Wild North America 1846

Chapter 211 The Technological Innovations Brought by the Endeavor

Li Cha had made a note of the Yankees in his heart, and for the first time chose to endure it. All the suspects involved in the conspiracy to assassinate Wang Jia were secretly executed. A purge movement was set off in the army, and a large number of officers and soldiers who failed the political examination were retired.

From March to August

He successively inspected North Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, and the former eight states of Mexico including Chihuahua and Sinaloa in the south, and returned to Chang'an (San Francisco) by train at the end of July. , ended the national inspection tour.

a day in early august

At the Navy Pier in the San Francisco Bay Area, accompanied by the Admiral of the Navy, Earl Pan Hengchen, Richard personally boarded the steam iron-clad patrol ship "Fearless" to experience the world's first iron-clad warship with modern significance.

The steam armored patrol ship "Fearless" was designed in a European bidding method. Among as many as a dozen design proposals, after repeated demonstrations, the design proposal of the famous British ship designer Sir Owen Jessrob was finally selected.

The design scheme adopts an upward floating bow, and the overall shape of the ship is in the shape of a date stone. There are 6 boilers in the rear, two medium-sized marine horizontal steam turbines, and a double-blade drive.

The side wheels are abandoned, and only one main mast is kept to meet the speed requirement of 4~5 knots for normal coastal patrols. The design displacement of the whole ship is 582 tons, the maximum speed is 16 knots driven by active power, and it is equipped with 5 artillery pieces.

The bow is equipped with an 1852-style Colt breech-loading 30-pound gun, and two 12-pound guns are equipped on each side of the ship's side. This is extremely powerful for a patrol ironclad ship.

Due to the small tonnage of the ship, the caliber of the side artillery should not be too large, so as to avoid the strong recoil after firing, causing the entire warship to roll seriously, so the 1852-style Colt 12-pound artillery can only be selected.

in sea trials
The naval officers and soldiers demonstrated artillery shooting subjects for His Majesty the King. When the new Colt 30-pound main gun on the bow fired violently, the entire warship under sail had obvious frustration, and the thick gunpowder smoke filled the entire upper deck, which was really amazing. .

According to Earl Pan Hengchen, Commander of the Navy, the Colt 1852 30-pound breech-loading main gun uses a new type of trigger fuze shell, which is more powerful than the old-fashioned 60-pound naval gun. It has a fast rate of fire and fierce firepower, equivalent to three old-fashioned 60-pound naval guns. The amount of ammo thrown per unit time.

Due to the addition of new technology, the firepower of this type of steam ironclad patrol ship is no less than that of a British thousand-ton sail frigate. The navy is very satisfied and has already started a large number of construction work.

From early 1849

After three and a half years, after soliciting design proposals from Europe, repeated demonstrations by the Ministry of the Navy, and construction and improvement work at the shipyard that won the bid, the Navy finally got its favorite warship.

The coal-fired voyage of this class of patrol ships reaches 1260 nautical miles, and a heavy oil tank with a capacity of 16 tons is specially set up to support combustion in an emergency. It can drive the steam ironclad ship to a high speed of class 18 in a short time, and the total duration does not exceed 6 hours.

in the cockpit

Li Cha stood next to the helmsman and watched. This is the captain's command position. The entire cockpit is narrow and crowded, and can accommodate 8 people, including the captain, helmsman, navigator, signalman, orderly, signalman, gun Gun Commander, Second Officer, etc.

"Mr. Owen, under the condition of turbulent sailing in the sea, will there be crowding in this cockpit?" Richard asked with a frown.

Ship designer Sir Owen Jessrob is also on board, responsible for improving the design in accordance with the requirements of the military, and assisting in the completion of sea trials.

He was a middle-aged British man of modest stature, balding, wearing a pair of elegant gold-rimmed glasses, with the strict and withdrawn personality of an engineer.

When His Majesty asked about this, he bowed politely and replied, "Your Majesty, since the main mast is designed behind the cockpit, and the main mast must be located at the center of gravity of the whole ship, there must be enough main gun positions in front. So the cockpit can only be designed narrower."

"Can't it be designed in a concave shape?"

"Uh... theoretically yes, Your Majesty."

"If the design is concave and some support ribs are added, will the main mast be stronger?"

"Indeed, Your Majesty, I will improve in subsequent ship designs. This is a great idea."

"Mr. Owen, from my point of view, the command position can be set with an iron chair fixed on the ground. On the rear panel, there can also be several flipped-down movable positions equipped with wide-point restraint belts. The driver The platform is equipped with a tie rod, which can be grasped by hand. In this way, the ships will not be squeezed together even if they shake."

"Your Majesty, your idea is very considerate, and I will make improvements immediately."

"Ah."

