Chapter 406: Dreadnought Design Proposal

March 28, 1901, Valencia, a coastal city in eastern Spain.

At the Valencia United Shipyard, a group of warship design experts were engaged in a heated discussion. What they were discussing was not the design of submarines, but the new design requirements for a new type of battleship issued by the naval department.

In the era of ironclads and the battleships that followed, warships of various European nations were equipped with two different calibers of guns. Although the caliber of the main guns had reached 13 or even 13. inches, the caliber of the secondary guns was generally around 6 to 10 inches; this was done to compensate for the lack of firepower from the main guns.

Do not be fooled by the intimidating appearance of 13. -inch main guns; in reality, loading a single shell into a gun of this caliber takes a long time. The process of loading and firing takes at least several minutes.

The advantage of small-caliber guns over main guns is that they can compensate for the lack of firepower during the main guns' loading time. Although the lethality caused by small-caliber guns is limited, it is still better than having no firepower at all while the main guns are being loaded.

This design philosophy was inherited from the age of sail, and because it was indeed very effective, it has been used to this day.

However, regarding the Spanish naval department's requirements for the new battleship, the Spanish Navy explicitly prohibited a two-caliber main gun layout, requiring the latest battleships to be equipped with only one type of main gun caliber and eliminating all small-caliber secondary guns.

The reason these warship design experts at the Valencia United Shipyard were arguing was precisely because of the Navy's regulation on canceling the two-caliber gun layout.

"Mr. Bruce, I have never heard of any warship canceling the deployment of secondary guns. If we really do this, what equipment will our warships have to provide additional firepower while they are reloading?"

"Equipping only 13. -inch main guns looks intimidating, but the firing interval of these main guns is as long as several minutes. If you will forgive my bluntness, after all the main guns have fired, for the next several minutes, our warships will become sitting ducks for the enemy." Some of the more conservative warship design experts rambled on about the Navy's requirements; they insisted that the Navy's requirements were wrong and hoped that the shipyard would communicate with the Navy to try to get them to cancel such requirements.

The chief design expert of the United Shipyard, who was called Bruce, smiled upon hearing this and put forward a completely different point of view: "You are right, Mr. Christie."

"But please do not forget that because past warships used two calibers of guns, and because the ballistics, rate of fire, and firing range of the two calibers were completely different, it was very easy to increase the difficulty of hitting targets when the two types of guns were mixed."

"If it only affected the accuracy of the secondary guns, that would be one thing, but such a design is already affecting the rate of fire and hit rate of our main guns. At the end of the day, secondary guns are only a supplement to the main guns' firepower. If this affects the firepower of the main guns, it would be better to simply abandon the secondary guns and focus on improving our main gun firepower."

"If our warships adopt a unified caliber of main guns, as long as they enter firing range, all guns can fire at the same time, dealing the maximum lethal blow to enemy warships in the shortest possible time."

"As for the issue you mentioned regarding the firepower gap of several minutes after all guns have fired a round, this is something that needs to be improved by another requirement from the naval department, which is the requirement for speed."

In addition to canceling the two-caliber main gun layout, the Spanish naval department's requirements for the new warships also demanded that the new warships be able to reach a speed of 21 knots and possess relatively excellent armor protection.

To say nothing else, if the new warships could have a speed of 21 knots, it would mean that after the warships fired all their guns, they could easily shake off enemy warships and reload their shells in a place further away where the enemy could not hit them.

Approaching to continue attacking the enemy after the shells are loaded, and then running further away to reload after firing—this is simply the most perfect design philosophy.

If warships were really designed according to this, future Spanish warships would lead enemy warships in the three major design elements of speed, firepower, and armor protection, which also means that the Spanish Navy has hope of challenging the British Navy's status as a hegemon.

"Mr. Bruce, the other two requirements demanded by the naval department are even more impossible to satisfy. If our new warships have decent armor protection, their speed can absolutely not reach 21 knots."

"21 knots, how is that possible? Currently, the speed of warships of various countries is only 16 to 17 knots, and battleships with a speed of 18 knots are already rare."

"The naval department wants us to design a warship with a speed as high as 21 knots, and such a warship must also possess extremely excellent firepower and armor protection. Isn't this making things difficult for us?"

"Forgive my bluntness, but even God could not do such a thing." The warship designer named Christie still felt that the naval department's warship requirements were like a fantasy, and from the bottom of his heart, he did not believe that the shipyard could design a warship that met the Navy's requirements.

"I know it is very difficult to design a warship that meets the Navy's requirements, but if the Navy's requirements were very simple, wouldn't that mean that any designer could design a warship that meets the Navy's requirements?"

"Everyone, this warship design is not for ourselves, but for the development of the Spanish Navy. We are all Spaniards and should contribute to the development of our own country."

"Even if the warship design is difficult to complete, we must do everything in our power to complete it, rather than giving up voluntarily before we have even started."

"Just imagine, if we can develop a warship that meets the Navy's requirements, does this not mean that our country will become a true naval power?"

