Chapter 1731: Sisal and iron ore

Although fearless, in fact, this kind of fearless ship is not really afraid of anything. If you encounter a fireboat tactic, even if you are covered with iron, the wooden boat is also easy to catch fire. Therefore, "Fearless" is just not afraid of shelling.

If you really want to make this kind of battleship invincible, you have to equip the battleship with super powerful artillery. For example, the 68-pound Peixan cannon. This short barrel super heavy cannon can be described as the terminator of the wooden boat era. Because of the Peksang artillery, the world naval battle entered the era of armored ships.

But in this era, it is extremely difficult to build an armored ship. Not to mention, stainless steel that is protected against seawater corrosion will not be made in other countries. Therefore, as long as the Peixan cannon is built, it can monopolize the entire ocean.

Marin remembers that there will be two 68-pound short-barrel heavy guns on the successor of the British Navy ’s flagship Victory. As long as the two guns are accurate, the two guns can solve a French battleship.

That is a battleship of the same class! The thickness of the flank is not generally strong, at least several times thicker than the thickness of the side lines of warships of other countries in this era. If it is used to deal with the two or three hundred tons of European mainstream boats in this era, it is estimated that one shot ...

However, this heavy cannon, even with a short body, is very difficult to cast. The casting of the heavy artillery was not done by pouring molten iron into the mold. It must also be considered that there is no trachoma on the gun body, as long as there are places with unreasonable structure, this gun is scrapped. Therefore, this requires a lot of craftsmen to try. Once this kind of heavy artillery is obtained, it is invincible with the "Dreadnought" 1000-ton battleship. Of course, the quantity is enough. If the number is small, it is difficult to achieve enough results ...

After all, sailing is a sailing ship, even if Marin has stainless steel technology, it is difficult to transform the ship into an armored ship. Because, if the ship is too heavy, the sail will not be able to move. Therefore, Marin only dared to let his men cover the wooden boat's surface with steel plates at most. Then, there is no other action. Otherwise, if there is too much steel, the ship will have to crawl on the sea.

Even if it is covered with a little iron and steel, it also affects the speed of the ship. For example, according to the original "Constitution" design, the ship's speed should reach 13 knots. However, due to the weight of the armor, the speed was reduced to 12 knots. Although it is still 10 knots faster than the ordinary Galen ship, it is dragged down after all.

Historically, armored ships only appeared in the mid-19th century. In addition to the reasons for steel technology, power was also an important factor. There is no large marine steam engine to provide power, don't want to build a real armored ship. Otherwise, if the weight is driven by the sail, the snail can only crawl on the sea ...

It should be pointed out that in addition to building fearless ships this time, the New York Shipyard has also introduced a modification package for 500-ton class warships-the sideboard is covered with iron sheet, and the mast and sail are upgraded ...

The side skin is well understood, that is, the stainless steel iron skin is covered on the side of the 500-ton "Hoffman-class" warship to enhance the side's anti-strike capability.

And to upgrade the mast and sail, you need to use a special thing-sisal fiber ...

Originally, because the "Hoffman-class" battleship used cables and canvas made of linen fiber. Therefore, sails cannot be made too large or too high. Otherwise, the sails will easily break under the wind.

Therefore, the previous "Hoffman-class" battleship had insufficient sail area and had a speed similar to that of ordinary Galen ships, with a maximum of 10 knots.

Now it is different, because Cuba began mass production of sisal. With enough sisal fiber, the shipyard's department responsible for the design and manufacture of sails can produce larger sails.

This type of sail is mainly made of sisal fiber, and its tensile strength is particularly strong. Therefore, it can also be made very large, not afraid of the sea breeze. Then, it can also bring more thrust to the ship.

This is the secret that later generations of the "Constitution" can break through the 10-knot speed limit of the Galen ship, because after the modification of the "Constitution" of the later generation, the sails are directly made of nylon rope with strong tension, and the sail surface can be It ’s very big and makes full use of the wind.

