Rise of Empires: Spain.

Chapter 408 Dreadnought Design Scheme

March 28, 1901, Valencia, an eastern coastal city in Spain.

At the Valencia United Shipyard, a group of shipyard naval design experts were engaged in a heated discussion. They weren't discussing submarine design, but rather the newly issued design requirements for a new type of battleship from the naval authorities.

During the era of ironclad warships and earlier battleships, European warships were equipped with two different calibers of guns. Although the main guns had a caliber of 13 or even 13.5 inches, the secondary guns were generally around 6 to 10 inches in caliber. This was done to compensate for the insufficient firepower of the main guns.

Don't be fooled by the intimidating appearance of a 13.5-inch main gun. In reality, it takes a long time to load a single shell into a main gun of this caliber. The loading and firing process takes at least several minutes.

The advantage of small-caliber artillery over main guns is that it can compensate for the lack of firepower during the main gun's reloading time. Although the destructive power of small-caliber artillery is limited, it is still better than the main gun losing firepower entirely during reloading.

This design concept is inherited from the era of sailing warships, and because it was indeed very effective, it has been used to this day.

Regarding the requirements of the Spanish Navy for new battleships, the Spanish Navy explicitly prohibited the layout of two-stage main guns, requiring that the latest battleships be equipped with main guns of the same caliber and eliminating all small-caliber secondary guns.

The reason these warship design experts at the Valencia United Shipyard were arguing was precisely because of the Navy's regulations regarding the elimination of the two-stage gun configuration.

"Mr. Bruce, I have never heard of any warship that intends to remove its secondary guns. If that were to happen, what equipment would our warships have to provide additional firepower while loading ammunition?"
The fact that all the main guns were 13.5 inches looks intimidating, but the firing intervals between these guns are several minutes. Frankly, after all the main guns have fired, our warships will become sitting ducks for the enemy for the next few minutes. Some more conservative warship design experts were arguing incessantly about the Navy's requirements, insisting that they were wrong and hoping that the shipyards would communicate with the Navy to persuade them to withdraw these requirements.

Bruce, the chief design expert at the joint shipyard, smiled upon hearing this and offered a completely different perspective: "You're right, Mr. Christie."

However, please do not forget that because warships in the past used two types of guns, and because the trajectories, rates of fire and firing ranges of the two types of guns are completely different, it is easy to increase the difficulty of hitting the target when the two types of guns are used together.

If it only affected the accuracy of the secondary guns, that would be one thing, but this design is already impacting the rate of fire and accuracy of our main guns. Ultimately, secondary guns are merely a supplement to the main guns' firepower. If this affects the main guns' firepower, then it would be better to abandon the secondary guns altogether and focus solely on improving the main guns' firepower.

If our warships use main guns of a uniform caliber, all the guns can fire simultaneously once they are within firing range, inflicting maximum damage on the enemy warships in the shortest possible time.

Regarding the firepower gap you mentioned, which lasted for several minutes after all the artillery had fired a volley, this requires improvement in another requirement from the Navy: the speed of the ships.

In addition to eliminating the two-stage main gun configuration, the Spanish Navy also required the new warships to have a speed of 21 knots and excellent armor protection.

Putting aside other factors, if the new warships could achieve a speed of 21 knots, it would mean that after firing all their cannons, they could easily evade enemy warships and reload their shells at a greater distance where the enemy could not reach them.

After loading the shells, you can get closer to continue attacking the enemy, and after firing all the shells, you can run a little further away to reload. This is simply the most perfect design idea.

If warships are designed in this way, future Spanish warships will be ahead of their enemies in all three major design elements: speed, firepower, armor, and protection. This also means that the Spanish navy has the potential to challenge the British navy's dominant position.

"Mr. Bruce, the other two requirements from the Navy are even more impossible to meet. If our new warships have decent armor protection, their speed will absolutely not reach 21 knots."

21 knots? How is that possible? Currently, the speed of warships in various countries is only 16 to 17 knots, and battleships with a speed of 18 knots are extremely rare.

The Navy wants us to design a warship with a speed of 21 knots, and such a warship also needs to have extremely good firepower and armor protection. Isn't that making things difficult for us?
"Forgive me for speaking frankly, but even God couldn't do something like that." The warship designer named Christie still felt that the Navy's requirements for warships were like a pipe dream, and he didn't believe that the shipyard could design warships that met the Navy's requirements.

