Chapter 45 Shipbuilding (1)
Just as British agents and espionage personnel deployed in Egypt were mobilizing personnel and weapons to support the Libyan tribal armed forces according to London's instructions, Contini was conducting an inspection on the "floating sea airport" of the United, firstly to understand the carrier-based aircraft pilots training situation, and secondly, continue to have in-depth exchanges with designers on specific ideas for aircraft carrier construction.
During this period, in order to complete the design drawings of the Ida special cruise ship as soon as possible, designers from the large and small joint shipyards, including the ship designers hired by Contini from Germany, were working hard on this warship. This verification warship explores Italy's own aircraft carrier design through its use, problems and directions for improvement, which obviously also requires communication.
Although Contini has determined the main technical indicators and rough sketches of the Ida after the last debate, it is easy to determine these, but it is much more difficult and complicated to actually design an aircraft carrier. Just considering the detailed drawings is a It’s not an easy job, and you also have to answer some seemingly meaningless “questions” from the designers: For example, why is the ship island placed on the right? Can't you put it on the left side?
This question is actually very difficult to answer. From a purely shipbuilding logic and theory perspective, either the right or the left side is fine. However, pilots have a characteristic. When encountering a problem, they instinctively choose the left side. As for why there is this tendency, it is completely just It could be explained subconsciously, so Contini replied humorously: "When you encounter danger while driving, do you turn the steering wheel left or right?"
But he couldn't answer the second question: Italians and Germans drive on the right, with the driver's seat on the left, so it seems natural to dodge to the left. The question is, British cars drive on the left, with the driver's seat on the right, so why do they still dodge to the left? Dodge left?
These problems can only be explained by forcibly using the president's preferences. This also resulted in the need to select a few young engineers with flexible minds and quick responses to follow Contini and listen to the president's thoughts on design at any time. Then they would translate these thoughts into professional terms and pass them on to the designers. Young Italian lads usually perform well on tasks, better than their German counterparts.
In fact, this is a relatively stupid way. The best way is for the Italian Navy to issue a tender and invite British and American shipyards to build aircraft carriers for Italy. By the way, we can draw inspiration from the designs submitted by them. If possible, go and see them. The current aircraft carrier and construction status of Britain and the United States.
However, Contini knows that this is impossible. Firstly, if the Italian Navy enters the aircraft carrier field in a high-profile manner, it will trigger a confrontation in the Mediterranean and the French will definitely follow suit. Secondly, because of the British and American personalities, they will definitely order it in Italy. The experience of conducting various tests on the aircraft carrier was taken away by Britain and the United States, and Italy could only pay for it; thirdly, in this way, the ideas of Italian designers will be guided by Britain and the United States, which is very detrimental to Italy.
It is also an aircraft carrier. Italy’s aircraft carrier requirements are obviously different from those of Britain and the United States:
Taking the voyage as an example, the sea area that Italy needs to cover is not large, it is the bathtub of the Mediterranean Sea. Although Contini also emphasized the ability of aircraft carriers to operate in the Atlantic Ocean, in the final analysis, there is no need to build aircraft carriers with a range of 9,000-12,000 kilometers like the United Kingdom and the United States. , the indicator he gave the Ida only needs to meet the endurance of 6,500 nautical miles/18 knots.
Taking cost as an example, Italy can accept a design with a single ship height. Because Italy's shipbuilding capacity is limited, it is impossible to pile up dumplings during the war. It can only rely on accumulation before the war. A higher unit price does not hinder construction. Anyway, it cannot build many, and the number of construction Less, in turn, drives up construction costs;
Take survivability as an example. Because Italy cannot replenish a large number of battle losses during wartime, every warship is very valuable. Contini places great emphasis on the survival, self-defense and protection capabilities of warships. Not only is the initial design of the warships 30,000-ton It also built a large and heavily armored aircraft carrier with enhanced armaments, cut off part of its range, and added all the excess weight requirements to protection. That kind of thin-skinned, fragile, easy-to-sink, easy-to-build aircraft carrier is not Italy’s development direction.
Although Italy does not make many, Contini believes that it is necessary to build a few more before the war. Italy's only advantage over Britain and the United States is that it does not need to be restricted by defense expenses. At most, it will pay to build a few, so it must strengthen domestic Shipbuilding Capabilities of Shipyards After all, shipbuilding is a business that is gradual and cannot be accomplished overnight.
In order to strengthen the strength of the small United Shipyards, Contini did everything possible to establish a good relationship with the large United Shipyards and prepare to take them over at the appropriate time. On the other hand, he waved his checkbook to bring Germany, which has been in trouble in recent years, The long-established shipyard Vulcan Shipyard took over and became the German branch of United Shipyards, which can be regarded as the first step for United Group to go abroad for expansion and mergers and acquisitions.