Marin does not have nylon rope, but the naturally grown sisal fiber has higher strength. In later generations, the only disadvantage of sisal fiber compared with nylon rope is probably the higher cost. In terms of performance, sisal wins. So much so that in the 21st century, many marine ropes also used sisal rope. The only advantage of nylon is probably the low cost.

In other words, with enough sisal fiber, Beihai can now obtain high-strength canvas. Even, the sails do not need to use all sisal fiber, only need to weave the main structure with sisal fiber. Then, fill the middle with flax fiber ...

With this technology, the ships of the North Sea country will be able to make the mast higher. Then, make the canvas bigger so that it can fully absorb the wind force and propel the boat to get a higher speed. Don't raise too much, just like the "Constitution" to raise two or three sections, it is enough.

...

After passing Marin's acceptance and being named, Captain Hobbit took his fearless ship back to New York with his men. At the same time, he also brought the order to "make 20 more such warships".

Of course, the New York Shipyard is only responsible for shipbuilding. Marine armored stainless steel sheets and steel plates have to be produced by Krumhern's steel plant. After all, to date, the American colonies have not had their own steel bases.

Cape Breton Island has a Sydney coal mine, but no iron mine. Iron ore in North America is mainly in the western Great Lakes. In other words, Marin needs to send troops to occupy the entire state of Pennsylvania, and even to the west, after arriving in Michigan, to find the world-famous iron-rich mine.

The Appalachian Mountains in western Pennsylvania are rich in coal resources. Pittsburgh, the later US steel center, is located in the western foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, next to the coal mine, and it is convenient to transport iron from Michigan. Only when the ore came over did it develop into a steel center.

But whether it is to occupy the Pittsburgh area of ​​western Pennsylvania, or hit the iron ore area of ​​Michigan, it is still far away. Therefore, at present, the steel in the North Sea country mainly relies on bituminous coal shipped from the Ruhr area to be processed into coke, and then imported laterite iron ore from Luxembourg to be processed into steel ...

However, the Habsburg family of the poor ghost family has mortgaged all the iron ore in Luxembourg to Marin, in exchange for three batches of loans of up to 900,000 gold coins, accounting for the absolute majority of the loan business of Siena Bank. Moreover, looking at the emperor's meaning, it seems that he does not want to repay the money, and intends to directly use the mortgage of the Luxembourg iron mining area to offset the loan ...

Don't be surprised, the Habsburgs were so poor in this era. Because of Marin ’s intervention, Charles V failed to get the Spanish Empire with gold and silver mines in the Americas. Therefore, the Habsburg family is still a poor family ~ www.wuxiaspot.com ~ let alone iron ore, Austria The gold and silver mines in Bian were mortgaged by the Habsburgs. The Tyrol Silver Mine, the largest silver mine in Europe, was mortgaged to the Fugel family ...

Marin did not care, and planned to negotiate with the emperor over time to use the ownership of the laterite iron ore area in southern Luxembourg to offset some loans. Of course, it is impossible to offset all 900,000 gold coins. Because that iron ore is not worth so much ...

This is not because the iron ore with hundreds of millions of tons is not worth much money, but because even if there are hundreds of millions of tons of iron ore, without the help of modern machinery, there are very few parts that can be developed. The part that can be exploited and utilized each year is very limited. Therefore, its value must be greatly reduced.

Therefore, Marin intends to transfer this iron ore at a discount of 300,000 to 400,000 gold coins, as well as the territorial ownership of the red clay zone in southern Luxembourg, to his own name. In this way, the iron and steel industry in Beihai will no longer be subject to people.

Don't look at the total amount of hundreds of millions of tons of iron ore in Luxembourg, but that is compared with later generations. In this era, steel demand is very low. Even the Daming Empire, which has the largest steel output, has an annual output of only tens of thousands of tons. Moreover, the iron production in Europe at this time is much lower than that of Daming. The lateritic iron ore mine in Luxembourg has been enough for Marin for many years ...