Rise of Empires: Spain.

Chapter 353 Monarch-class Battleship
There is a saying in the military that there will always be brave men when there is a big reward. The same is true in the field of science and technology that there will always be breakthroughs when there is a big money.

Under the heavy financial solicitation of the Spanish royal family and the navy department, shipyards at home and abroad began to design warship types that would satisfy the Spanish Navy.

If you want to design a warship that will satisfy the Spanish Navy, you must be aware of the shortcomings of the current mainstream Spanish ironclad ships.

Ironclad ships are just like their name suggests. The earliest ironclad ships were just sailing ships covered with a layer of iron armor. Even though the ironclad ships of major naval powers have now become steel frames, the internal materials of most ironclad ships are still wood.

Compared with ironclad ships with steel frames, ironclad ships with wooden interior materials have great defects. First of all, wooden ironclad ships are definitely not as strong as steel ironclad ships, and wooden frames can even limit the tonnage and size of ironclad ships.

It is for this reason that as the tonnage approached 1 tons, the frame of the ironclad ship gradually moved from a wooden frame to a steel frame.

The warships required by the Spanish Navy must be steel-framed. Only steel frames can carry tens of thousands of tons of displacement and seek superiority in firepower and armor protection.

After determining the basic framework of the warship, designers from major shipyards began to study the advantages and disadvantages of ironclad ships from various countries to see if they could find their own design ideas.

Seeing that several major domestic shipyards had discussed for more than a month without any results, Carlo decided to integrate the strength of domestic shipyards and jointly develop the battleships he needed.

The good news is that the royal family has shares in most of the top shipyards in Spain. In addition to the Royal Guanizo Shipyard, which is fully controlled by the royal family, the royal family also owns nearly half of the shares of the Valencia United Shipyard, and about a quarter of the shares of the El Ferrol Royal Navy Shipyard and the Cartagena Shipyard.

The power of the royal family and the Spanish government is enough to allow these shipyards to unite and develop a powerful warship.

These major shipyards originally had official backgrounds. When both the government and the royal family needed them, they naturally could not stop the government and the royal family's requests.

In the following months, top warship designers from the four major shipyards gathered together to frequently discuss the pros and cons of various warship designs and contribute to the design of the latest battleship.

Although there was not much inspiration in the design of new warships, after more than a month of discussion among these top experts, it was at least clear which shortcomings of the original ironclad ships should be corrected in the design of the new battleships.

Although ironclad ships are currently the most advanced warship design, there are some major problems and contradictions in their design concepts.

Some low-freeboard turret ironclads and exposed turret ironclads have difficulty maintaining stability in rough seas. If they encounter more extreme conditions, the ironclads' own roll and pitch are quite severe, which will make it impossible for the ironclads to use their artillery effectively.

This is particularly evident on turret-type ironclad ships, because the main gun is very close to the waterline, the muzzle is often buried in the waves that hit the forecastle.

Since low-freeboard ironclad ships are not very stable in windy and rough seas, it is necessary to consider designing high-freeboard warships to enhance their stability in windy and rough seas.

But such a design can only enhance the stability of the artillery, and does not significantly improve the firepower. If you want to improve the firepower, you have to continue to use the most advanced artillery technology and find ways to increase the caliber of the artillery.

After lengthy discussions among shipbuilding experts from the four major shipyards, it was finally decided to adopt a 13.5-inch main gun caliber, or 343 mm caliber, in the design of the new warship.

Artillery of this caliber is already quite powerful. A battleship equipped with a 343mm main gun is definitely top-notch in terms of firepower.

After a long discussion, the shipbuilding experts finally decided to install two protected main guns at the bow and stern of the warship.

Each main gun should have a firing range of 260 degrees and be able to fire at both sides, which will greatly increase the coverage of the guns and enhance the warship's ability to deal with enemies from different directions.

As for the secondary guns, in order to enhance the battleship's ability to deal with cruisers, the number of secondary guns was increased to 10, placed on both sides between the main guns.

