Chapter 382: Submarine

While Tesla's radio wave experiments were being conducted with great fanfare, the Royal Guanizo Shipyard, in collaboration with a group of naval warship design experts, was also conducting a highly confidential experiment.

The experiments that these naval warship design experts could participate in were basically all related to warships. This was indeed the case; the so-called highly confidential experiment was, in reality, the research, development, and exploration of submarines.

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

The earliest submarine should be traced back to 1620, when Dutch engineer Drebbel built the first wooden-framed, leather-covered boat capable of submerging. This submarine, known as the Drebbel boat, was a vessel capable of true underwater navigation, and it is also one of the earlier vessels that can be called a submarine.

Pushing forward another 100 years, during the American Civil War, the Confederate submarine Hunley successfully used a torpedo to sink the Union warship Housatonic, becoming the first instance in human history of a submarine sinking a warship.

It was precisely because submarines demonstrated a certain level of utility during the American Civil War that European nations began to attach importance to the development of submarines.

Whether it is the current naval power Britain or other major European powers, all have invested a certain amount into the research and development of submarines.

More than a decade ago, France's Gymnote attempted to use electricity as a power source. But due to the relatively backward state of electrical technology at the time, the attempt by the Gymnote ended in failure.

The amount of electricity that the storage batteries of that time could hold was truly limited, and this stored power was simply insufficient to support the long-distance navigation of the Gymnote submarine.

Although the French attempt failed, to a certain extent, it was not the fault of the French. It was simply because the technology regarding electricity at the time was too backward, leading the hypothesis of using electricity as a submarine power source to ultimately face the bitter fruit of failure.

But if technology in the field of electricity has made progress, does that mean that a submarine design similar to the Gymnote could achieve certain results now, more than a decade later?

Regarding the development of Spanish submarines, Carlos attaches great importance to it.

People today can all see the strategic value of submarines, let alone Carlos, who is clear about the value of submarines in later generations.

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

Although the function 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 ships that can be targeted by submarines have a value—or carry cargo of a value—that is immeasurable.

Not to mention sinking a warship; as long as one can severely damage a warship, even if this submarine has to face the cost of sinking to the bottom of the sea, such an exchange is completely worth it.

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

If one can use a submarine to sink an enemy warship of several thousand tons, it is a profit for any country.

Because submarine technology is not yet mature in this era, the warships of European countries are inadequately prepared for attacks from underwater.

This actually also means that whoever can be the first to develop relatively mature submarine technology will be able to gain a huge advantage in naval warfare through submarines.

Even if subsequent nations improve their defenses against submarines, submarines can still go and sneak attack those civilian ships. Using one submarine to trade for one large transport ship is a deal that is not a loss at all.

Especially during wartime, what transport ships carry is either expensive weapons, equipment, and other strategic materials, or armies of thousands or even tens of thousands of people.

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

Under these circumstances, not only Carlos, but the naval department also attaches great importance to the research and development of submarines. They hope that submarines can become another powerful force for the Spanish Navy, compensating for the Spanish Navy's disadvantage in terms of total warship tonnage.

Spain's submarine R&D program, in addition to the concerted cooperation of various shipyards, also requires the help of Gramme's electrical 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 serve as a power source for the submarine.

As everyone knows, it is impossible for a submarine to stay underwater for a long time. Generally, when there are no combat missions, the submarine floats on the surface of the water.

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

Once it dives underwater, because there is no air to help the internal combustion engine generate power, the submarine's power source will be switched to an electric motor.

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

The batteries of a dozen years ago were indeed unable to provide enough power for an electric motor, but current batteries already possess the possibility of providing power for an electric motor.

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

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

The warship design experts at the Royal Guanizo Shipyard gathered together to discuss whether the submarine's design could be improved to save power consumption to a certain extent.

Because it is navigating 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 could be made to reduce the generation of resistance to a certain extent, would that mean a disguised increase in the submarine's range?

"Mr. Gramme, can the capacity of the batteries you designed for the submarine be further increased? Our submarine's surface range can reach about 1, 00 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 development of this submarine asked with some anticipation.

The biggest shortcoming 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, 00 nautical miles, which is a distance of 1, 50 kilometers.

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

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

"At present, it should be impossible, Your Excellency General." The general manager of the electrical laboratory and general manager of the Spanish Royal Electric Company, Gramme, shook his head and gave a negative reply.

"The batteries and electrical system we have equipped for this submarine are already the best in all of Spain, and even all of Europe.

Currently, the world's electrical level can only support this submarine to travel a distance of 50 nautical miles. Unless the volume of the submarine is increased to increase the capacity of the batteries, it is impossible to increase the underwater range without changing the volume," Gramme replied.