Li Cha nodded, walked to the helmsman's seat with great interest to feel the steering of the ship for himself, and then left the cab, checked the coal-burning cabin, the living cabin, and even went down to the power cabin one by one, and put forward many suggestions for improvement .

For example, the reasonable layout of the steam pipes, the ventilation of the bilge, etc., all the details are carefully taken care of.

The degree of seriousness made all the accompanying naval officers feel ashamed, felt that the alarm bells were ringing, and secretly reflected on their many shortcomings.

At this time, the 582-ton steam ironclad patrol ship has a total length of only 42 meters and a width of 5 meters. No matter how careful it is, it will be finished after a while.

Overall
There are many advantages, but also many disadvantages, especially in this era, the comfort of the occupants is not paid attention to, and the beds of officers and soldiers of ships are set up according to every need.

The officers are better, although crowded, at least they are still in the cabin.

The sailors will be miserable, under the sails, in the passage, on the top of the cabin, on the coal pile, next to the gun emplacement, in the engine room...

Say so
Except for the inability to sleep in the cockpit, the rest of the place is basically in need, but there is really no way, the steam armored patrol ship is such a big place, there is really no room for improvement.

But this is indeed a pioneering steam ironclad ship, and it is also the first ironclad warship in service in the world today, which is of great significance.

Naval delegations from the United Kingdom, France, Prussia, the Kingdom of Sardinia, the Netherlands and other European countries came in droves to visit and appreciate the actual sailing performance of the Endeavor, and expressed their approval.

The Kingdom of Sardinia was delighted to see Lie Xin, and immediately ordered 6 steam ironclad patrol ships of the same model, each ship was 2.7 Tang Yuan, a total of 16.2 Tang Yuan, and the new Colt artillery was not included in the price.

This is because the Colt 1852 breech-loading gun is expensive, and the price of one is more than five times that of the old-fashioned 30-pound gun. The Kingdom of Sardinia has a lot of old-fashioned guns in stock, so there is no need to waste this money.

After the finalization of the "Fenyong" class armored patrol ship, it will immediately start production at the Seattle and Chang'an shipyards at the same time, followed by nine ships including Fenwei, Fenwu, Fenwen, Fenzhan, Struggle, Fenhao, Fenling, Fenshi, and Fenwei. , and the 6 ships ordered by the Kingdom of Sardinia, all will be delivered before the end of 1854.

to the end of 1854;

The Navy of the Kingdom of the Tang Dynasty will form a naval lineup consisting mainly of two three-tier sail battleships, five sail frigates and 10 steam iron-clad patrol ships. Its naval strength ranks third in the entire Americas.

The first place is the United States, the second is Brazil, and the third is the Datang Kingdom Navy.

This is just a ranking of tonnage data on paper, because both the United States and Brazil have sailing battleships and frigates of more than 2000 tons, and the paper data and naval tonnage both exceed the Datang Kingdom.

The U.S. and Brazil have had navies longer and have more experience training and operating ships, so they are stronger by default.

The "Fenyong" class steam armored patrol ship equipped by the Datang Kingdom did not cause much disturbance in the Americas, but it deeply touched the maritime powers such as Britain and France, prompting them to promote the iron armored ship equipment service process earlier than in the original history.

Britain, the overlord of the sea, responded the fastest. In 1853, the British iron-clad ship "Warrior", which laid a waterline iron-clad belt on the basis of a sail steam wooden ship, was launched, which was 7 years ahead of the original time and space.

Different from the stinginess of the Tang Kingdom, it took several years to build a 582-ton steam iron-clad patrol ship. The proud British Empire Navy did not look down on this small ship.

As soon as the Royal Navy took action, it refitted the "Warrior" with a displacement of tens of thousands of tons.

The "Warrior" battleship is 128 meters long and has a displacement of 9284 tons. It has traditional sails and a wooden shell. Its keel and ribs are made of iron, and then wooden boards are nailed, so that the ship can be made very large without relying on very long and huge trees. .

The "Warrior" is still mainly powered by sails, the efficiency of steam power is very low, and the coal load is not enough, and the endurance of steam power alone is insufficient.

When the sea surface is windy, rely on sails to sail, and the propeller is lifted to reduce underwater resistance. When steam is needed, the propeller is hoisted down and installed.

This up and down operation of disassembling and assembling the propeller will cost 600 sailors manpower.

On the basis of the traditional sailing wooden ship, the British "Warrior" has a waterline armor "belt" with a length of 65 meters, a height of 1.8 meters, and a thickness of 114 mm. broadside.

The ironclad ship with this layout, also known as the side gun door ironclad ship, was the mainstream warship of the naval power in the mid-19th century.

