I'm the Dauphin in France

Chapter 588: Three-Year Agreement with the Navy Minister
Brittany is a province in northwestern France.

On the northern shore of the Bay of Brest, the Brest Shipyard, which is almost as big as a small town, is as busy as a colony of ants smelling syrup.

Thousands of workers were moving raw materials on wooden tracks, splitting wood with huge tools, or building the hull on tall wooden frames. The large chimneys that could be seen everywhere kept spewing thick smoke, dyeing half of the sky gray and black.

After being idle for nearly three years, Brittany's largest shipyard finally welcomed the long-awaited busyness.

Because, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince has arrived.

At this time, at the shipyard dock, Joseph and dozens of people were holding binoculars, looking at two ships on the sea not far away, and talking from time to time.

Among these people were senior naval officers including the Minister of the Navy, the Marquis de Castries, and the Commander of the Brest Fleet, Rogiever, as well as more battleship designers led by the Director of Naval Shipbuilding, Borda, and top battleship designer Jacques Sanet.

It can be said that it has gathered all the elites in the field of French shipbuilding.

Soon, with the sound of a melodious trombone, Joseph saw the two ships slowly start to move.

The one on the left is a traditional paddle-sail frigate. At this time, it has hoisted half of its sail, and the wooden oars on both sides of the ship are raised high, then cut into the water.

The ship on the right is smaller and looks like an ordinary 24-gun light frigate, the Indomitable. However, the tall chimney in the middle and rear of its hull shows that it is not ordinary.

Yes, this is the world's first steam-powered warship that has just been converted.

It is equipped with a latest model LJ52 high-pressure steam engine from United Steam Engine Company.

This "performance monster" can output up to 52 horsepower, which is ahead of its time and can completely despise its British counterparts with less than 20 horsepower.

It is still in the testing phase, so only one is installed.

After all technical difficulties are overcome, two engines will be used to drive the warship at the same time. The powerful power of more than 100 horsepower can enable the light frigate to exceed 12 knots in a favorable wind.

You know, in the calm Mediterranean Sea, this speed is like flying!
Usually only a 30-ton boat can barely reach this speed when the rowers row at full speed, and a frigate-class galley can only reach a little over 10 knots.

As for sailing ships, they are slow in the Mediterranean Sea because there is really no wind. Even the maneuverability of ordinary paddle boats can be defeated by them, not to mention steam-powered ships.

On the sea, the paddle boat quickly cut through the waves and rushed out.

After falling behind by three or four hundred meters, more and more black smoke came out of the chimney of the Indomitable and its speed kept increasing. Finally, the gap between it and the galley stopped increasing.

After nearly 20 minutes, the rowers on the galley were obviously experiencing a decline in strength, but the Indomitable maintained its speed and began to catch up.

The audience on the dock immediately showed surprise.

Chief Designer Sane sincerely exclaimed: "Your Highness is right. It is entirely possible to achieve excellent propulsion without paddle wheels."

Shipbuilding Director Borda nodded immediately: "If we follow our original design, the ship will have to be at least 30 tons heavier than it is now. The speed will drop significantly."

Two months ago, after hearing that Joseph was going to use a steam engine to drive the ship, they immediately expressed their intention to use paddle wheels, that is, to install two sets of huge wooden wheels like water wheels on both sides of the hull, and wrap the part of the paddle wheels above the waterline with oak shells to resist artillery fire.

This is also the most mature solution. Although the paddle steamer has not yet been put into use, the theory has been proposed and some people have even made a model. However, Joseph flatly rejected this design.

Paddle wheels are already very heavy, and with the bulletproof shell, the power advantage of using a steam engine will be largely offset.

Moreover, the paddle wheel was a very large target, and even with the protection of the wooden hull, it was still easy to be destroyed by enemy artillery. As the power part, if there was a problem with the paddle wheel, the captain could basically order the ship to be abandoned.

Then he took out the ship propeller that was common in later generations and gave birth to the "Indomitable" test ship in front of us.

The Minister of the Navy, the Marquis of Castries, looked at the Crown Prince with gratitude.

He waited three years for the latter to promise him to build advanced steam ironclad warships. During these three years, the navy hardly launched any warships above the third level.

Just when he thought he would have to wait another three years, the Dauphin suddenly arrived in Brittany.

Then the steam-powered ship was actually invented.

He looked at the Indomitable approaching the galley, clenched his fists and said excitedly: "If we have 20 of these warships, no, just 15, we can challenge the British fleet in the Mediterranean!"

Although steam power can only drive light frigates at present and cannot engage in head-on confrontation with serious battleships, it is entirely possible to engage in mobile warfare with the British by utilizing high speed and endurance, and use containment and harassment to exhaust the British fleet and eventually force it to withdraw from the Mediterranean.

General Rogiver was about to agree, but suddenly he saw the hull of the "Indomitable" tremble in the telescope, and then the black smoke in the chimney gradually disappeared, and the speed quickly slowed down.

A moment later, the technician on the Indomitable rowed the boat to the shore and said to Joseph with a bitter face: "Your Highness, the propeller is vibrating violently again.

"This time even the main shaft was broken..."

Joseph frowned immediately.

This is the fifth time the vibration problem has occurred.

When he first came to the shipyard, he thought that by enlarging the model ship he had played with in his previous life a hundred times, he would be able to make a steam-powered ship, but he didn't expect that to be the case at all.

Take the propeller for example. He only remembered its general shape, but he had to figure out the specific inclination of the blades, how the blades were twisted, and even what materials to use. All of this had to be figured out from scratch.

After repeated attempts, the technicians managed to solve the above-mentioned technical details - such as using beech wood to make the propeller, using four blades, etc., and soon built the first physical propeller.

However, from the moment the propeller was connected to the steam engine, it was plagued by severe vibration problems.

After Joseph and his technicians conducted research and analysis, they believed that it was caused by insufficient processing precision - the two sides of the propeller could not be completely symmetrical, which would cause vibration when rotating at high speed. The vibration motor of a mobile phone works on this principle.

Joseph held his head and shook his head. He finally understood why early steamships were driven by paddle wheels. It seemed that it was because it was difficult to manufacture qualified propellers.

He exchanged a glance with Borda and others beside him, and secretly sighed: Do they really have to use the paddle wheel?

(End of this chapter)