Rise of Australia

Chapter 207 Fast Cruiser
The Sovereign-class battleship has a hull length of 146.1 meters, a hull width of 26.8 meters, and a draft of 8.67 meters.

The battleship has a crew of 988 people, a conventional displacement of 18490 tons, and a full load displacement of 20910 tons.

Because it is expected to adopt the same four steam turbine propulsion units as the Dreadnought plus 18 drum coal-fired steam boilers, the speed of the Sovereign-class battleship is not much different from that of the Dreadnought, and the maximum speed is expected to reach 21 knots.

In terms of armor protection, the Sovereign-class battleship follows the armor protection system of the Nassau-class battleship. The strongest protection is the armor belt in the middle of the string side, with a thickness of about 300 mm, which provides protection for the engine room and boiler room.

The protective armor thickness of the front side of the main turret and the conning tower is 280 mm, which is the same as the maximum protection level of the dreadnought ship.

In order to reduce the weight of the Nassau-class battleship, the side armor adopts a method of gradually reducing from the middle to both ends.

The Sovereign-class battleship did not weaken the side armor, which also led to the estimated full water capacity of the Sovereign-class battleship being nearly [-] tons more than the fully loaded Nassau-class battleship.

To sum up, except that the current firepower system still adopts the mainstream German 280mm artillery, both the power system and the armor protection system can be balanced with the dreadnought, and the armor protection is even superior.

As long as all the guns are refitted with 45mm main guns of 50 times or even 305 times the caliber in the future, the Sovereign-class battleship will become a true dreadnought ship with all-round improvements.

After the design of the Sovereign-class battleship was completed, Arthur was in a very happy mood, and even gave a check of [-] Australian dollars to all the experts who participated in the blueprint design.

Although it will take a certain amount of time before it can be put into production, and production will also face a period of exploration, it may take two or three years before the actual launch of the warship.

But Australasia is about to have its own dreadnought, which is enough for Arthur.

What's more, most of the great powers have only reached this level at present, and it would be good to have a design drawing about a dreadnought.

Australasia may be ahead of some great powers in terms of dreadnoughts.

Although Australasia's Sovereign-class battleships were well kept secret, William II learned of Australasia's dreadnought design.

Although William II was surprised that Arthur did not rush to produce the Nassau-class battleships, but based on the technical data of the Nassau-class battleships and the existing HMS Dreadnought, to produce better Australasia's own Dreadnought.

But in the face of the fact that Britain and Australasia also chose new technology steam turbines instead of the old three-cylinder reciprocating steam engines, William II was still lost in thought.

The old-fashioned three-cylinder reciprocating steam engine and the coal-fired boilers used by the Nassau-class battleships have undergone many tests, so there is no need to worry about practical performance.

But can he really match the steam turbine technology used in Britain?I'm afraid it's not just William II, even German experts are not too sure.

The reason why they tentatively designate the power system used by the Nassau-class battleship as an old-fashioned technology is more because they want to see the real data after the sea trials of the Intrepid battleship, and make another plan if there is any problem.

However, judging from the design of the three dreadnoughts known to Germany at present, the Nassau-class battleships that have been transformed by Germany with all their efforts are lagging behind in terms of power systems.

For this reason, William II issued two decisions. One is to find a way to improve the power system of the Nassau-class battleship again, and keep the expected maximum speed at 21 knots consistent with the Dreadnought and Sovereign-class battleships.

The second is to order the major military factories in Germany to carry out large-scale research on 305mm artillery. Under the premise that the new battleships uniformly adopt 305mm artillery, Germany must not lag behind in this industry.

Arthur also had a brief conversation with William II. The two sides reached an important trade. Australasia shared the design of the Sovereign-class battleship with Germany in exchange for Germany's sharing of artillery technology and submarine technology in the next three years. .

This is still very important for Australasia.Although Germany has not mastered the artillery technology of 305 mm and 45 times the diameter at present, after more than two years, Germany has caught up and successfully developed a 50 mm artillery with 305 times the diameter.

This will greatly enhance the firepower of warships, and it is definitely a technology that cannot be missed in the development of warships.

The second is German submarine technology.So far, Germany's submarine technology is actually lagging behind the great powers.

This is largely because Germany did not pay much attention to the development of this technology when the submarine was first born.

Germany's first submarine was even Trout, built in 1902 to a Spanish engineer's design.

