Valley Emperor

Among the many design proposals of the Shipbuilding Department of the Ministry of Naval Warfare, although there is no shortage of 10,000-ton steel steam battleships, which are too advanced science fiction works, most of the design proposals are still relatively reliable.

In particular, the design of the Jiangnan has won the approval of many naval generals and the Son of Heaven. Now construction has started, and according to the design of the Jiangnan, after making certain changes, a thousand-ton cruiser and a five-hundred-ton cruiser have been completed. Class frigate design.

The latter two designs also continue the main design concept of the Jiangnan-class battleships, and the steam-sail hybrid power is adopted uniformly. In order to improve the speed, the hull is generally slender, and the hull shell is covered with wrought iron armor, and the double-deck or single-deck artillery is arranged with traditional equipment. The front-loaded smoothbore gun, with howitzer as the main ammunition.

The above three types of steam warships will be the main construction warships of the Datang Navy in the next few years, and will undertake the important task of the main ships of the Datang Navy.

Among them, Jiangnan, the first ship of the Jiangnan-class battleship, is expected to start laying the keel for construction in March.

After more than a year, it is estimated that the Jiangnan will be completed and launched. Other cruisers and frigates will also start construction one after another, and will be completed and launched next year.

While the navy was building steam warships with newly designed sails, wooden hulls, and wrought iron armored shells, the navy also began to refit the existing battleships, especially those cruisers and battleships. Xuanping 20 years ago The modification of the battleship is no longer the kind of messy test modification of last year, but it is modified according to the standard scheme.

This kind of modification is mainly based on the installation of steam engines, and does not wrap wrought iron on the outer shell. The changes in other aspects are basically not big. On the one hand, it is a traditional sailing warship, whose hull potential is limited, and it is difficult to lay armor and other modifications, and The cost is extremely high. After comprehensive consideration, the Navy feels that it is better to directly build new ships for large-scale modification of existing warships.

In addition to technical and cost considerations, it is also aimed at completing the refit in the shortest time possible. After all, it is impossible for the Datang Navy to put many capital ships on the slipway, and then it took ten or eight years to complete the refit of all the warships. .

Therefore, the modification of the existing sail battleship is mainly based on the most basic modification, and the installation of a steam engine is done.

If nothing else, starting this fall, we will be able to get together a main fleet of modified sails and steam hybrids.

When the navy was carrying out large-scale construction, the ocean voyage test and even the actual combat test of the refitted sail warships also began.

At the Guangdong-Hong Kong Naval Base, a special fleet has been organized. The number of this fleet is not large. There are only eight warships in total, but the styles of six of them are a bit strange. There is a huge chimney, and a faint white smoke is coming out at this time.

The other four are still ordinary sailing warships, and what is interesting is that the size of the two sailing warships is actually larger than the six steam warships.

Of the six steam battleships, the largest is the frigate Jinzhou. Before the refit of the steam engine, the standard displacement was 480 tons, but after the refit of the steam engine, the displacement increased, and the standard displacement reached 550 tons, fully loaded with coal and For other combat materials, the full-load displacement can reach more than 600 tons.

There are also three 400-ton frigates, and the last two are 550-ton transport ships.

These six steam warships are also the four largest tonnage warships that have been refitted in the Datang Navy. As for the larger cruisers and battleships, they have not been refitted for the time being, and the small tonnage patrol ships are not suitable for ocean navigation, so there is no Arrange to come in.

However, there were two unmodified sail battleships, one of which was an 800-ton cruiser, and the remaining one was a sail transport ship that seemed to have a tonnage of over 900 tons.

This eccentric fleet will carry out an ocean voyage experiment with a strong experimental nature to test the practical application of steam turbines in the face of complex sea conditions during ocean voyages.

To do this, they will set sail from Hong Kong, then go all the way north, through the Dayuan Strait, and then arrive at the naval base established by the Empire in the northern part of Dayuan Island in recent years, then continue to sail north to the Wusong naval base, and then again Sail northward, enter the East China Sea and then turn to Busan, and return to Busan after arriving in Busan.

Because there are no small-tonnage patrol ships in the test fleet, this time the sailing test will not choose to sail in the waters close to the coastline, but sail into the depths of the sea.

