Lin Gao Qiming

Chapter 739 Shipbuilding Plan
After discussing with Fang Fei, Xiao Zishan and Fang Fei thought that it was already the end of November, and there were still many things to do after the fleet came back, including the "planning check and correction" repeatedly advocated by President Wen all day long. It will take half a month.It is also necessary to transport infrastructure materials and necessary munitions to the 852 base in Hong Kong to ensure that the Hong Kong detachment can withstand all enemy counterattacks there.

Based on this calculation, Xiao Zishan thought it would be better to postpone the annual meeting to the end of December—to celebrate it with the Gregorian New Year in 1631.

"You know, after the trade blockade for more than half a year, many materials are out of stock. It's just a month's time to slow down and let the materials be abundant, so that it is convenient to hold the annual meeting."

于是年会最终就决定在12月26日前后进行――根据高山岭气象台差不多三年来的观测，本时空冬季临高的最低气温在9～10摄氏度左右，一般要出现在1月份中旬。12月下旬的平均气温还有17、18度，有时候还会出现21度的左右的气温，在海边露天聚会正好冷热相宜。

Inside the Executive Committee, intense consultations are currently underway on the outcome of the Pearl River operation, follow-up issues, and next year's strategic plan.Liu Xiang's disappearance from the Pearl River Estuary surprised the Executive Committee—it didn't expect that the big shopkeeper who had fought against Zheng Zhilong to the end would so simply abandon the traditional territory to avoid the war.The Executive Committee is very worried about this, fearing that Liu Xiang will choose the right time to launch a large-scale counterattack against the base in Hong Kong.The Hong Kong base is still in its infancy so far, but it is only a squadron or a garrison, and its strength is very weak.Massive reinforcement is urgently needed.

The reinforcements transported from Lingao not only include artillery, soldiers and building materials, but also require a large number of skilled construction workers to carry out infrastructure construction for the opening of Hong Kong next year.Docks, trestles, warehouses, shops.Every day at the working meeting of the executive committee, Scalde strives for the materials and deadweight tonnage shipped to Hong Kong-except that some materials can be purchased nearby from Guangdong, most of the materials needed by Hong Kong still need to be shipped from Lingao by ship.

The more than 700-kilometer sailing route from Lingao to Hong Kong made the construction of a large-scale convoy and escort system put on the agenda.The purely private shipping companies like Gaoguang Shipping Co., Ltd. used in the past can no longer serve as a cover--Liu Xiang and Zheng Zhilong may launch an indiscriminate attack on all ships on this route at any time.

On Hainan Island, with the exception of Qiongshan, the northern counties have successively fallen into the hands of Australia and Song Dynasty. However, the flow of a large number of personnel and materials required for political construction in each county requires a large amount of sea transportation capacity.However, the development of Sanya still has a steady stream of demand for materials and manpower, which makes the capacity of ships tense.In addition to the interruption of foreign trade during the several months of the anti-encirclement and suppression campaign, and the abundant shipping capacity, after the victory in Chengmai, the demand for the entire maritime transport capacity has been strong, so that in October, the offshore areas that were originally not subject to any restrictions The allocation of transport deadweight tonnage is also placed under the overall management of the Planning Institute.

Due to the tight capacity, it has become increasingly difficult to rely on the small and medium-sized ships of the original navy for freight.Too frequent voyages made the working conditions of ships and sailors worse, and the average damage began to rise.

Expansion of the fleet became a consensus of the Executive Committee, but throughout 1630, due to the war and the development of Sanya, the Ministry of Finance’s investment in infrastructure, army, navy, and military facilities accounted for more than half of the annual budget.And the overhead directly used for shipbuilding is almost zero.Lingao's shipping industry is almost entirely supported by the repair and renovation of old ships.Although in terms of scale, Lingao's fleet is also quite impressive. Among the old-style sailing ships, there are 126 ships of the two-masted/over 30-ton class, and 70 single-masted ships of 92 to [-] tons.

These ships are all under the management and control of the navy. Some of the ships have been converted to be used as fishing boats. Some of them have been equipped with various cannons and typewriters to become professional combat spy boats. , including transport, patrolling and fishing.The naming is also very simple, just simply use the registration port + purpose + number.Such as: "Linte", "Linyu", "Linyun" and other names.

Twenty-one ships with a deadweight of 21 to 200 tons—large sailing ships such as "Qionghai Coal", which were given independent ship names—were used intensively as special transport ships, especially grain transport ships to Vietnam and ships to Vietnam. The material delivery ships in Sanya and Hong Kong are all borne by these "large ships".These ships also have a small amount of armament, and there is room for expansion of armament, and they can be put into battle when necessary.

In addition to these ships controlled by the Navy, on the Guangzhou-Leizhou-Lingao route, there used to be ships from two shipping companies, Gaoguang Shipping Company and Haian Shipping Company. These ships were controlled by the Ministry of Colonial and Trade, and Guangzhou Station and Leizhou Station for management.Gaoguang Shipping Co. has 12 three-masted Dafu ships, which are named after "Guang + Tiangan" and "Gao + Earthly Branches". Before the first anti-encirclement campaign, the business was very prosperous. Before the start of the second anti-encirclement campaign, some ships fled to Lingao, and some were seized and confiscated by the government.Business has not resumed yet.

