10 August 1888, Port of Kiel, Germania Shipyard

On the dock of the Germania shipyard, the senior officers of the Admiralty gathered together, today is the launching ceremony of Germany's first self-built 10,000-ton warship, the new ship has not yet been named, and is temporarily called the Arminius ship, which means to replace the Arminius battleship, which is a 1,800-ton deck turret ironclad ordered from Britain in 1863, which has long been old at this time.

The Anieus gave up the outdated ironclad design under the intervention of Jochen, and the armor box design of side armor + dome armor + flat armor was far ahead of this era, and even ahead of the British Royal Navy Monarchy-class battleships that started construction in 1889 and led the pre-dreadnought era. Of course, due to tonnage limitations and the performance of the 305 mm 25 times diameter gun, it was really unsatisfactory, and the ship was designed for the same purpose, which could only crush the Queen Catherine class of Tsarist Russia.

The ship was of great significance to the German Navy, which was why the launching ceremony was very grand (Note 1). Naval officers lined up at the slipway for the launching ceremony to begin, while some senior officers exchanged comments on the majestic new ship just by looking at its hull. The military band played "Our Navy" over and over again, and behind the officers, a large number of shipyard workers gathered, who were equally excited about their shipyard building this huge ship. Jochen participated as a major staff officer of the Admiralty at this time, and Jochen's promotion was definitely rapid, and this year Jochen was promoted by an exceptional leap, although on the surface it was to commend him for the new technology and new ideas mentioned in his "Shooting and Hit" paper for his contribution to the improvement of the artillery level of the Imperial Navy, in fact, he still became the Imperial Crown Prince, and he was promoted to 3 levels in 2 years, and he couldn't be faster.

The launching ceremony of the German Navy battleship was the same as that of the British, as the newly appointed Admiralty Alexander von Munz announced the name of the ship and then smashed champagne into the bow of the ship, scattering debris and splashing foam to represent the blessing of the new ship, accompanied by military music and cheers, the new ship slowly slid down the slipway into the sea, the roar of the colossus and the splashing of snow-white waves stimulated all the senses, this spectacle made Jochen shiver as if his whole body was overpowered.

The launch of the Electoral was very smooth and she will be carrying out the outfitting work that is expected to take nine months, while her sister ship, Frederick Caldai, laid the keel at the Wiesel shipyard in Bremen in January this year, and at the current pace of construction, the launch will not be until the beginning of next year at the earliest.

After the launching ceremony, the interested Secretary of the Navy Muntz asked to go on board the ship to see the construction, and Jochen was specially invited. The two walked on the wide deck, chatting as they went.

"This is the newest and strongest warship of the Imperial Navy in the future, and with her, the strength of the Imperial Navy will grow by leaps and bounds, and we all have to thank you for this, Your Highness, it is your ingenuity that has created her for us."

"Your Excellency Muntz, you have a good reputation, the real designer is not me, although it is true that I proposed the arrangement of the armor of the Elector, but it is our designers who have really verified her feasibility and actually designed her. And, while I believe that the Elector will be able to easily suppress the Russians with the Queen Catherine and Alexander II, I don't think there is much advantage over the British. "Indeed, although the design idea of the Elector is quite excellent, in the face of the four 343 naval guns and 457 mm armor of the British Admiral-class battleship with backward ironclad forts, the advantage in the battle is limited, not to mention that the British are about to reorganize the monarchy-class.

"Your Highness, you are arrogant, the Elector is a good ship, I am convinced of this. Your talent is limited by our ability to build and the level of skill. I'm sure your talent will shine in the future. Muntz complimented.

"What if we can build a stronger warship? Without numbers, our situation will remain more urgent. Jochen shook his head.

"That's true." Mondz sighed, and continued: "The gap between us and the Russians has not narrowed, but has a tendency to be pulled apart, while the Italians are chasing more and more tightly, and if we are not careful, we will probably fall to the fifth place in the world." "The Italians' navy has expanded more and more rapidly, from 8th in the world in 1884 to 5th in the world now, and the gap between them and Germany is very small. According to this trend, by 1890, the Italians would still be the fourth in the world, as in history, while Germany would have to be the fifth in the world.

"Yes, and there is still a gap between our shipbuilding technology and the British, and some subsystems still need to be strengthened, I heard that Krupp is developing new armor, but unfortunately the progress is a little slow, and the speed of the naval gun Krupp company is not ideal, and there is no more energy to develop large-caliber naval guns, otherwise the performance of the Elector can be further improved." Jochen regretted that if the Elector could be equipped with Krupp carburized armor and 305 mm 35 times the diameter naval guns, he would not be able to fight even in the face of the monarchy. However, the current development progress of Krupp is really not expected.