"I know it is very difficult to design warships that meet the requirements of the Navy, but if the Navy's requirements are very simple, wouldn't that mean that any designer can design a warship that meets the Navy's requirements?"
Ladies and gentlemen, this naval firing exercise is not for our own sake, but for the development of the Spanish Navy. We are all Spaniards, and it is our duty to contribute to the development of our country.

No matter how difficult it is to complete the warship design, we must do everything we can to complete it, rather than giving up before we even begin.

Imagine if we could develop warships that meet the requirements of the navy, wouldn't that mean our country would become a true naval power?
"Isn't it the most important thing for us to use our own strength to help our country develop?" Bruce, the chief designer of the United Shipyard, did not give up the research on new warships because of the opposition of his subordinates. Instead, he chose to inspire and encourage everyone to devote themselves to the research of naval warships and do their part for their country.

And I must say, such inflammatory rhetoric is indeed very effective.

Nothing is more pride-inducing than building one's own country, especially since Spain's national identity and sense of national honor had already been cultivated by this time, and the vast majority of Spaniards still loved their country. Naturally, these warship designers would not give up the opportunity to serve their country for the sake of minor difficulties.

Like the Valencia Union Shipyard, the Royal Guanizzo Shipyard also received a request from the Navy for new warships.

However, unlike the Valencia United Shipyard, the Royal Guanizo Shipyard had no objections to the Navy's requirements and quickly began discussions about new warships.

This is also the biggest difference between the Valencia United Shipyard and the Royal Guanizzo Shipyard.

Although the former also has a royal background, the royal family owns less than half of the shares, with the remainder coming from the government.

The latter is entirely a royal property, and all the warship designers at the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard are essentially hired by the royal family, so they naturally cannot object to the demands of the naval department.

In addition to the two largest shipyards, other large shipyards have also received requests for new warships from the Navy.

The Spanish Navy attaches great importance to new warships.

Because Carlo finally relaxed restrictions on naval development after many years, he also personally promised that as long as shipyards can design warships that meet such requirements, Spain will build at least one such battleship every year in the future.

Building one battleship a year may not seem like much, but it's actually quite a feat. Take battleships, which came after ironclads, for example; even after so many years, only a handful of countries still possess them.

Great Britain undoubtedly possesses the largest number of battleships, followed by France, and then Spain.

Countries like Austria-Hungary and Italy have, to date, possessed no more than 10 battleships.

Even if we assume a construction rate of one ship per year, if World War I had broken out more than 10 years later, Spain would have had more than 10 dreadnoughts during the war, which would have been a considerable number.

For this very reason, the Navy is very much looking forward to the new type of warship proposed by Carlo.

Once this type of warship is designed, the Spanish Navy will likely take a significant step forward and become a true naval power.

With the Navy paying close attention, the Royal Guanizo Shipyard and the Valencia United Shipyard each produced a warship design and submitted it to the Navy in just two and a half months.

Of course, this is just the most basic warship design. The design only includes the various structures of the warship and the equipment used. As for whether the speed can meet the requirements of the navy, that will only be known after the warship is built.

For this reason, after the design drawings are submitted to the naval department, they still need to be reviewed by the naval department, and the warship design will be discussed in detail to ensure that it meets their requirements before construction can begin.

If the warships built ultimately fail to meet the requirements of the navy, then the initial investment will essentially be wasted.

Because Carlo was the one who proposed the requirements for the new warships, the Navy immediately notified Carlo after the two shipyards submitted their warship designs to the Navy, asking him to judge whether the two warship designs could meet the relevant requirements.

Because the two shipyards did not communicate during the design of the warships, the two types of warships designed can be seen to have obvious differences.

The new warships designed by the Royal Guanizo Shipyard clearly prioritize speed and armor protection, while sacrificing some firepower.

Spain's previous generation of battleships, the Monarch-class battleships, had main guns with a caliber of 343 mm, or 13.5 inches.

However, on new warships a decade or so later, the caliber of the naval guns returned to 12 inches, or 305 millimeters.

Although it is equipped with the latest 305mm 45-caliber naval gun, its firepower is certainly no match for the 13.5-inch main gun with a caliber of 343mm.

However, the 305mm 45-caliber naval gun is powerful enough. As long as the enemy's armor protection is not too exaggerated, a single gun can seriously damage the enemy's warship.

