Among the many design plans of the Shipbuilding Department of the Ministry of Naval Administration, although there are many too advanced science fiction works such as 10,000-ton steel steam battleships, most of the design plans are still relatively reliable.
In particular, the design of the Jiangnan has been recognized by many naval generals and the Holy Emperor. Construction has now begun. After making certain changes based on the design of the Jiangnan, a thousand-ton cruiser and a 500-ton cruiser have also been completed.
Design of class frigates.
The latter two designs also continue the main design concepts of the Jiangnan-class battleships. They all use steam-sail hybrid power. In order to increase the speed, the hulls are generally slender. The hull shell is paved with wrought iron armor. Double- or single-deck artillery arrangements are adopted. The equipment is traditional.
The front-loaded smoothbore gun uses howitzers as its main ammunition.
The above three types of steam warships will be the main warships built by the Datang Navy for many years to come, and will assume the important task of the battleships 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.
In just over a year, it is estimated that the Jiangnan will be completed and launched. Other cruisers and frigates will also be built one after another and will be completed and launched next year.
When the Navy built newly designed steam battleships with sails, wooden hulls, and wrought iron armor wrapped around the shell, the Navy also began to refit existing battleships, especially cruisers and battleships. Twenty years after Xuanping
The battleship modifications are no longer the messy experimental modifications last year, but are modified according to standard plans.
This kind of modification mainly involves installing a steam engine and does not wrap the wrought iron on the outer shell. The changes in other aspects are basically not big. On the one hand, it is a traditional sail warship. Its hull has limited potential and it is difficult to lay armor and other modifications.
The cost was extremely high. After comprehensive consideration, the Navy felt that it would be better to directly build new ships than to carry out large-scale modifications to existing warships.
In addition to technical and cost considerations, it is also to complete the modification in the shortest possible time. After all, it is impossible for the Tang Dynasty Navy to put many battleships on the slipway and then spend ten or eight years to complete the modification of all the warships.
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Therefore, the modification of existing sail warships is mainly based on the most basic modifications, and adding a steam engine is enough.
If nothing else goes wrong, starting from this autumn, we will be able to gather a main fleet of modified sail-steam hybrid engines.
When the Navy was undergoing major construction, it also began to conduct ocean navigation tests and even actual combat tests on the modified sail warships.
At the Hong Kong Naval Base in Guangdong, a somewhat special fleet was organized. The fleet was not large in number, with only eight battleships in total. However, the styles of six of the battleships were a bit strange. In the middle of the masts of these battleships,
There is a huge chimney, which is emitting light white smoke.
The other four are still ordinary sail battleships, and what's interesting is that the two sail battleships are actually larger than the six steam battleships.
There are six steam warships, the largest is the frigate Jinzhou. Before the steam engine was modified, the standard displacement was 480 tons. After the steam engine was modified, the displacement increased, and the standard displacement reached 550 tons. It was fully loaded with coal and
As for other combat supplies, 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 warships that have been modified in the Tang Navy. As for the larger cruisers and battleships, they have not been modified for the time being, and the small-tonnage patrol ships are not suitable for ocean navigation, so there are no
Make arrangements to come in.
However, among the two unmodified sailing battleships, one is an 800-ton cruiser, and the remaining one is a sailing transport ship with a tonnage of more than 900 tons.
This strange fleet will conduct an ocean navigation experiment with a strong experimental nature to test the practical application of steam generators in the face of complex sea conditions during ocean voyages.
To this end, they will set sail from Hong Kong, then go all the way north, pass through the Taiyuan Strait, and then arrive at the naval base established by the empire in the north of Taiyuan Island in recent years, and then continue sailing north to Wusong Naval Base, and then again
Sail north, enter the East China Sea, then divert to Busan, and return after arriving in Busan.
Because there are no small-tonnage patrol ships or other ships in the test fleet, this time the navigation test will not choose to sail in waters close to the coastline, but to sail deep into the sea.
The six steam engines were used for testing, and the two sail battleships were naturally escorted for them. A cruiser was used 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 this voyage will be carried out in the coastal waters of the empire, it will not sail close to the coastline, but will go deep into the sea. Moreover, in many ports along the way, there is actually no coal to replenish. Even if there is,
There is no high-quality anthracite either.
