Chapter 1848: Expanded navy

The difference between the density of iron ball shells and stone shells is nearly three times. Therefore, if the iron ball shells of equal weight are used, the caliber should be reduced to one-fourth of the original one.

The change of the shell material will also affect the change of the gunpowder charge. If the amount of charge is increased rashly, it will easily lead to explosion. Therefore, Marin did not dare to easily change the shell material. Moreover, it is still easy to go wrong. Moreover, with the structural strength of ships of other countries in this era, a 50-pound stone projectile was enough.

Moreover, if a reinforced concrete structure is used, the strength of the concrete shells may exceed that of ordinary stone shells and it is also very durable for use in smashing ships. In addition, its processing difficulty is still very low ...

It is important to know that the difficulty of processing stones into a few pounds of stone **** and 50 pounds of large stone **** increases geometrically. If you want to reserve a batch of 50-pound stone balls, the processing difficulty is amazing.

However, if it is changed to the pouring method using cement, its manufacturing difficulty and cost will be greatly reduced. Even if a batch of iron wire is filled inside the concrete shell, the cost is much simpler than grinding a large natural stone into a 50-pound ball shell. Moreover, the cost is lower. After all, although the cost of drawing iron wire in this era was relatively high because of manual manufacturing, it was always much cheaper than the cost of transporting a huge stone block weighing hundreds of pounds to a stonemason shop and grinding it into stone balls. Moreover, the strength of reinforced concrete is stronger than that of natural stone ...

In fact, Marin not only improved the production method of lizard cannon shells, but also intended to improve the manufacturing process of lizard cannons. It intends to replace copper with low-carbon steel to cast the mortar gun with a short barrel like the lizard cannon. No, because cost ...

You know, casting a lizard cannon requires 7,000 pounds of bronze. How expensive is it? 20 lizard cannons are equivalent to 140,000 pounds of bronze!

According to the copper prices in Europe in this era, this is equivalent to the need for nearly 10,000 pounds of silver! Converted into gold coins, the total price is also 99,000 gold coins!

But this is only the material cost, and in fact, the price of artillery is often doubled. In other words, to purchase these 20 lizard cannons, Marin would have to spend at least 198,000 gold coins, close to 200,000 gold coins!

Therefore, the wealth is as thick as Marin, and you can't buy too many lizard cannons at once, you can only buy 20 first.

Next, it was the craftsmen of the domestic foundry factory that studied how to cast lizard cannons with low-carbon steel. If you use steel to cast this gun, the cost will be reduced dozens of times. At that time, once the development is successful, Marin intends to equip every 250-class armed merchant ship with a lizard cannon. When dozens of armed merchant ships fired together, even if they were sloppy, as long as one or two shots hit the opponent, the opponent's ship could be destroyed ...

In addition, Marin wanted to increase the experience of casting large-caliber artillery by the artillery craftsmen of the North Sea country through the casting of lizard cannons, and to increase the experience reserve for the development of Peixan guns.

To this end, Marin intends to dig up several craftsmen who are good at casting lizard cannons from Venice at a high salary, and specialize in casting lizard cannons for the North Sea country. At that time, Marin will arrange the best artillery craftsmen in Beihai to learn from them in order to be inspired. After all, "Stones from other mountains can attack jade", which may be influenced by the process of casting cannons, which can inspire their thinking to develop Peksang cannons ...

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However, affected by this incident, Marin has a new naval construction thinking-it also intends to add a batch of Calais to the navy ...

Nor is it right. Strictly speaking, Marin intends to add a batch of sail paddle boats similar to the Calais to the Navy as an important complement to the Navy.

Although Marin did not know the glorious record of the Calais ship in history, but from the structural characteristics and armament of the Calais ship, he could also imagine the superiority of this warship.

It's just that the Calais actually made small changes based on the original Venetian paddle sailboat. Strictly speaking, this is still a paddle sailboat, and it is not very suitable for the sea conditions of the Atlantic and North Sea regions.

In fact, Marin's judgment is completely correct. Not to mention that the Calais ships are extremely powerful in low wind conditions, but the problem is that the Atlantic Ocean and the English Channel have little wind when they are small, and most of the time they are in favor of the English sail warships. Therefore, most of the year, the French Calais can only shrink in the military port, waiting for the arrival of the windy weather, very passive. If it were not for this reason, the French fleet would have suppressed the British fleet and seized sea power.

Although Marin did not know this history, he also had his own judgment. He believes that in order to make Lizard Cannons play better, they must have ships with better power.

