"Your Majesty, please take a look, this is the new battleship plan selected by our Navy Department."
In Carlo's office, Admiral Yagier, the Minister of the Navy, was taking designer Cuniberti to introduce the new warship selected by the navy to the king.
As the two attendants hung up the design drawings, Cuniberti, who had already met the king several times, gave him a slight gesture and then spoke.
"Your Majesty, what I want to talk about now is the navy's new warship with a 380mm main gun. This ship was designed by me, so I know the design performance of the ship best, and I will be responsible for describing it next."
Carlo knew a little bit about the navy's bidding for new battleships. In this bidding for new battleships, ship designers from all parties came up with their own design drawings. And what is very surprising is that most of the designs
The designers presented are all new warships equipped with 380mm main guns. There are very few designers who use 350mm main guns, because although they didn’t say it explicitly, the hints were obvious enough. If you don’t understand this, you deserve to be eliminated in the first round.
.
However, it is not only the design drawings that choose the 380mm main gun that pass the test. Some people are very avant-garde and choose the warship design drawings with the 410mm main gun. Although this unconventional design passed the first round, it was directly rejected in the second round.
Come down.
The reason is very simple. This warship equipped with a 410mm main gun has a standard displacement of more than 33,000 tons, and a full load of 37,000 tons. Its construction cost is too high and does not meet the needs of the Italian Navy at all.
.Besides, the 410mm main gun has just begun pre-research work. It will take five or six years to wait for its design. Is it possible for the Navy to urgently develop a 410mm main gun specifically for this warship? This cost
The price is too high.
After several intense discussions, the new warship still designed by Cuniberti finally won. Because compared with others, the warships designed by Cuniberti can always surprise the navy with their performance.
Can you give us a cost that is not too outrageous?
"Your Majesty, the battleship you are seeing now is the Rome-class battleship I designed."
Cuniberti's words brought Carol back to reality. She looked at the drawings in front of her and listened to his design concept.
"For the design concept of this ship, I adopted the idea of a fast battleship, trying to ensure that it has enough firepower and protection so that its speed can reach or catch up with the battle cruiser. At present, this concept has been initially adopted on the Rome class.
reflect."
After explaining his ideas, Cuniberti immediately talked about the data of the battleships. "According to the concept of high-speed battleships, the Rome-class battleships are longer than previous battleships, with a total length of 198 meters and a width of 29.4 meters.
The standard draft is 8.37 meters and the maximum draft is 10.1 meters.
It is equipped with 8 380mm main guns. The twin-mounted gun adopts a high-low piggy-back design with two in the front and two in the back. The secondary battery adopts 16 single-mounted 150㎜l50 times naval guns, and 14 105mm single-mounted naval guns. In terms of firepower
, is already powerful enough.
In addition, this class of battleship is also equipped with 24 Navy Type III oil-fired boilers, 4 Navy Type IV steam turbines, and 4 shafts, providing a strong power of up to 80,000 horsepower. It is enough to propel the ship to a high speed of 25.5 knots. In addition, the ship
It can carry 800 tons of fuel and 200 tons of coal. The estimated endurance is 8,000 nautical miles and 13 knots, and 3,900 nautical miles and 21 knots."
Carlo was surprised when he heard this. He was not someone who didn't understand naval ships. He also knew that this speed was enough to be called a battle cruiser. And a battleship could reach such a speed, and when it appeared in front of the enemy
, it must be surprising.
Regarding Carlo's surprised expression, Admiral Yagir seemed to see himself before, and he had the same expression at that time.
Although Cuniberti saw the king's surprised expression, this did not prevent him from continuing to speak.
"For a Rome-class battleship, protection is also its top priority. For a battleship as large as the Rome-class, if a fully protective design is adopted, there will be two situations. One is that although the armor is installed, who will
Neither can protect it. The other is that the armor protection is sufficient, but the speed and adaptability are lower than the design, and the cost is also too high."
The situation Cuniberti mentioned is also the situation currently faced by designers around the world. As warships become larger and larger, comprehensive protection becomes somewhat inadequate, and far-sighted designers have already considered key protection concepts. As a top
As a ship designer, Cuniberti considered it earlier than others and had tried it on a battle cruiser before.
"So this time I also adopted the principle of focused protection, mainly equipping the core parts that are vulnerable to enemy attacks with thicker armor. First of all, on the most important main armor belt, the thickest part of the ship's middle part can reach 350 mm, and then
It gradually reduces to 152 mm on both sides. The front armor of the turret also reaches 350 mm, and the sides are 3
00 mm, the top is 120 mm. The upper part of the gun mount armor is 200-320 mm, and the lower part is 120-150 mm. The deck armor is 65-120 mm, the waterproof compartment armor is 102-152 mm, and the thickest armor of the conning tower is 320 mm.
.The total weight of the armor is estimated to be about 12,000 tons."
After saying this, Cuniberti paused, because he will report the cost soon, so he needs to give everyone a little buffer time.
"The Rome-class design standard displacement is 30,450 tons, the full load displacement is 35,000 tons, and its shipbuilding cost is estimated to be 61 million lire."
Hearing this, Admiral Yagir carefully observed the king's expression with some nervousness.
Although Carlo saw the admiral's little move, he didn't pay too much attention to it because he was also shocked by its high cost. To build four Rome-class battleships, it would cost 244 million lire, which is really a bit expensive.
Thumbs up.
However, he also gained the same mentality as Admiral Yagir. The performance is so good that the price can be slowly accepted.
As a designer, Cuniberti didn't know about Carlo's thoughts, so he defended himself. "Your Majesty, there is a reason why the displacement is so high. First of all, the hull structure is estimated to weigh more than 8,900 tons. In addition, the armor is
Required weight is 12
About 000 tons, in addition about 3800 tons of weapons and equipment, and about 3100 tons of power equipment, and then 1000 tons are reserved for on-board facilities, 650 tons of supplies are carried, and 1000 tons of boiler water are supplied. This is the standard displacement. "
Well, Viscount Cuniberti's professional explanation made Carlo suddenly smile. He felt that since he had decided to build it, he should have some courage. The performance of this class of warships is absolutely outstanding in this era. Then
There is nothing to hesitate about. At worst, we will no longer allocate funds to the Navy to build new ships.
"A very good warship, I hope to see it in the navy in the future."
Carlo's words made Admiral Argyle and designer Cuniberti smile. This was what they were waiting for.
"But I have a request here, that is, the four Rome-class battleships need to be commissioned in three years."
Regarding Carlo's request, Admiral Yagier said with some embarrassment. "Your Majesty, this request will make the people in the shipyard work overtime, and the labor costs will also increase."
"Then the cost of each ship will be increased by one million lire, but it must take three years to complete all the work and enter the navy."
Faced with the king's insistence, Admiral Yagir, who had coveted the new warship for a long time, could only nod in acquiescence.
Now that the drawings have been approved and the money has been received, what are you waiting for? The first ship of the Rome class, the Roma, started construction at Ansa Shipyard in October. Then within three months, the second ship, the Empire,
The construction of the third ship, Caesar, and the fourth ship, Octavian, started at Venice Shipyard, Fincantieri Shipyard, and Orlando Shipyard respectively.
In order to ensure that the four warships can be in service within three years, the Navy has also adopted the decision to build one per shipyard for the first time. This will also allow each shipyard to concentrate the best shipwrights to work hard on the construction of this class of warships.
The Roma-class battleship can be regarded as the masterpiece of designer Cuniberti.
Next, it depends on the construction speed of the shipyard.
