The boiler workers inside the New Atlantic braved tens of degrees of heat to feed coal into the coal-fired boiler. The coal burned, and the high temperature turned the water in the boiler into high-pressure steam. This high-pressure steam would enter the ship through the tunnel.
Inside the reciprocating steam engine in the engine room.
Then the steam engine was pushed to rotate, and the transmission mechanism composed of huge gears finally drove the thick drive shaft, which extended to the rear of the ship, driving two huge propellers with a diameter of several meters to start rotating.
Just these two huge propellers are enough to prove Datang's strong industrial and technical capabilities.
This kind of propeller is not made of ordinary steel, but a very special copper alloy, because ordinary steel is easy to rust under sea water. Copper is better, but pure copper is not good, and it must be a copper alloy.
And once the materials are available, it is also a huge problem to cast such a propeller with a diameter of several meters.
It can be said that these two huge propellers under the sea water that people cannot see are enough to reflect the industrial and technological capabilities of the Tang Empire that far exceed those of other contemporary countries.
However, people generally cannot see. What they can see is what is on the water.
Unfortunately, they can't see anything just by looking at the water.
At most, you just see a big steel ship moving automatically on the sea without wind.
While the New Atlantic was riding the wind and waves in the Atlantic Ocean, advancing at an average speed of about twelve knots along the way, a Datang Navy cruiser and three frigates kept moving at the same speed on the periphery.
Naturally, these four battleships are not specially provided to escort the New Atlantic. In fact, the New Atlantic does not need professional warships to escort them.
An average speed of twelve knots and a maximum of fifteen knots is enough for them to surpass most contemporary ships, even most of the Tang Dynasty's own steam ships.
Those indigenous pirates can't even catch up with a high-speed and huge passenger ship like the New Atlantic. Even if they catch up, they are no match. They also have self-defense firepower. Although they don't have artillery, they are generally equipped with light weapons. Those sailors
Most of them have received military training.
There's no way around it, you have to do this when traveling across oceans these days.
These four battleships from Datang's European fleet were just along the way to provide escort for the New Atlantic this time.
To say escort is a bit too much, I should say go back together.
These four Datang warships were previously dispatched to serve in the Seventh Fleet. After nearly a year of dispatch missions in the Atlantic Ocean, they have ended their dispatch period and are preparing to return to their homeland.
By the way, it is also a long vacation for naval officers and soldiers who have served overseas for a long time, allowing them to go home and see their parents and other family members.
This is also the norm for the warships of the Tang Navy, especially the ocean-going battleships. Due to the lack of necessary overhaul, upgrade and modification capabilities overseas, they basically need to return to the local shipyard for overhaul.
Even the simplest daily tasks are only available in a few overseas military bases, such as Colombo, Ceuta, South Africa, New Nangang, Malacca and other large overseas military bases.
This also led to the widespread adoption of the dispatch system for warships in the Tang Dynasty.
Generally speaking, after the maintenance of a warship is completed, it will accept officers and soldiers, usher in a new captain, and then conduct adaptive training for about a few months, then it will begin to perform combat readiness tasks and join a certain fleet, such as
Speaking of being dispatched to the Atlantic Fleet, the African Fleet of the Tang Empire had been renamed the Atlantic Fleet a year ago.
The change of name also represents the change of character attributes. Among the Sixth Fleet and Seventh Fleet under its jurisdiction, the Sixth Fleet continues to be responsible for the eastern coastline of Africa, but it is limited to the waters south of Motor Island, and the waters to the north are composed of
The Fifth Fleet is in charge.
The Seventh Fleet is actually the Atlantic Fleet worthy of the name, responsible for combat missions in the entire Atlantic Ocean and adjacent marginal seas, such as the Mediterranean Sea, the Baltic Sea and other waters.
After the warship arrives at the Seventh Fleet, the Seventh Fleet Headquarters will dispatch it to a certain squadron for duty based on the combat missions and needs of each squadron in the fleet.
Routine maintenance during missions is generally performed at large military bases overseas. There are such maintenance bases in Ceuta and South Africa.
However, if you need moderate maintenance and repair or overhaul, you will need to return to your home country.
Because this dispatch system often results in warships being unfamiliar with each other, this dispatch is often not a single ship, but a battle group.
For example, a cruiser is paired with several frigates, or a double frigate formation, so that exercises and various coordination can be carried out on the road, and combat effectiveness can be formed immediately after arriving at the place.
This time, the European Squadron is ushering in another major rotation year. Four battleships have arrived in Ceuta to join the European Squadron. As the newly dispatched warships have arrived in the European Squadron, there are also four battleships on duty.
The warships that had been rotated out for more than a year embarked on their return journey.
And they are not saying that they will return to South Africa or Colombo for maintenance, but will return directly to their homeland.
Although Colombo has completed its localization, the naval ship repair yard above has begun to take shape, which is enough to carry out routine maintenance and even overhaul tasks on warships. This is also the first overseas military base in the Tang Empire with comprehensive routine maintenance capabilities.
Several other naval bases are a bit worse.
However, these four warships preparing to return to the mainland not only need maintenance, but also one of the Shanxi-class cruisers will undergo a certain degree of modification, replacing the front-mounted rifled cannon with an aft-mounted artillery gun.
After the modification, it will no longer be dispatched to serve in overseas front-line combat fleets, but will be assigned to the training fleet under the First Fleet to serve as a training ship.
The other three Qinzhou-class frigates will be directly decommissioned and stored.
Because these four battleships are no longer new models of battleships. The cruiser is a Shanxi-class armored cruiser, and the three frigates are Qinzhou-class frigates. They are all relatively early steam ships of the Tang Dynasty, and they all belong to the Xuanping II class.
The warships that entered service seventeen years ago were among the first batch of warships to be equipped with front-mounted rifled guns.
They have been in service for more than ten years.
Although ten years is nothing to the service period of a warship, and it can be repaired and repaired for a long time, but this is for a warship that has the value of repairing and repairing.
The early Qinzhou-class frigates and Shanxi-class armored cruisers were basically of no modification value, and the navy was too lazy to modify them.