Chapter 155 Warship Design and Acquisition Plan

While other countries were suffering from the economic crisis, Spain was carrying out a large-scale construction in full swing.

Under the order of Prime Minister Primo, the Spanish government acted quickly. It took only a few days to formulate a specific plan for large-scale construction and allocate funds for implementation.

Among them, the Spanish government attaches great importance to the construction of road traffic and the transformation of slums.

Unlike Britain, France and Germany, Spain does not have large plains. Most of the land in the country is mountainous and hilly.

It is much more difficult to build roads in such places than in plain areas. This is why Spain's traffic environment has always lagged behind European powers such as Britain, France and Germany.

Taking advantage of the economic crisis, the Spanish government plans to invest more than 50 million pesetas to build a highway network across the country to connect various regions and important cities in Spain.

The government has made a detailed division of the existing highway system in Spain, which is divided into two-way four-lane national highways, two-way two-lane regional highways and single-road two-way town roads.

The widest two-way four-lane national highways connect various regions and important cities. Because cars have not yet been born, the demand for road width is relatively low.

In the future, a two-way four-lane road cannot even meet the traffic needs of an urban area. But in this era, a two-way four-lane road is already a very wide road for Spain, at least it can meet the traffic needs of the next 30 years.

In the next 30 years, the Spanish government will definitely further expand the transportation system and even build a wider two-way six-lane road.

Not long ago, Benz just reported the good news of research and development to Carlo. They have successfully developed a four-stroke gas engine and are developing engines that use other fuels as energy.

Although the birth of the engine does not mean the birth of the car, the two are closely related. With a four-stroke engine, it is possible to make a relatively simple car for experimentation.

However, in order to solve the problems of engine stability and related power, Benz and the other three need to conduct more research on the engine and improve the existing engine.

If you want to manufacture a car and put it into commercial use, you must also consider the safety and economic applicability of the car.

In short, this is not a problem that can be completely solved in a short period of time. In the next ten years at least, even if cars are born, they will only be a luxury transportation that only the rich can afford.

However, considering the countless nobles in Spain, if cars can be developed earlier, these nobles alone can provide a lot of sales.

Moreover, cars do have obvious help in improving the traffic environment. A horse-drawn carriage takes several hours to travel, but a car may only take less than an hour to arrive.

Horses urinating and defecating everywhere will also cause additional damage to the environment, but cars are basically not that harmful to the environment except for exhaust emissions.

Exhaust emissions are not a problem that Spain can consider now. The most important thing is to develop cars as soon as possible and effectively improve the existing traffic environment through cars.

If there are cars, the transportation of materials and the mobilization of personnel will be much more convenient. The army in Madrid can reach various cities and towns more conveniently by road, further strengthening the government's control over various regions.

Under such circumstances, it will become extremely difficult for Catalonia and the Basque region to make trouble.

The results of the engine research are certainly gratifying, but compared with the drawings submitted to Carlo by the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard, they are not very important.

Yes, after more than half a year of design and discussion, the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard finally improved a warship design that satisfied all experts.

This warship design was also submitted to Carlo's office, with relatively detailed parameters and design ideas.

Just seeing the design parameters of this warship, Carlo was basically satisfied.

Although the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard did not fully achieve the world's most advanced ironclad ship with faster speed, stronger firepower, and stronger armor protection capabilities as Carlo said, this does not mean that this design lags behind other countries.

The Royal Guarnizo Shipyard has been silent for more than 20 years, but some experts in the shipyard are still familiar with the warship designs of various countries in the world.

After Carlo gave the order, the design experts of the shipyard used all their life's learning to design an ironclad ship that satisfied Carlo and strive for more opportunities for the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard.

The design of this ironclad ship can be said to be a combination of the strengths of many countries. Although it looks a bit like a stitched monster at first glance, and its overall appearance is a bit like the British ironclad ship, it is also full of new concepts in Spanish warship design.

First of all, Carlo is most concerned about the power of the warship. This warship is expected to use the most advanced reciprocating expansion steam engine as its power, equipped with two steam engines, and can output a maximum of more than 6,000 horsepower.

Although such power output capacity is not the best, it is definitely excellent in the ironclad ship design of countries around the world.

In terms of the firepower of the warship, this new ironclad ship will fully adopt breech-mounted 12-inch 305mm steel cannons, which is one of the first warships to adopt breech-mounted cannons.

At present, the pursuit of warship firepower by various countries is obviously more inclined to the caliber of cannons. The caliber of the main gun of the British ironclad warship has reached 318 mm, which also means that the power of the cannon is much greater than the 305 mm steel cannon used by the new Spanish warship.

