At the Hudong Shipyard, Lin Shuo raised his head and asked Xu Jianyin who had just entered: "Mr. Zhong Hu, have the German designs been completed?"
Xu Jianyin said: "Yes, they have booked their tickets to return to Germany in a week, and the first batch of fifteen trainees from the Merchant Marine School to Germany are also ready."
"That's just right. I have something I want them to take a look at." Lin Shuo said and asked Xu Jianyin's assistant to ask the designer from Volkeng Shipyard to come over.
Lin Shuo seemed very enthusiastic after seeing Streich. The two talked for a while about the shipyard sending people to Germany to study. Then he called the German to his desk and said, "Mr. Streich, I have something here.
You can take a look at several warship design plans and sketches first." He then spread out several drawings on the table.
Streich walked over and took a quick look. He saw several three-dimensional views of warships with some explanations in English. He glanced at Lin Shuo with some confusion.
"Oh, this is the latest design of the USS South Carolina battleship from the Americans, and the other is an alternative armored cruiser design. Since Congress has not approved the new battleship construction plan, the Americans are selling it to the Qing Navy
This new type of warship. Some of the designs are quite interesting, please take a closer look first." Lin Shuo explained that this reason was something he had thought of in advance.
Streicher sat on the chair and began to read the design description. At first, he was a little disapproving. Although the Americans have strong industrial capabilities, their navy is really unflattering, and compared with the Germans, the Americans made
Things are still a little rough.
But as soon as he saw the line drawing, Streich's face couldn't help but become solemn, and his body was buried in the drawing unknowingly.
When Lin Shuo saw this, he couldn't help but smile. As expected of a designer from a large shipyard, he was well-informed and could see the difference in this design almost at a glance. He provided a total of three sketches, one for the battleship
, armored cruiser and light cruiser, all three warships uniquely adopt main guns of unified caliber arranged along the central axis. This was a revolutionary design before the dreadnought was actually launched.
As for the concept of a unified caliber main gun, someone actually proposed such a plan as early as 1901. There were many discussions on this from 1902 to 2003. The extremely imaginative Italian designers first proposed an arrangement along the central axis.
A plan for a unified-caliber all-heavy main gun. But the real design was for the U.S. South Carolina-class battleship. As early as early 1904, the U.S. Department of the Navy submitted the "South Carolina" construction plan to Congress, but this plan
But it has never been approved by Congress.
It was not until the completion and launch of the British Dreadnought, which made all the old battleships in the world obsolete, that the U.S. Congress approved the construction plan of two South Carolina-class "dreadnought" ships. At this time, the British had already built
Three dreadnoughts.
Since the death of Old Huck, the Vulcan shipyard has never seen a ship designer as outstanding as him. Now the long-term cooperation shipyards of the Admiralty have expanded to six, and the number of shipyards such as Kiel Naval Shipbuilding
The scale of the shipyards such as Germania in Bremen and Blomfors in Hamburg has exceeded that of Vulcan, which is the main reason why the shipyard wants to move to Hamburg.
Streich quickly understood the key points of these drawings: they were all main guns of the same caliber, and four piggyback double-mounted main turrets were arranged along the center line, so that they could always be used when engaging the enemy with the sides.
To maximize firepower, this can save the weight of two turrets compared to arranging turrets amidships. For ship designers who have always been troubled by displacement, this allows them to make warships more equipped with the same displacement.
Large-caliber artillery and thicker armor also mean that the warship designed with the same displacement is the most powerful.
This is particularly important for the Volcan shipyard, which is currently troubled by naval orders. This means that if the German naval design department adopts Volcan's design, the shipyard will get as many orders as possible.
And for Streich himself, if the warships he designed were adopted by the German Navy, it would not only mean huge wealth, but also honor and fame, at least becoming the main designer of the naval design department.
, of course, it is also possible to obtain the title of chief designer.
Streich's breathing became a little rapid. He raised his head and looked at Lin Shuo, "I am deeply inspired by these drawings, but I don't know why?"
"We don't believe in American shipbuilding technology, but it's different with Germany. We have bought many warships from Germany, and they all have excellent performance. I think if such warships were built by Germans, maybe the Qing Navy would be very good.
Interesting. Of course, this mainly refers to the two cruisers. You know that the Qing Navy is being rebuilt. If it is very difficult to purchase battleships, this will mainly cause opposition from the Japanese and the British." Lin Shuo changed the topic.
On the other hand: "We will send students to Vulcan to study. I hope that some of them can participate in the design of new warships. We are in great need of talents in this field."
Streich thought for a while: "This is not a big problem. I can arrange a few people to be my assistants."
"Okay, it's settled!" Lin Shuo said with a smile: "I wish you a happy journey, and I also hope that the new armored ship can be built as soon as possible. At that time, I will invite the naval commander of the Qing Dynasty to come with you to see the new style you have designed.
Battleship!"
Streicher, who was inspired by Lin Shuo, was so motivated that he started designing new warships on the passenger ship returning home. He chose to start with armored cruisers because after the "Loon" class armored ships, the Imperial Navy was planning to build them.
A new level of armored cruiser.
The work efficiency of the Germans is indeed very high. After returning to Germany, it took only more than two months for Streich to complete the design of a new armored ship. This armored ship has a standard design displacement of 13,000 tons.
It is planned to install four twin-mounted 240mm main guns, which was already the standard equipment of earlier German battleships.
Streicher and Rudolf, general manager of the Vulcan shipyard, approached Dietrich, the head of the design department of the Imperial Navy Office. The chief engineer of the German Navy was immediately fascinated by Streicher's design. The new armor
The design of the ship solved many problems that had troubled original ship designers and achieved revolutionary results in terms of firepower and protection.
After carefully calculating the data on the design drawings, Dietrich immediately stopped the ongoing design of the Scharnhorst-class armored ship, then wrote a detailed instruction manual and personally took the drawings to find
Navy Minister Tirpitz told him that it may be necessary to re-evaluate and design the armored ship construction plan that Congress has approved.
Tirpitz was appointed Minister of the Navy by Kaiser Wilhelm II in 1897. With his efforts, the German Navy had 19 battleships, 8 armored ships and more than 40 cruisers by 1903, surpassing France in one fell swoop.
The world's largest maritime force second only to Britain.
Since mankind entered the 20th century, the advancement of industrial technology has brought more and more innovations and changes, which have had a profound impact on the navy's strategic and tactical thinking. As the top leader of the German Navy, Till
Pitts is also aware of this fact.
However, Tirpitz was troubled by several aspects in the application of new naval technologies. First, naval technology was changing with each passing day and developed too fast. Many newly built warships became "obsolete" even before they were launched. Secondly, new technologies
The application has great risks, and it also means more expenses. Before it has been tested in actual combat, no one can guarantee that these investments will have a certain effect on improving the performance of warships. On the other hand, the development of the navy has always been affected by
Due to budgetary constraints, Tirpitz adopted a prudent and conservative attitude toward new technologies. Therefore, compared with Germany's industrial technical capabilities, the impact of the German Navy on naval technological progress is indeed lackluster.