there will be a certain impact, it will not be too big. Moreover, the stability can also be effectively improved on the hull with a small aspect ratio. What's more, if you want to maximize firepower on a 16,000-ton hull, such a design is the best choice. ”

Capus's proposal caught Chambers' eye, with four main turrets arranged along the central axis to achieve the same broadside firepower by two-thirds of the weight of the original design of 12 12-inch naval guns proposed by the Naval Combat College. This is a design that cannot be refused by Chambers, an advocate of all-heavy artillery warships of the US Navy.

Seeing that Chambers, who had just sprayed the Construction and Maintenance Bureau, also spoke up to support his director's plan, others would not oppose it. Eventually, Capus's proposal was accepted, and the next thing was to put it on the drawings.

Although Congressional stinginess and stinginess have brought a huge obstacle to the development of all-heavy naval gun battleships of the US Navy. Even if the new battleship is built, it will cause a certain sacrifice in performance due to tonnage limitations, but it is precisely because of this that the US Navy has been forced to embark on the front 2 rear 2 piggyback layout of the central axis in one step in the main gun layout, thus half a step ahead of Britain and Germany. Since then, the Americans, together with the British, have opened new doors to naval technology.

Fisher's idea of using new warships to bridge the gap in technology with the navies of other countries was doomed to fail.

Fisher's troubles were something he could not see now, and perhaps only when the all-heavy artillery battleships of the Germans and Americans appeared before his eyes would he realize that the technological gap had not only not widened, but had narrowed closer, and that the naval superiority that the Royal Navy wanted to maintain was gone in the face of two strong challengers.

But Roger Stevensky's troubles were imminent.

"Your Excellency the Governor, this is the high seas!" Rogers, who had always been polite, now lost his temper at the Frenchman in front of him without any image.

It turned out that the French refused to allow Rogerst Winsky's fleet to coalize off the coast of Gabon. He didn't even enter the port, and the French blocked the refueling of coal in the open sea, which made Rogerst Winsky full of fire.

Although Roger Stevensky had already learned the treachery of the French and was mentally prepared, Roger Stevensky could not believe that he was now not even allowed to stay at sea.

As there had been no incident, the Russians had reached the Spanish port of Vigo, unhindered by the British, and were able to replenish the coal burner and continue their long voyage.

Due to the deep draft of the Borodino-class battleships, the Second Pacific Fleet was divided into two routes, the old ships with a shallower draft and slower speed went to Gibraltar and entered the Mediterranean Sea to prepare to go through the Suez Canal, while the new fleet, led by four Borodino-class battleships, had to make a detour to the Cape of Good Hope.

However, even if the British had not added to the Russians, Rogers' journey had not been smooth sailing, because of the betrayal of the French.

After Vigo's coal-filled Rogerstinsky went south, he did not go to Tangier, Morocco, as was the case in history, to find the French, but at this time the attitude of the French changed drastically without Rogerstinsky's knowledge.

From the very beginning, France opposed the military adventures of the Russians in the Far East, because once the war in the Far East began, the Russians' attention would inevitably be turned to the Far East, and the military power would also be tilted towards the Far East, which the French did not want to see.

In the eyes of the French, it would be better for the Russians to put all their huge grey cattle in Europe, and to show off their own steamrollers, so that the Germans would have to pay their attention to the east, so that their pressure would be relieved. Nicholas II, who had followed the instigation of Germany and was bent on establishing Yellow Russia, was already dissatisfied.

However, the war provoked by the Japanese made it difficult for the French to say much, and the Japanese were ambitious about their own control of Taiwan, and the French were happy to see these yellow-skinned monkeys teach a lesson, and by the way, they could also strike at the British who had been unable to get along with themselves.

It will also be more deterrent when the Russians, who have received huge benefits from the Far East, turn around and turn their attention to Europe again.

However, the French found that things were a little out of their control, the ground war was repeatedly defeated, the outskirts of the Lushun fortress were surrounded by those yellow-skinned monkeys, and the Pacific Fleet was successfully attacked by someone, and then it was taken as a family squat. Finally, the Essen fleet had not been happy for a few days, and the Pacific Fleet was beaten to the point that its nose and face were swollen, and now it was completely lying on its stomach in Port Arthur.

Director, is this script wrong? The series of defeats suffered by the Russians in the Far East made the French begin to doubt the eventual victory of Russia, and this suspicion shook the attitude of the French.

What's more, you can transfer the army to the Far East, after all, there are still 2 million people in Europe, and more people are capricious. But what is the matter with the transfer of the entire Baltic Fleet?

The Germans no longer have to worry about the Baltic, and the French will have to bear all the pressure of all 15 active battleships of the German ocean fleet, 9 battleships under construction, and this is not counting the 3 old ships in the Mediterranean.

At this time, France only had 29 active battleships and 6 battleships under construction, and the French also had to take into account the Mediterranean, and the Italian navy was not weak, and many of the French active battleships were old goods, in fact, the German and French navies in the Atlantic Ocean had become evenly matched.

In addition, the Russians had reached a large number of military orders with Germany before, and the orders for warships received by France were actually better than those of the Germans! And the Russian fleet could sail through the Kiel Canal, and the proximity of German-Russian relations made the French extremely uneasy.

Russians, are you doing hair?! I'm your biggest creditor, right?! Is it appropriate for you to be so close to those Germans?

At a time when the French were equally resentful of the Russians, the British extended an olive branch, which led to a change in the attitude of the French, and this change directly led to the situation that Roger Stevensky faced.

In the face of Rogerstinsky's anger, the French governor unceremoniously pushed Rogerstvinsky back: "Yes, Your Excellency Lieutenant General, this is the high seas, but it is close to Gabon. (To be continued) R580