While there was a slight sacrifice in firepower, Royal Guarnizo shipyard fully demonstrated its deep pockets when it came to power.

According to the warship design drawings, the new battleship will adopt a four-shaft propulsion mode, equipped with a total of 18 coal-fired steam boilers plus four steam turbine units, with a maximum power of 22500 horsepower.

This power is far superior to that of the previous generation of Monarch-class battleships, which is why the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard is confident that the new warships can exceed 21 knots.

Regarding armor protection, because current steel armor technology has improved compared to ten years ago, the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard has not increased the thickness of the steel armor; the thickest part of the armor on the entire warship is only about 300 millimeters.

According to estimates, the warship will be 159.7 meters long, 25.1 meters wide, and have a draft of 9 meters under maximum load. Its standard displacement will be between 1.78 and 1.8 tons, and its full-load displacement will be between 2.05 and 21 tons. According to numerous warship designers at the Royal Guanizzo Shipyard, even with some sacrifice in firepower and armor protection, their new warship design will definitely have a speed exceeding 2.1 knots, and may even reach 22 knots.

Overall, Carlo was quite satisfied with the warships designed by the Royal Guarnizo shipyard.

If Carlo remembers correctly, the historical battleship HMS Dreadnought had similar specifications. It might differ from the Dreadnought in some details, but it was generally on par with the historical Dreadnoughts.

However, Carlo was not in a hurry to make a choice. Instead, he turned to look at the new warships designed by the designers at the Valencia United Shipyard.

Compared to the design ideas of the Royal Guanizzo ship designers, the ship designers at the Valencia United Shipyard clearly had a different approach.

The former slightly sacrifices some firepower and armor protection capabilities, but meets the Navy's requirement that warships reach a speed of 21 knots, and may even reach 22 knots.

The latter places greater emphasis on firepower and armor protection, sacrificing some speed for the warships.

The new warships designed by the Valencia United Shipyard are still equipped with the largest caliber main guns currently available: 13.5-inch guns, or 343mm 30-caliber guns.

This new warship must have formidable firepower, and its armor has also been significantly improved. The warship designed by the Royal Guanizzo Shipyard has armor with a maximum thickness of only 300 millimeters, while the warship designed by the Valencia United Shipyard boasts armor with a maximum thickness of 383 millimeters.

However, due to the increased caliber of the cannons and the thickness of the armor, the standard displacement of this warship reached an astonishing 1.97 tons, with a full-load displacement estimated to be between 2.25 and 2.3 tons.

Although the power system also uses 18 coal-fired steam boilers and 4 steam turbine units for four-shaft propulsion, the power can still reach up to 22500 horsepower. However, with the increase in the tonnage of the warship, it would be good if the warship could reach a speed of 20 knots. Whether it can reach 21 knots is a question.

In terms of size, the two warships are not too different. The warship designed by the Valencia United Shipyard is about 161.4 meters wide, 25.3 meters high, and has a draft of 9.1 meters.

In terms of range, both warships can travel at least 6500 nautical miles at a speed of 10 knots and at least 5000 nautical miles at a speed of 18.5 knots.

5000 nautical miles is equivalent to 9260 kilometers, which means that the two warships have a range of more than 10,000 kilometers.

For Spain, achieving such a range is quite impressive. After all, Spain has colonial outposts around the world, and its warships can easily refuel and replenish supplies at these outposts, without needing to sail tens of thousands of kilometers at once.

After reviewing the warship designs from the two shipyards, Carlo was genuinely unsure which to choose.

I never expected that while designing warships was so difficult, two excellent warships suddenly emerged when I was designing dreadnoughts.

These two warships each have their advantages. The former prioritizes speed, but its firepower and armor protection are not weak either. The latter places greater emphasis on firepower and armor protection, but its speed can also reach 20 knots.

Although Carlo wanted to adopt the design of two warships at the same time, so that the number of dreadnoughts in the Spanish Navy would increase all at once.

Unfortunately, such an idea could only remain a thought. Dreadnoughts were more expensive to build than battleships, and Spain could not afford to build too many dreadnoughts in a short period of time.

Moreover, the design of these two types of warships is not perfect. If they are built and do not meet the requirements of the navy, not only will the funds for building the warships be wasted, but also several years will be wasted.