The caliber of the secondary guns is six inches, or 152.4 mm. The secondary guns also need to have strong armor protection capabilities, and the designers have covered both the main guns and the secondary guns with armor protection as much as possible in the drawings.

Taking into account that the smoke from the rapid firing of the secondary guns would interfere with each other, a designer from the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard also specifically proposed to arrange the five secondary guns on each side on two decks, so as to minimize the impact of the smoke produced when the shells were fired on other gun positions.

After such a discussion, the design concept of this new battleship has become clear, at least in terms of firepower.

There is no hesitation about power. Of course, the most advanced steam engine should be used to stack the power of the warship as much as possible.

After another two and a half months of discussion, in August 1890, the warship design committee led by the royal family and the government submitted the first design drawing of the battleship to the navy department.

This warship design has undergone a lengthy discussion and can be said to have combined all the advantages of the current naval designs of countries around the world and utilized the most advanced technologies and techniques.

In terms of power, the warship design plans to use two three-cylinder vertical triple-expansion steam engines, and the power is expected to reach 9000 horsepower under normal ventilation.

The power group used by the new warship is about 2000 horsepower higher than the power group of the original Matador-class ironclad ship, which also means that the new warship will be faster than the Matador-class ironclad ship.

Of course, no matter how fast it is, it cannot meet the 18 knots speed required by the navy department.

The 18-knot speed requirement is too demanding. Even if the warship design experts from the four major shipyards try their best, they cannot reach this theoretical speed.

The new warship's power unit can reach an output of about 1.1 horsepower under strong pressure ventilation. This power output is already quite exaggerated and is expected to increase the warship's speed to about 16 knots.

The theoretical maximum speed of this warship can reach about 17.5 knots.

However, this speed is only the theoretical maximum speed. Under normal circumstances, warships cannot reach this extreme speed.

Even if a warship can reach such a speed at full power, traveling at the maximum speed for a long time will pose a hidden danger to the stability of the warship.

After all, the vertical triple-expansion steam engine used in warships is the latest technology. Such technology is not that stable and it is impossible to operate at maximum power output for a long time.

Without considering the warship's maximum speed, this new warship design has a standard power speed of 15.5 knots and a full power speed of 16.5 knots, making it one of the fastest warship designs currently available.

Judging from the data on the design drawings, there are no major problems with such a warship design in terms of firepower and power.

The only problem is the thickness of the ship's armor.

According to the drawings, the length of the protective belt of the warship's main armor should be more than 460 mm, the thickness of the upward extending part should be more than 137 mm, and there should also be a layer of protective plywood about 76 mm thick.

Regarding the armor protection system, the warship drawings also provide two different ideas.

The first type is the central armored fort type, which is to form a box-shaped armored protection body on top of the main armor belt to enhance the armored protection capability of the main armor belt.

The second type is the shield fort type, which is mainly above the main armor belt and only provides heavy armor protection for the base of the main gun.

The purpose of the two armor ideas is also quite clear. The second is to strengthen the protection of the main armor belt, and the second is to strengthen the armor protection of the turret.

In fact, from the perspective of armor protection, the thickness of the armor of this warship is not a problem. Compared with the first two generations of Spanish ironclad ships, the armor protection capability of this battleship has indeed been greatly improved.

But the problem lies precisely in the fact that there is too much of it.

The thicker the armor, the heavier it is. Whether it is the protection of the main armor belt or the armor protection of the turret base, the armor needs to cover a large area, which also means that the tonnage of the warship will continue to increase.

Originally, the Spanish Navy requested a warship with a tonnage of just over 10,000 tons, so that the construction cost of each battleship could be controlled.

If calculated based on the original armor thickness of the warship design, the tonnage of this ironclad ship would have to increase by at least 3000 tons.

A 1-ton battleship became a 1.3-ton battleship, which represented not only a 3000-ton increase in tonnage, but also higher requirements for the warship structure and higher construction costs.

The additional 3000 tons are all used as protective steel armor. Even 3000 tons of ordinary steel would have a huge cost, not to mention the protective armor that has been specially made and added with other materials.

