Adhering to the concept of overtaking in corners, the construction of the naval fleet of the Tang Kingdom planned by Richard abandoned the labor-intensive, time-consuming, and labor-intensive sail battleships, and directly stepped into the field of steam ironclad ships with revolutionary nature.

For several years

With the increasing popularity of the trans-North Pacific golden route, the development of trade and transportation and fishery, the shipbuilding industry of the Tang Kingdom is in full swing, in addition to the three large shipyards under the General Heavy Industries Holding Company (Chang'an, Los Angeles and Seattle), private shipbuilding enterprises have also sprung up, showing a trend of prosperity.

By the end of 1849, there were 5 shipyards in China with the capacity to build 5,000-ton migrant ships, and dozens of ships of various types were under construction, involving freighters, migrant ships, cruise ships and other fields, which was the fastest growing heavy industry.

Shipbuilding is not difficult to say, but it is not easy to say.

After more than 300 years of development of sail warships since the Age of Discovery, by the middle of the 19th century, the navies of the world's great powers formed the heyday of sail warships represented by the British Victory, Marvel, Endeavour, the United States' Constitution, France's Lafayette, Spain's San Felipe, Sweden's Vasa and other giant ships.

These are famous ships of the era that played an important role in the history of Western maritime colonization or participated in famous naval battles, and the construction process is complicated, the wood consumption is huge, and the construction cycle is very long.

The ancient European name is a family of shipbuilding craftsmen, and the craftsmanship has been passed down for tens of hundreds of years, and the skills are kept improving, and the internal division is very detailed, forming many categories.

The shipbuilding period is as short as five or six years or as long as more than ten years, and each sail battleship is a treasure built by a naval power with all its might, and its status is very important.

The most famous British Royal Navy Victory, is General Nelson's ship in the Battle of Trafalgar, with a displacement of 3,556 tons, a deadweight of 2,176 tons, a total length of 69.2 meters, a width of 15.8 meters, a draft of 8.8 meters, a crew of 850 people, and 104 guns.

Although the ship has been decommissioned, as a witness of the Royal Navy of the British Empire to the glory of world hegemony, it has always been docked in the dry dock of the Portsmouth Military Harbour Museum in the British mainland for future generations to admire.

Take, for example, the USS Constitution, the largest sail frigate in the US Navy, which was built at a cost to the owner

1,500 giant oaks, displacement of 2,200 tons, total length of 62.2 meters, width of 13.6 meters, draft of 6.85 meters, crew of 400 people, armament of 36 guns, belongs to the sail frigate.

With such a large tonnage, why does it belong only to a sail frigate?

This is due to the division of the era of sail battleships, which is based on the gun deck, and has nothing to do with the size of the displacement. Sail battleships of the first rank generally have three gun decks, while frigates have only one or two decks.

in this area

The Tang Kingdom does not have a long historical heritage, nor does it have a detailed division of shipbuilders, it is limited to repair and repair business, and it is almost impossible to build a 2-3,000-ton main sail battleship.

Testing the waters in the field of small ironclad ship construction is different, a small ironclad patrol ship with a displacement of 500 tons, from a technical point of view, there is no problem at all in realizing it.

Two medium-sized horizontal steam engines produced in the United Kingdom, plus a power system composed of 6 boilers, can burst out 920 horsepower, enough to propel a small ironclad patrol ship with a displacement of more than 550 tons to reach a high speed of 16~17 knots.

This kind of speed is the top speed of a two-masted schooner for a short time downwind, but the ironclad patrol ship can maintain it for a long time, and the advantages and disadvantages are clear.

Such a warship is equipped with seven new guns (note, it is planned to use the breech-loading guns developed by the Colt Weapons Company, three on the left and right sides, and one in the bow), and the firepower is fierce enough to become the main force of the coastal patrol of the Tang Kingdom.

In the Seattle shipyard

Richard saw the experimental ironclad ship "Fenyong", which was under construction, with a displacement of 555 tons, planned to be equipped with 7 guns, a speed of 16.5 knots, and a crew of 64 people.

Now that the keel has been laid, the ship has a rough appearance, and because it is the first experimental steam ironclad, it is not technically mature.

Richard saw a lot of problems during the inspection, and had to wake up the ship designers from the perspective of a bystander, so that they could avoid detours as much as possible.

"When you designed the ship, did you take into account that the officers and men of the Navy patrol for a long time, and they eat, wear and sleep on the ship, why is it wrong? Command compartment, living compartment, power compartment and weapons compartment for a rational division? Instead of going east and west? Is it hard to do this? ”

"In ship design, designers should try to bring in as much as possible, if you are a ship commander or a crew member, is the maintenance of the power compartment convenient and simple? Is it possible to get fuel coal nearby? Is the design of the living module reasonable, and does the command module have a wide field of vision? These are all realities to be taken into account. ”

"Let's just talk about this ship, as a warship, we must consider the problems of battlefield first aid and sinking resistance after being hit by enemy ship fire. The sail warship adopts a multi-compartment design to enhance the sinking resistance, why is such a good design not reflected? ”

"There is also the design of the whole ship type, the overly sharp bow is indeed conducive to high speed, but it is not conducive to the setting of the main gun in the bow, nor is it conducive to the violent pitch and attitude control in the voyage, which is equivalent to directly abolishing the powerful power of the bow gun, which is superior or inferior, and further verification and balance are needed."

