Seven Seas Beacon Fire

P.S.: Related images will be posted tomorrow.

Royal Navy Nelson-class battleships

There is a scaled-down version of the N3 similar product designed by our wonderful young designer Minna.

43000 tons standard displacement, 230m waterline length, 32m widest point, and a speed of 23 knots.

Three-seat triple 18-inch L45

Six-seat twin-pack 152L45

Protection:

Ammunition Section

Main unit 14-inch 356mm/20 degrees

Main body extension tapering from 9-inch 229mm to 6-inch 152mm

Horizontal inclined section 11 inches 279mm

Horizontal armor 8 inches 203mm

51mm underwater armor for lightning protection

Power Section

Main unit 12-inch 305mm/20 degrees

Main body extension tapering from 9-inch 229mm to 6-inch 152mm

Horizontal inclined section 9 inches 229mm

Horizontal armor 6 inches 152mm

38mm underwater armor

炮座16寸406mm，炮盾18寸457mm，炮塔顶盖8寸203mm，指挥塔14寸356mm

Protective structure diagram:

Side view:

This protective structure is not something made up out of thin air; you can see it in RN's real-world solutions.

Chapter 357 He won with strength but lost with looks

The first to comment on the appearance of the Nelson-class battleships were Gallic journalists.

Although everyone is well aware that this probably, almost certainly, includes the grievances between the people of the two countries, the French journalists also have to say, we are not making things up out of thin air, so tell us whether what we are describing is true or not.

Doesn't this thing look like an oil tanker?

This cannot be considered slander. After all, the hull with its built-in main hull looks smooth and flat, and with its relatively vertical bow that has almost no upward curve, if you don't look at the turret on top, it really does look like an oil tanker.

The people of Victoria were naturally furious about the "slander" from the blast furnace. This anger stemmed from two aspects: firstly, how dare you Gauls insult our warship like this; and secondly... damn it, why does this thing look so much like an oil tanker?

Did the Royal Navy have any capital ships that looked so ugly before?

Especially as the construction of the warships progressed and the superstructures and main gun turrets began to be installed one after another, the overall outline and appearance of the ship were basically finalized. It was clear that the Nelson-class battleship design... was indeed very strong, but it was also really ugly.

Unlike airplanes, warships are not like airplanes. Airplanes, after all, have to follow aerodynamic shapes. That's why Comrade Zhang Beihai's father commented that to see how powerful an airplane is, just look at how good it looks. A good-looking airplane can't be too bad, and an ugly airplane is definitely not very good.

However, warships are not like that. There is no necessary connection between a warship looking good and being stylish and its actual combat capability. In fact, throughout the design history of warships in various countries, there are many warships that look ugly but are very powerful.

In terms of appearance alone, the Bismarck could definitely be considered the most beautiful capital ship of World War II. After all, very few warships can win so many fans just by their looks. But if you're talking about strength... the South Dakota, which is as fat as a chubby girl and not good-looking from any angle, could easily beat the Bismarck.

Even the officers and sailors of the Royal Victorian Navy who were preparing to take delivery of these two battleships gave the battleship HMS Nelson, which was being outfitted, and the battleship HMS Rodney, which was still on the slipway, nicknames that sounded like civilian oil tankers: "Rodnor" and "Nalsor."

In contrast, the newspapers in the Tang Dynasty were more tactful in their reporting on the Rodney-class battleships. They did not directly say that the Rodney-class battleships were ugly, but rather expressed it with high emotional intelligence: "The Royal Navy of Victoria has exhausted its design aesthetics on the Admiral-class battlecruisers."

Furthermore, at the end of the article, it was stated that "it is hard to imagine that the Admiral-class battlecruisers and the Rodney-class battleships were designed by the same person."

However, compared to ordinary people, professional designers from various countries did not ridicule the Nelson-class battleships. After all, the Royal Navy of Victoria had been the dominant force at sea for over a century. Although it now appeared somewhat old and decrepit, its power still remained.

The Royal Victorian Navy has spearheaded several previous naval technological revolutions, and the world's first pre-dreadnought, first dreadnought, and first super-dreadnought were all built by the Royal Victorian Navy.

The earliest modern destroyers, the earliest aircraft carriers, and the steam turbine power revolution in the navy were all pioneered by the Royal Navy of Victoria. So, the first impression of the uniquely shaped Nelson-class battleships is that this is another product that will start a naval technological revolution.

So it's understandable that the Colombian Navy would have wild ideas and speculate that the ship is an aviation battleship. Given their special bias towards the Royal Victorian Navy, it's hard not to have such far-fetched guesses in this regard.

