Wild North America 1846

Chapter 221 "Cold Wind" Class Ironclad Frigate

(The previous one was blocked and is being revised)

From the perspective of the navy, the 1950-ton design is more preferred. The ship has a larger displacement and better seaworthiness. Although it cannot go deep into the open sea, it can adapt to the requirements of cruising and combat in the middle and offshore seas.

Judging from the operational requirements of the Ministry of the Navy, this type of iron-clad frigate can almost meet more than 7% of naval combat missions. After all, most of the battles take place in the middle and offshore areas.

Large-scale naval main battleships that carry out ocean blockade and cross-sea operations are not strong due to current technological maturity and equipment requirements, and are expensive to build, so they need to be considered in the long run.

The armament development plan proposed by the Ministry of the Navy is called the "Sea Solid Plan". It plans to develop and equip 4 5-ton iron-clad frigates in 12 to 1950 years, and reserve the right to supplement the follow-up 4 ships first.

Li Cha carefully examined the "Guhai Plan", then stood up and walked to the window, pushed the window open, and looked out from here.

It's a sunny day in the Bay Area, with high clouds and clear skies.

The bright sunshine of November spreads, and the nearby sea, undulating mountains and urban buildings in the far distance are clearly presented in front of our eyes.

Datang Kingdom is a regional power in the Pacific Rim region, and the only country in the region that has started the process of industrialization. It shoulders the historical task of turning the Pacific region into a small pond for Chinese, and will definitely develop in the direction of a maritime power in the future.

But that will be 15 or 20 years later. With the current national strength, economic scale and population of the Tang Kingdom, it simply does not have the ability to participate in the competition of the world's ocean powers. It needs to hide its strength and bide its time for the future.

The Ministry of the Navy has a clear inclination and hopes to develop a 1950-ton iron-clad frigate. This is indeed more in line with the actual needs of the Datang Kingdom, which is conducive to enhancing the combat effectiveness of the navy and is conducive to responding to the challenges of the US Navy.

But the problem is not that simple. After all, the threat from the United States is on the Atlantic side. The American state of Tijuana is just an isolated enclave with a sparse population and a weak economic foundation. It has not yet developed.

It is impossible for the naval development plan of the Tang Kingdom to hide from the keen sense of the British. The development of such a large iron-clad frigate with such a large number may arouse the sensitive nerves of the British.

History is like countless reincarnations. Standing at the forefront of the trend in the middle of the 19th century, Li Cha has a deeper understanding of the dominance of the British than ordinary people, far more than the Yankees of later generations.

If you disagree, I will beat you, no discussion.

Take a look at the French state, which is also known as the world's maritime power and a veteran colonist. The experience of being invaded and deprived of its sphere of influence that has been operating in Egypt for decades can clearly explain that don't mess with the British.

End of 18 century

When Napoleon Bonaparte occupied Egypt, he planned to build a canal to connect the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea, and fully expand the scale of French colonial expeditions to realize his dream of conquering the world.

Unfortunately, due to the erroneous survey results of the French, it was calculated that the sea level of the Red Sea was higher than that of the Mediterranean Sea, which meant that it was impossible to build a canal without locks. Then Napoleon gave up his plan and left Egypt in a confrontation with the British forces.

After the defeat of Napoleon, France rebuilt the Second French Colonial Empire. Because the colonies in the Americas were lost to Britain, France focused on the development of the East, especially the Middle East including Egypt.

Since 1798, the French colonists have maintained absolute influence over Egypt, and after the French repeatedly proposed the construction of the Suez Canal, they finally provoked the sensitive nerves of the British.

Ignoring the colonial status of the French in the Middle East, Britain launched two consecutive wars to colonize Egypt.

In November 1840, Egypt was defeated and forced to sign the "Anglo-Egyptian Agreement", and has since become a semi-colonial and protectorate status belonging to the United Kingdom. France did not dare to say anything about this, and could only choose strategic cooperation led by the United Kingdom .

Under the eyes of the British, in 1854, Viscount Ferdinand de Lesseps, the French consul in Egypt, obtained a charter from Pasha Said, the governor of Egypt of the Ottoman Empire, and established a company to excavate the Suez Canal.

The project is planned to start in 1859, with a construction period of 8 to 10 years.

The preliminary plan is to dig a small canal along the Tumera River from the delta and a southern branch (now called Helevo Suez) canal. Together, the two canals are called the Sweetwater Canal to communicate with Suez.

The second phase of the project will build a northern section of the Abbasiya Canal to Port Said. This canal can provide drinking water for arid areas and connect the above canals to form the Suez Canal that runs through the entire line.

The canal is open to all ships in the world, and the land operation lease period is 99 years, with priority renewal rights.

Now it seems
If Egypt was not under the absolute control of the British, the French would not be able to make any big waves, and the Suez Canal, which they had been thinking about, would not have been built.

At this stage

The British were already dissatisfied with the slow-moving Datang Kingdom. In the brutal Crimean War, the sparsely populated Australia had more than [-] casualties, and the Canadian and South African Corps each suffered thousands of casualties. One of the division's strength has not arrived yet, what is this attitude?

The British are really hard to deceive. As a hardliner against the Tang Kingdom, Sir Henry John Temple has always put a lot of pressure on Richard.

