Lin Yuan was excited when he heard the "launching ceremony of the new ship", and thought: "I can finally see the new warship of the British, and this type of warship must be extraordinary, because if it was an ordinary warship, they would not be so excited, and they also invited envoys from various countries to visit." ”

Lin Yuan turned his head to look at the envoys of various countries, and seeing that they all looked indifferent, Lin Yuan smiled secretly in his heart: "These envoys don't know naval skills at all, let them come to see such an important launching ceremony, it's really a tyrannical thing!" Lin Yuan asked Cecil and said, "I don't know what the warship launched this time is?" Has your country already given it a name? ”

Cecil smiled: "Of course, we have already given this warship a good name, and its name is: Dreadnought!" ”

"What? Dreadnought？ Lin Yuan couldn't help but exclaim when he heard this word, Cecil smiled and nodded, Shen Wanqing gently pulled Lin Yuan on the side, and asked, "Dreadnought?" What does that mean? What are you so surprised about? ”

Lin Yuan said: "This word can be divided into two parts, one is 'dread', which means 'fear', and the other is 'nought', which means 'nought', when our country translates this word, it is usually translated as 'dreadnought', and when used on this kind of warship, it is 'dreadnought'!" ”

Shen Wanqing smiled and said, "Isn't it just a warship?" What's so strange about it that surprises you like this? ”

Lin Yuan smiled helplessly: "You don't know the history of naval development, let's put it this way, the appearance of the dreadnought has brought a shock to the navies of all countries in the world, no less than the appearance of the atomic bomb in our era!" ”

Shen Wanqing was a little incredulous and asked, "Is it really so magical?" ”

Lin Yuan said: "Of course, in the navy before the dreadnought, the warships were all firepower with a few large-caliber main guns, more than a dozen large-caliber secondary guns, and more small-caliber guns, such as the HMSRoyalSovereign battleships that fought with us and were defeated by us using advanced night combat techniques and long-range self-propelled tortomines. ”

"The Sovereign-class battleships are equipped with four 343 mm main guns, ten 152 mm secondary guns, and a dozen rapid-fire guns, as well as the HMS Majestic (HMSMajestic) battleships we have seen in Shanghai Port, equipped with four 304 mm main guns and twelve 152 mm secondary guns."

"And the biggest breakthrough and change of the dreadnought has two directions, one is the direction of firepower; The other is the direction of power, in terms of firepower, the dreadnought adopts a completely new design, that is, the sub-caliber main gun is canceled, and all are replaced with large-caliber main guns, this artillery arrangement is often called 'full heavy artillery', taking the dreadnought as an example, it is equipped with ten 305 mm main guns, and there are no secondary guns below 200 mm. ”

"This change is a breakthrough, before the dreadnought, it is difficult for the warship to carry out precise strikes on targets 10,000 meters away, and after the appearance of the dreadnought, the concentration of the whole ship's firepower can project more shells to the target, so that there are always a few shells that can accurately hit the target, coupled with the progress of the fire control system, so that the warship can accurately hit the enemy target at a distance of 10,000 meters has become a reality!"

Shen Wanqing didn't understand what she heard, but she couldn't bear to interrupt Lin Yuan's words, Lin Yuan continued: "The other direction is power, the warships before the dreadnought all used piston steam engines, and on the dreadnoughts, steam turbines were used, and the steam turbines could do continuous work, and their functional power was much stronger than that of piston steam engines, so although the full load displacement of the first dreadnought was as high as more than 21,000 tons, the maximum speed still reached twenty-one knots. ”

"In the later dreadnoughts, oil is also used as fuel, in the choice of fuel for warships, fuel has a huge advantage over coal, the calorific value of fuel is higher than coal, and the fuel is liquid, easier to fully combust, can effectively save fuel, so the endurance of the dreadnought is also very strong, in the speed of ten knots, full of fuel conditions, the cruising range is as high as 6,620 nautical miles!"

"The emergence of the dreadnought is a milestone event in the development of warships, since the emergence of dreadnoughts, the navies of various countries have adopted a unified large-caliber main gun, canceled the sub-caliber main gun, used a steam turbine as the power, abandoned the piston steam engine, and later called this kind of warship with a unified large-caliber main gun dreadnought, since then the ocean has become the ocean of dreadnoughts, until the rise of aircraft and aircraft carriers. The warships before the dreadnoughts were called pre-dreadnoughts, and later, the British further increased the caliber of the main guns, increasing them to 13.5 inches to 15 inches, and later called the warships equipped with this caliber of main guns 'super dreadnoughts'. ”

Shen Wanqing thought for a while and said: "The British have created dreadnoughts, they followed the route of big ships and huge guns, and they did not embark on the road of developing aircraft, so your plan was successful, right?" ”

Lin Yuan nodded excitedly and said, "But I'm not very sure yet, because I haven't seen the appearance of the British warships, but I think that after my demonstration of naval skills in the Ryukyus, they must have embarked on the road of big ships and huge guns, which should be about the same as the dreadnoughts of our time." ”

Just then, Cecil said, "It's almost time, let's go to the shipyard." ”

Everyone followed Cecil to the shipyard, and Xu Jingcheng said on Lin Yuan's side: "Lord Lin, I'll go and discuss with Cecil in a while, if possible, do we also want to buy a few warships." ”

Lin Yuan sighed helplessly and said, "Their warships are too backward, I really don't want them, if you really want to buy them, you can go and talk to them." After Lin Yuan finished speaking, he ignored Xu Jingcheng and strode to the front.

Lin Yuan followed everyone and walked up a high staircase, and then entered the shipyard, only then did they find that they were walking on a high platform, and below the high platform was a long passage, and a mighty battleship was suddenly parked in the middle of the passage, and the deck of the battleship was covered with a huge tarpaulin, and the bridge above the deck, the guns and other hull equipment were completely unclear.

Shen Wanqing followed Lin Yuan into the shipyard, and when she entered it, she couldn't help but exclaim, and said to Lin Yuan: "It's so big in here!" ”

Lin Yuan said with a smile: "If you think this place is big, it's because you haven't seen the floating dock where the Beijing ship is built." ”

Shen Wanqing asked, "Isn't this a floating dock?" ”

Lin Yuan replied: "This is not a floating dock, the floating dock is generally lower than the water surface, so that after the ship is built, there is no need for complex drainage devices, the water can rely on its own gravity to enter the dock, let the ship float, and then enter the water. ”

Shen Wanqing asked again: "This is not a floating dock, what is it?" ”

At this time, everyone had already walked to the side of the warship, only to see that many people were busy around the battleship, Lin Yuan said to Shen Wanqing: "This is the slipway, the warship was built here, outfitted and painted, the passage below is the slipway, and the end of the slipway is the sea, and the launching of the warship is from this slipway into the sea." ”

(The full name of HMS is: HerMajesty's Ship, which means: the ship under Her Majesty's Majesty, because the Chinese translation of the name of the warship is different, so the original English name is marked after the name of the warship)