"It can't be some kind of aviation battleship. The Royal Navy of Victoria has simply adopted an extreme concentrated firepower layout, which allows them to deploy unprecedented heavy armor on the ammunition magazine sections of the Nelson-class battleships." Li Che said decisively in the Admiralty with an unquestionable tone: "Don't be misled by Columbia's speculations. This thing will only be a traditional battleship, and it probably won't be very fast."

"Your Highness, do you have any other sources of intelligence?" Sa Dingming looked at Li Che with some anticipation, probably assuming that Li Che had obtained the relevant information from sources other than the Navy's intelligence department.

After all, whether it was during the Ming Dynasty in the past or the present naval intelligence department, the focus of their work has always been on the adversary across the ocean, and intelligence on the Royal Navy of Victoria has mainly been concentrated in Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean.

After all, geographical and racial limitations make it quite difficult to extend the intelligence network of universities to the Victorian Empire. The Naval Intelligence Service does have some intelligence networks in Victoria, but they are not extensive and their efficiency is limited.

In such situations, intelligence is often more likely to be obtained by diplomats.

Other intelligence sources?

Ha, can I say that this information came from surfing the internet while I was in another world, having a deep spiritual connection with Yunyun?

"You can think of it that way."

“But Your Highness, the length of this Royal Victorian battleship is similar to our Longyuan, estimated to be between 220 and 230 meters. Theoretically, this battleship has the potential to reach speeds comparable to our Longyuan.” A senior naval officer asked with some doubt, “Could it be that the Royal Victorian Navy, like us, is deliberately concealing its capabilities…?”

“That shouldn’t be the case.” Before Li Che could speak, Xu Yueming interjected, “At least in terms of power, the information provided by the Naval Intelligence Department can corroborate our statement.”

?

Li Che's eyes widened slightly in surprise.

what?

Did we have this information before?

Is it true?

What I just said was based on information from another world, and was deduced by a professional naval blogger... I mean, a professional naval person. How come I didn't know we had other intelligence to corroborate this?

"Don't forget, all boiler and power-related companies in the Victoria Empire haven't received any orders for a long time. At the end of last year, there were reports of large-scale layoffs at Wilcox Company, and even Parsons Company had notices that many skilled workers were only able to receive basic wages and were laid off."

If the Royal Navy had adopted new boilers and propulsion systems for the Nelson-class battleships, I think at least Wilkes & Co. and Parsons wouldn't be in such dire straits. And surely the Royal Navy wouldn't choose to waste the propulsion systems previously prepared for a total of four Admiral-class battlecruisers during this period of economic hardship?

Looking at Xu Yueming, Li Che increasingly felt like he had drawn a UR card himself. "You're pretty good at analyzing correlations through publicly available information."

"Even among traditional, slow-moving battleships, the two Nelson-class battleships of the Royal Navy of Victoria will be our most formidable adversaries in the future. They possess 18-inch heavy guns, and their armor..."

"Let's assume 15 inches of side armor and 8 inches of horizontal armor," Li Che casually remarked, nearly making the eyes of all the officers in the Tang Dynasty Royal Navy pop out of their sockets.

Li Che, of course, could not be certain which of the three options the Victorian Empire had chosen, but the thickest part of the side armor of the Nelson-class battleships in the other world was already 14 inches. It wouldn't be wrong to guess a little higher on a ship with a larger tonnage, right?

Be lenient with your enemy!

"How much?" Sa Dingming had a look on his face that said, "Your Highness, are you kidding me?" Clearly, the number had indeed startled everyone.

"Leaving aside the 15-inch side armor... and the eight-inch horizontal armor..."

"This is the protection of the ammunition magazine section. The specific values ​​may differ slightly from what I said, but they should be quite astonishing," Li Che said. "The Victoria Empire adopted such an extreme layout, which not only sacrificed the rear firing arc of the No. 3 turret, but also the firing storm (the muzzle storm was censored) generated by the turrets deployed in the middle of the ship is not conducive to the arrangement of other facilities on the deck in the middle of the ship."

Having paid such a price, they must have something to gain! You've all heard of Occam's Razor: entities should not be multiplied unnecessarily. Now, following this principle, since the Victorian Empire has chosen such entities, there must be a reason why they had to do it.

At this moment, Cheng Mingna, who was attending the high-level meeting organized by the Navy for the first time today, seemed to have finished her calculations on the draft paper. This fiery woman had been unusually focused on calculations since the beginning, and the sound of her slamming her pencil on the table quickly attracted everyone's attention.

“Your Highness, although I don’t know how the Victorian Empire deployed its armor, the data you just provided seems to be problematic,” Cheng Mingna said. “I just made a rough estimate, and considering that there will definitely be discrepancies in the estimate, I calculated the upper and lower limits separately, but the calculated results are still somewhat different from the 43,000 tons limit stipulated in the treaty.”

How did you calculate it?

