African Entrepreneurship Records 2

Chapter 962 Tirpitz
Pemba Port, February 1899.

In Pemba Port, a group of German naval personnel were communicating with East African naval personnel. They were not very interested in East African warships, but came for East African submarines.

The team was led by German Navy Minister Tirpitz. The purpose of German Navy Minister Tirpitz's visit to the East African Navy was to strengthen the cooperation between the two countries' navies. The most important thing was that he hoped that East Africa could open some ports or colonies as daily training or bases for the German Navy.

However, Tirpitz in Bagamoyo City learned about the existence of the East African submarine from a German businessman, so he decided to go to Pemba Port to inspect the East African submarine.

After obtaining the consent of the East African Navy and government, Tirpitz and his party arrived at the southern port of Pemba, which is currently the only home port of the East African submarine force.

Of course, the main reason why East Africa was willing to give Tirpitz this favor was because of his special status. Otherwise, as a strategic weapon that Ernst had his eyes on, it would be impossible to demonstrate it to these outsiders.

Tirpitz, whose full name is Alfred von Tirpitz, was appointed Imperial Navy Minister by William II in 1897. He was the father of the German Ocean Navy in his previous life. He once said, "Without a strong navy, Germany's role in the world is like a mollusk without a shell."

There is no doubt that Tirpitz was one of the main executors of William II's Grand Navy plan. Now, this founder of the German Ocean Navy in the previous life visited East Africa for the first time after leading the development of the German Navy.

It is not surprising that Tirpitz is interested in East Africa. As one of the world's naval powers, the East African Navy itself has a certain value of being won over. What's more, the East African Navy has advantages that the German Navy does not have, that is, relatively abundant overseas bases and the advantageous geographical location of the East African Navy.

East Africa faces two oceans, especially the Indian Ocean, and has a great deterrent effect on the Asia-Europe shipping lanes. Its strength in the Indian Ocean region is second only to that of the British Royal Navy.

East Africa also has several colonies in the Pacific region, which are what the current German Navy lacks. Especially under the world policy of the government of William II, the German Navy is in an extremely embarrassing situation. Even if new warships are built, it cannot change the adverse geopolitical environment of the German Navy.
In the absence of colonies and overseas bases, the German Navy, no matter how many warships it had, could only play a role on the European continent, and could not exert the same global influence as Britain and France.

Just like a certain big country in the previous life, even if its naval strength reached the second place in the world, it would not be possible for it to run to the Baltic Sea to slap Lithuania in the face.

Looking around the world, in the eyes of the German Navy, there is no better partner than East Africa, which is why Tirpitz focused on East Africa.

"The submarines of the East African Navy look very good. I personally believe that the role of submarines in marine strategy is no less than that of surface ships. I just don't know what the specific performance of your navy submarines is?"

After first seeing the East African ship, Tirpitz became very interested, because his intuition told him that the big guy in front of him was definitely not ordinary. Judging from the part floating on the water alone, the displacement should be at least over a hundred tons.

The East African submarine was obviously not built as a toy, so Tirpitz initially judged that the East African submarine was likely to have strong combat capabilities.

As early as the Franco-Prussian War, Tirpitz had developed a keen interest in the potential power of submarines in war. After all, the Prussian Navy was weak at the time, so during the Franco-Prussian War the Prussian Navy could only stay in the harbor most of the time, wary of the French Navy passing through the English Channel. This was very embarrassing for the Prussian Navy.

In this frustrating environment, Tirpitz naturally sought to find out how the Prussian Navy, which was at a disadvantage, could deal with the powerful French Navy. Submarines could obviously play a certain role. After all, their functions were obviously very different from those of surface ships.

"Our country started research and development of submarines as early as ten years ago. The technology is now relatively mature and uses internal combustion engines as power. Currently, there should be no other country in the world that has similar submarines." Clintman, chief surveillance officer of the East African submarine fleet, said modestly.

In the past, Germany only developed a diesel engine for submarines in 1913, and East Africa joined the process. East Africa's research and development in the field of internal combustion engines was at the top level. In addition to the early layout and Ernst's attention, East Africa's military submarines were the first to emerge and formed the world's earliest submarine force. In fact, as early as 1720, the Russian Nikonov built the first military submarine with the support of Peter the Great, but after Peter the Great's death, the Russian Navy cancelled all support.

In the following two hundred years, people continued to try to make breakthroughs in submarine technology, but to little avail. The appropriate power to support submarines' long-distance underwater navigation had to wait until technologies such as diesel engines and electric motors matured. Coincidentally, East Africa was relatively strong in these areas, so when the technology matured, the East African submarine was able to emerge.

"The Nautilus in front of us can reach a normal depth of about 60 to 70 meters, and its surface displacement is more than 200 tons... It can travel long distances, but the failure rate is quite high. Before this, our East African submarine Clow disappeared directly."

The Klo was not actually equipped with the navy, but was an experimental product of the Lake Solon Submarine Research Institute. It sank into Lake Solon due to a malfunction during its eighth trial voyage, and due to the depth of Lake Solon, it was never salvaged.

Currently, the East African Navy has only four submarines, and the oldest one has only been in service for three years. The East African submarine has already undergone one iteration before. Currently, the Nautilus and the other three active submarines are technically quite mature, but Clintman did not tell the truth to Tirpitz.

Even if Germany and East Africa have a good relationship, Clintmann would not be so selfless as to reveal the core data of East African submarines to the Germans. The figures mentioned before were relatively conservative, and even mixed with the data of the previous generation of East African military submarines.

Even so, Tirpitz's eyes lit up. Regardless of the East African submarine technology, it was already remarkable that it could be applied in actual combat, not to mention that East Africa even formed a special force for submarines.

"Colonel Clintman, if nothing unexpected happens, your submarines are undoubtedly the most advanced in the world."

The reason why Tirpitz said this was mainly because East Africa was hidden too deeply, and he only found out about this situation now. Other countries might also have similar projects.

In fact, the "exposure" of the East African submarine is inevitable, unless the East African submarine force stays in the Bay of Pemba all day and does not go out. The depth of the Bay of Pemba is obviously not suitable for submarine training and operations, so submarines that frequently operate in the Indian Ocean will eventually be discovered.

The German businessman who reported the news to Tirpitz was one of them. During a business trip to the port of Beira, he accidentally saw the East African submarine rising from the water on the ship.

Of course, he didn't know that the submarine belonged to the East African Navy. After all, except for East Africa, other countries currently have no naval submarine forces.

When he met Tirpitz in Bagamoyo, he unexpectedly thought of this submarine, so he told Tirpitz the news. After all, since it appeared near the coast of East Africa, this submarine was most likely from East Africa.

If an ordinary person received this news, he might not take it seriously and would just forget about it after hearing it. However, Tirpitz was not an ordinary person. His interest in submarines was unparalleled among senior naval generals around the world.

Germany’s “unrestricted submarine warfare” in the past was its masterpiece, but unfortunately, even so it did not change the fate of the German Navy.

Of course, Tirpitz's idea was a bit exaggerated, because currently there is only one country in the world that attaches importance to submarine technology, and that is East Africa. However, this is only limited to the government level. There are also many individuals or groups in other countries who are exploring submarine technology.

(End of this chapter)