Chapter 281: Warship Purchase Order

When the Italian ambassador expressed to Gao Da the Italian government's request to purchase Spain's new type of ironclad, Gao Da was surprised for a moment, then decisively agreed.

Regardless of the Italian government's motives for purchasing Spanish warships, in any case, Spain would not lose money.

Selling warships to foreign countries increases the selling price; this is actually where the real profit lies for the shipyard's warship orders.

After all, cooperation with the domestic government is at a friendly price, and making a huge profit is impossible; at most, it ensures that one does not lose money.

Although Gao Da agreed in principle to sell warships to Italy, the specific negotiations still had to be conducted by the Italian side with the Royal Guanizo Shipyard.

The Matador-class ironclad is theoretically a product of the Royal Guanizo Shipyard; other Spanish shipyards that can build this warship do so only by relying on the authorization of the Royal Guanizo Shipyard.

After all, the Royal Guanizo Shipyard is backed by the Spanish royal family. Living in Spain, a monarchy, no one can ignore the status of the royal family, not even the government.

When the Royal Guanizo Shipyard learned that the Italian side wanted to purchase warships, they were also beaming with joy.

After all, the shipyard's income concerns the available funds for design experts, which has a great influence on whether the shipyard can develop the warships needed by the military.

However, considering the good relationship between Italy and Spain, the shipyard did not intend to ask for an exorbitant price; at least they had to give the Italian side some discount to reflect that the friendship between Spain and Italy is real.

The Italian government's actions were also swift. After confirming that Spain was willing to sell its latest warships, the Italian government immediately formed a purchasing delegation to come to Spain and launch warship purchase negotiations with the Royal Guanizo Shipyard.

The main members of the purchasing delegation were Italian naval generals. The reason the Italian Navy was so impatient was truly because Italy's current shipbuilding level was still far behind the European powers.

All of the Italian Navy's warships were antiquated products, and even if there were warships built in the last few years, they were all defective, substandard goods.

Among them, the most representative were the Duilio and the Enrico Dandolo.

As the Italian Navy's design to move away from sailing warships, these two warships adopted vertical compound steam engines for power, with a maximum speed reaching 14. knots, which could be considered excellent in terms of speed.

In terms of firepower, these two warships adopted 450mm 20-caliber muzzle-loading naval guns, with a caliber sufficient to compete with all warships in Europe.

But the problem is that muzzle-loading guns and large calibers severely limited the firepower the guns could exert.

The 450mm main guns looked attractive, but when the Italian Navy actually got their hands on them, they discovered that the main guns of these two warships had a pathetic firing rate of one round every 5 minutes, making them completely targets to be beaten on the battlefield.

What was even more fatal was that because the Italian shipyard excessively pursued gun caliber, they ignored the adaptation problem between large-caliber guns and warship design.

The Duilio had three exhaust funnels, and the two main gun turrets were located between the two funnels; this scene is simply unimaginable.

The naval officers and soldiers operating the naval guns had to be careful not to aim at their own funnels, otherwise, they would be the creators of a great joke.

It is precisely because Italy's shipyards had some defects in ironclad design that the Italian Navy was so expectant of foreign warships.

Of course, the Italian government certainly did not just expect Spanish warships.

They hoped more to learn from Spain's excellent experience in ironclad design to copy and improve Italy's own ironclads.

To master the data of Spain's latest ironclads, they could only obtain Spanish warships through purchase.

Sending agents to steal intelligence might also be feasible, but it would severely damage the relationship between Italy and Spain, which for the Italian government was somewhat not worth the loss.

The arrival of the Italian warship purchasing delegation received a grand reception from the Spanish government, and then the group went directly to the Spanish Royal Guanizo Shipyard to inspect the warship construction site of the Guanizo Shipyard.

As a military enterprise built with the full strength of the royal family, the Royal Guanizo Shipyard is definitely ranked among the best in Europe.

When the Italian purchasing delegation came to the Royal Guanizo Shipyard to visit, they were also shocked by the development of the Guanizo Shipyard.

Many Italians still held the idea that Italy was more developed than Spain before coming to Spain. They believed that Italy's current backwardness in shipbuilding was only due to the short time since national unification, and that they were not inferior to Spain in terms of industry and shipbuilding capability.

