My Italian: Chapter 433 Dawn of the Dreadnought Age

Chapter 433 Dawn of the Dreadnought Age

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Venice is a famous city in northern Italy, but its economic development has lagged behind the three northern cities in recent years. (Some good people call Turin, Milan, and Genoa the three most prosperous cities in the north)

In fact, Venice is also developing well. Light industry is famous for producing jewelry and jade handicrafts, lace, embroidery, etc., while heavy industry is famous for chemistry, coking, fertilizer, and steel.

However, although the development of Venice is OK, its development speed is not fast enough compared with the three northern cities, so in these years, Venice has gradually fallen behind.

Of course, no matter how far behind, Venice's shipbuilding industry still has a high status in Italy. Because the Venice Naval Shipyard is still the most technologically advanced shipyard in Italy and one of the most important ship suppliers for the Navy.

For example, the Venice Naval Shipyard is very busy right now, with three Garibaldi-class cruisers laying keels in three docks to work overtime. In addition, there are still two selenium selenium ships sold to the United States that need to be completed. In addition, the Venice Shipyard is also building other warships for the Navy. In addition to the warships, the Venice Shipyard also undertakes the construction of civilian ships. With the help of the Italian shipbuilding industry to undertake the tide of civilian ships, the Venice Naval Shipyard is not bad, and has received many orders for merchant ships.

This kind of accumulation of orders makes the Venice shipyard also very busy.

Of course, the busyness of the Venetian shipyard is not important to Vittorio Cuniberti, the chief ship designer of the shipyard. I'm sorry, I should add the chief naval designer. Given that Vittorio Cuniberti is so good, the Italian Navy is worried that someone will poach its own treasure, so it has set up such a very bluffing title. On a talented designer. (Look what, it's you, William II and Admiral Tirpitz.)

And after Cuniberti took the title of chief designer of the Navy, there wasn't much to say other than a bigger office. It's not bad. For example, now, Kunibatti is taking advantage of the benefits to create his own designs.

"New warships need to consider new types of artillery. The 305mm rapid-fire naval gun that is currently being developed should meet the needs of battleships for warfare."

Cuniberti wrote here, and added that perhaps the new 305mm main gun will also be used in the future of the new cruiser. It was the Spanish-American War last year that made Cuniberti so add this.

Although the Garibaldi-class patrols performed perfectly in this war, Cuniberti noticed that the two Garibaldi-class patrols did not perform well in the pursuit. Because they encountered the USS Massachusetts battleship retreating from the U.S. military, the two ships were overjoyed and wanted to take the opportunity to fight the drowning dogs and solve each other.

But unfortunately, the two mounted patrols finished the remaining 254mm main battery shells, and they failed to sink the Massachusetts. On the contrary, the Columbus suffered a 330mm artillery shell from the other side, causing medium damage.

In the face of such a result, Cuniberti considered to continue to increase the caliber of the cruiser, so that it could also carry the same caliber as the battleship. However, there is also a trouble in doing this, that is, what is the difference between the battleship and the battleship after the cruiser is equipped with the firepower of the battleship. And this will also cause the cruiser to be more expensive than the battleship, which will make the cruiser a very expensive type of battleship. Has this changed the original intention of the cruiser?

You must know that the cruiser was originally designed to solve the problem of countries with limited pockets. They wanted not only an armored ship for a decisive battle, but also a cruiser that could perform harassment. In addition, the money in hand was not enough to buy these two warships at the same time. And this kind of battleship has developed to the present, and it has become a type of battleship that is more expensive than battleships. Is it worth it?

Cuniberti did not have an answer to this question, and I believe that the navies of various countries did not answer either.

However, although I don't know the answer to this question, it still does not affect Cuniberti's design of the battleship.

"Should the battleship adopt a dual-mounted four-turret design with two fronts and two rears considering accuracy, or a triple-mounted front, two, and one layout that considers firepower projection?"

Don't be surprised, Italy has developed a triple gun. The problem of artillery installation has always been attached great importance to the Italian Navy, and the triple installation developed by Italy is actually very simple, that is, the two main guns on the left and right sides fire first, and the main gun in the middle will fire after a delay of half a second. .

Such a design can reduce the recoil of the triple pack and reduce the pressure on the warship. Of course, the accuracy of firing half a second this night is not as good as that of a two-pack. But with one more main gun, the amount of shells delivered will be half higher than that of two mounts, a temptation that few navies can resist.

As for why it is a triple mount instead of a quadruple mount, it is very simple. The quadruple mount has a high shell dispersion rate, and it will widen the width of the battleship, which is not conducive to the high-speed driving of the battleship.

Of course, some people must want to ask, since it is in pursuit of throwing volume, why not use four triples, is it not good to have the first two and the second, 12 main guns, this time there is enough throwing volume.

