Rise of Australia

Chapter 206 Sovereign Class Battleship
If Russia's slow action in the construction of dreadnoughts is due to the two major shortcomings of insufficient research and development capabilities and insufficient funds, then France, one of the old powers, is a bit unreasonable for its slow action in dreadnoughts.

In fact, the French are not slow to move on dreadnoughts, but because the navy's funds have been spent on the construction of the former dreadnought Denton-class battleships, not only the navy has no budget, but the French shipyards do not have enough construction capacity to Work on the new dreadnought has begun.

Because of this in history, although the Denton-class battleships have fallen behind the times after the birth of the Dreadnought, the French are still very persistent and waited until all the Denton-class battleships were completed and delivered in 1911. construction plan.

Let alone whether it is stupid or not, when France started the construction of dreadnoughts, other countries had entered the era of super dreadnoughts.

France's first dreadnought, the Guba-class battleship, is also honored to be a battleship that lags behind in the dreadnought era.

When the dreadnoughts were born, they were busy building pre-dreadnoughts. When the super dreadnoughts were born, they were busy building dreadnoughts. As a result, the French were completely behind the times in the naval transformation, and never saw the taillights of Britain and Germany.

Outside of Britain, the country that started the era of dreadnoughts, the country that attaches the most importance to dreadnoughts and invests the most is the second power, the German Empire.

After the birth of the battleship Dreadnought, it broke the delicate balance of the previous shipbuilding competition between the British and German warships, and also intensified a new round of warship competition between Britain and Germany.

Germany's response to the battleship Dreadnought was a new dreadnought, the Nassau-class battleship, remodeled from the old 1901-type battleship.

The Nassau-class battleship strengthened the armor protection of the old battleship, and also used the full-heavy artillery concept of the Intrepid battleship, equipped with 12 280mm main guns.

However, the artillery caliber of the Nassau-class battleship is much smaller than that of the Intrepid battleship. Although the rate of fire is faster, the firepower is still weakened.

This is nothing. The biggest difference between the Nassau-class battleship and the Dreadnought-class battleship is actually the different power equipment and systems adopted by the two battleships.

The Dreadnought-class battleship uses four steam turbine propulsion units, coupled with a large number of steam boilers, which greatly improves the speed.

But the Germans did not believe in this technology. The Nassau-class battleship still used the old-fashioned three-cylinder reciprocating steam engine and only used coal-fired boilers.

This reciprocating steam engine allows the Nassau-class battleship to travel at the highest speed. The reciprocating movement of the mechanism will cause the hull to vibrate violently, which will affect the aiming and shooting of the artillery.

Not to mention the impact on artillery shooting, such an old power system caused the top speed of the Nassau-class battleship to be only 19 knots, which was significantly behind the battleship Dreadnought.

Based on the original history, the Nassau-class battleship fell behind quickly after its birth, becoming a shooting star in the history of German battleships.

Because of the good relationship with the British Empire, Germany, and Russia, Australasia also obtained the design sketches and materials of the Dreadnought battleship, and William II also generously handed over the drawings of the Nassau-class battleship to Arthur.

Of course, William II did not do so without purpose.He knew Arthur's ambitions well, and naturally knew that after Arthur obtained the blueprint, he was bound to let Australasia master the dreadnought construction technology, and even let Australasia have its own dreadnought.

What does having a dreadnought mean at this sensitive point in time?It represents that Australasia can quickly become a naval power, changing the power structure of the Oceania region and even South Asia, the Far East, the Indian Ocean and the Southwest Pacific.

After Australasia has its own dreadnought, will it make the British Empire, which has always been very cautious in the navy, afraid?

Although there was a good relationship between Arthur and the British commoners, wasn't that the case before William II?
There is no permanent fixed relationship between countries, and the relationship will only change with the interests of countries.

If Australasia poses a certain threat to the British Empire in an area that the British Empire values ​​more, then Australasia will also become an imaginary enemy of the British Empire.

According to the urgency of the British, it is very possible to send at least one dreadnought to the Indian Ocean region.

At least to maintain their own naval balance in the Indian Ocean region, and even gain a certain advantage, in order to reassure those British guys.

Doesn't the dispatch of one more dreadnought ship in the Indian Ocean region mean one less dreadnought ship in mainland Europe?
For the German Empire, the fewer British dreadnoughts deployed in mainland Europe, the fewer enemies it is likely to face in the future.

This is why William II generously handed over the design drawings of the Nassau-class battleship to Arthur.

Compared with such a battleship with obvious shortcomings at the beginning of its design, diverting disasters to the east is a better reward for the German Empire.

When Arthur got the design drawings of the Nassau-class battleship, he had already thought of all the plans and plans of William II.

However, this is not a hot potato for Australasia, but the hope for the development of the navy.

Perhaps William II also knew the importance of this information to Australasia. It is absolutely impossible for Arthur to give up the drawings of the Nassau-class battleship.