But when they came to the Royal Guanizo Shipyard and saw this enterprise, which had become a super-large shipyard due to the royal family's massive investment, they began to face up to Spain's development during this period and seriously examine the gap between Italian shipyards and Spanish shipyards.

The upright attitude of the Italian delegation also made the subsequent visit much smoother.

After the Spanish government announced the naval construction plan, it had already paid the deposit for two warships to the Royal Guanizo Shipyard, and the Royal Guanizo Shipyard had long been building the two ironclads at full power.

Although less than half a month had passed, the keel laying of the first Matador-class ironclad, the Matador, was already half completed, and what the Italian purchasing delegation was visiting was precisely the keel-laying stage of the Matador ironclad.

Whether in the ironclad era or the sailing warship era, building a large ship is not easy.

As warship technology entered the ironclad era, because the technology is more complex and requires a large amount of steel, the cost and time required to build an ironclad are constantly increasing.

The keel-laying stage of the Matador-class ironclad alone requires at least a month and a half, and from the time, one can see how huge the volume of the Matador-class ironclad is.

When the Italian purchasing delegation saw with their own eyes that the shipyard workers were laying the keel of the Matador-class ironclad, even though they were prepared for the power of Spain's warship construction, they couldn't help but sigh.

"My God, how huge must this warship be?" The leader of the Italian purchasing delegation, an Italian Navy Vice Admiral, looked at the keel that was more than half laid in the dock with a surprised face, his excitement already overflowing.

"Sir, may I ask what the displacement of this warship built by your country is?" A general in the Italian purchasing delegation looked with curious eyes at the Spanish diplomatic official responsible for the reception and asked.

"Of course you may, General." The Italian government had long expressed to Spain its attitude of wanting to purchase warships, and the basic data of these warships certainly had to be shown to the Italians.

It was precisely because of this that the diplomatic official, after hearing the inquiry from the Italian naval general, immediately answered according to what he had learned in advance: "According to design estimates, the standard displacement of the Matador-class ironclad is about 9, 52 tons, and the full-load displacement is about 10, 00 tons; it is a ten-thousand-ton giant ship in the true sense."

Hearing that the full-load displacement of the Matador-class ironclad developed by Spain could reach over ten thousand tons, the naval generals of the purchasing delegation looked at each other, and all saw excitement in each other's eyes.

As for the other officials belonging to the Italian government, especially the officials of the financial department, their expressions were suddenly not so good.

The larger the displacement of an ironclad, the more expensive the construction cost. After all, besides the thickness and laying area of the steel plates, what affects the weight of an ironclad is the caliber of the naval guns and the size of the turrets.

The selling price of Spain's previous generation ironclad, the Revival-class, was as high as 600, 00 pounds; for the Matador-class ironclad, which is more powerful than the Revival-class, the selling price must reach at least over 700, 00 pounds, right?

Italy wants to order two ironclads, which also means that Italy needs to spend over 1. million pounds, which is 35 million lira in funds.

Since Italy's unification, its financial situation has been relatively good. But Umberto I's ambition for military expansion clearly does not stop there, which makes some officials of the Italian government not know whether to be happy or worried; after all, with the increase in military spending, the reduction of the budget for other departments is inevitable.

Having visited the keel laying of the Matador ironclad with full expectations, the naval generals in the Italian purchasing delegation couldn't wait to start negotiations with the Royal Guanizo Shipyard.

They wanted to negotiate the details of purchasing the warships with the Royal Guanizo Shipyard as soon as possible, so that the Italian Navy could possess such powerful ironclads as early as possible.

Compared with these naval generals, the officials of the Italian government were not so urgent. When they learned that the selling price of one Matador-class ironclad was as high as 800, 00 pounds, they even had the idea of returning to Italy right then.

The selling price of 800, 00 pounds was simply too expensive; this money would be enough for Italy's own shipyards to build an ironclad with money to spare.

Even if Spain's warships were designed more powerfully than Italy's, there was no reason to have such an expensive selling price.

After some haggling, the Royal Guanizo Shipyard finally gave Italy a friendly price, which was a 5% discount on the 800, 00-pound price, selling it to Italy at an internal price of 760, 00 pounds per ironclad.

