Chapter 491 Wang Hengyue's Nanjing Jinling Shipyard

Nanjing Jinling Shipyard.

The machines rumbled there, and the shipyard was busy.

Under the circumstance that the naval strength could not be rapidly improved in a short period of time, Wang Hengyue set his sights more on aircraft carriers and submarines.

Nanjing Shipyard is undoubtedly a very important submarine production base.

Here, a large number of Chinese and foreign engineers, designers, and skilled workers gather here.

Before the European War, because the traditional doctrine of "big ships and huge guns" dominated the naval circles, many admirals despised the role of submarines sailing underwater in naval warfare, and they held that the victory or defeat of naval battles mainly depended on the face-to-face battles between large warships with "thick decks" and "large-caliber artillery," and that submarines had no status in the naval arena, and at best they were only used to defend against the attack of enemy warships. However, after the start of the European war, as soon as submarines appeared on the stage of naval warfare, they showed impressive advantages, and their flexible and mobile combat capabilities enabled huge surface combat ships to sink into the deep sea with the flesh of many sailors.

War tells people that the submarine is a kind of elusive strange weapon, and the submarine is an effective weapon of naval warfare. The submarine's dazzling brilliance has endured, and its combat power is not as short-lived as some military experts predicted.

The Chinese Navy, under the leadership of President Wang Hengyue, is undoubtedly the country that attaches the most importance to the production and development of submarines

The director of the Nanjing Jinling Shipyard is surnamed Chen, and this person is undoubtedly an outstanding genius in the history of Chinese submarines.

China's first submarine was built in 1880 at the suggestion of a "Taoist" named Chen. He first designed the drawings and appealed to the Qing government officials to support them. It also expressed its willingness to guarantee by the contract that if it is proved not applicable after the test is completed, the working hours will not be taken penny, and the materials used will be compensated according to the price.

Chen Daoyuan's suggestion was supported by the Qing government. In the summer of 1880, construction began at the Tianjin Machinery Bureau.

The work was carried out in absolute secrecy. Chen Daoyuan personally led more than ten craftsmen to set up a wall in the courtyard of the Machinery Bureau, inside and outside the wall, and was heavily guarded. Then he procured timber and iron sheets and started construction. After a whole summer of construction, the "underwater engine ship" was completed.

It is "like an olive, with a water mark and a water suction machine, and the water mark is retracted into the boat one foot, and the boat will enter the water and fall a thousand feet." Mines should be sent under the water and placed under enemy ships." On September 18, 1880, during the Mid-Autumn Festival, this "underwater engine ship" conducted a sea trial voyage in the Haihe River. According to records: the boat sails on the surface of the water, which is very agile and unusual, and is quite suitable; Sinking underwater, the water mark still surfaced a few feet above the surface, leaving nothing to be seen on the surface of the water, and the mines were all satisfactory

But strangely, this successful submarine was not officially used or continued to be studied, and has since disappeared, leaving neither a name nor more records, and even people do not know what the power propulsion system of the first submarine made by the Chinese looked like, how it rose or dived, what the hull structure was, and so on

But Wang Hengyue remembered this person, the maker of China's first submarine, and could even be said to be the "father of Chinese submarines"

Wang Hengyue asked Yang Fangyun to find a way to invite this Taoist surnamed Chen out and let him serve as the director of Jinling Shipyard.

When Wang Hengyue invited him out of the mountain and asked his real name, he smiled slightly: "The old man just wants to do something practical for China's submarines, and he doesn't want to leave a name for the ages." Everyone likes to call me Chen 'Daoist', and then I will be called Chen Daoist. ”

That's a good story.

The chief engineer of the Jinling shipyard was also a Manchu official. …,

This man's name was Wei Han, and he was the director of shipbuilding at the Manchu Admiralty. In the first year of the Republic of China, he served as the director of the Fuzhou Shipping Bureau. After Wang Hengyue took power in the country, the first thing he did was to transfer Wei Han from Fujian to Nanjing Jinling Shipyard as chief engineer.

This Wei Han is a great person

He organized the development of China's first cruiser, the "Kaiji" ship; China's first ironclad ship - the "Longwei" ship was manufactured; Participated in the manufacture of China's first steel-armored torpedo ship - "Guangyi"; China's first minehunter - the "Jianwei" ship; He presided over and participated in the construction of "Kaiji", "Henghai", "Jingqing", "Huantai", "Guangjia", "Guangyi", "Guangbing", "Guanggeng", "Longwei", "Fujing", "Tongji", "Fu'an" and other ten-eared hot boats; It has made indelible contributions to the development of China's shipbuilding industry.

And his family is also one of the most famous naval families in modern China. Wei Han's nine brothers and cousins are all senior naval officers, and six of them graduated from the Harbour Master Series School

Wei Han graduated with the first place in the first class of students in the former school of the shipyard, stayed in Fuzhou to do technical work, and later became one of the first batch of Chinese naval officers to study and study abroad. During his studies in France, he studied law while learning shipbuilding skills, and was hired as an assistant to the French Royal Bar Association, and then received the title of Doctor of Law.

