Chapter 382

While Tesla's radio wave experiment was being carried out with great fanfare, the Royal Guanizo Shipyard, together with a group of naval warship design experts, was also conducting an experiment with a relatively high degree of confidentiality.

The experiments that these naval warship design experts can participate in are basically related to warships. The facts are indeed so; the so-called highly confidential experiment is actually the research, development, and exploration of submarines.

Submarines are not strange to this era; this technology was born hundreds of years ago and has been constantly developing.

The earliest submarine should be traced back to the first wooden-framed, skin-covered boat capable of diving built by Dutch engineer Drebbel in 1620. This submarine, known as the Drebbel boat, was a ship capable of underwater diving in the true sense, and it was also one of the earlier ships that could be called a submarine.

During the American War of Independence 150 years later, the American submarine Turtle was put into actual maritime combat for the first time. At that time, the human-powered single-soldier submarine attempted to sneak attack British warships; although the final result was a failure, it also demonstrated that underwater attacks were feasible.

Pushing forward another 100 years, during the American Civil War, the Southern Alliance's submarine Hunley successfully used a torpedo to sink the Northern Army's warship Housatonic, becoming the first instance in human history of a submarine sinking a warship.

It was precisely because submarines showed a certain role during the American Civil War that European countries began to attach importance to the development of submarines.

Whether it is the current naval power Britain or other European powers, they have a certain investment in the research and development of submarines.

More than a decade ago, France's Gymnote attempted to use electricity as a power source. But because the power technology at that time was relatively backward, the attempt of Gymnote eventually failed.

The electricity that the accumulators at that time could store was really limited, and these stored electricity was simply not enough to support the long-distance navigation of the Gymnote submarine.

Although the French attempt failed, to a certain extent, this was not the fault of the French. It was just because the technology in the power field at that time was too backward, leading to the conjecture of using electricity as submarine power eventually only facing the bitter fruit of failure.

But if the technology in the power field has made progress, does it mean that submarine designs similar to Gymnote can achieve certain results now, more than a decade later?

Gao Da attaches great importance to the development of Spanish submarines.

People now can see the strategic value of submarines, let alone Gao Da, who is clear about the value of submarines in later generations.

To put it bluntly, the only role of a submarine is to lurk underwater and give a fatal blow to the enemy's transport ships and warships.

Although the role seems quite straightforward and simple, as long as it can cause damage to the enemy's large transport ships and warships, the submarine possesses extremely important strategic value and significance.

The reason is also very simple: the value of the ships that can be attacked by submarines, or the value of the goods carried, is immeasurable.

Not to mention sinking a warship, as long as a warship can be seriously injured, even if this submarine has to face the cost of sinking to the seabed, such an exchange is completely worth it.

The cost of a submarine is very low, but the cost of a warship is not low. Not to mention the most expensive battleships currently, even light cruisers with a tonnage of only a few thousand tons have a cost that a small submarine cannot compare to.

If a submarine can sink an enemy warship of several thousand tons, it is profitable for any country.

Because submarine technology is not mature in this era, the response of European warships to attacks from underwater is insufficient.

This actually also means that whoever can first research relatively mature submarine technology can gain a huge advantage in naval warfare through submarines.

Even if the warships of various countries subsequently improve their defense against submarines, submarines can completely go to sneak attack those civilian ships. A submarine exchanging for a large transport ship is also a deal that is not a loss at all.

Especially during wartime, what is transported on transport ships is either expensive weapons, equipment, and other strategic materials, or an army of thousands or even tens of thousands of people.

Whether it is destroying a large batch of materials or eliminating thousands or tens of thousands of enemies, it can have a very important impact on the war.

Under these circumstances, not only Gao Da, but the naval department also attaches great importance to the research and development of submarines. They hope that submarines can become another powerful force of the Spanish Navy, making up for the deficiency of the Spanish Navy in terms of total warship tonnage.

In addition to the concerted efforts of various shipyards, the Spanish submarine research and development plan also needs the help of Gramme's power laboratory.

The submarine developed by Spain has epoch-making significance; in addition to the internal combustion engine as the orthodox power source, an electric motor will also be used as the power source for the submarine.

As everyone knows, a submarine cannot stay underwater for a long time. Generally, when there is no combat mission, the submarine floats on the water surface.

When sailing on the water surface, the submarine will use a gasoline engine as power to ensure that the submarine's speed is not too slow.

Once diving underwater, because there is no air to help the internal combustion engine exert power, the submarine's power source will be changed to an electric motor.

The good news is that after a long period of development in the power industry, the power of generators and the electricity storage capacity of accumulators have undergone earth-shaking changes.

The accumulators more than a decade ago indeed could not provide enough power for the electric motor, but the current accumulators already have the possibility of providing power for the electric motor.

Of course, wanting to rely on current accumulators to support the submarine's navigation for several days or even several weeks is completely impossible.

Even if a small generator is installed on the submarine, the existing accumulators can only support the submarine for less than ten hours of navigation.