As for the ships of Haian Shipping Company, they are all small tonnage coastal salt ships, which were originally mainly used to transport Leizhou sugar to Guangzhou and other places for sale. In addition to transporting sugar, they usually also transport Leizhou coal, timber and agricultural products to Linzhou. Advanced short-distance sea transportation.

Although most of the ships are managed and used by the Navy, the distribution of deadweight tons in terms of transportation is actually controlled by the Planning Institute.The transportation office of the Planning Institute has special loading maps and forms, which record the logistics status of various goods accurate to the hour.

After the Navy carried out the Battle of the Pearl River Estuary, a large number of ships were transferred to serve as warships and transport ships, which made the entire Lingao's shipping capacity even more scarce.The presence of the captains of the two squadrons in Hong Kong further reduced the capacity of the already overwhelmed naval fleet.

The capacity of their Xunwhale self-propelled deck barge is amazing, but the ship can only operate in coastal areas with better sea conditions, and its power system is a diesel engine, which has consumed a lot after several transportation missions in Sanya of diesel.As the only modern ship capable of transporting oversized, overweight, and overlong cargo, the Planning Institute really couldn't make up its mind to continue to let it perform routine cargo tasks.

This grim situation made the motion of emergency shipbuilding was put forward again in the working meeting of the executive committee.Shipbuilding must not only meet the needs of transportation, but also be used to expand the navy's combat ships. Chen Haiyang clearly pointed out at the meeting that the tonnage of existing armed spy ships is too small, which limits the number and caliber of installed artillery.Especially the 24-pound Caron guns installed on some spy boats, Chen Haiyang believes that such small and short-range artillery is of little significance.

"The effective range of the 24-pound Caron cannon is only 100-200 meters. If you encounter a Western warship, you will suffer a loss in range. If you encounter a fleet of big pirates like Liu Xiang, if a single shot cannot destroy the enemy's ship, and immediately After loading the ammunition, they will be submerged in the boarding battle.” Chen Haiyang mentioned that in the battles between Humen and Guangdong’s inland rivers, the squadron of special service boats equipped with Caron guns avoided being attacked by the Hongyi cannons of the Ming army at close range. Many times had to wait for the cannon squadrons to damage firepower from a distance before joining the battle.

"The Caron Cannon Squadron showed its destructive advantage only in the Battle of Lantau Island when dealing with a small group of pirates who were very weak in firepower and did not have an advantage in numbers. In the long run, the Caron Cannon Squadron could only serve as a patrol Or use it as an escort."

In addition, most of the spy boats in the spy boat squadron are relatively small in tonnage, and it is difficult to carry out continuous operations-some ships are of poor construction quality, and none of these ships have copper skin on the bottom of the ship, and the adhesion of shipwrecks and marine organisms has become worse. Extremely serious, Chen Haiyang estimates that about one-third of the ships must be maintained immediately.

"If we continue to use spy ships for heavy transportation and escort tasks, we will soon face the embarrassing situation that more than half of the ships will be maintained in the first half of 1631." Chen Haiyang warned, "Shipbuilding, especially construction, can take a long time. The use of large-tonnage ships is imminent!"

"Our current situation where transport ships and warships are not separated is inappropriate. On the surface, it looks like comprehensive utilization, but in fact, whether it is ship transformation or distribution, it is completely different." Naval Commander Ming Qiu made a speech.

The Australian-Song Navy actually remodeled or built warships, only Zhenhai and Fubo, two two-masted gunships and iron-ribbed wood-hulled triangular-sail patrol boats, but their tonnage is not more than 200 tons, which is too small to be smaller. The Naval Command concluded in the war chess exercise on the picture that if the four 8154 cruisers are not dispatched, the Australian and Song Navy will only be able to maintain an absolute advantage in small-scale battles. Once they encounter Liu Xiang or Zheng Zhilong, they can use them at any time. With a large maritime force of hundreds of large ships, it is difficult for the navy to ensure its chances of winning.

The navy hopes to obtain several large warships of large tonnage, sail or steam power.In terms of armament, speed and endurance, it must be at least at the level of a cruiser in the early 19th century.

最后海军提出要求：至少在1630财政年度内用追加拨款的方式开工建造2艘千吨级的三桅风帆巡航舰，1631年财政年度内，再开工6～10艘500吨级的武装辅助船只。

"Obviously, this is a bit hasty." Ma Qianju waited for Chen Haiyang to finish his speech before he said slowly, "Large warships are of course very useful. However, even if we don't talk about whether our technical capabilities and material reserves are enough to build this 19th century level The cruise ship, the construction period of this thousand-ton ship will take at least one year, right?" He said, looking back at Zhan Wuya.

"For a [-]-ton wooden boat, if there are enough materials and enough manpower, the surprise construction will take about six months." Zhan Wuya said, "But now we can build iron-ribbed boats, and the construction period can be further shortened. Three to four months Bar."

"Obviously, what we need to build now is not such a large ship - because we are ships that can be put into use in a short period of time, such as within two to three months." They will all face overhaul and maintenance issues, and ships that take a year to build will only create a gap in naval power."