After Wei Han returned to China, he served as the "General Department of Manufacturing" of Fuzhou Shipbuilding, that is, the chief engineer. Organized the development of China's first cruiser "Kaiji". This ship is known as "a giant ship that has never been seen before in China".

During this period, under the auspices of Wei Han and others, the Fuzhou Shipyard also built three clippers.

After the Sino-French Battle of the Majiang River, Wei Han and his colleagues learned the lessons of the destruction of the Fujian Navy Division in the Battle of the Majiang River, and deeply felt that it was necessary to build ironclad ships as soon as possible in order to enhance the combat effectiveness of the navy, and suggested that ironclad ships be developed as soon as possible. After the Sino-French Battle of the Majiang River, Wei Han and his colleagues learned the lessons of the destruction of the Fujian Navy Division in the Battle of the Majiang River, and deeply felt that it was necessary to build ironclad ships as soon as possible in order to enhance the combat effectiveness of the navy, and suggested that ironclad ships be developed as soon as possible. At the end of 1887, under the auspices of Wei Han and others, the first ironclad ship built by China --- the "Longwei" was officially launched.

In 1904, Wei Han was transferred to Guangdong, where he was in charge of the Guangdong Mine Bureau, the Torpedo Bureau, and the Whampoa Ship Bureau.

In the first year of the Republic of China, Wei Han returned to the Fuzhou Shipbuilding Bureau and served as the director. Although he was over sixty years old at this time, Wei Han was ambitious and focused on reviving the shipyard. In the spring of 1915, Wei Han also took outstanding students from the Naval Academy to the United States to study aircraft and submarine manufacturing.

When Wang Hengyue officially hired him as the chief engineer of the "Nanjing Jinling Shipyard", Wei Han was already nearly seventy years old, but he did not take into account his old age at all, and still gladly accepted the appointment, and set off for Nanjing the next day.

Wang Hengyue's army was dominated by young officers, who were full of enthusiasm and vigor.

At the Nanjing Jinling Shipyard, the two leaders are already old. Despite their age, they are full of experience, which is not acquired overnight by dying on the battlefield

The foreign experts assigned to Chen Daoyuan and Wei Han were the Americans Holan and Simon, who built the first submarine for Wang Hengyue and served as submarine advisers to the Nationalist Navy for a long time. Lake

Two outstanding Chinese ship and submarine manufacturing experts, together with two equally outstanding American submarine manufacturing and invention experts, constitute the main leadership of Nanjing Jinling Shipyard

"This is the 'Jinling No. 2' we are developing." Wei Han pointed to a half-built submarine next to him and said; "We applied for the purchase of ten small aircraft, which we planned to carry by submarines. Previously, we built the Jinling 1 submarine with a steel cylinder behind its command station enclosure and a seaplane inside. In the first test, it took us more than four hours to assemble the bulk aircraft on the cramped deck of a submarine, but the test flight was not successful. This 'Jinling 2' is the sister boat of the 'Jinling 1', and we plan to surface the submarine in a new test, take the aircraft out of the cylindrical hangar and assemble it, and then the submarine will dive, and the aircraft will float on the surface after breaking away from the submarine and then take off. ”…,

"Well, don't be afraid of failure." Wang Hengyue nodded and encouraged: "We are ahead of European and American countries in this technology, and we are not as good as them in battleships, but we must not lag behind in submarines, but we must also be ahead of them." Britain is a maritime power, what are they afraid of? What they fear most is not battleship cruisers, they are most afraid of submarines"

Speaking of this, he glanced at the people on the side: "In the European war, the Germans used a large number of submarine forces to attack the British, and the British did not draw a reassuring conclusion from their calamity and salvation. Although they never succumbed to German submarine warfare, they were almost killed by it. The terrible warning that submarines pose a threat to Britain is correct. The main concern of the British is that their islands will never again suffer from this form of harm, and their hearts are afraid of submarines"

"Exactly." The American Holland, who could barely speak Chinese, said: "The most important step in achieving this is to wipe out the entire German submarine fleet as soon as possible." Under the terms of the naval armistice, one hundred and seventy-six German submarines in service were handed over to the Entente, and all of them, with a few exceptions, were sunk to the bottom of the sea. More than 200 German submarines that had not been commissioned and had not yet been built were destroyed on the spot. In order to solve the problem once and for all, the Treaty of Versailles stipulated that Germany could not hold, build or buy submarines. This gives Britain the largest submarine fleet in the world. ”

Wang Hengyue sneered: "Britain has the world's largest submarine fleet? ”

No, the largest submarine fleet is not in the UK, but here

In China under its own leadership

I can't beat you in a head-to-head showdown at sea, but I can use the submarine as a ghost to deal you the hardest blow

I don't fight with you for battleships and cruisers, I focus on the development of aircraft carriers and submarines

In a possible naval battle in the future, this will be the most advantageous weapon for the Chinese Navy

Wang Hengyue is convinced of this point......