However, although the Nassau-class battleship can already be called a dreadnought, it still adopts an old-fashioned design in many aspects and is destined to be eliminated quickly.

Arthur is not that stupid, because he is familiar with history, and he will not be as cautious as the Germans.

After getting the design drawings of the Nassau-class battleship, Arthur called all the shipbuilding experts that Australasia could convene to hold a meeting on Australasia's future shipbuilding plan.

Arthur has only one purpose, and that is to gather the abilities of these experts, combine all the advantages of the Nassau-class battleship and the Dreadnought, and design a real dreadnought with no obvious defects.

There are two obvious defects of the Nassau-class battleship. One is that the caliber of the main gun equipped is too small, and its firepower is at a disadvantage compared to the battleship Dreadnought.

The second is that the old power system is still used, which will cause the warship to vibrate when sailing at the maximum speed, and at the same time, the sailing speed is still behind the battleship Dreadnought.

In these two aspects, the dreadnoughts of Australasia should improve the shortcomings of the Nassau-class battleships as much as possible. Not only should the firepower be strengthened as much as possible, but the power system should also use brand-new steam turbines.

In fact, the shortcomings of the Nassau-class battleships are almost the same in these two aspects, but these two aspects determine the most important firepower and speed of the battleship.

After having specific goals, experts in shipbuilding began intense discussions, discussing various possibilities for warship design.

For Australasia, the design of the dreadnought is actually very easy.After long-term intelligence exploration of the Dreadnought by the major powers, the detailed data of the Dreadnought battleship has basically been known to all major countries, and Australasia is naturally among them.

Coupled with the design drawings of the German Nassau-class battleship, Australia currently has two designs of dreadnoughts, and there are references for improvement.

It is nothing more than taking the Nassau-class battleship as the main body. In terms of some shortcomings of the Nassau-class battleship, the design of the Dreadnought battleship is adopted, so that the original Nassau-class battleship becomes a truly flawless dreadnought, comparable to or even slightly surpassing the Dreadnought. .

The warship design this time did not shy away from German experts, on the contrary, German experts are also one of the main forces for improvement.

After all, the dreadnought will soon be followed by a super dreadnought, which is the main force of scientific research in Australasia.

Prior to this, it is also good news that German experts participated in the research and development of the dreadnought in Australasia. The unique rigorous attitude of the Germans is well reflected in this kind of machinery.

Even the Nassau-class battleship, which would cause bumps and tremors when driven at the maximum speed, can sail smoothly for more than ten years without any problems, which is enough to show Germany's rigorous attitude towards machinery manufacturing.

These German experts are still very excited about their participation in Australia's dreadnought research.

After the birth of the dreadnought, their attitude was originally very positive.But after contacting the country, Germany's attitude is still to let them stay in Australasia and continue to help the development of the Australasian navy.

They thought that in a short time, they had no connection with the design and construction of the dreadnought.

Unexpectedly, Australasia also carried out the design of dreadnoughts, and the goal was to refer to the data of dreadnoughts in Britain and Germany to improve a warship with more comprehensive performance.

Of course, there is another reason why these German experts can teach them all, and that is the information on the German Nassau-class battleships in Australasia.

Australasia's ability to grasp the German dreadnought information for the first time is enough to prove the good relationship between Germany and Australasia, as well as Germany's support for Australasia's mastery of dreadnoughts.

In addition, over the past few years, Australasia has recruited and trained a group of shipbuilding experts through various methods.

Although it can't catch up with the shipbuilding capabilities of the European powers, it can barely reach above the second-tier European countries.

With the joint efforts of these Australasian experts and German experts, the design drawings of Australia's first dreadnought ship were also released smoothly.

Although this design drawing has not been verified much, it is designed and improved based on the main body of the battleship Dreadnought and the Nassau-class battleship.

As long as there are no major problems with the design of the Intrepid battleship and the Nassau-class battleship, then there should be no major problems with the design drawings of this battleship.

Of course, the actual combat capability has to be verified and tested before a conclusion can be drawn.

No matter how confident the British are in the battleship Intrepid, it took more than a year of sea voyage and testing before it officially entered the establishment.

The battleship designed by Australasia was officially named the Sovereign-class battleship by Arthur.

Because the main body is improved based on the Nassau-class battleship, the appearance of the Sovereign-class battleship is basically not much different from the Nassau-class battleship.

However, because Germany and Australasia do not currently have the 45mm artillery technology with a diameter of 305 times, the artillery of the Sovereign-class battleship is expected to be temporarily equipped with 12 280mm main guns like the Nassau-class battleship.

But this is only temporary. Once Germany or Australasia obtains more advanced 305mm artillery technology, it will be applied to the Sovereign-class battleship.

In order to cope with the possible replacement of the main artillery in the future, Arthur also specifically asked to leave enough room for improvement in the structure of the main gun of the Sovereign-class battleship, so that it is possible to replace the main gun of the Sovereign-class battleship in the future.

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(End of this chapter)