"That's right, Your Highness. Based on our estimated hull length and the photographs we took, I calculated the approximate weight of the armor steel used in the Nelson-class battleships, and calculated the expected upper and lower limits respectively. Then, based on the proportion of armor steel to displacement of most battleships—which is of course also a floating value—I calculated the upper and lower limits separately. This is what we call the clamping method."

Li Che nodded in approval. This method of guessing the performance indicators of enemy ships by predicting the upper and lower limits is actually very effective when intelligence is limited. The most classic example he had seen in another world was RN's guess about the actual performance indicators of the German Scharnhorst-class battleships during World War II. RN used a method similar to Cheng Mingna's to deduce that the actual displacement of the Scharnhorst was higher than the tonnage claimed by the Germans, and finally guessed that it was a capital ship of more than 3 tons. In terms of the result, it can be said to be very accurate.

"So where do you think the problem lies? Is 43,000 tons lower than the lower limit you calculated? Is there no way to reduce the tonnage to 43,000 tons according to your calculations?"

"It's not entirely impossible to reduce the displacement to 43,000 tons, but if we consider the parts of the ship other than the side armor and horizontal armor, according to our design practices... to keep the displacement at 43,000 tons, we would probably need to reduce the side armor of the engine room to eight inches and the horizontal armor to three inches."

Cheng Mingna shrugged as she said this: "Putting aside the fact that it is understandable to weaken the power section to a certain extent from a design logic point of view, it is somewhat incomprehensible to weaken it to this extent. This does not conform to normal design logic. After all, if I were to design such a capital ship with tiered protection, I would choose to stack the most extreme protection in the ammunition depot section to deal with the enemy's strongest artillery threat, while the power section should at least be able to deal with the enemy's mainstream firepower threat."

If the standard for the ammunition magazine section on a Nelson-class battleship is to withstand its own 18-inch guns or our 420mm guns, then the engine room's performance specifications should at least be able to withstand the Colombian Navy's 14-inch guns or our 330mm guns, right?

"According to your calculations, if the tonnage is reduced to 43,000 tons, then the rear engine compartment will be practically exposed?"

“That’s the idea.” Cheng Mingna nodded. “And if the second half is really unsupported, then the weight balance of the whole ship will be a bit troublesome. So I think this ship must be completely different from ours in some design aspects, but I can’t think of any differences right now.”

Having said that, among those present, only Li Che could roughly deduce where the problem lay. If the design style of the Royal Navy of the Victoria class in this world was almost identical to that of the RN class in another world, then the weight saved by the Nelson-class battleships was most likely not in the main armor of the engine compartment, but rather in places below the waterline that were not visible...

This is also the Achilles' heel of the Nelson-class battleships in another world, which was extremely lucky in actual combat and never exposed any problems.

Chapter 358: It was all told to me by Mazu!

When Li Che was chatting with his friends in another world, a certain Chicken Nugget, who claimed that M4 was his wife and whose profile picture was "45 Sister," said that the Nelson-class battleship was like a typical girl knight wearing a very proper and sturdy plate armor on the upper body, but only sexy suspender lace stockings and not even a short skirt on the lower body.

Although this guy is in some ways even the same as the promiscuous Gou Xiling, his comments are not entirely a product of his criticism of Rodney and Nelson's character art.

These detailed remarks actually reflect the "Achilles' heel" beneath the impressive armor protection specifications of the Rodney-class battleships and indeed all the 3-series battleships—their underwater armor is too thin.

The Royal Navy’s capital ships had problems with underwater protection, which seemed to be an old problem. At the beginning of the World War, shortly after the start of the war, HMS King George V, HMS Ajax, HMS Centurion, HMS Daring, HMS Sovereign, HMS Thor and HMS Orion, belonging to the 2nd Battle Squadron, left Love Sweeley for Nisnagil for firing training.

Shortly after setting sail, the battleship HMS Daredevil struck a mine laid by the auxiliary cruiser HMS Berlin. Although it was actually a relatively old cotton powder mine with a charge of only 180 kilograms, the explosion still tore a 4.9-meter-long gash in the bottom of the dreadful ship.

The breach was about 3 meters in front of the engine room. The floodwaters almost immediately submerged the engine room, engine room, and the ammunition magazine of the "X" turret, and then continued to spread to the central engine room and surrounding adjacent compartments.

Despite the best efforts of the crew on HMS Daring to salvage the ship, these Royal Navy battleships of the 343 series did not have complete underwater torpedo protection. In order to reduce tonnage and cost, they adopted a design with large watertight compartments, which caused HMS Daring to lose all power after two or three hours and eventually sink before noon.

Incidentally, after the sinking of HMS Daring, in order to preserve the honor of the Royal Navy and maintain national morale, Jellicoe requested that the accidental sinking of the giant warship be kept secret, a request that was agreed upon by the RN and the Cabinet.

