November 12, 1872.

Lieutenant Commander Julian of the East African Navy and Roavis, the designer of the East African port, took two warships of the Navy to Richard Bay, Julian was a serious Austrian naval background, because Richard Bay was too far away from East Africa, so it was impossible for Archduke Ferdinand to go to Richard Bay in person, so he appointed Julian to go.

Standing on the bow deck, Julian in high spirits, watching his little "fleet" ride the waves on the sea, a new sensation that you can't experience in the Adriatic Sea at all, billowing black smoke drifting north with the sea breeze.

The navy is to gallop freely on the ocean, not in a large bathtub on the Adriatic Sea like the Austrian Navy, but Julian is still a little unsatisfied, it would be better if he could drive an ironclad ship, which would better reflect the romance of the military on the sea.

Richard's Bay is located on the east coast of South Africa, with Maputo to the north and Durban to the south.

Therefore, Archduke Ferdinand assigned the two warships that are now in service in the East African Kingdom to Julian's command, which was definitely a surprise for the fledgling Julian.

He couldn't even mix with the captain of the Austrian Navy, and when he got to East Africa, he was promoted, and he directly mastered two warships.

Of course, the most important thing is that the East African Navy never defaults on wages, and the benefits are better than those in Austria, although the salary is lower than that of the Austrian Navy, but the cost of living in East Africa is much lower than that of Austria.

The East African Navy has a total of eight capital warships, two of which will be decommissioned to Haiti, which means that the East African Kingdom actually has only six warships available.

The two battleships commanded by Julian were previously decommissioned from the Austrian Navy to East Africa, and they can only be said to be old fellows, so they are not strangers.

If it was to divide two warships to defend South Africa before, Archduke Ferdinand would definitely be in pain, but since East Africa wants to purchase new ships, Archduke Ferdinand has also become generous, if it is not that the new warships are not in place, or the entire East African Navy is packed and sent to South Africa, Archduke Ferdinand will not object.

However, due to the occupation of this place by East Africa, the name Richard's Bay does not exist, but is called the New Hamburg Bay by the Kingdom of East Africa, and the port that East Africa plans to build here is also called the New Hamburg Port.

The reason why the new Port of Hamburg is different from the ports of Dar es Salaam and Mombasa in its name is that it was built entirely by the Kingdom of East Africa and has no historical burden, while Hamburg has an important place in German history, especially during the Hanseatic League.

As a nomadic people who migrated from the interior, the Zulu people did not have the concept of a port at all, making the entire coastline of the Zulu Kingdom a barren state.

Roavis: "The New Port of Hamburg is positioned as a dual-use port, and according to the geographical conditions of the New Hamburg Bay, we can set up two ports, a civilian port at the bay's sea point and a military port in the southern hinterland, so that the military port can achieve double insurance. ”

The shape of the new Hamburg Bay is similar to that of a trumpet, but there are two narrow areas, one is about 800 meters wide, and the other is about 500 meters along the channel. This width is not wide, but it is much better than the conditions of the Port of Durban, which is only about 400 meters at the mouth of the bay.

Moreover, this layout naturally divides the new Port of Hamburg into an inner and outer port, which was also the layout of the Port of Durban in the previous life, but the inner and outer ports of the Port of Durban were realized by building embankments on both sides of the strait.

Julian: "Isn't it better to put the location of the military port in the mouth of the bay?" Inside, it doesn't feel necessary, and I feel that the north side of the inner harbor is also in good construction conditions, even better than the two locations you chose, why not take advantage of it? ”

Roavis: "Because there is no need, I talked to His Royal Highness the Crown Prince separately before coming here, in fact, at the beginning, I also wanted to choose the north side of the inner harbor as the port construction area, but the crown prince told me that South Africa is not a key construction area in East Africa at present, so the port does not need to be too large, it can be enough." ”

ERNST has set aside space in advance in view of the possibility that the Port of New Hamburg will become the largest export port for coal and minerals in East Africa in the future.

The Port of New Hamburg was formerly known as Richards Bay (or Richards Bay Port), one of the world's largest coal export ports, South Africa produced more than 200 million tons of coal annually in the previous life, and most of the coal exports were completed through the Port of New Hamburg, and only Ernst knew about the existence of huge coal mines in South Africa.

The coal mines in South Africa, which Ernst does not currently intend to develop, are now fully sufficient in East Africa (mainly Tanganyika and Kenya), and the new port of Hamburg is intended to facilitate the export of goods from East Africa to South Africa and save costs.

Because South Africa borders the British colony of Cape Town and the colony of Natal, it is also the area with the greatest defense pressure in East Africa, where a certain number of troops will be maintained for a long time, and the consumption of the army is indispensable, and sea transportation is obviously the most economical mode of transportation, and the cost of land transportation is very high, unless Zimbabwe is developed, after the development of agriculture, the nearest export of materials to South Africa.

Julian: "If that's the case, then that's the past, but the trouble we're having now is that it's too deserted to see a single person." ”

Roavis: "Because the Zulu people generally live inland, they don't think about the coast, and they have lived in East Africa for so long, except for some black people in the Zanzibar Sultanate who believe in the Arabic religion, I have never seen a black fisherman, but don't worry about the construction of the port, the army in South Africa will help us, and now they have a large number of slaves in their hands." ”

The East African Army stationed in the territory of the former Zulu Kingdom is mainly stationed north of the Tuguera River, across the river from the British colony of Natal, while the South African Army General Headquarters is located in the city of Pretoria.

Julian: "The map shows that there are two large lakes to the north and south of the port of New Hamburg, so I don't know if we can use them. ”

Loavis: "The lake to the south is unlikely, it's actually a big swamp with shallow water, but it's possible to the north, it's even bigger than New Hamburg Bay, and the best thing is that there's a natural river connecting to New Hamburg Bay. ”

In fact, in the previous life, the population of Richardsbe was mainly distributed along the banks of the Great Northern Lakes, and as for the natural channel, it only needs to be modified to better connect with the new Port of Hamburg.

The river is only seven meters wide at the mouth of the lake, but only needs to be widened by about 800 meters, and the width of the river below is more than 20 meters, and the downstream is more than 100 meters wide.

Julian: "In this way, the lakes in South Africa are really strange, these lakes are not small, and they are distributed close to the coastline, there are three large lakes around the port of New Hamburg alone, and there is a more than 300 square kilometers of St. Lucia Lake further north, which is also close to the coastline. ”

This series of lakes is strung along the South African coastline like a necklace of pearls, and the nearest lake is less than two kilometers from the sea, showing on the map, and the middle part of the land is like a thin line, just opposite to the chain of coral reefs off the coast of East Africa.

(End of chapter)