Rise of Empires: Spain.

Chapter 472 Victor-class Super Dreadnought

In September 1908, the climate in Valencia, a city on the Mediterranean coast of Spain, was still quite hot.

Located in the port city of Valencia to the north is the Valencia United Shipyard, one of Spain's four major shipyards.

After Spain relinquished its Cuban colony, the original Havana shipyard was replaced by the Valencia United Shipyard, becoming one of Spain's four new major shipyards.

After years of expansion and renovation, the Valencia shipyard has become the largest shipyard in Spain, surpassing the original Royal Guanizzo shipyard and the Royal Naval Shipyard of El Ferrol in both the number of dry docks and the tonnage of warships it can build.

As for Cartagena Shipyard, which ranks last, although it is also one of the four major shipyards, it is truly last in terms of the number and size of its dry docks. It is not far behind other shipyards that are not among the four major shipyards, such as Barcelona Shipyard and Lisbon Shipyard.

The temperature was still quite cool in the early morning, and gusts of sea breeze blew from the sea into the shipyard, bringing a refreshing coolness to the workers in the dock.

As the steam roared inside the shipyard, accompanied by the harsh sounds of metal cutting and hammering, the workers began their new day's work in this environment.

As Spain's largest military shipyard, the Valencia United Shipyard has four dry docks. The first two docks can build super-large ships of 2.5 tons, while the latter two docks can build giant warships of 1.5 tons.

Under normal circumstances, the shipyard is not completely sealed off. Some authorized media outlets can even enter the shipyard to take photos, but these photos must be approved by the shipyard before they can be taken out.

Since September, however, this largest shipyard in Spain has effectively shut out all visitors. Apart from the continuous shipment of steel materials to the shipyard, only workers and technical experts visit the shipyard; outsiders are not permitted to enter.

This action by the Valencia United Shipyard has sparked discussion among some members of the public and newspapers. Many believe that the Valencia United Shipyard is building a brand-new battleship, and that the performance of this new battleship may even surpass that of the currently serving Dreadnought-class battleships, which are considered to be the world's best-designed battleships.

This is why the Spanish public is quite curious and excited about the battleships being built inside the shipyard.

The news of the sudden blockade of the Valencia United Shipyard also attracted the attention of other superpowers, including Britain, France, and Germany.

The British were the most concerned, and some British media even tried to get close to the Valencia United Shipyard, only to be arrested by soldiers patrolling outside the shipyard and subsequently deported back to Britain.

Although the British gained little from this back-and-forth, they were basically certain that Spain was indeed building a brand new battleship.

However, Britain is also building even larger super battleships, so it is not so worried about the battleship design that Spain is building, which may be of the same class.

Although Spain had taken the lead in dreadnoughts, many senior British naval officers and naval design experts believed that Britain was still ahead of Spain in naval design and construction.

Britain had simply been careless before, like the rabbit in the tortoise and the hare race who dozed off. Once it woke up, it could still quickly overtake Spain.

That's exactly what Britain did. In addition to rapidly building dreadnoughts of the same class, they also began developing super-dreadnoughts that were even more powerful than dreadnoughts.

The British were quite confident in their super dreadnought design, believing that even if Spain's new warship design could slightly improve the performance of the dreadnoughts, it would never be able to compare with their super dreadnoughts.

While news of the blockade of the Valencia Union Shipyard was causing a stir, on September 11, 1908, a train suddenly arrived at the shipyard and quickly entered.

To be able to enter the shipyard under such a high level of secrecy, and even be personally greeted at the entrance by the shipyard's senior management, it goes without saying that it must be Carlo.

Carlos personally came to the Valencia United Shipyard to see firsthand the construction progress of Spain's super dreadnought.

Since Carlos saw this rather perfect super dreadnought design a few months ago, the Spanish Navy immediately began construction of the super dreadnought.

The Valencia United Shipyard provided the design and will naturally be primarily responsible for the construction of the super dreadnought.

Because of the experience and foundation laid by previous dreadnoughts, Spain does not intend to explore super dreadnoughts step by step, but instead builds two at once to see the effect.

The lead ship of the Victory-class battleships, HMS Victory, was scheduled to begin construction on September 3, 1908, and was expected to enter service within 1911.

If all goes well, Spain's super dreadnoughts will be able to make it into World War I, which is certainly good news for Carlo.

In terms of super-dreadnoughts, Spain was definitely one of the faster ones. The fact that Spain didn't have its super-dreadnoughts commissioned until 1911 means that most major powers were unlikely to possess them during World War I.

In other words, the Spanish Navy would play a more important role in World War I, and even have the ability to change the course of the war.

This is also why the Spanish Navy built two super dreadnoughts at once, instead of building the second one after the first dreadnought was completed and confirmed to be working properly, as was the case with the original dreadnought-class battleships.

Of course, besides the role that super dreadnoughts would play in future world wars, the fact that this design would satisfy Carlo and the naval leadership is also the reason why the naval department built two ships at once.

Building a super dreadnought costs more than a dreadnought. Spain spent a total of 9600 million pesetas to build these two super dreadnoughts, which is equivalent to a staggering £384 million. On average, each battleship cost nearly £200 million.

Of course, the reason for such a high cost is that the design of the first two super dreadnoughts required some modifications to the existing equipment, and the construction period would also be longer because it was the first time building a super dreadnought.

The increased costs of materials, equipment, and labor combined to create the extremely high cost of the first two super dreadnoughts.