As a precaution, the navy prepared two sail warships to accompany them, and the steam fleet also had two steam transport ships.
When the test fleet officially set sail, it sailed directly north as soon as it left Hong Kong.
But from the beginning of the voyage, the six steam warships and the two sail warships behind them were separated by speed.
Because at the beginning of the voyage, the fleet started sailing at full speed. At this time, the steam battleship used both machine and sail. In addition to the sail, it also used a steam engine, and the speed quickly reached more than twelve knots!
At this speed, the two sailing warships behind were stunned. Of these two sailing warships, although one was a cruiser, the other transport ship was also a fast transport ship specially prepared for the navy's main fleet. Its hull itself has more sail repairs.
The speed is fast, otherwise the navy would not specially send these two sail warships to accompany it.
But I still didn't expect that while the speed of the two sailboats was still seven or eight knots, the speed of the six steam ships had collectively reached more than twelve knots.
However, this was not a battle at all, but more importantly, it was for various navigation experiments. Therefore, although the speeds of the two sides were somewhat out of sync, the commander still did not order a speed reduction, but continued to keep the fleet sailing at full speed.
As a result, the distance between the two sides grew farther and farther, until in the evening, a relatively strong storm blew up in the sea area where they were sailing. Taking advantage of the storm, the two sailing battleships behind them began to sail wildly.
Sail warships can reach very high speeds with favorable winds, especially in strong winds, so their speed quickly reached more than fourteen knots.
On the contrary, 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 relied on pure steam power to move forward. The speed did not increase but decreased. From the first ten
The speed of two or thirteen knots was reduced to about eight knots.
It has to be said that the steam engine technology of the Tang Empire still has great limitations. In the first year, it was still unable to produce a steam engine with too much power per unit. Among the six modified steam ships, the Jinzhou was the most powerful.
No. 1, its horsepower is only 200 horses.
Simply relying on steam engine power is actually simply not enough.
Fortunately, the Royal Institute of Technology has already provided relevant solutions. Now they have solved the technical problems of the three-cylinder steam engine. At the same time, they have also theoretically provided continuous improvement of subsequent steam engines, with thousands or even thousands of designs.
There are no problems with high-power ship-based steam engines. The problem still lies with the three major steam engine manufacturers. The processing equipment is not up to standard and they cannot build such giant steam engines at all.
Among the three major steam manufacturers today, their tasks are actually very heavy. They have to manufacture steam engines for trains, and at the same time they have to mass-produce industrial steam engines, and then they have to produce ship-based steam engines.
The ship-based steam engine is the most difficult thing. Because the navy's warships are so large, the power requirements for the steam engine are very high. The previous 100 horsepower was simply not enough. The later improved single-machine steam engine with 200 horsepower is still not enough for the navy.
dislike.
You must know that the design plan of the Jiangnan requires at least 600 horsepower, and the Navy also requires that a single steam engine plus multiple coal-fired boilers be directly used, and the parallel plan of dual steam engine units proposed by the steam engine manufacturer
Not very recognized.
This means that the power of a single steam engine must reach 600 horsepower. This is a huge challenge for steam engine manufacturers. At least the existing equipment cannot process such a large steam engine. Within a year, they
It would be great if we could build a 300-horsepower steam engine with existing production equipment.
If you want a more powerful steam engine, you must upgrade the production line, and you must have various large-scale or even giant ship production equipment.
Therefore, even though the hull of the Jiangnan has begun construction, in fact, the choice of steam engine is still undecided. The three major steam engine manufacturers are all racing against time to upgrade their mechanical equipment and improve production processes.
It is possible to increase the power of a single machine in order to win orders for steam engines for a large number of battleships in the Navy.
However, it is uncertain whether it can be put out within a year. Therefore, although the Navy does not agree with it, in fact, in the end, the plan of installing dual steam engines is very likely.
Although the steam engines installed in the current test fleet are not very powerful, there are no problems in using them, and they can still allow the navy to accumulate a lot of experience.
Therefore, even though the test fleet was a little uneasy sailing all the way north, it still gritted its teeth and continued sailing north, for no other reason than to accumulate experience and cultivate professional talents!