To this end, Marin decided to send someone to develop a sail paddle boat more suitable for the Atlantic and North Sea conditions. Among them, the sail layout will become the most important part. As for the paddle, it is more like adding it on a sailboat.

In other words, its design thinking is reversed from that of the Calais-the Calais is based on a paddle sailboat and enhances the role of sail.

The sail paddle boat that Marin wants to design is the other way around-it uses the sail warship as the parent to improve the paddle position.

In essence, the Calais is actually a paddle sailing ship, but it has only been improved on sails; while the sail paddle boat designed by Marin is actually a wind sailing ship, but the paddle position is added ...

Don't look at the difference between the two is literally, but the actual difference is still very big. After all, the Calais is an improvement of a paddle sailboat. In the windy sea conditions, the mechanical power is still insufficient.

The sail paddle boat ordered by Marin was essentially a sailboat. In the case of high winds, it is not greatly affected, and it is more suitable for use in the Atlantic and North Seas. Similarly, it is also conducive to use on the English Channel.

In the future, Marin will annex England. At that time, the North Sea Fleet will face the French Calais directly. Therefore, it is very necessary to develop a warship that can restrain each other. Even in windy weather, it can be stronger than the French Calais ...

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In addition, Marin was very interested in the fighting tactics proposed by Bidus. This is simply the idea of ​​future naval warfare-use artillery to solve problems and refuse to take over the battle.

In fact, the navy of the North Sea is also the same idea. For example, the main battleship of the North Sea State has installed a lot of artillery, ready to use energy to completely solve the opponent.

But the problem is that the salvo of side guns is too expensive. After a naval battle, each warship consumed at least a few tons of gunpowder.

For example, the famous sail warship "Victory" in England, every time you play, you need to reserve 35 tons of gunpowder, and 120 tons of shells. After a sea battle came down, not to mention that all the gunpowder and shells were used up, but there will still be more than half of the consumption.

This scale of consumption, even for Marin, feels very difficult. You should know that the future generations of the Englishman can fire so vigorously, inseparable from its strong national strength. When sailing battleships such as the "Victory" were in service, Britain had entered the stage of the Industrial Revolution, and the country was strong. It is far from comparable to the current farming Marin alone.

An industrial country naturally has the energy to consume gunpowder and iron ball shells. But Marin is still a farming king, and occasionally consumes a lot of gunpowder and iron ball shells.

So, studying the French ’s approach, getting a sail boat like a Calais ship, and equipped with a lizard cannon, became a good choice ...

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Do not look at the caliber of the lizard cannon is very large, gunpowder is also expensive. But the problem is that only one lizard cannon is equipped on a battleship. Even if the lizard cannon can't fire, the consumption of gunpowder is limited by only one cannon. However, the results are good enough. In this era, warships in various countries have not been thickened. Once hit by a 50-pound stone bomb, the probability of sinking is high ...

Therefore, from an economical and practical point of view, it is the most cost-effective to use sail paddle boats equipped with lizard cannons!

Of course, this does not mean that Marin will give up the naval construction ideas of artillery and giant ships. Because that is the mainstream of the future. The sail paddle boats that use lizard cannons, strictly speaking, are just drilling the loopholes of this era. While the warships of other countries have not thickened yet, they have taken advantage of a wave of cheapness.

Wait until other countries react ~ www.wuxiaspot.com ~ The shipbuilding industry will be affected. Historically, this is how the British Galen ship appeared-purely a way of being forced by the French Calais ...

That is to say, such warships and tactics can only be used for a while before other countries have the time to thicken and strengthen the hull. When others have responded, this kind of ship will withdraw from the stage of history.

To this end, Marin does not intend to be too frustrating. He directly ordered the shipbuilding masters to use the 250-class armed merchant ship as the mother, to make modifications, increase the paddle position, thicken the side, and install a lizard cannon on the bow ...

Retrofitting with a mature ship type will shorten a lot of time. Once the conversion is successful, it can be quickly put into use.

Marin intends to first add 20 modified sail paddle ships to expand the size of the North Sea nation's main battle fleet to 60 ships. In this way, the main battle force of the North Sea State will become 20 500-ton warships, 20 250-class armed merchant ships, and 20 modified 250-class sail paddle ships using lizard guns ...

Such a naval scale may not be much after the 18th century. However, in this day and age, it is a powerful maritime force. Especially the 20 250-gauge sail paddle ships equipped with lizard cannons, if the 20 lizard cannons show their power together, plus the 20 battleships also have lizard cannons ... 40 large fired 50-pound reinforced concrete shells Caliber artillery can definitely beat unprepared enemies ...