However, because the British warship is a muzzle-loading gun, it is far inferior to the breech-loading cannon in terms of shooting speed and shooting distance.

Although the power of 318 mm cannon is much greater than that of 305 mm cannon, the power of both cannons can penetrate the steel armor of existing ironclad ships.

In this case, the breech-loading gun with faster firing rate and longer range is obviously more advantageous. The design data also mentioned in detail that although this warship can only be regarded as first-class in terms of power, it has indeed reached the world's top level in terms of firepower.

Britain, France and Germany can also achieve such a level of artillery, but they cannot surpass it in a short time. Just relying on the four 305mm breech-loading guns on the warship, the comprehensive combat effectiveness of this warship designed by the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard has been ranked first-class among ironclad ships.

The Royal Guarnizo Shipyard's evaluation of the 305mm main gun is that the shooting range can reach more than 7 kilometers.

Such a range is still quite good, and it will also have a considerable advantage in naval battles.

Because of the continuous increase in Spain's steel production, this ironclad ship will adopt an all-steel structure and add a large amount of steel armor as protection.

The thickness of the armor on the front of the turret reaches 16 inches, and the thickness of the armor on the side reaches 14 inches, making the entire warship look a bit bloated.

Although the armor protection capability of the warship is taken into account, this also makes the conventional displacement of the entire ironclad ship reach an astonishing 8,600 tons (estimated).

When fully loaded, the displacement of the warship will even be close to 10,000 tons, which is definitely the first echelon among all the current ironclad ships.

However, such a design has obviously not gone beyond the inherent thinking of existing ironclad ships. The two turrets are located on both sides of the main chord. Compared with the design of the later pre-dreadnought, this cannot fully exert the firepower of the main guns.

However, Carlo does not know much about this aspect, so he cannot make any suggestions to the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard.

However, as long as the design of this warship is above the first-class level of the world's ironclad ships, it will meet the needs of the development of the Spanish Navy.

Moreover, for Spain now, it is still unknown whether this warship is built to equip the navy or export.

Considering the huge tonnage of the warship, the designers of the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard estimated the speed of the warship to be around 12.5 to 13.5 knots.

To put it simply, the maximum speed that this warship can reach is about 25 kilometers per hour.

However, the maximum speed can only be the maximum speed. In the normal navigation of the warship, it basically will not maintain the maximum speed.

Because the damage to the steam engine is immeasurable, the equipment of this era is not so stable.

It is said that the maximum speed is about 13.5 knots, but in fact, the speed that can be achieved during daily cruising is only less than 10 knots, and it will generally remain at about 7-8 knots.

There is nothing we can do about this. Before the relevant power technology is greatly improved, the sailing speed of large-tonnage ships such as warships in the sea is so slow.     The speed of those small cruise ships is much faster than that of warships. After all, these ships do not need to take into account armor protection capabilities and firepower output, but only need to ensure stable sailing at sea.

Looking at the relaxing warship design drawings in front of him, Carlo pondered for a moment and finally decided to personally attract orders for the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard worldwide.

For Spain, there are still many things to do in the economic crisis, and it is not suitable to build ironclad ships with great fanfare.

What's more, the cost of such an ironclad ship is not low. Because all aspects have adopted relatively advanced equipment and technology, the cost price of the entire ironclad ship is close to 500,000 pounds.

Even if it is to build warships for the Spanish Navy, the shipyard will definitely not make no profit. In the Royal Shipyard's proposal, if the Spanish Navy is willing to purchase this warship, it can offer the Spanish Navy an internal price of 550,000 pounds.

But if the warship is exported, the price must be at least 600,000 pounds.

This also means that the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard can get at least 100,000 pounds of net profit for each warship sold.

As long as it can get orders for one or two ironclad ships, it will not only allow the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard to obtain sufficient research and development funds and completely revitalize the entire shipyard, but also allow the shipyard to gain a lot of experience in building the most advanced ironclad ships, preparing for the Spanish Navy to build ironclad ships in the future.

The bad news is that both Europe and America have been affected by the economic crisis, and it is difficult to find customers with enough financial resources to buy ironclad ships.

But the good news is that Asia has not been greatly affected by the economic crisis, and there may be countries here that can serve as customers for Spain's new ironclad ships.

In fact, after all, this Spanish ironclad ship with strong comprehensive combat effectiveness is still relatively cost-effective, and Carlo does not intend to ask for a high price.

If there is a suitable customer, the price can be lowered to around 550,000 pounds, which is about the same level as the internal price of the Spanish Navy.

After all, what the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard needed at this time was the experience of building the latest ironclad ships, and the income of tens of thousands of pounds was not so important to the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard.