This question is out of the question, and it is really possible to be asked if you don't know enough about the design of warships.

The number of four triple mounts and 12 main guns has taken into account the recoil of the salvo, and whether the structure of the battleship can withstand it.

That's right, if you want to install 12 main guns, you must strengthen the structure of the warship, and you must also take into account the sinking resistance of the warship, as well as other issues. The subsequent problems represent the displacement of the warship of upward growth. The resulting increase in shipbuilding costs is definitely higher than the increased amount of firepower thrown.

It can be summed up in one sentence that is not practical, at least not practical in this era.

In fact, the designers of warships from various countries are like cooks. They need to go to the vegetable market to select ingredients and make the most delicious dishes. In addition, all the chefs in this vegetable market can enter, so there is not much difference in the ingredients, which requires consideration of the chefs' craftsmanship and selection of ingredients. (In the current era, all countries can buy various equipment, even hostile countries. Krupp sells artillery self-tensioning technology to the Allies, and the British Empire sells steam turbines to Germany, which are all models of this era)

And excellent designers must not only consider the performance of the battleship, but need to consider producing the most excellent products within the specified budget. The kind of designers who pile up various excellent performance indicators on the battleship and do not consider the construction cost at all will not be recognized at all.

Of course, this excludes some talented designers. Although they do not have to comply with the shipbuilding budget, they can definitely come up with warships with the best performance indicators within the budget. Designing the best on budget and performance is what separates geniuses from ordinary designers.

"Let's keep this question for now, and then revise it according to the needs of the Admiralty."

Cuniberti can't make up his mind yet, so let's keep it like this for now.

"The firepower of warships can be used to provide sufficient hit rate with unified shooting, but it must be considered that the other warships also have the same shooting method, so in the future, after the firepower of warships of various countries has been effectively improved in accuracy, their anti-attack capabilities must also be fully improved. Consideration. So can the design of full armor protection be realized?”

Cuniberti considered the protection of warships. Yes, a warship has three major indicators, firepower, protection, and speed. Protection is a very important thing, which is related to the survivability of warships on the battlefield. At present, the battleships of various countries, including Italy, have not considered giving battleships full protective armor.

On the one hand, the full protective armor is too heavy, so the battleship needs to have more horsepower to maintain sufficient speed. The importance of this speed will not be mentioned much. For battleships with insufficient speed, looking at the performance of American battleships in the Spanish-American War is enough to explain everything.

On the other hand is the price. In order to consider the increased displacement of the warship due to full protection, more boilers and larger reciprocating steam engines were added to increase the speed. Isn’t this more water and more noodles?

Can this increased cost show the combat effectiveness that is in line with the increased cost?

Well, it's still the same question, is it worth it. In the past, such an approach was not worth it, because there are generally only four first-class main guns in various countries, and the penetration depth of the main gun shells is not high, so there is no need for full protection at all, only the most important anti-sinking of the ship is required. Sexually think of a way, which is why the armor installed on the battleships of various countries is only more than three meters above the waterline.

This is enough, there is no need to install as much armor, increase the displacement, and increase its cost. To know that the armored division is very expensive, the price of up to 200 pounds per ton, so that all countries need to consider the use of armor.

(This price is jointly manufactured by two major armored steel manufacturers, Harvey in the United States and Krupp in Germany. In the face of these two major armored steel manufacturers, it can only be said that in addition to the warships used by Italy, other warships sold by Italy Armor steel must be purchased from them. That's right, except for Italy's own use, armor steel Italy cannot intervene. This is also the harsh condition that Italy must accept to obtain Krupp armor steel technology.)

However, although the development of Venice is OK, its development speed is not fast enough compared with the three northern cities, so in these years, Venice has gradually fallen behind.

This kind of accumulation of orders makes the Venice shipyard also very busy.

"New warships need to consider new types of artillery. The 305mm rapid-fire naval gun that is currently being developed should meet the needs of battleships for warfare."

Cuniberti wrote here, and added that perhaps the new 305mm main gun will also be used in the future of the new cruiser. It was the Spanish-American War last year that made Cuniberti so add this.

In the face of such a result, Cuniberti considered to continue to increase the caliber of the cruiser, and let it carry the same caliber as the battleship. However, there is also a trouble in doing this, that is, what is the difference between the battleship and the battleship after the cruiser is equipped with the firepower of the battleship. And this will also cause the cruiser to be more expensive than the battleship, which will make the cruiser a very expensive type of battleship. Has this changed the original intention of the cruiser?

Cuniberti did not have an answer to this question, and I believe that the navies of various countries did not answer either.

However, although I don't know the answer to this question, it still does not affect Cuniberti's design of the battleship.

"Should the battleship adopt a dual-mounted four-turret design with two fronts and two rears considering accuracy, or a triple-mounted front, two, and one layout that considers firepower projection?"