One Hundred and Fifteen Reclamation
In the navy's dock, a worker joked with his colleague while working: "The progress of the navy is really fast. The sailboat stopped when it said it stopped, and Laurens came back and went south again. I have bought more than 0 sailboats, and I am sure I can bring back more rubber."
His colleague was also busy, and answered without raising his head: "Because we have seen three whole ships of rubber, this time the navy is very proud. The tire factory is waiting for rubber, many of which are made of steel. The project has to make way for the Navy's new warships."
This time, after the navy came back, it really got the attention of the people above. After all, although there are many alternatives, it is really less troublesome to own natural rubber. Therefore, the enlarged meeting of the Navy was held in full swing.
Interestingly, the commander-in-chief of the Navy did not attend the development meeting of the navy again, and Laurens took his battleship south again and only rested for a morning on land.
The number of fleets going south this time is very large: not only 10 sailboats specially manufactured by the Navy that can fight and transport things, but also three previous warships and 20 unarmed pure transport sailboats.
In order to improve the efficiency of a southward trip, Laurens even requisitioned 5 large fishing boats to go south to Dothan to transport rubber together. This time, even with a conservative estimate, he could loot tens of thousands of tons of rubber from the Dothan Empire.
In order to support the navy's southward strategy of transporting rubber, Desail Gourlo and others supported the navy in expanding its armaments and preparing for war. In their view, as long as the Navy doesn't want oil and too much steel, everything is negotiable.
It is against this background that the Navy approved a crazy shipbuilding plan and decided to launch 20 all-metal multi-purpose warships in one go, and another 20 fast transport ships. Plus 50 large transport sailboats and 50 low-armed sailboats - a huge fleet focused on transportation and supplemented by naval warfare.
Of course, this is just a grand shipbuilding plan. Whether it can be completed or when it will be completed is still unknown. However, the first multi-purpose warship that fell on the navy and never dared to think about it before has been in a month. Construction started before.
"Yeah, look over there, the one in the dock! I heard that 1,000 tons of rubber can be transported back in one go. It's made of all metal. It's big and scary!" The worker pointed to the big guy in the dock in the distance with his chin. Said to his colleagues.
The colleague looked in the direction of his chin, and saw the giant ship with most of the hull welded together, lying quietly in the dock.
A boiler the size of a house has been placed in the hull, and a huge chimney has been made and placed next to the hull. On this huge ship, at least hundreds of workers are busy busy, and every part is accurately installed in its designated location.
The modern steel giant ship is definitely a systematic and precise project, including the attention to ventilation pipelines, the layout of power lines, the fire extinguishing system, the drainage and self-rescue system - each of which is the wisdom and exploration of countless generations.
The good news is that with the help of the Knowledge Magic Ball, the naval designers directly inherited these design experiences, and they designed the first all-steel ship of Ireland Hill to be almost flawless.
The tonnage of the brand-new warship does not seem to be large. The full-load displacement of this warship is 7,500 tons, and it is not a fully armored main cruiser. Because he knew that this kind of battleship would be eliminated, the battleship that Chris finally selected was a cheap alternative.
The plan he came up with was the design of an auxiliary cruiser. This kind of warship can transport personnel and materials in peacetime, and the cabins are spacious and living conditions are very good. And this kind of warship can use coal as fuel, which is very suitable for Ireland Hill.
This new type of warship is equipped with three turrets, equipped with 6 latest Navy 105mm caliber guns, and equipped with 10 0mm caliber high-level dual-purpose guns on the side of the ship.
In this way, this kind of warship has a good ability to attack the sea, as well as a strong ability to defend against the air. It can be said to be the maritime hegemon of the new era - the only thing that is depressing is that this kind of maritime hegemony still has the main business. Including freight and passenger transport.
The newly designed warship took less than 6 months to manufacture, after all, this kind of transport ship is just a freighter in its bones. It has neither very heavy armor nor powerful large-caliber artillery, but it is still a formidable maritime overlord.
The only difference from the auxiliary cruiser is that this warship is equipped with an aiming device, which allows the 6 main guns to more accurately attack distant targets. So, in a sense, this cruiser is the first warship that can "accurately attack distant targets".