The six steam engines were used for testing, and the two sailing warships were naturally escorting them. One cruiser served as a bodyguard, and a large-tonnage transport ship was fully loaded with coal and other supplies to serve as a fleet. supply ship.

Although it is said that this voyage will be carried out in the coastal waters of the empire, because it will not sail close to the coastline, but will go deep into the sea, and many ports along the way, there is actually no coal to replenish, even if there is, There is also no good quality anthracite.

As a precaution, the navy still prepared two sailing warships to accompany them, and there were also two steam transport ships in the steam fleet.

When the test fleet officially set sail, it left Hong Kong and sailed directly north.

But from the very beginning of the voyage, the six steam battleships and the two sailing battleships behind them were pulled apart in terms of speed.

Because at the beginning of the voyage, the fleet began to sail at full speed, and at this time, the steam battleship used both sails and sails. In addition to the sails, it also used a steam engine, and the speed quickly soared to more than 12 knots!

At this speed, the two sailing warships at the back are stunned. Although one is a cruiser, the other is a fast transport ship specially prepared for the main naval fleet. The hull itself is relatively slender and has many sails. , the speed is fast, otherwise the navy will not specially send these two sailing warships to accompany.

But still did not expect that when the speed of the two sailboats was still seven or eight knots, the speed of the six steam ships had collectively soared to more than twelve knots.

But anyway, this is not a battle or something. The more important thing is to carry out various navigation experiments, so although the speed of the two sides is somewhat out of line, the commander still did not order to slow down, but continued to keep the fleet sailing at full speed.

As a result, the distance between the two sides grew older and farther, until in the evening, there was a relatively heavy storm in the sea area they were sailing.

Other people's sailing warships can be very fast in the wind, especially in the windy weather, so the speed quickly soars to more than 14 knots.

On the other hand, on the steam battleship side, in order to test the performance of the steam engine in stormy weather, the commander directly ordered most of the sails to be lowered, and then mainly rely on pure steam power to move forward. The speed of two knots and thirteen knots was reduced to about eight knots.

It has to be said that the steam engine technology of the Tang Dynasty still has great limitations. In the first year, it was still impossible to achieve a steam engine with too much power per unit. Among the six refitted steam ships, the most powerful Jinzhou No., its horsepower is only two hundred horses.

Simply relying on the power of the steam engine is actually not enough.

Fortunately, the Royal Institute of Technology has already given relevant solutions. Now they have solved the technical problems of the three-cylinder steam engine. At the same time, they also theoretically gave the continuous improvement of the follow-up steam engine, with thousands or even thousands of designs. There is no problem with a ship-based steam engine with horsepower. The problem still lies with the three major steam engine manufacturers. The processing equipment is not up to standard, and it is impossible to build such a giant steam engine.

Today, among the three major steam manufacturers, their tasks are actually very heavy. They have to manufacture steam engines for trains, and at the same time, they also need to mass-produce steam engines for industrial use, and then they also produce steam engines for ships.

The ship-based steam engine is the most difficult one. Because the naval battleship is so large, the power requirements for the steam engine are very high. The previous 100 horses are simply not enough. The later improved single-engine 200-horse steam engine is still the navy. dislike.

You must know that in the design plan of Jiangnan, it is required to load at least 600 horsepower, and the navy also requires that a single steam engine and a combination of multiple coal-fired boilers be used directly. Not very recognized.

This also means that the power of a single steam engine will reach 600 horses, which is a great challenge for steam engine manufacturers ~www.wuxiaspot.com~, at least the existing equipment cannot process such a large scale For steam engines, within a year, they can build a 300-horsepower steam engine with the existing production equipment.

If you want a more powerful steam engine, you must upgrade the production line, and you must have production equipment for various large and even giant ships.

Therefore, even though the construction of the hull of the Jiangnan has already started, in fact, the choice of the steam engine is still inconclusive. It is possible to increase the power of a single engine in order to win the steam engine order for a large number of naval capital ships.

However, whether it can be taken out within a year is a matter of chance. Therefore, although the Navy does not agree with it, in fact, in the end, it is very possible to install two steam engines.

Although the power of the steam engine installed in the current test fleet is not large, there is no problem in using it, and it can still allow the Navy to accumulate a lot of experience.

Therefore, even if the experimental fleet sailed northwards a little uneasy, they still gritted their teeth and continued to sail northward, for nothing else, just to accumulate experience and cultivate professional talents!