Although it is said that everything is difficult at the beginning, after having a good start, one can have rapid development.

But the problem is that the electrical industry has only had a dozen years of development from its inception to now. The development of electricity is indeed not small, but wanting to rely on current electrical technology to support the long-term navigation of a submarine is clearly still impossible.

Perhaps in a dozen years or more, batteries and electrical technology will have hope of pushing submarines to travel longer distances. But as far as current technology is concerned, this is already the best result that electrical technology can achieve.

Hearing Gramme's reply, the naval general could only nod in disappointment and place his hopes 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 toward Gramme in the slightest. Not to mention his status as the head of the Gramme Electrical Laboratory and general manager of the Royal Electric Company, the outstanding contributions he has made in the field of electricity are not something others can easily question. Furthermore, as the founder of the Spanish electrical industry, Gramme is deeply trusted and supported by Carlos. If this naval general dared to speak rudely to Gramme, I am afraid Carlos would deal with him the first moment he learned the news, letting him understand the importance of respecting talent.

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

At present, neither our warships nor those of other countries can effectively defend against submarines. As long as we build the submarine and train a submarine force with sufficient combat effectiveness, we can effectively bridge the gap between us and the naval powers.

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

If we can make good use of submarines, in the future, if a naval war breaks out with a naval power like Britain, we may not lack the opportunity to win the naval battle," a shipbuilding expert stood up to break the somewhat dull atmosphere, allowing people to refocus their attention from the submarine's underwater range 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 had not come into contact with the submarines of later generations; what they understood was only the submarine technology and level of the current world.

Compared with the existing submarine technology of various countries, the various data displayed 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 batteries, the displacement of the submarine reached 64 tons; looking at it from this volume, it is still relatively heavy.

The fact that the submarine is relatively heavy also represents a disadvantage, which is that whether navigating on the surface or underwater, the speed will certainly not be very fast.

This is indeed the case. Calculating 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, such a speed can only be described with one word: slow.

However, having said that, a submarine does not rely on speed. Whether it is the submarines that were still in the theoretical exploration stage hundreds of years ago, or the submarines that currently have certain research results, the principle they rely on is the point of navigating underwater.

The reason why warships that can only navigate on the surface have to put effort into speed is that the competition between surface warships is a head-on battle, and having high speed will provide an advantage.

But submarines are different. Submarines are for 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; regardless of whether the speed is fast or not, as long as they can successfully sneak attack and cause damage to the enemy's warships, that is enough.

This also leads to the fact that this submarine does not pursue speed, but rather firepower and the success of the sneak attack.

At the bow 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 alert the enemy, or if the second and third torpedoes are fired in time before the enemy reacts, there is still hope of completing the mission.

Near the stern of the submarine, a machine cannon is also installed. This machine cannon is mainly used to deal not 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 stern of the submarine, a gasoline engine with a power of up to 33 kilowatts and an electric motor powered by batteries are installed.

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

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

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

The depth to which the submarine dives is exactly the blind spot of the warship; under such a blind spot, the submarine can exert its own role.

Regarding such a submarine design, experts from various industries and fields went through several days of discussion, and only after confirming that current science and technology could not do better, did they submit this submarine design to Carlos.

When Carlos saw the design and data of this submarine, he was surprised to find that this submarine had a high degree of similarity to the Holland VI submarine, which is known in history as the prototype of the modern submarine.

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

John Holland himself, who developed this submarine, is also known as the father of the modern submarine, and his contribution to the submarine industry is beyond doubt.

Although Spain spent great effort to develop such a submarine, which surprised Carlos a little, it is not strange if one thinks 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 was mentioned before that France's Gymnote had already attempted to use electricity as power more than a decade ago, and electricity as a submarine power source is also the only choice of the current era.

Whether it is a steam engine or an internal combustion engine, oxygen from the air is needed to participate when burning. It is fine when the submarine is navigating on the 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, which does not need oxygen to provide power, is the only choice at present.

But using only an electric motor is also not enough, because electrical technology at this time is not mature. If only an electric motor and batteries are used as the power system, then the underwater range and surface range of such a submarine would 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 a shortcut, but a necessity for the development of submarines in this era.

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

Unlike the previous submarines with strange shapes, 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 flaws 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 in the future, there will be hope to develop more advanced, more modern, and more powerful submarines.

Thinking of this, Carlos did not hesitate at all, expressed encouragement to all the experts participating in the submarine R&D, and affirmed their progress in the research and development of the submarine.

Rewards of checks and other property are definitely indispensable, and the construction of the submarine will also begin immediately. On 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)