This battleship has 4 huge funnels, which look like the Titanic cruise ship.
When fully loaded, it can run at a terrifying speed of 5 kilometers per hour—about 19 knots in knots, which is already faster than a serious high-speed sailing warship. This is a fully loaded situation, if it is in a combat state, such a speed can be increased to about 8 kilometers.
The new auxiliary cruiser can focus six 105mm guns on either side and shoot more accurately at long distances than the previous sailing warships. So in terms of firepower, it is more powerful than a sailing battleship with 10 75 guns on one side of the ship.
If you count the 0mm caliber high-level dual-purpose guns distributed on the side of the ship, the combat effectiveness of this new warship is simply overwhelming.
Compared with the sailing warship, it can run at full speed in any situation without having to worry about the wind direction - this is another huge improvement.
The emergence of the first-generation steel warships of Ailan Hill has a specific era background and mission requirements. Because of the insufficient combat power of the enemy and the limitations of the mission, the Ailan Hill's navy is very confident in crushing the enemy on the sea.
Their weapons and equipment have been stronger than each other for a few times, so they have no pressure from the other side's navy at all, so they focus on other aspects.
In the vast sea, whether it is the task of purchasing rubber in the south or the task of looting the coastline of the other party, it has a long task time and requires a certain speed and greater endurance.
At the same time, they only need moderate firepower against the slow and unarmored enemy sailing ships in naval battles. These missions would be a waste of resources if Ireland Hill built regular cruisers that could cruise at high speeds and have large-caliber guns.
From the perspective of production, if a real warship is manufactured, it will not only waste precious steel and precious artillery production capacity, but also waste the speed of producing warships. Under the same production time limit, about a dozen auxiliary cruisers can be built a year, but it is estimated that only one or two regular cruisers can be launched.
The regular battleships that have been painstakingly manufactured cannot control the coastline due to the scarcity of numbers, and the regular cruisers are not very suitable for the escort and transport mission of Ailan Hill. At times, it is completely overflowed and no more income can be obtained.
At the same time, the endurance and loading capacity of regular cruisers sacrificed in order to install heavy armor and large-caliber artillery, as well as the living conditions of sailors, are more important when supporting long-term maritime activities.
To put it bluntly, the enemy is too weak, using cruisers is a complete waste, and the long route makes the endurance and comfort of regular warships waste on the armor that is not used...
After weighing it again and again, Chris found that the high-speed cruise ships and auxiliary cruisers converted from merchant ships that began to appear in the late 19th century were just in line with the needs of missions such as Ireland Hill: such ships are fast, usually 18-26 knots, and have a very long endurance. Outstanding, the activity radius is naturally not a problem, and more importantly, the space on this type of boat is abundant and comfortable to live, which can allow the crew to have enough living and activity space while loading enough supplies, so as to facilitate long-term boring cruises maintain adequate morale.
Best of all, these ships are coal fired! They don't need to waste precious diesel or heavy oil, and they only need more coal in Ireland Hill to sail on the sea, which is very convenient and fast.
More importantly, the auxiliary cruisers modified by such ships can serve shipping when they are eliminated or in peacetime. They can transport a large amount of materials and personnel. After dismantling the weapons, they can be used as cruise ships, which is very economical and practical. .
After all, Alan Hill's technology is developing very fast, and it is absolutely commonplace to eliminate some battleships. This wasteful behavior that consumes steel and is eliminated immediately must be avoided for Alan Hill, whose production capacity is still limited.
"When we have more and more battleships, the endless sea will become the ocean of our Alan Hill!" The boatman who spoke first said with a smile. He has no reason not to laugh. After all, he has been working overtime every day recently, and the salary is enough to support his whole family.
This treatment was much better than what he had received before, and it also made him very satisfied: his hard work, in exchange for abundant wages and bonuses, was not the happy life he dreamed of in the past.
"Yeah, when we have more and more ships and fill up the endless sea, we can go and see, what is there on the other side of the sea?" Another boatman smiled and looked at the distant sea and opened his mouth. Word for word with emotion.
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