After returning to Nanhua from Dahua Steel Company, Zhu Xianhai happened to catch up with the launching ceremony of a new ship at Nanhua Shipyard. He went directly to the shipyard without invitation.
"When a dragon enters the water, everything will be smooth sailing."
With these words in his mouth, Zhu Xianhai threw out the "Victory Wine" in his hand, hitting the bow of the "Zhurong". As the floodgates of the dock that had been filled with water opened, the large cargo ship appeared amid scattered cheers.
Amidst the piercing whistle, the cargo ship was slowly towed out of the dock by the tugboat.
Compared with the huge cargo ship, although the tugboat is not big, it is very powerful. It easily towed this cargo ship with a displacement of up to 6,000 tons out of the dock.
At the same time, workers participating in the launching ceremony applauded and cheered. This "Zhurong" is the largest merchant ship built by Nanhua Shipyard.
This ship is a mineral transport ship designed by Nanhua Shipyard.
This bulk carrier was ordered by the South China Shipping Company and is mainly used to transport coal and other materials between the Cape Colony and South China. The British Cape Colony is the most important source of coal in South China. This is also a last resort. After all,
The Cape Colony is the closest source of high-quality bituminous coal. As for other coal mines, they are either too far away or the coal is of low quality, and the local coal mines in South China... have limited output!
"Sir, in the past, our ore ships could only transport 2,000 to 3,000 tons of coal at a time, but now the "Zhurong" can transport 6,000 tons of coal at a time, doubling the transportation volume, and it uses a 1,000-horsepower three-expansion type
The steam engine consumes about the same amount of coal as an old ship, and can reach a speed of 10 knots even without sails. If sails are used together, the speed can reach 14 knots."
Different from when he first came to Nanhua, Will Liu now can not only speak fluent Chinese, but also write beautiful Chinese. As the first naturalized immigrant in the shipyard, Will Liu has now become the chief engineer of the shipyard, and
Facts have proved that he is a very good chief designer. He not only supervised the construction of half of the ships in the shipyard, but also took classes in the affiliated school and trained hundreds of junior technicians and apprentices.
Of course, he had the same views as Zhu Xianhai in many aspects, such as the iron-hulled merchant ships. It was under his promotion that Nanhua had long eliminated the construction of wooden-hulled ships.
"Coal is one of the largest commodities transported by shipping companies. The company has been seeking to reduce transportation costs, and if they want to reduce costs, they must build larger ships..."
Turning to look at Zhu Xianhai, Li Will said.
"So we designed this coal ship. It was designed based on the company's requirements. Yes, this is also the first large ship completely independently designed by Nanhua Shipyard. In the past, the merchant ships we built, or
At least it borrows from the British prototype ship, and at most it only makes some improvements to adapt to the offshore environment. But it is different. It is completely designed and manufactured by us. In order to facilitate the loading and unloading of coal with a bucket, we specially strengthened its bottom.
structure to facilitate quick loading and unloading of the steam shovel."
Coal ships in this era have just gotten rid of the era of manual loading and unloading. There are steam shovels to load and unload coal at dedicated transportation docks. However, this requires a dedicated coal ship. The biggest advantage of coal ships is that they can load and unload quickly. Of course, the corresponding
It can also withstand rough handling. Reinforcing the bilge tank is a normal operation.
"We can make it bigger."
Looking at the cargo ship that had been launched, Zhu Xianhai smiled.
"Chief Engineer Li, according to the company's calculations, Nanhua's demand for coal will exceed 4 million tons in the next three years, while the local government can only provide 2.5 million tons at most, leaving a gap of 1.5 million to 2 million tons. This gap is only
It can be solved through import. Whether it is imported from Cape Town or other places, coal ships are required. 6,000 tons is still too little. Can we consider 10,000 tons?"
"Tons of it!"
Levi opened his eyes wide and said.
"Is it a 10,000-ton ore ship? It seems that there are no such large ore ships in the world."
"It's not there yet, but that doesn't mean there's no demand for it in the market. Take us as an example, the demand in this area is very strong, not just for coal, but also for iron ore, wood and all kinds of other things in the future.
Resources need to be imported, so we have a huge demand for big ships!"
Zhu Xianhai pointed to the immigration ship being built in another dock and said.
"There are also immigration ships. Although small ships with a few thousand tons are more flexible, large ships can transport more people. Such immigration ships need to start at least 10,000 tons. In a word, the bigger the ship, the better."
If it is possible, we would not reject a ship like the "Great Eastern". Of course, the technical capabilities of the shipyard are not yet reached at the moment. It seems that progress has been rapid in the past few years, but in fact it is simply "improving"
"Exercise" is to cultivate a group of skilled shipbuilders. This is the biggest progress of the shipyard in the past few years.
"This, lord, is this the company's requirement?"
Liang Mingwei interjected and asked. In the past few years, he has been focusing on the construction of warships, from the more than 1,000-ton "Fubo" to the 2,800-ton "Shanxi". The British sanctions have made Nanhua
The shipyard has ushered in the spring of building warships, and now the Lord's decision will undoubtedly be the spring of the entire shipyard!
"It is not a requirement of the company, but an inevitable necessity of development!"
Zhu Xianhai said while looking at the "Shanxi" being built in the shipyard.
"Only by building large merchant ships can we accumulate experience in building large ships, and then have the opportunity to build warships with larger tonnage. You know, the powerful countries in Europe have already started building capital ships with tens of thousands of tons a few years ago. We are just
It’s just the beginning!”
Building merchant ships is also for practicing your skills!
Of course, it was also because of demand. After returning from the shipyard, Zhu Xianhai's orders for two types of merchant ships quickly arrived at the shipyard - a total of twenty ships. The project was under great pressure. The requirements for both types of merchant ships were to have a displacement of more than 10,000 tons.
, the speed requirement for ore transport ships is 10 knots, while the speed requirement for immigrant ships is 16 knots. This speed is even far higher than the speed of European warships at the same time. Fortunately, after years of improvement and research and development, Nanhua's triple-expansion steam engine technology has become extremely
If it is mature, it can provide an engine with ample power. Otherwise, just the speed requirement will ruin this plan.
However, in addition to these unprecedented orders for twenty 10,000-ton merchant ships, there is also a highly confidential order that requires the shipyard to design a main combat ship with a displacement of about 7,000 tons.
The moment he received these orders, Liang Mingwei immediately felt that maybe a new era in the shipbuilding industry was coming.
This chapter has been completed!