In the remaining months of the war, the name "HMS Daring" frequently appeared on the Royal Navy's training and voyage lists, and it did indeed fool the High Seas Fleet for a time, fully demonstrating that secrecy was the key to victory (in a very convincing way).

Following the HMS Daring incident, the Royal Navy made more comprehensive modifications to the underwater torpedo protection armor of its subsequent warships. It can be said that since then, the TDS design of the Royal Navy's capital ships has indeed seen remarkable improvements.

Following the HMS Daring incident, the Royal Navy established a special review committee to determine the cause of its sinking and to make improvements to existing and under-construction battleships based on the findings.

Research revealed that in addition to defects in its anti-torpedo armor design, the watertight doors in the hull compartments of the HMS Daring were not sturdy. When water pipes and other pipelines burst, the doors could not be closed properly. These problems were optimized and improved in subsequent ship models.

Judging from the torpedo protection effect of the TDS, the Royal Navy's warships after the war were still quite excellent. The TDS of the Nelson-class battleships was quite sufficient for that era. Moreover, the TDS in the ammunition magazine section was made of 51 mm of high elastic steel, and the TDS in the engine room section was also made of 32 mm of high elastic steel, which had a very good effect on absorbing the shock wave of underwater explosions.

The problem is that being able to withstand torpedoes doesn't mean it can withstand artillery shells.

The main armor belt of all three Royal Navy battleship designs is generally not very high in terms of its full thickness. Of course, this is not a big problem, since all three battleships use a complete armor box structure with horizontal armor on top, and the vertical armor on the sides is slightly shorter.

However, the secondary armor belts extending underwater in these designs are too short in depth. Not to mention the Type 91 armor-piercing shell, which is specifically optimized for underwater ballistics, almost all new ammunition from the 30s would pose a serious threat to this armor layout with its severely insufficient underwater extension.

In fact, in another world, the Royal Navy later discovered the shortcomings of this armor layout and planned to add extended armor belts to the underwater sections of Rodney and Nelson during modernization. However, this plan was eventually abandoned due to various reasons, including funding and the increased workload of fleet combat ships due to the approaching war.

In other words, the two Nelson-class battleships did not experience any real gunboat duels during the war (the Bismarck was even unable to effectively maneuver the ship during the Rodney-Rip battle, and it was not far from being a target practice). Otherwise, facing any new battleship or an old battleship with new shells, the seemingly strong armor of the Rodney-class battleship would have almost exposed its underwater protection, which could have turned the entire ship into a second Dede-chan.

This may be due to the practical need for extreme weight reduction, or it may simply be a desire to save on costs. After all, the lack of underwater armor extension in all three-system designs is almost identical. The earliest three-system designs were created before naval treaties were finalized, and there were no major tonnage restrictions at that time. The reason for this design is probably that they genuinely felt the underwater extension was unimportant, and at the same time, they wanted to save some money.

Cheng Mingna's statement about "according to our design style" suggests that this beautiful designer probably had some idea about this aspect. However, due to the lack of evidence, it cannot be confirmed yet. After all, this is the Royal Victoria Navy, which is traditionally considered the world's number one navy. How could they not have considered this aspect?

As for shooting in water...

Li Che thought of this thing, which was like dark karate in the artillery battles during World War II in another world. He wanted to remind him, but now he was directly proposing the technical optimization route of this kind of shell without any evidence, and asserting with certainty that this kind of shell had a very good future prospect. This made people think he was doing some kind of shamanistic thing.

But speaking of which, the navy seems to be quite superstitious...

"So, it's possible the Victorians cut corners in places we can't see?" Li Che decided to drop the riddle and get straight to the point. Come on, I'm prepared to resort to shamanistic methods if all else fails: "For example, in the underwater parts?"

Aren't they the Heavenly Father and Heavenly Brother? (Chest out)

"Does Your Highness mean that they have significantly weakened the underwater extension?" Cheng Mingna had indeed made some speculations about this. Li Che had barely started speaking when she picked up the conversation.

"Yes, or even more extreme... their main armor belt barely extends downwards, and the entire ship has almost no underwater sub-armor belt."

Li Che tried his best to put on a "cold, aloof CEO-like face" and gave his guess. He wasn't actually very good at acting, but he had at least seen how some young, handsome actors played some kind of clueless, emotionless characters in another world.

Given his status and circumstances, if he simply acts aloof and profound, wouldn't that influence others' thinking to some extent?

At this point, as long as you can hold your nerve, it's someone else who can't.

As he spoke, Li Che reached out and took the pencil, pulled out a piece of paper, and drew a rough schematic diagram based on his memory of the armor cross-section of the three battleships.

After the drawing was completed, many officers and designers who were watching looked at Li Che's drawing with disbelief.