Volkeng Shipyard has built many famous warships in history. It is also the main ship builder of China's Beiyang Navy, especially the two giant ships of the time, Dingyuan and Zhenyuan. However, it is undeniable that the infrastructure of the plant is indeed somewhat outdated. In the face of the trend of increasing ship tonnage, it became unable to cope with the trend. In addition, Szczecin was located in a relatively remote location in the direction of the Baltic Sea, making it difficult to attract outstanding talents. After entering the 1910s, facing the rapid advancement of dreadnought technology, it could only do Although a new branch factory was set up in Hamburg, it was obviously not enough to relieve the urgency. In the final war, only some small and medium-sized ships such as destroyers, light cruisers, and submarines could be built. The large battleships of the German Navy were built in Germania and other shipyards. Construction is complete.
Although there are also successful products, with the end of World War I, Germany's naval power entered a vacuum period, and the Vulcan Shipyard went from bad to worse and had a hard time. After the Ruhr crisis, this old shipyard fell into a struggling situation. It was originally going to be sold to other companies in Germany. Germania Shipyard and Hamburg Shipyard expressed interest, but how could they be as generous as Contini? More importantly, Contini said that not only would he take over all the shipyards, but he also said that none of the experienced and skilled employees would be dismissed, and all would be retained and a group would be selected to go to the Italian company, and their wages would be relatively increased.
The other two shipyards themselves had excess staff, so how could they dare to promise such a thing? So two months ago, the Vulcan Shipyard officially became a part of the United Group and was considered a subsidiary of United Shipbuilding.
Contini not only saw the personnel and technical accumulation of the shipyard, but more importantly, he saw the submarine design and construction capabilities of the Vulcan Shipyard. He is replicating these capabilities in the joint shipyard. At the same time, he also promised to invest in expanding the slipway and dock of the Vulcan Shipyard, and he will still prepare to build large ships in the future.
In order to maintain friendly relations with the German business community and to apologize for his act of stealing love, the president was too lazy to mediate through political and diplomatic means, and used the big stick of money and yuan to throw out two oil tanker orders in one breath: suitable for use in the Mediterranean region, with a carrying capacity of 20,000 tons, a maximum speed of not less than 16 knots, and a cruising range of not less than 8,000 nautical miles at an economic speed of 10 knots. The two shipyards of Germania and Hamburg will independently design them. Whoever's design is more valuable in use and whose ship has a better overall cost-effectiveness will use whose design (the design plan is free) for batch construction in the future. This order will be one for each of the two companies.
20,000-ton tankers are still new to Germany. The German shipyard and Hamburg shipyard, which were originally noisy, immediately plunged into discussions and designs. They were not stupid and would calculate how big the next batch of construction business would be: Italy's oil in North Africa will be calculated in tens of millions of tons. Assuming a transportation volume of 10 million tons/year, it will take at least 16 days for an oil tanker to complete the 1,500-nautical-mile journey from Benghazi to Genoa, including loading, sailing, unloading, and returning. It is extremely efficient to perform 20 transportation tasks a year. After a simple calculation, in order to meet the 10 million tons of oil transportation task, at least 25 such ships are needed. This is a huge number. It is enough to fill the existing slipways of the two companies. Besides, who stipulates that North Africa can only produce 10 million tons a year? What if it rises to 20 million tons over time?
Several shipyards in Italy have also received similar orders: several key shipyards each received a 20,000-ton design and construction order. There were also shipyards from Britain, the United States and even France that actively solicited business, but Contini politely declined: What a joke, everyone only saw the United Group's tankers, which are of course also important, but the president wants more future escort aircraft carriers and modified aircraft carriers. To put it bluntly, there is only a thin window paper between tankers and simple aircraft carriers, how can they stimulate Britain, France and the United States? He placed orders to the domestic market in the hope of improving their design and construction capabilities, and did not consider whether they made money or not. This is the true face of the National Policy Group.
These happy shipyard owners had no idea how big the president's appetite was: what 25 ships, 30 ships! Contini wanted 120 ships!
To be precise, he wanted to stockpile 120 20,000-ton tankers before the war. On the one hand, the United Group with this scale and volume can effectively monopolize the Mediterranean shipping business. On the other hand, in his mind, the total crude oil supply required by the entire Western Europe in the future should be more than 30 million tons. If he did not build more, how could he have the opportunity to deal with war damage and the need to be pulled out for military transformation? Given Italy and Germany's shipbuilding capacity, it is difficult to replenish them during wartime, so they must stockpile a batch before the war.
Stockpiling warships is impossible, but stockpiling large tankers that can be easily converted into aircraft carriers will not attract attention, and there is no policy or political risk at present: everyone knows that the United Group will produce a lot of oil in the future, isn't this a ready-made transportation demand? A 20,000-ton tanker is always more economical than a small 5,000 or 7,000-ton tanker, right?