If Italy ordered two ironclads at once, the Royal Guanizo Shipyard would also gift some shells and torpedoes, further reducing some expenses for the Italian side.

Although the selling price of 760, 00 pounds was still more expensive than the Spanish government's internal price, for the Royal Guanizo Shipyard, it had indeed shown its sincerity.

After all, the Royal Guanizo Shipyard also needs to make money; being able to refrain from making a huge profit on Italy's order was already giving the Italian government quite a lot of face.

The purchasing delegation had the decision-making power for the purchase of the warships, which also meant that the purchasing delegation only needed to discuss internally and did not need to seek the consent of the Italian government.

After the Italian purchasing delegation held meetings internally for several consecutive days, and under the reasoned arguments of the Italian naval generals, the purchasing delegation finally agreed to the 760, 00-pound price offered by the Royal Guanizo Shipyard and purchased two ironclads in one go.

The total warship purchase fee of 1. 2 million pounds would be paid in three installments. The first payment would be executed immediately after the order was signed; the Italian side needed to pay a deposit of 300, 00 pounds to the Royal Guanizo Shipyard, and Spain also needed to start the construction of Italy's two warships within three months after the order was paid.

The second and third payments would be made at the stages of the two warships' launching and delivery respectively. After the three payments were completed, it would also mean that this warship purchase was officially completed, and the warships would officially belong to the Italian Navy and have nothing to do with Spain anymore.

When the Italian purchasing delegation and the representatives of the Spanish Royal Guanizo Shipyard signed the order documents one after another and took photos for memory, this business was also declared officially concluded.

The news of Italy purchasing two ironclads from Spain immediately became hot news in various European countries, and Spain's newly developed Matador-class ironclad immediately attracted the attention of various European countries.

When they learned that Spain's ironclad was a ten-thousand-ton giant ship in the true sense, the British did not modify their own shipbuilding plan without authorization, but they ordered the shipyards to speed up the construction of warships.

After all, the British themselves also had ten-thousand-ton giant ships; as long as the comprehensive performance of Spain's ironclads did not far exceed that of British ironclads, or the number of Spain's main warships did not have the ability to threaten the British fleet, the British reaction would not be so intense.

Although the British did not have a too intense reaction, the French reaction was relatively intense.

France had already experienced a colonial conflict with Spain and Italy, and the relationship had not been completely repaired.

With Spain and Italy announcing naval expansion one after another, the French could not help it either and announced their own shipbuilding plan for the next five years.

Spain and Italy were to build a total of six ironclads in the next five years, and the French government immediately decided to build six ironclads in the next five years to respond.

This was not only to save face, but also to weaken the influence of Spain and Italy in the western Mediterranean.

France's naval strength is very powerful, stronger than both Italy and Spain. But the problem is that France faces the same problem as the United States, which is that it faces the sea on two sides, and there is a quite long distance between the two coasts.

Of course, France's situation is much better than the United States'. The connection between the east and west coasts of the United States needs to go around the entire South America, and the detour distance is close to 20, 00 kilometers.

And between France's west coast and south coast, it only needs to go around the Iberian Peninsula, which is only about 3, 00 kilometers.

Precisely because there are two non-adjacent coasts, this leads to France only being able to establish two fleets to protect its coastal security.

France deploys the Channel Fleet in the English Channel and also deploys the Mediterranean Fleet in the Mediterranean. Although doing so effectively protects the security of France's two coasts, it also disperses France's naval power.

France's navy is generally far superior to Spain and Italy, but if compared only in the Mediterranean, whether it is Spain or Italy's army, there is no big strength gap with France.

Especially in the case of the two countries joining forces, even France's Mediterranean Fleet would be unable to withstand the joint fleet of the two countries.

This is also the reason why France decided to build six ironclads, which is to strengthen the strength of the Mediterranean Fleet and protect the security of France's North African colonies.

Of course, there is another major reason, which is to regain the face lost in the Tunisia War for not fully occupying Tunisia.

Building six ironclads in one go within the next five years, Prime Minister Jules Ferry's meaning is also very clear. He wants to tell all French people that France is still that powerful France, France is still a power at the level of a European hegemon, no country is allowed to provoke it, and France also has the ability to deal with any country's provocation.

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(End of this chapter)