In order to get enough orders for the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard, Carlo specially contacted the Spanish diplomatic department and asked the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to cooperate with the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard to find partners who could buy warships throughout Asia.

As the economic crisis fermented, more and more companies and factories in various countries went bankrupt.

After waiting for a while, Carlo also thought that it was a more appropriate time to buy at the bottom. Now the factories and companies in European countries can be said to be cabbage prices, and there are a large number of factories and companies among these bankrupt factories that Carlo wants to buy.

For example, a private shipyard in the UK, all the information of this shipyard has been clearly found out by the Royal Security Intelligence Agency.

Before this economic crisis, this private shipyard was one of the largest private shipyards in the UK, and it was quite famous.

Even the shipyard has the ability to build ironclad ships, and also has relevant equipment and technical workers.

Because of this, the total value of this shipyard before the economic crisis exceeded 1.5 million pounds, or 39 million pesetas.

Such a large sum of money was also a considerable expense for the royal family before the economic crisis, so the acquisition of this shipyard has not been carried out, and Carlo can only drool at this shipyard.

But it is different now. The economic crisis has not only affected railway companies and banks, but also all walks of life in European countries.

The impact on the shipyard as a military enterprise is not as exaggerated as imagined, but it is also quite serious.

This shipyard, which was originally worth 1.5 million pounds, was publicly sold to the public not long ago, and the offer was only 700,000 pounds.

Logically speaking, the offer is less than half of the original value, and there should be many people scrambling for it.

But in fact, many British capitalists are too busy to take care of themselves, let alone take out a full 700,000 pounds to buy this shipyard.

This also led to the sale of the shipyard being ignored, and the offer of the shipyard was getting lower and lower every day.

Although he knew that selling the shipyard would make him lose money, the owner of the shipyard had no other choice. If he didn't sell the shipyard in time, it would only make him lose more and more money if it continued to rot in his hands.

As long as the economic crisis is not over, the price of the shipyard will continue to fall.

If he sells it early now, he can get back hundreds of thousands of pounds. If he waits until the value of the shipyard depreciates to an extremely low number, it will be too late to sell it then.

After confirming that no one is interested in this shipyard, Carlo is no longer in a hurry.

The current situation is that the later he acquires this shipyard, the less money Carlo needs to pay.

Butler Loren's suggestion is that he can wait for at least half a month. According to the current depreciation of the value of this shipyard, he can buy this shipyard for about 500,000 pounds in half a month.

500,000 pounds is still a huge figure for capitalists, but it is nothing for Carlo.

This amount of money is only 13 million pesetas, which is almost the net profit of the Royal United Bank in one year.

Spending 13 million pesetas to buy such a medium-to-large shipyard with experience and technology in building ironclad ships is certainly a good deal for Carlo.

After purchasing this shipyard, it can be merged with the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard to build a truly large shipyard and compete with other European countries for the export of warships.

At the same time, the rich shipbuilding experience of this British shipyard can also bring a significant improvement to the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard.

The British shipbuilding level in this era is still quite excellent. Although the era of ironclad ships was pioneered by the French, the subsequent era of pre-dreadnoughts and dreadnoughts was far ahead of the British.

Even aircraft carriers were slowly evolved by the British on the basis of battleships and cruisers.

The British shipbuilding experience will always be the world's top in the next 80 years. For Carlo, this is something more valuable than the shipyard itself.

Because of Gibraltar, the relationship between Spain and the British is destined not to be too good.

This also made it difficult for Spain to obtain the more advanced shipbuilding technology of the British. Either the price was too high or the British took the initiative to blockade Spain.

The current economic crisis is the best opportunity, and Carlo also asked Butler Loren to focus on the UK.

Of course, it is not only the royal family that intends to acquire factories in other European countries. The Spanish government obviously has ideas.

While Carlo and Butler Loren discussed the scope of acquisition, the Spanish industrial department also made a detailed list of the companies and equipment that Spain needs to acquire.

"Mr. Prime Minister, this is the latest purchase list determined by the industrial department. Please take a look." The Spanish Minister of Industry handed a detailed purchase order to Prime Minister Primo and asked Prime Minister Primo for his opinion.

Prime Minister Primo took it and took a look, and was immediately shocked by the big appetite of the industrial department.

The industrial department's purchase list covers almost the entire industrial system, and the main directions are metallurgy, petroleum, chemicals, shipbuilding, machinery, engines and military industry.

"162 companies, a total of 520 million pesetas for acquisition funds?" Prime Minister Primo's face suddenly darkened as he looked at the Minister of Industry with a murderous look, and asked with a cold snort: "Are you going to spend the government's entire fiscal revenue for the purchase of companies?"

Five thousand words two-in-one chapter, please support!