The warship design experts of the Royal Guanizo Shipyard gathered together to discuss whether the design of the submarine could be improved to save power loss to a certain extent.

Because it is sailing underwater, the resistance faced by the submarine is very large. This also means that a lot of power will be consumed; if the submarine's shape can reduce the generation of resistance to a certain extent, does it mean that the submarine's range is disguisedly increased?

"Mr. Gramme, can the capacity of the accumulators you designed for the submarine be further increased? Our submarine's surface range can reach about 1,000 nautical miles, but the underwater range can only reach less than 50 nautical miles; the gap between the two seems too large." In the conference room of the Royal Guanizo Shipyard, a naval general participating in the research and development of this submarine asked with some expectation.

The biggest disadvantage of this submarine at present is that the underwater range is less than 50 nautical miles, which is just over 90 kilometers.

At first glance, it seems okay, but the submarine's surface range is as high as 1,000 nautical miles, which is a distance of 1,850 kilometers.

Judging from the surface range and underwater range of this submarine, it is difficult to distinguish whether this is a warship that can dive or a submarine that can sail on the water for a long time.

What is more important for a submarine is the mileage of underwater navigation and the time it can dive underwater. If only surface navigation is considered, then it would be better to build battleships and cruisers.

"At present, it should be impossible, Your Excellency General." The person in charge of the power laboratory and general manager of the Spanish Royal Power Company, Gramme, shook his head and gave a negative answer.

"The accumulators and power systems we have equipped for this submarine are already the best in all of Spain and even all of Europe.

The current power level of the whole world can only support this submarine to sail a distance of 50 nautical miles. Unless the volume of the submarine is increased, thereby increasing the capacity of the accumulators, it is impossible to increase the distance of the underwater range without changing the volume." Gramme replied.

Although it is said that the beginning of everything is difficult, after having a good start, there can be rapid development.

But the problem is that it has only been more than a decade since the start of the power industry. The development of electricity is indeed not small, but wanting to rely on current power technology to support the long-term navigation of submarines is clearly still impossible.

Perhaps in more than a decade in the future, accumulators and power technology will have hope of pushing submarines to sail for longer distances. But in terms of current technology, this is already the best result that power technology can achieve.

Hearing Gramme's answer, the naval general could only nod in disappointment and place his hope on the improvement of the submarine's appearance and other aspects.

Although the naval officer participating in the meeting was a general, he did not dare to be presumptuous to Gramme at all. Not to mention the identity of the person in charge of Gramme's power laboratory and the general manager of the Royal Power Company, just his outstanding contributions in the field of electricity are not something that others can easily question. What's more, as the founder of the Spanish power industry, Gramme is deeply trusted and supported by Gao Da. If this naval general dared to speak rudely to Gramme, I am afraid that Gao Da would deal with him the first time he learned the news, letting him understand the importance of respecting talent.

"Taking our own cruisers as a reference, an underwater range of 50 nautical miles is almost enough. As long as our submarine discovers their warships one step ahead of the enemy, and then enters the underwater stealth state, looking for opportunities to launch torpedoes at the enemy's warships, there is still hope for a successful sneak attack.

At present, whether it is our warships or the warships of other countries, they cannot effectively prevent submarines. As long as we build the submarine and train a submarine force with sufficient combat effectiveness, we can effectively make up for the gap between us and naval powers.

Even if Britain is powerful, so what? The cost of building one battleship is enough for us to build more than a dozen or even dozens of submarines. Dispatching these dozen or dozens of submarines, the results obtained will be far more than one battleship.

If submarines can be utilized well, in the future, if a naval war breaks out with a naval power like Britain, we may not have no chance of winning the naval war." A shipbuilding expert stood up to break the somewhat dull atmosphere, letting people refocus their attention from the underwater range of this submarine back to the various data of the entire submarine.

Leaving aside the underwater range of this submarine, in other aspects, the data of this submarine is still relatively excellent.

The people present have not been exposed to the submarines of later generations; what they know is only the submarine technology and level of the current world.

Compared with the existing submarine technology of various countries, the various data shown by this submarine can already be called an excellent level.

According to the preliminary design of the shipbuilding expert, the length of the entire submarine is about 15 meters, and the width is about 3 meters. Because there are two sets of power systems, plus the need to install a large number of accumulators, the displacement of the submarine reached 64 tons; judging from this volume, it is still relatively heavy.

The submarine being relatively heavy also represents a disadvantage, that is, whether sailing on the water or underwater, the speed will certainly not be very fast.

The facts are indeed so. Calculated based on the maximum power that the power system equipped on this submarine can provide, the surface speed of this submarine can reach about 7 knots, and the underwater speed can reach about 5 knots.

Converted into more familiar units, it is actually equivalent to a surface speed of 13 kilometers per hour and an underwater speed of 9 kilometers per hour.

Compared with current surface warships, this speed can only be described in one word, and that is slow.

But then again, what a submarine relies on is not speed. Whether it is a submarine that was still in the theoretical exploration stage hundreds of years ago, or a submarine that has already achieved certain research results, the principle it relies on is sailing underwater.