Take it all into consideration
Richard decided to abandon the 1950-ton plan and adopt the plan to develop a 1500-ton iron-clad frigate, sending a moderate signal to the British.

Nowadays

The world's ocean powers, dominated by Britain and France, generally use sail and steam-powered hybrid fleets, and some of them cover armor with sail warships to achieve stronger combat performance.

A small number of iron-clad warships have begun to test the water, and several types of iron-clad warships have been launched successively, and are under construction or sea trials.

These old European traditional maritime powers have a heavy historical burden. The British Royal Navy is equipped with hundreds of sailing warships. It is impossible to just throw them away.

But you must not underestimate the British because of this. As the only fully industrialized country in the world that started the steam revolution for more than a hundred years, its strong industrial capabilities make it difficult for any country to hold a candle to.

More than 10 years ago

The peak of the development of the British steel industry reached an annual output of 460 million tons of steel. Although it has shrunk by nearly half, as long as there is market demand, it will recover very quickly.

Britain's shipbuilding capabilities are also strong, and it is unique in the world in terms of scale and technical level. The emergence of the [-]-ton freighters "Great West" and "Great Orient" are the most vivid examples.

How do you feel about the UK?

It is right to treat it as the most prosperous United States during World War II. Once its profound industrial capabilities are activated, powerful warships will appear like dumplings, and the ability to violently attack is extremely strong.

England still has nearly a hundred years of national fortune, and the Tang Kingdom can't afford to fight against the wind.

In line with the general policy of keeping a low profile, Li Cha is considering that the Tang Kingdom needs its own "Monroe Policy";
That is to say, the Americas are the Americas of the Americans, and the Datang Kingdom focuses on the Americas, and does not pursue global maritime hegemony or confrontation, so as to send a clear policy signal to the United Kingdom and avoid misjudgments.

In the "Guhai Plan", it was proposed to build 12 new 1500-ton iron-clad frigates. Richard cut half of them with a stroke of a pen, and only retained the plan to build 6 ships within three years.

This type of 1500-ton iron-clad frigate, the first ship "Cold Wind", is also called the "Cold Wind"-class iron-clad frigate, and its technical level is undoubtedly first-class in the world.

The "Cold Wind" class armored frigate is still designed by the famous British ship designer Sir Owen Jessrob. He is now the director and professor of the Ship Design Department of the University of California. An influential member of Zhongzhuo.

Compared with the fierce competition in the UK, Sir Owen Jessrob enjoys the leading position in the field of ship design in the Tang Kingdom, and almost no one can compete with him.

The "Cold Wind" class armored frigate designed by him is indeed of a very high standard, completely abandoning the auxiliary power of the mast, so that the layout of the ship's deck is simpler, and a large-area cabin can be set up.

The "Cold Wind" class armored frigate continues to use a large floating bow. This bow design has good wave suppression effect and good seaworthiness. Its bow is wide and can arrange two 30-pound main guns side by side. The two 30-pound main guns at the stern echo each other and have powerful omnidirectional artillery coverage.

The "Cold Wind" class ironclad frigate is a standard British broadside gunship, with a gun deck along both sides of the ship's side, equipped with 18 12-pound Colt breech-loading guns, 9 on one side.

Thus

When facing the enemy on the side, the "Cold Wind" class armored frigate can exert the powerful firepower of four 4-pound main guns and nine 30-pound secondary guns. The ability to defeat sailing warships.

In the face of the U.S. Navy's traditional old-fashioned front-loading artillery attack, the weak armor of the "Cold Wind" class iron-clad frigate can also play a very good role in protection.

The old-fashioned cast iron shells of the U.S. Navy are weak in damage, and it is difficult to produce a fatal blow to the Harvey steel armor that surpasses the times, tearing a large gap in the hull of the ship.

Due to Richard's early intervention, the ship protection capabilities of today's world ships have reached the level of the original historical timeline at the end of the 19th century. The old-fashioned artillery of the U.S. Navy faced such a solid steel armor like old cowhide. It is very difficult to tear.

In contrast, the artillery equipped with the "Cold Wind" class armored frigates and the new shells developed by Colt Weapons have reached the world's leading level, and their ability to damage US warships cannot be underestimated.

The new type of artillery shell adopts trigger fuze. The shell is filled with several pounds or even tens of pounds of black powder, ignited by thunder mercury, and will explode when it hits the enemy ship. The splashed shell fragments will have greater destructive power. An epoch-making product.

on the crimea front

The British, French and Austro-Hungarian armies have tasted enough of the Russian army's new artillery shells. For this reason, they urgently ordered tens of thousands of trigger fuze shells and more than 10 artillery pieces, which made Colt Arms Company a windfall. .

Fortunately, the Tsarist Russian army's new artillery shells are limited, and 10,000+ rounds of shells will be gone after they are fired.

There are more than 820 artillery pieces in Tsarist Russia, and it is still not enough to change the course of the entire Crimean War. Although tens of thousands of troops have been paid for casualties, the British, French and Ottoman troops will not easily admit defeat, and the battle is still stalemate.

Judging from the current battle situation, the Russian army's defense of Crimea has reached the end of its strength, and it is difficult to turn against the wind.

(End of this chapter)