It was not until 1904 that the German Navy established a submarine construction office, which was responsible for the construction of German Navy submarines.

So far, the submarine technology mastered by Germany is not advanced, but Germany has sufficient potential in the development of submarines.

And now Australasia's most likely source of submarine technology is Germany, and Arthur will naturally not give up this opportunity.

William II was very satisfied with the complete design information of the Sovereign-class battleship in exchange for artillery technology and submarine technology within three years.

After all, this can be regarded as the most advanced warship designed by Australasia alone, and its advanced level is absolutely top-notch in the world.

Even if such technology was placed in Germany, William II believed that it would be impossible to share it with other countries without bloodletting, let alone Australasia, where technology was originally relatively backward.

Because of the complete design information of the Sovereign-class battleship, Germany's construction plan in 1907 was also different from the history.

Originally, Germany built four Nassau-class battleships in 1904, namely Nassau, Westfalen, Rheinland and Posen.

After possessing the more advanced Sovereign-class battleships, the German Admiralty temporarily decided to change the Rheinland and Posen to Sovereign-class battleships, and like the other two Nassau-class battleships, the start time was 1907. middle of the year.

As soon as he finished negotiating business with Germany, Arthur handed over another problem to the naval experts, which was to develop a fast battleship, or battleship, with very powerful firepower and better power, which could appropriately reduce armor protection capabilities. cruiser.

In order for these experts to have a full understanding of the so-called fast battleships, Arthur also explained them very carefully.

The so-called fast battleships are actually battlecruisers in the true sense.

Every country has different views on battlecruisers. The first country to build battlecruisers was the United Kingdom. Their concept of battlecruisers is to pay more attention to firepower and speed than to armor protection capabilities.

And Germany will also build its own battlecruisers in the future. Their view of battlecruisers is to attach importance to armor and speed, and relatively despise firepower.

But no matter what point of view you have, a battlecruiser is a warship with extremely high tactical value that has slightly weakened armor and firepower in exchange for a higher speed.

Because of its extremely fast speed and the matching firepower of battleships, battlecruisers can fight battleships in advance, and can suppress speed and firepower in retreat, causing absolute crushing for other small and medium-sized warships that are not battleships.

It is precisely because of the high speed of the battlecruiser that it can also surround and intercept the enemy's fleet during naval battles.

And compared to battleships, as long as the high speed advantage of battlecruisers is still there, they will not fall behind the times as quickly as battleships.

Compared with the newly born dreadnoughts, battlecruisers are more suitable as main battleships to expand the size of Australasia's warships.

Of course, this does not mean that dreadnoughts are not important to Australasia.It's just that the replacement speed of dreadnought ships is too fast, and it is not suitable for mass construction in a short period of time.

After receiving Arthur's order, the design team at the Naval Shipyard got busy again.

Arthur has the most basic requirements for this kind of warship called a fast battleship, with a speed of at least 25 knots, and at least ten 280mm main guns, leaving room for improvement for later replacement of 305mm main guns.

What does this mean?This means that this kind of warship is already comparable to battleships in terms of firepower, and even comparable to the newly born dreadnoughts.

Looking at the speed again, the maximum speed of the battleship Dreadnought, which currently broke the record for the highest speed of a battleship, is only 21 knots, while Arthur's maximum speed requirement for a fast battleship has reached 25 knots, which is not a small change.

Although in order to ensure strong firepower and speed, Arthur agreed to reduce the armor in some unimportant areas to balance.

But which piece of armor to cut and to what extent is a debatable matter.

Arthur's request caused great headaches for the experts in Australasia, and even some questions could only be asked around the bush by those German experts.

But it's really not their fault.The earliest battlecruisers in the world were the British HMS Invincible, HMS Invincible and HMS Firm, also known as the Invincible-class battlecruisers.

Although the construction of these three battlecruisers has already started, they will not be launched until 1907, a year later.

Before launching, these three battlecruisers were kept secret. Like the previous battleship Dreadnought, they were one of the top secrets of the British Navy.

This also led to the fact that apart from the current British experts, there are not many shipbuilding experts who have been exposed to the theory of battlecruisers.

This also has to praise Britain's advanced and powerful shipbuilding. Dreadnoughts, battlecruisers and other warships that changed the naval system and structure were all born in the shipyards of the British Empire.

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(End of this chapter)