The reason why warships that can only sail on the water surface have to work hard on speed is that the competition of surface warships is head-on combat, and fast speed will have an advantage.

But submarines are different. Submarines are underwater combat; the enemy is in the light and I am in the dark, so naturally, there is no need for speed to establish an initial advantage.

Submarines rely on sneak attacks; no matter whether the speed is fast or not, as long as the sneak attack can be successful and cause damage to the enemy's warships, it will be fine.

This also leads to this submarine not pursuing speed, but pursuing firepower and the success of sneak attacks.

At the head of the submarine, a torpedo tube is installed. The entire submarine can carry three torpedoes, which to a certain extent increases the success of the submarine's sneak attack.

Even if the first torpedo does not hit the target, as long as it does not arouse the enemy's vigilance, or if the second and third torpedoes are launched in time before the enemy reacts, there is still hope of completing the mission.

At the position near the tail of the submarine, a machine gun is also installed. This machine gun does not mainly deal with underwater targets, but with targets of the same level on the water, such as enemy submarines and small warships of only a few hundred tons.

At the tail of the submarine, a gasoline engine with a power of up to 33 kilowatts and an electric motor powered by accumulators are installed.

These two power devices can be switched freely. When sailing on the water, because there is sufficient air to help combustion, the more powerful gasoline engine becomes the first choice for the submarine.

Underwater, because it cannot obtain oxygen in the air, the gasoline engine completely loses its function; at this time, the electric motor can be switched as power.

The volume of the submarine is quite large, and it is expected to accommodate 7 combat personnel. According to the design of the submarine, the maximum diving depth of this submarine can reach 30 meters; such a depth can effectively prevent enemy warships from discovering our submarine.

The draft depth of cruisers and battleships in this era is less than 10 meters, which also means that these warships are difficult to discover the situation in the waters below 10 meters.

The depth of the submarine's dive is exactly the blind spot of the warship; under such a blind spot, the submarine can exert its role.

For such a submarine design, experts from various industries and fields went through several days of discussion, and finally determined that current science and technology could not do better, before submitting this submarine design to Gao Da.

When Gao Da saw the design and various data of this submarine, he was surprised to find that this submarine had a high degree of similarity to the Holland 6 submarine, which was known as the prototype of modern submarines in history.

The Holland 6 submarine was the first practical submarine designed by Irish-American John Holland in 1898 that combined a gasoline engine and an electric motor, laying the prototype for modern submarine power.

John Holland himself, who developed this submarine, is also called the father of modern submarines, and his contribution to the submarine industry is unquestionable.

Spain spent great energy to develop such a submarine; although it made Gao Da a little surprised, it is not strange to think about it carefully.

The reason why John Holland designed a submarine where a gasoline engine and an electric motor coexist is actually a necessity of the development of the times.

It has been mentioned before that France's Gymnote had already attempted to use electricity as power more than a decade ago, and electricity as submarine power is also the only choice in the current era.

Whether it is a steam engine or an internal combustion engine, oxygen in the air is needed to participate when burning. It is fine when the submarine is sailing on the water surface, as the oxygen in the air is inexhaustible.

Once the submarine dives underwater, it is as difficult as ascending to heaven to obtain oxygen again. At this time, both steam engines and internal combustion engines cannot provide power for the submarine, and the electric motor that does not need oxygen to provide power is the only choice at present.

But using only an electric motor is also not good, because the power technology at this time is not mature. If only an electric motor and accumulators are used as the power system, then the underwater range and surface range of such a submarine will be limited to less than 100 nautical miles.

This is also the reason why John Holland adopted a dual power system of a gasoline engine plus an electric motor, and it is also the reason why Spanish shipbuilding experts coincidentally used such a power system.

To put it bluntly, such a design is not taking a shortcut, but a necessity for the development of submarines in this era.

No matter who develops submarines in this era, the power adopted is basically a combination of these two.

Unlike the submarines with strange shapes before, after months of modification and appearance correction by shipbuilding experts, the appearance of this submarine now has many similarities with the appearance of submarines in later generations.

It can also be seen from the various data of the submarine that although such a submarine still has huge defects in many aspects, it has indeed possessed the strategic value and characteristics that a submarine should have.

Spain only needs to continue to make improvements and efforts on such a submarine, and there is hope in the future to develop more advanced, more modern, and more powerful submarines.

Thinking of this, Gao Da did not hesitate at all, expressed encouragement to all the experts participating in the submarine research and development, and affirmed their research and development progress on the submarine.

Rewards of checks and other property are definitely indispensable, and the construction of the submarine will also begin immediately. On the one hand, it is to train a submarine force with combat effectiveness as early as possible; on the other hand, it is also hoped that the Spanish Navy can learn from its own submarine force to carry out more effective defense against enemy submarines.

There is no way; at this time, not only is submarine technology relatively backward, but the technology to defend against submarines is also very backward. Once a country makes progress in submarines, it means that those countries without submarines and with poor submarine defense capabilities will suffer when fighting on the water.

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(End of this chapter)