This is a clear-cut opposition to the shipbuilding plan proposed by the Navy.For a while, there was some silence in the meeting room of the executive committee.Chen Haiyang wanted to refute, but what Ma Qianju said was well-founded, and was confirmed by the industry department.

Wu De said: "It's too late to build large warships. In my opinion, we should fundamentally solve the problem of transportation capacity first."

Fundamentally speaking, the navy has too many tasks and the transportation tasks are too heavy, so that the ships do not have enough time for maintenance.Wood suggested that a group of dedicated transport ships should be built to replace the current spy boats, so that they could be freed from heavy transport tasks.

"I don't know much about shipbuilding, but we can refer to the American concept of building free ships and standardize the design and build a batch of armed transport ships. At this stage, in order to speed up construction, the tonnage of the ships is limited to 300-500 tons, and sail power is used. "Wood expounded his thinking, "Of course, we can leave room for modification for the installation of steam engines in the future."

"If you want to install a steam engine, you can install a smaller one first, and a 50-horsepower one is enough." Wen Desi interjected, "as an auxiliary power for sailing. Having a steam engine power to assist sailing will greatly reduce the burden on sailors. sailing ability, and can save a lot of manpower."

Zhan Wuya said: "If the iron-ribbed wooden shell structure is used, it can be completed in about four months."

Ma Qianju said: "It's still a bit slow, and it's best to be put into use within two or three months."

"My other proposal is to build barges," Wood said.

Wu De said that he conducted a research on the transportation situation and found that a large part of the transportation capacity is occupied by coastal transportation, including short-distance bulk transportation such as salt transportation from Maniao to Bopu.Although a formation system is adopted, in fact each ship sails independently with sails.

Wu De proposed to use the technically mature steamboats as tugboats, and quickly build a batch of unpowered barges to undertake coastal transportation tasks.

"An all-steel barge can transport more than a thousand tons." Wu De said, "We don't have so much steel, so we build barges with iron frames and wooden shells, and we don't even need a deck. The capacity of each ship is about 200 tons. A formation of 10 barges."

"In this case, the steamboat cannot be towed." Wen Desi said.

"Then build a tugboat with a steam engine!" Wood said, "We can now make a 500-horsepower steam engine by ourselves, and it shouldn't be a problem to build or modify a few tugboats for offshore use."

Everyone thinks this plan is feasible.Building a 500-horsepower steam engine is already a relatively skilled job for the mechanical department. As for the tugboat itself, if the sea conditions are not high, it is not difficult to build a small tugboat, and the construction period is about one month.

As for the navy's question of expanding its combat power, Wen Desi suggested that the stranded Project 854 could be launched again. This large ship, which was originally intended to be the empire's first ironclad ship, had been completed before it was forced to dismount due to too much steel. The laying of the keel and the installation of the ribs.Since then, Project 854 has been on the berth of the shipyard for people to admire like the skeleton of a prehistoric dinosaur.

To be honest, even with the keel and ribs, the aura of this ship has shocked countless natives.They could not imagine how these huge iron bones were made, nor could they imagine that they could be assembled and combined by human power.

The dismounting of 854 has a lot to do with the shortage of steel materials.And more importantly, there were very few qualified riveters at that time.Zhou Billy brought a few apprentices, and he was barely able to manufacture boilers. It was almost impossible to rivet the hull on a large scale, no matter in terms of technical difficulty or labor quantity.

Although Wen Desi was worried about the dismissal of Project 854, after all, shipbuilding is not only based on blueprints, the technical level and processing ability of workers are also an important part, so he had to acquiesce to this reality.

Now Billy Zhou's disciples and grandchildren have accumulated a lot of experience in the large-scale manufacture of Mohist series boilers called "bomb boilers"-although they dare not use them for riveting such a huge hull, but in some hull parts It is already quite sure about the marine boiler.

Wen Desi proposed a new 854 reform plan based on the technical level of the workers.

The so-called 854 reform plan is based on the use of the completed part of the 854 project.The ship type and structure have not changed, but the construction process has been simplified technically, and the original all-iron-hulled ship has been changed to an iron-framed wooden-hulled ship.Wooden hulled boats are easier to maintain than iron hulled boats.There is no need to rely on the unreliable riveting process of native workers for construction.The demand for steel has also dropped significantly.

The official model name of the 854 modification is the 1630-class iron-ribbed wood-hull flying shear first steam-assisted power sail cruiser. The design indicators are: displacement of 1160 tons, length of 70 meters, width of 9.9 meters, and draft of 6.25 meters.Install a 200-horsepower steam engine, with a speed of eight knots (using steam power), sixteen knots (sail power), and a crew of 109 people.Full sail (FULL RIGGED) layout.The steam engine not only provides sailing power, but also provides power to operate sails, which greatly saves the number of sailors.

The ship is based on the steam-sail hybrid cruisers of the 1860s.A battleship of this tonnage was classified as a third-tier cruiser in the U.S. Navy at the time.As a raiding ship, it was widely used in the American Civil War and traveled all over the world's oceans.

(End of this chapter)