"Your Highness, you are a little anxious, you once proposed carburized armor, tube withdrawal and hood armor-piercing shells, Krupp has concentrated all its energy on research and development, but do not dare to slack off, but after all, it is a new technology, Your Highness should also be more considerate and considerate of them."

"Hehe, this is helping Mr. Krupp to speak? Yes, after all, Your Excellency Montz, your future plans cannot be separated from Krupp's support. However, I really hope that these new technologies will be used in the new project, and I am very much looking forward to what kind of performance these new technologies will explode when they are integrated. ”

"Of course, Your Highness, the Admiralty is also keeping an eye on it." Muntz said with a happy smile. It is no wonder that Muntz was so pleased that as soon as he took office, he proposed a new plan for naval construction, and the bourgeoisie, who were influenced by Jochen's theory of naval economics and who did see the benefits of naval construction, welcomed the expansion of the navy. Thus, Muntz's plan for the expansion of the Navy in 1888 was almost unhindered. In the next 10 years, the German Navy will grow enormously, and this is an important task for the German Navy to regain the third place in the world.

However, Jochen doesn't really care about this ranking or anything, the tonnage ranking is just the same as the combat effectiveness. Just like the German Navy, it is difficult to adapt to the war environment with at least 30,000 tons of ships on hand. And Jochen was also reluctant to build too many capital ships in the pre-dreadnought era, and as soon as the dreadnoughts came out, these things became obsolete in an instant. It is better to spend more money to make a small number of capital ships into high-quality products, on the one hand, to test new technologies, and on the other hand, to improve the use value of these old goods, so as not to enter the era of dreadnoughts and only be reduced to soy sauce. On the other hand, building more cruisers, when the time comes, can also put great pressure on the British's lines of communication and disperse their forces, you must know that a small cruiser of the Emden held back more than 30 British ships to search on the ocean. The German mainland still relied mainly on capital ships to fight each other, so it was enough to leave only a small number of elite cruisers.

With this in mind, Jochen is determined to get rid of all the old stuff. So Johenti went to the port of Kiel, and Muntz gladly accompanied him.

At this time, the port of Kiel gathered all the large ships of the German Navy, two cutting-edge Oldenburg-class first-class ironclads are currently the most powerful main warships of the German Navy, and the four Saxony-class ironclads have also changed the same 4 chimneys as his cement factory, which is different from the later 4 chimneys in history, the Saxony-class at this time has been changed to two chimneys in the front and rear, plus the light gun cover in the front of the open battery, it looks quite advanced. However, although the remaining ships are still mighty and domineering, their combat effectiveness is not flattering.

The King Wilhelm, now the largest warship of the German Navy and the largest warship for a long time in the future, is an ironclad ship with a displacement of 9,700 tons ordered in Britain in 1865, although the displacement is close to 10,000 tons (Note 2), but it is a gunboat next to the ship, with a total of 18 240 mm guns and 5 210 mm guns arranged on both sides of the hull, all of which are black with a diameter of no more than 20. The gunpowder breech gun was an impressive force at the time, but now, Jochen is willing to bet that the Oldenburg can send the old ship to the bottom of the sea in 10 minutes.

The same ships of the same class ordered in the United Kingdom, the Emperor and the Deutschland, are 7,300-ton central gun room ironclad ships, equipped with 8 260 mm 20 times the diameter naval guns and 1 210 mm 22 times the diameter naval guns, because they were built in 1872, so the firepower is comparable to the Saxon class, but the design of the central gun room is still very backward.

And Frederick the Great and the sister ship Prussia, these two central gunned ironclads are the second and third ships of the Elector-class ironclad, of course, this Elector has nothing to do with the Elector, which has just been launched. The first ship, the Elector, sank in 1878 in a collision, while Frederick the Great and Prussia were started in 1869 and 1870 respectively. These two 6,800-ton ironclad ships are the prototypes of the Saxon class, equipped with 4 260 mm 22 times the diameter naval guns and two 170 mm 25 times the diameter naval guns, and the firepower is slightly weak.

The 5,700-ton shipside ironclad Crown Prince with 16 210 mm 22x breech guns and the 5,900-ton sidearm ironclad Frederick Carr with the same firepower were both ordered in England in 1866. Although these old ships are still usable due to the diligent maintenance of German sailors, the aging equipment makes the performance of these ships greatly deteriorate.

Who would want to buy this? Jochen was thinking about it.

Note 1: In fact, every German ship was very important at that time, and here is a photo of the launch of the Vuleagle cruiser in 1891, which was only a small ship of 1,500 tons. See photo of the Admirals at the launch of the Vulture

Note 2: Many of the English sources of early German ships speak of short tons in imperial units, so the King Wilhelm has always been considered to have a tonnage of more than 10,000, but in fact it is a little worse when converted into metric tons.

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