If the warship was really designed in this way, the 2.5 million pesetas originally planned by the navy department for construction would not be enough, and at least another 5000 million pesetas would be needed.

Although 5000 million pesetas is not a lot of money for the Spanish government, it still has to take into account the cost of building battleships in the future.

The era of battleships, or pre-dreadnoughts, lasted only 15 years, but Britain built 15 pre-dreadnoughts during those 46 years, firmly securing its place as the world's number one naval power. It was also during the pre-dreadnought era that the British Navy established the two-power standard, meaning that the size of the so-called Royal Fleet was larger than the world's second and third largest navies combined.

If Spain's imaginary enemy is the British, it must work hard on the navy.

Although we are not as crazy as the British, who build more than three battleships per year on average, we still need to output 1 to 2 battleships per year, so that we can have enough military power to shake the British Navy before the important time node arrives.

For Spain, the closest and most promising time to conquer Morocco and Portugal was perhaps during Britain's Boer War.

The Second Boer War broke out on October 1899, 10, and lasted for two and a half years. Although this war was between Britain and an African country, the military expenditure and army size of both sides were large, and it was also a far-reaching war.

According to historical records, Britain spent more than 2 million pounds on military expenditures during the Second Boer War, which was a huge military war expense.

Currently, the Spanish government's total annual fiscal revenue is only 13.211 billion pesetas, which is roughly equivalent to 5284 million pounds.

This also means that Britain's investment in the Boer War was equivalent to Spain's total fiscal revenue for about five years.

Currently, the peseta and franc are equivalent. In other words, Britain's military expenditure in the Boer War was more than the 50 billion francs indemnity paid by France after its defeat in the Franco-Prussian War.

This is also the reason why Carlo believed that the Boer War was a good opportunity for Spain to annex Portugal and Morocco, because the British focus was all on southern Africa, and they were powerless to do anything about what was happening in the Iberian Peninsula and North Africa.

At the peak of the war, the British government's monthly military expenditure was as high as 1600 million pounds. The reason for such a huge military expenditure, in addition to the consumption of ammunition supplies on the front line, is mainly the production and transportation of materials and the maintenance of the army.

According to some books at the time, just to transport weapons to the British troops on the front line, the British side mobilized at least 35 horses, 10 mules and 1027 ships, with a total transport volume of up to 134 million tons.

The British mobilized more than 45 troops for the war, a total number of troops greater than the total population of the Boers.

The total number of Boer participants in the war was less than 9, including militia and foreign volunteers.

Despite having a troop advantage of more than five times, the British fought the war for two and a half years and suffered more than 5 casualties.

The Boers suffered only about 5000 casualties, plus 1.5 civilians killed by the British army, for a total of 2 casualties.

A big problem that can be discovered from these data and records is that Britain's performance in the Boer War was extremely poor.

The British Army had not experienced large-scale regular warfare for a long time, their tactical thinking was extremely rigid, and colonial management problems occurred frequently.

If it were not for the huge wealth provided to the British Empire by the rich Indian colony, the military expenditure of 2 million pounds alone would be enough to drag down the finances of the British government.

It was Britain's poor performance in the Boer War that gave Carlo the confidence to become an enemy of the British.

As long as the Boer War breaks out, Spain will definitely launch a war against Morocco. At that time, even if Britain declares war on Spain for Morocco, Carlo will not panic at all.

Britain's performance in the Boer War was already poor, and if it had continued to fight on two fronts, it would have ultimately suffered the bitter fruit of defeat.

The reason why the Boers were so strong in the war was not only because their guerrilla tactics played an extremely important role, but also because of the support from other European countries.

Although Britain is the most powerful country in the world, it has also made countless enemies because of its strength.

France, Russia and even Germany might cause some trouble for the British in the Boer War, but a Britain that was hindered was not considered a big problem in Spain's eyes.

Back to the design of warships, although thicker armor can greatly enhance the protection capabilities of warships, it will also increase the construction cost of warships.