Therefore, Carlo had to choose the best of the two warship designs, then produce a warship to see if its actual performance could meet his requirements.

After lengthy discussions with naval officers, Carlo ultimately decided to choose the ship designed by the Royal Guarini shipyard.

This doesn't mean that Carlo favors Royal Guanizzo Shipyard; the main reason is that the warships designed by Royal Guanizzo Shipyard better match Carlo's impression of dreadnoughts, and the faster the warship, the greater its advantage in naval warfare.

As for the slight sacrifice in firepower and armor protection, it's not a defect in the warship's design itself. After all, a 12-inch gun caliber is more than sufficient, especially since it's the latest 45-caliber gun.

As for the warships designed by the Valencia United Shipyard, although they have improved in terms of firepower and armor protection, their speed has been significantly reduced.

While this isn't a major problem, if Carlo had to choose between the two designs, he would definitely choose the faster warship.

Of course, this does not mean that the Valencia United Shipyard's warship designs are entirely without merit.

Although the design of Spain's dreadnought has been finalized, there is currently no specific design for another type of warship that also plays a strategic role.

Carlo decided to adopt the dreadnought design from the Royal Guanizzo Shipyard and have the Valencia United Shipyard modify its own warship design to transform it into a strategic cruiser.

The so-called strategic cruiser can actually be understood as a warship that abandons most of its armor in exchange for firepower of the same level as capital ships and greater speed.

To put it simply, you can think of the dreadnought, which has superior firepower, armor protection, and speed, as an overpowered warrior that can withstand damage, deal damage, and even be very fast.

Strategic cruisers can be seen as assassins; while possessing powerful damage, they are relatively fragile.

Despite their fragile nature, strategic cruisers can threaten enemy warships, even capital ships like dreadnoughts.

After all, strategic cruisers have large main gun calibers and extremely high speeds, making them very useful on the battlefield.

After discussing how to handle the two warship designs, Carlo handed everything over to the naval department.

The Navy first contacted the Royal Guanizo Shipyard, paid a portion of the funds, and then requested the Royal Guanizo Shipyard to build a warship to see if it could meet the Navy's requirements.

They then approached the Valencia United Shipyard, first informing them that their warship design had not been adopted by the Navy, and then stating that the Navy's design concept for a new warship was similar to the shipyard's design, hoping that the shipyard could revise the design and develop a new warship design for the Navy.

After completing all of this, Spain's research and development of dreadnoughts and strategic cruisers can be said to be in full swing.

Regarding the construction of the new warships, the Royal Guarnizo shipyard will begin in mid-April, with the construction period expected to be around one and a half to two years.

If construction proceeds smoothly, this new warship is expected to be launched between late 1903 and early 1904. After passing tests and meeting the navy's requirements, it could enter service with the navy's fleet as early as mid-to-late 1905.

This is good news for Carlo, because at the current pace, Spain has a chance to have dreadnoughts before Britain.

However, Carlo was not complacent, because the British research on the history of the Dreadnought was quite exaggerated; they only took two years at most.

英国人在1904年开始研制新式军舰，1905年就拥有了新式军舰的完美设计方案，并且于1905年的10月2号正式开工建造。

1905年10月2号到1906年2月10号，英国人只用了4个多月的时间，就成功建造了世界上第一艘无畏舰。

This dreadnought, built in just over four months, underwent less than 10 months of sea trials before officially entering service with the British fleet.

It only took two years from the start of research and development to its official commissioning, and the ship built was the HMS Dreadnought, which ushered in the era of dreadnoughts. Such a research and development speed is quite exaggerated.

To put it bluntly, no other country in the world besides Britain can do what Britain has done.

Don't be fooled by the fact that Spain only took two and a half months to produce the blueprints; that's because discussions about the new warships had been going on for years.

Moreover, the subsequent construction and sea trials will take several more years. Spain's development cycle for the dreadnought will definitely be longer than that of Britain in history.

Despite Spain starting construction of its dreadnoughts as early as 1901, under ideal circumstances, Spain was able to acquire dreadnoughts a year earlier than Britain.

If the construction or testing of the dreadnoughts does not go smoothly, the subsequent improvement work will need to continue for a long time.

This also means that even if Spain develops dreadnoughts three years ahead of schedule, it is still possible that it will not truly possess dreadnoughts until after Britain.

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(End of this chapter)