"Just think about it with your ass, is there a ship with such a slender bow in ancient and modern times?"

"Don't talk nonsense, the construction of this ship will be stopped now, the design drawings will be comprehensively revised, the requirements I said will be implemented one by one, the gaps will be checked and filled, and the construction drawings will be improved as much as possible before starting construction."

Seeing the long, sharpened bow design, Richard couldn't help but feel the urge to vomit, with insight beyond the reach of others in his past and present lives, he knew that even if this thing was built, it would definitely be a failure.

The designers and senior executives of the Seattle shipyard were sprayed with red faces, cold sweat, and they knelt down in a panic and begged for mercy.

Richard walked away in a displeased mood, casting serious doubts about their ability to do a good job in this groundbreaking ship design.

Think about it

He could only offer a military tender to Europe for a good design proposal.

Richard's move is to bring together outstanding European ship designers for his own use and make up for the gap in his country's technical capabilities, which can be described as "borrowing chickens to lay eggs".

Soon after

The bidding document for the "Fenyong" class patrol ironclad ship was issued, and the Datang Kingdom Navy required the design displacement of the ship to be between 550 ~ 600 tons, suitable for sea conditions below level 4, with a range of 1700 nautical miles, with excellent seaworthiness and habitability, to meet the needs of long-term coastal patrol and cruise.

First, the design of sails and side paddle wheels was canceled, and propeller power was used as the only main driving force.

Second, the power composition is driven by two medium-sized steam engines in the United Kingdom, equipped with 6 boilers and corresponding piping instruments, with a total of 900~950 horsepower.

3. The design of two transverse compartments and multiple longitudinal compartments can meet the anti-sinking requirements of 2~3 adjacent compartments for water ingress and unsinkable ships.

Fourth, the partition design of the power cabin, coal-fired tank, living module, command cabin and weapon cabin is concise and clear, and is suitable for long-term life at sea.

Fifth, the 74 officers and men on board the ship should ensure that each of them has a bed, and the captain should have a separate living space of not less than 1.5×1.8 meters, so as to make rational use of the space as much as possible.

Sixth, the ship is equipped with a 30-pounder bow main gun and six 12-pounder broadside guns, which requires a reasonable division of areas, and can still maintain a stable hull and have better seaworthiness in relatively harsh sea conditions.

Seven......

The military has listed as many as 17 strict design requirements, involving advanced indicators such as ship type, waterline, high speed, seaworthiness, multi-compartment partition design, etc., among which how to choose is a big problem.

High speed and airworthiness are contradictory requirements, and the design of multi-compartment partitions is in serious conflict with the requirement of having a bed for each person, and it is necessary to find a balance between them.

After reviewing it, Richard agreed to release the demanding military bid to Europe, but more than doubled the amount of the final winning bidder from £2,000 to £5,000.

Naturally, the military has its own calculations, and feels that the reward for the winning design proposal of 2,000 pounds is not low.

Richard still pursued his usual style of acting, either not to make a move, or to do it was rude, direct and irresistible.

The £5,000 remuneration for the winning design proposal is enough to make the top naval architects in Europe rush to give up the argument and bury their heads in the studio, obediently handing over the excellent design drawings.

The high design fee of 5,000 pounds is not easy to get, once selected by the military, the designer must come to the Tang Kingdom to explain the original intention and answer questions on the design ideas in the construction of the first ship.

For example, why does the overall ship type adopt this scheme, what are the advantages and disadvantages? How much living space can be added? Is it more conducive to the anti-sinking design requirements of multiple compartments? Can the loss of speed be compensated, etc.?

After this

The designer must also cooperate with the requirements of the military, fine-tune and improve the overall design, and help the shipyard with subsequent construction work, mainly technical guidance.

After the ship was launched for sea trials, all design indicators could reach the satisfaction level of the military, and the designer could get the final remuneration paid by the military.

The whole process can take as little as a year or two, or longer at most.

It is undeniable that intellectual property rights are not worth much in this era.

The hefty £5,000 was enough to make the best British, French, Dutch and Prussian naval designers bow their heads and scramble to offer their best designs.

Once it is adopted, then it is a sure thing to drag the family to the Tang Kingdom.

If the Tang Kingdom provides generous treatment, such as arranging a favorable professor employment contract at the California Provincial University of Technology, then it is not impossible to settle in the Tang Kingdom.

Whether you are European or American, you will never have trouble with money, that's almost a certainty.

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