After a discussion lasting half a month, the warship design committee finally reduced the thickness of the main armor protection belt from 460 mm to 457 mm, the thickness of the upward extending part from 137 mm to 102 mm, and the armor thickness of the armored fortress from 356 mm to 305 mm in accordance with the navy's requirements.

Although the thickness of the armor has been reduced, the overall armor protection capability is still far ahead of the two levels of Spanish ironclad ships.

The final battleship is 123 meters long, 22.4 meters wide, with an average draft of 8.2 meters and a maximum draft of 8.95 meters.

The standard displacement is estimated to be 1.23 tons, and the full load displacement is 1.35 tons. It is the largest warship designed by Spain.

When the warship design committee submitted the revised warship design to the Navy, the Navy held a meeting and discussed it, and finally determined that this type of warship met its requirements.

Although the speed does not meet the requirements, this level is already quite good considering the current technological limitations.

It is impossible for Spain to have only this kind of battleship design in the future, and there is no need to pursue perfection at the initial stage of the battleship.

The battleship designs of various countries have also been improved little by little on the original basis, and it is not too late for the next generation of battleships to pursue a speed of 18 knots.

After the warship design met the requirements of the naval department, this new battleship design was quickly named.

"Monarch" is the official name of this battleship design. The five Monarch-class battleships to be built in the next five years will be named after the five greatest monarchs in Spanish history.

The five newest battleships were named: Ferdinand II, Isabel I, Carlos I, Philip II and Carlo I.

Yes, Carlo is also honored to be among them and become one of the five greatest monarchs in Spanish history.

The other four are also famous figures. Ferdinand II and Isabella I are known as the Kings of Iberia. Their marriage merged the Kingdoms of Castile and Aragon, opening the history of the unification of Spain.

Carlos I, also known as Charles V, was the Holy Roman Emperor and King of Spain. During his reign, Spain's rule spanned Europe, America, Africa and Asia, successfully creating the world's first empire on which the sun never sets.

As for Philip II, he was the son of Carlos I. His reign with his father was the most prosperous period in Spain, and it was also the era when the Invincible Armada crisscrossed the Atlantic.

In addition, during his reign, Philip II annexed Portugal, making Spain the only country on the Iberian Peninsula at that time.

As for Carlo, who ranked fifth, there was more or less some factor of military hype behind him.

But then again, Spain's history does not have many wise and capable monarchs. Spain has only been established for more than 400 years, and apart from the Iberian kings who founded the kingdom, the only ones that can be mentioned are the Habsburg dynasty and the early Bourbon dynasty.

However, at this time, the Bourbon dynasty was like a rat crossing the street in Spain. Even though there were several kings in the Bourbon dynasty who were quite decent, they would not be considered when ranking the top five monarchs.

At best, they can only rank in the top ten. There is no other way, because the Bourbon dynasty produced two incompetent emperors, Ferdinand VII and Isabella II.

They lost their throne and brought the country into corruption and chaos. Naturally, it was impossible for the Spanish to have much good feelings towards the Bourbon dynasty.

After the names of the five Monarch-class battleships were determined, the next step was to arrange the construction of the warships.

The construction of warships is mainly carried out in two major shipyards, namely the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard and the Valencia United Shipyard.

The main reason why only two major shipyards were used to build battleships was that the remaining two shipyards were needed to build 7000-ton cruisers.

It would be a difficult task for Spain to build 5 warships in 15 years, even if 10 of them were medium-sized warships of 7000 tons.

Of course, as long as this five-year shipbuilding plan is completed, Spain's naval strength will be completely stabilized in the top four in the world. The battleship era is a critical period for Spain's naval power to catch up with other powerful countries, and Carlo will naturally not be stingy in terms of naval spending.

The reason why only a five-year shipbuilding plan was issued is mainly because after five years, the design level of warships in various countries will be similar and need to be updated.

It will not be too late to plan further shipbuilding plans after Spain designs the next generation of battleships in five years.

(End of this chapter)