The shipbuilding industry has always been one of the weakest links in Australian manufacturing, not to mention the successful transformation of the Sea Blue, but in addition to the former shipyard engineer You Nanzhe, plus some Ming Dynasty immigrants who only made small wooden boats, the Manchester City shipyard is not equipped to build large ships.

In addition to the lack of corresponding workers, it also has a lot to do with the corresponding shipbuilding materials, the former is even more difficult than the latter, even if Australia does not have the materials, but after all, you can spend money to buy, and the lack of shipbuilding talents is not so easy to find.

In order to solve the problem of lack of shipbuilding talents, You Nanzhe has repeatedly submitted to the Executive Committee a proposal for the large-scale introduction of Western shipbuilders, which explains at length from why Western shipbuilders should be introduced to the competition for future maritime power.

As a new country, Australia lacks all kinds of raw materials and food in addition to the lack of manpower, so far the local food supply can not fully supply the whole Manchester City, so it has to buy a large amount of food from Batavia every week to ensure that the residents of Manchester City will not fall into a food crisis.

After many targeted immigrants from the Netherlands, Spain, England and other places, the number of shipbuilding experienced workers in the shipyard has increased to 37, and the number of apprentices is 62, and the shipbuilding team of 97 people is the current collection of all shipbuilding forces in Australia.

Although these people all have some experience in shipbuilding, they used to focus on a certain link, and they did not fully grasp the specific construction of the entire ship.

However, in order to allow everyone to integrate more quickly into a fully professional shipbuilding team, You Nanze first gathered everyone together for discussion and in-depth exchanges, and expressed all his ideas.

After the exchange, You Nanze exchanged opinions with everyone on the feasibility of the ship he needed to build, and after the communication of the old shipbuilders, they all agreed that it was very possible.

So in April, the first big galen in the history of Australia officially started construction, because it is an experimental ship, so there are not too strict requirements for the construction of materials, basically using local wood.

The first Galen steamship is more than 60 meters long, compared with other European countries built in the same period, there is not much difference, the only difference is that Australia uses the steam sail linkage type, in addition to the hull itself power system using steam engine, the sail lifting on the ship is also controlled by the machine, which greatly reduces the labor cost of the ship itself.

But the cost of building such a ship was more expensive than that of the European countries of the same period, almost twice as much as one of their ships, and in addition to being superior in maneuverability, most of the structure of the hull was changed, and even armor was hung on some critical parts that were vulnerable to shelling, that is, a layer of iron armor was wrapped around the parts.

Strictly speaking, this big Galen is a semi-ironclad ship, but because its appearance is similar to Galen, and the construction process is basically the same, You Nanzhe is still called Galen, just an upgraded version of the big Galen.

"Good morning, Mr. Jossen, it's a little early today, is your child okay at the national elementary school?" Lao Huang, the old janitor of the shipyard, greeted a blonde European man cordially.

"Oh, it's okay, it's okay, your granddaughter should be in elementary school this year."

"Yes, Mr. Jossen, the door has been opened for you, and you may enter." Lao Huang replied with a smile, put the lock on the table and pointed to open the door of the workshop.

"Yes, thank you." Jossen thanked him and entered the workshop, where Jossen, an English shipwright, had wandered to the docks and found a merchant ship bound for the East docking at the shore, and had a sign for shipbuilders.

After some testing he was admitted, and the recruited Oriental told him that he would go to a new world, a world not unlike England and Europe, where there was no war and where the family could live in beautiful little houses.

Jossen's family arrived in the East with a half-believing attitude, and then took the steamship Mermaid from Christmas Island to their native Australia, and when he saw the ship that did not need to be moved by human oars, or even sails, he could not believe that the white smoke of the ship was like something out of a fairy tale.

As a skilled immigrant, he can get a lot of preferential policies, such as children's schooling, and he can not have priority to enter Manchester National Primary School, instead of being like Lao Huang's granddaughter who has not yet obtained an Australian green card, he must pay a part of the borrowing fee.

There were even times when Jossen felt lucky, and although he didn't know the name of the Oriental man who recruited him, he was very grateful to him, without whom he would not be able to live the way he is today.

So Jossen has been working hard in the shipyard, relying on his experience and hard work, he won the favor of the chief engineer You Nanzhe, and became an assistant engineer in the shipyard who was reserved by several Oriental engineers.

The reason why he came so early today was because he suddenly thought of a key question, whether the height of the hull mast could be lowered and the load capacity of the hull could be increased, although the steam galen was stronger than that of European countries in terms of speed and defense, but because of the steam power used, in addition to the part of the fuselage occupied, the hull must also have a storage of coal, fuel tanks.

Reducing the weight between the various parts of the hull is very important for the whole ship, don't look at it as just a little reduction, in order to solve this difficulty, You Nanzhe specially issued a notice throughout the shipbuilding, as long as the proposal is reasonable and tested and feasible, he will get a lot of money.

Jossen has recently taken a fancy to a townhouse with a garden, so he very much wants to get this bonus, and since the day the notice was issued, he has been thinking about how to reduce the weight of the hull, the steam engine and armor cannot be reduced, this experimental Galen semi-iron armor is built by the Navy Department in the future, so the armor must not be reduced, otherwise it will lose its original importance.

There are four masts in the whole Galen, and if the weight of each one is reduced a little, the load capacity of the entire pair of hulls will be greatly reduced.

Jossen rushed to the shipyard so early to determine if it was feasible through the model, and when he cut the four masts on the small model and put them in the sink for testing, he put in the materials that reduced the same weight, and the experimental data showed that it was feasible.

"Great, this time Frances and the children can live in the villa." Jossen muttered to himself as he patted the plank by the sink, unable to hide the joy in his heart.