This kind of warship has a high freeboard, a large displacement, and is even more powerful after being equipped with waterline armor. It is the mainstream warship of the world's naval powers such as Britain and France, and it became very popular for a while.

In fairness
The large-tonnage iron-clad warships with broadside guns from Britain, France and other countries have strong firepower and strong defense capabilities. Their combat effectiveness is far from comparable to that of the Douding steam patrol ships of the Datang Kingdom. The two sides are not at the same level at all.

The "Fenyong" class steam armored patrol ship has a nice name, but in fact it has no armor. It is a patrol ship made of thin iron plates. It can deal with pirate ships, but it cannot deal with large-tonnage warships.

The positioning of this type of ship is to patrol the coast, combat piracy and anti-smuggling, protect fisheries and other daily tasks, and occasionally deal with small countries in Central America, which is enough.

Expecting it to fight against the thousands of tons of naval power, it is purely an old birthday star eating arsenic... I am impatient to live.

Based on the principle of gradual and orderly progress, the Datang Kingdom Navy has hired the famous British ship designer Sir Owen Jethrob as the chief designer. Based on the successful design of the "Fen Yong" class steam armored patrol ship, it will explore the next step. The design concept of the first-class steam armored frigate.

At the same time as the steam ironclad patrol ship "Brave" and the "Warrior" ironclad ship with side guns appeared, all kinds of ironclad ship designs of navies around the world appeared one after another.

This is especially true of the layout of the semi-submersible ironclad ship "Virginia" in the southern United States. The ship completely canceled the sails in an epoch-making way, and sailed purely on steam, with a very slow speed of only 5 knots.

The parts exposed to the water are all covered with iron armor, but the height of the iron armor is very low, which makes the freeboard of the "Virginia" very low. It is often covered by waves and has extremely poor ocean navigation capabilities.

When a big wave hits, the ship may sink.

The "Squad Leader" in the northern United States is even more extreme. Almost the entire hull is submerged underwater, leaving an iron head above the water, which can reduce the weight of the armor as much as possible.

The disadvantages of this design are also obvious;
The "Squad Leader" is almost a semi-submersible ship. Its overall shape is similar to that of a submarine. Its seaworthiness is extremely poor, its freeboard is almost zero, and its reserve buoyancy is extremely low. It may sink if it enters a little water.

Iron armor is very heavy in this era, and it is impossible to install too many.

Either the freeboard is very low and it is easy to surf the waves, but this can reduce the coverage of the armor and reduce the weight of the armor, and can lower the center of gravity to ensure stability. The United States is a representative practitioner of this type of ship.

Either the freeboard is high, it is not easy to surf, and it is suitable for oceangoing, but it can only be covered with a layer of armor "belt" to protect the waterline. The upper body cannot protect the whole body, and can only focus on protecting the waterline from being penetrated.

Britain, France and other countries, the world's ocean overlords, adopted this type of design. Datang Kingdom followed closely, and made innovations based on the designs of Britain, France and other countries, and blazed a new path that is eye-catching.

During this period

Li Cha couldn't hold back, and exchanged the formula of Harvey Steel from the system store. As the flagship product of the Taoyuan Special Steel Smelter under General Heavy Industries Holdings, it was quickly marketed all over the world with its excellent performance.

Britain, France, Prussia, and the Kingdom of Sardinia all purchased Harvey Steel from the Kingdom of Tang to build new armored ships. This prompted Taoyuan Special Iron and Steel Smelter to rapidly grow into a world-renowned steel company, bringing in a lot of money.

in the original history
In 1892, the American Harvey invented Harvey steel (a kind of ship steel), that is, carburized surface-hardened nickel alloy steel, which is widely used in the bulletproof armor belt of armored warships. It is a high-value special steel.

Today, the research and development team led by Professor Harvey from the Iron and Steel Research Office of the Datang Kingdom took the lead in testing and putting into production Harvey steel, which has been widely recognized by the world's naval powers and widely used in the armor belts of warships.

It is a pity that this Professor Harvey devoted himself to research and died of a stroke shortly thereafter. It is a great pity to lose his talent.

The traditional armor steel mainly controls the carbon content to increase the hardness, but as the carbon content increases, the toughness of the armor steel will drop rapidly, and the "ballistic characteristics" will decrease.

Thus, the so-called case-hardened armor was born.

In particular, the bulletproof steel plate represented by Harvey steel can change the content of carbon in the surface layer and bottom layer of the armor through the carburizing process for several weeks, so that carburized armor with high surface hardness and high bottom toughness can be obtained.

Balanced performance in all aspects, especially suitable for bulletproof armor belts.

Excellent performance brings high prices. A ton of ordinary steel only costs 16 to 17 yuan, while a ton of Harvey steel is worth 190 to 200 yuan, which is 12 times the former.

(End of this chapter)