Chapter 24 Steam Engines and Carronade Cannons
Joseph looked into the eyes of the Navy Minister and said seriously: "I assure you that construction of this 'fantasy' battleship can begin in one year or two or three years.
Castries was shocked: "Are you serious? How is this possible..."
Joseph took a sip of tea and confirmed again: "It is true, I am fully confident.
"So, don't continue to waste money on building existing warships. After two or three years at most, they will be useless!
"I won't keep you waiting long. I will go to Brest in a while, and you will understand everything then."
The reason why he dared to be so sure was that the steam engine had already been invented, and the craftsmen and craftsmanship were very mature. What was lacking was low power due to unreasonable design. But this is not a problem at all for Joseph. Not to mention Watt's small modification, he has seen more perfect steam engines.
Castelli felt dizzy, his brain jumping back and forth between doubt, excitement and imagination, and for a moment he didn't know what to say.
Joseph warned again: "You first go to the Coordination Shipbuilding Bureau and let them start preparing craftsmen and raw materials. The trial production of new ships will be a complicated process."
"Okay," Castries found that he began to believe the crown prince. After all, the dreamy battleship was too tempting, "I will go to the shipbuilding bureau right now."
He suddenly stared at Joseph closely, his voice trembling: "Your Highness, please keep your promise!"
"Please rest assured." Joseph said and remembered something again, "By the way, after you go back, you can mobilize craftsmen to make a large-caliber short-barreled artillery."
"ah?"
"Just lengthen the existing mortar." Joseph said, "It can fire more than 60 pounds of shells, but the barrel and charge are less than half of the cannon, so it is very light and processing will not be too difficult."
Castelli said in surprise: "Your Highness, this cannon should be very powerful, but its range is definitely very short. What's the use of it?"
Joseph smiled at him: "I will tell you when I get to the Brest Shipyard."
In fact, this was the "Caron gun" that caused the French navy to suffer a lot in the subsequent Battle of Trafalgar.
The current French navy has always had a misunderstanding, that is, it blindly emphasizes range.
According to the ideal situation, if I have a long range, then if I can hit you, but you can't hit me, wouldn't I definitely win?
However, this is where French naval theory departs from reality. In the era of sailing battleships, the maneuverability of ships was not very good, and it was difficult to keep both sides at your maximum range.
In addition, the power of solid bullets is insufficient, and it is difficult to severely damage enemy ships if hit from a long distance.
In actual naval battles, most battleships were face to face, wanting to blast their guns into the other side's captain's cabin.
At this time, the range is meaningless. Whoever has a larger artillery caliber is the master!
The British noticed this and directly gave up the shooting range and developed a large-caliber short-barreled heavy artillery - the Caron gun.
But in this life, it is the French Navy's turn to be the first to equip such a killer weapon!
Joseph repeatedly communicated with the Navy Minister and confirmed that he had no objection to his plan, and then personally sent him out of the living room.
Before Joseph could take a breath, Eman came over quickly, leaned down and said, "Your Highness, the Marquis of St. Priest wishes to see you."
Joseph didn't expect that the Minister of War was still impatient, but it was good, so he didn't have to write that document.
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