If construction proceeds smoothly, the cost of each super-dreadnought could be reduced to around 4200 million pesetas, or less than £170 million. Based on the design estimates for the Victorious-class battleship, this battleship would be 181.5 meters long, 27 meters wide, and have a draft of 8.3 meters, making it significantly larger than the Dreadnought-class battleships.

Because of their significantly larger size, the Victory-class battleships were estimated to have a standard displacement of around 2.2 to 2.4 tons and a full-load displacement of around 2.6 to 2.7 tons, making them the largest battleships ever built.

To match the massive size and weight of this super dreadnought, the ship designers at the Valencia United Shipyard plan to install 18 three-cylinder boilers plus two turbine steam generators, with a maximum main engine output of an astonishing 43500 horsepower. The estimated maximum speed is between 23 and 24 knots, and it can travel 8000 nautical miles at a speed of 10 knots and 4000 nautical miles at a speed of 17 knots.

The most striking feature of this battleship is its significantly enhanced firepower compared to the Dreadnought-class battleships.

To standardize the gun caliber, the Dreadnought-class battleships reduced their gun caliber from the 13.5-inch 343mm guns of the Monarch-class battleships to 12-inch 305mm guns.

Although equipped with the latest 305mm 45-caliber naval gun, the overall firepower is actually somewhat reduced due to the significant difference in caliber.

However, the Dreadnought-class battleships at the time pursued comprehensive superiority, and by eliminating cannons and using only main guns, their firepower was actually partially compensated for.

On the latest Victory-class battleships, the slight deficiency in firepower of dreadnoughts has been completely compensated for.

The latest Victory-class battleships reintroduced 13.5-inch 343mm main guns, and even adopted the latest 45-caliber naval guns, which greatly improved the firepower of the battleships.

It is no exaggeration to say that the improvement in firepower alone is enough to give the Victory-class battleships a significant lead over the Dreadnought-class battleships in terms of combat power.

In addition to the increased speed due to the power upgrade, it is clear from the design data alone that the design of the Victory-class battleship will result in a super-dreadnought that is even better than the Dreadnought-class battleship.

How impressive is the firepower of a 343mm 45-caliber naval gun?
First, there's the loading speed. The average loading speed can be maintained at around 30 seconds, which means that each main gun can fire two shells per minute, significantly improving the battleship's firepower.

This gun has an astonishing maximum range of 25 kilometers, and at a distance of 5 kilometers, its armor penetration depth reaches a terrifying 600 millimeters, easily penetrating any armor protection on enemy battleships.

Even at a distance of more than 10 kilometers, the armor penetration of this gun can still remain above 450 millimeters, ensuring that it can penetrate most of the armor of the enemy ship.

When the distance increased to more than 15 kilometers, the armor penetration depth of the artillery only decreased to below 350 millimeters, but it was still a rather exaggerated level.

Despite the fact that battleships have now reached a displacement of around 2 tons, the armor coverage of most areas of battleships is still relatively low.

Only the more critical areas have the thickest armor. However, shells are not aimed at these thicker armored areas. If a shell hits an area with thinner armor, it can severely damage or even sink an enemy battleship with a single shot.

To further enhance the battleship's firepower, the designers added 10 150mm secondary guns to both sides of the Victor-class battleship, primarily for engaging small enemy warships at close range.

These secondary guns are not used easily in most situations, since even if they hit the enemy's main warship, the damage will not be too high.

These small-caliber secondary guns are only used when small enemy warships get close. After all, you can't use a cannon to kill a mosquito at close range; firstly, the hit rate is low, and secondly, it's a complete waste.

A shell fired from a 343mm 45-caliber naval gun can easily penetrate the armor of a super dreadnought. Using those shells on smaller warships, even if it hits, would be a complete waste.

Aside from its firepower, what's most impressive about this battleship isn't its speed of over 23 knots, but rather its armor protection, which is even stronger than that of a dreadnought.

Considering that the caliber of guns on battleships in various European countries was constantly increasing, the armor protection of the Victorious-class battleships was greatly improved.

First, the main armor belt, which covers most of the battleship, was increased in thickness to 435 mm, enabling it to defend against damage from 12-inch caliber guns and smaller.

As long as the enemy's artillery doesn't hit a vital area, the armor protection of the Victor-class battleships means that enemy shells won't cause much damage.

Despite the fact that the standard displacement of the Victory-class battleships far exceeded 2 tons, nearly half of those tons were actually used for armor.

According to estimates, the total weight of the armor mounted on the Victory-class battleships will reach an astonishing 8744 tons, which is close to the tonnage of an ironclad warship at the end of the 19th century.

The fact that all the steel needed for an ironclad warship was used on the armor protection of a battleship is enough to prove how thick the armor of the Victor-class battleships was.

Judging solely from the three essential elements of a battleship—firepower, armor protection, and speed—the current design of the Victor-class battleship is an absolutely outstanding work.

This is why Carlo was immediately drawn to the design. If the construction of the Victory-class battleships goes smoothly, once this super dreadnought is successfully commissioned into the Spanish Navy, the strength of the Spanish Navy will be greatly enhanced once again.

The only slightly painful thing is the cost of this super dreadnought, but given its performance, the slightly higher price is perfectly acceptable.

After all, super dreadnoughts of that era were something money couldn't buy. If we had to name a few countries that could build super dreadnoughts at that time, it would most likely be only Britain and Spain.

At least in the short term, it is unlikely that either Spain or the UK will sell super dreadnoughts abroad, even if other European countries are willing to pay large sums of money.

(End of this chapter)