"Using our own strength to help our country develop, isn't this the most important thing for us?" As the chief designer of the United Shipyard, Bruce did not give up on the research into the new warships because of his subordinates' opposition, but instead chose to be inspiring, encouraging everyone to devote themselves to the research of naval warships and contribute to their country.

And it must be said, such agitational rhetoric was indeed very effective.

There is nothing more pride-inducing than building one's own country, and furthermore, at this time, the sense of national identity and national honor in Spain had long since been cultivated. The vast majority of Spaniards were still very passionate about their country, and these warship designers naturally could not give up the opportunity to serve their country just because of minor difficulties.

Like the Valencia United Shipyard, the Royal Guanizo Shipyard also received the naval department's requirements for the new warships.

However, unlike the Valencia United Shipyard, the Royal Guanizo Shipyard had no objections to the naval department's requirements, and they quickly threw themselves into the discussion about the new warships.

This is also the biggest difference between the Valencia United Shipyard and the Royal Guanizo Shipyard.

Although the former also had a royal background, the royal family's shares were less than half, with the rest coming from the government.

The latter, however, was an industry that belonged entirely to the royal family; all the warship designers at the Royal Guanizo Shipyard were effectively hired by the royal family, so they naturally could not have any objections to the naval department's requirements.

In addition to the two largest shipyards, other larger shipyards also received the new warship requirements from the Navy.

The Spanish Navy attached great importance to the new warships.

Because after many years, Carlo finally relaxed the restrictions on naval development, and Carlo even personally promised that as long as a shipyard could design a warship that met these requirements, Spain would build at least one such battleship every year in the future.

Building one battleship a year does not seem like much, but in reality, it is quite substantial. Take the battleships after the ironclads as an example; even though so many years have passed, the number of countries that currently possess battleships can still be counted on one's fingers.

Britain is the undisputed country with the largest number of battleships, followed by France, and Spain is third.

Countries like the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Italy have so far possessed no more than 10 battleships.

Even if calculated at a construction rate of one per year, if the First World War broke out in more than 10 years, then Spain during the First World War would possess more than 10 dreadnoughts, which is not a small number.

It is precisely for this reason that the naval department was very much looking forward to the new warships proposed by Carlo.

Once this type of warship is designed, the Spanish Navy will likely take a step up and thoroughly become a naval power.

Under the high attention of the naval department, the Royal Guanizo Shipyard and the Valencia United Shipyard only took two and a half months to each produce a warship design drawing and submit it to the naval department.

Of course, these were only the most basic warship design drawings. The drawings only included the various structures of the warship and the various equipment used; as for whether the speed could meet the naval department's requirements, that would only be known after the warship was built.

It is precisely for this reason that after the design drawings were submitted to the naval department, they still needed to undergo review by the naval department, and construction would only proceed after detailed discussions confirmed that the warship design met their requirements.

If the built warship ultimately failed to meet the naval department's requirements, then the initial investment would basically have gone down the drain.

Because Carlo was the one who proposed the requirements for the new warships, after the two major shipyards submitted their warship designs to the naval department, the naval department immediately notified Carlo, asking him to judge whether these two warship designs could meet the relevant requirements.

Because the two shipyards did not communicate when designing the warships, the two types of warships designed also showed relatively obvious differences.

The new warship designed by the Royal Guanizo Shipyard could be seen to be clearly biased towards speed and armor protection, slightly sacrificing a portion of firepower.

The main gun caliber of Spain's previous generation of battleships, the Monarch-class battleships, was as high as 343 millimeters, or 13. inches.

And on the new warships ten years later, the caliber of the naval guns returned to 12 inches, or 305 millimeters.

Although they were equipped with the latest 305mm 45-caliber naval guns, the firepower certainly could not be compared to the 13. -inch, 343mm caliber main guns.

However, the power of the 305mm 45-caliber naval guns was sufficient; as long as the enemy's armor protection was not that exaggerated, basically one shell could cause the enemy warship to suffer heavy damage.

Although there was a slight sacrifice in firepower, in terms of power, the Royal Guanizo Shipyard fully displayed its wealthy and generous character.

According to the deployment in the warship design drawing, the new battleship would adopt a four-shaft propulsion mode, equipped with a total of 18 coal-fired steam boilers plus four steam turbine sets, with a maximum power that could reach 22, 00 horsepower.

This power was far higher than that of the previous generation Monarch-class battleships, which was also the reason why the Royal Guanizo Shipyard was confident that the new warship's speed would exceed 21 knots.

In terms of armor protection, because current steel armor technology had improved compared to ten years ago, the Royal Guanizo Shipyard did not increase the thickness of the steel armor, and the thickest armor on the entire warship was only about 300 millimeters.

According to estimates, the length of the entire warship could reach 159. meters, the width 25. meters, the draft at maximum load could reach 9 meters, the standard displacement would be between approximately 17, 00 and 18, 00 tons, and the full-load displacement could reach between 20, 00 and 21, 00 tons.