Chapter 593 Baltekum Shipyard
The name of the first civilian shipyard Ernst visited was Baltkum Shipyard. According to the person in charge, Baltkum was a city in East Frisia on the northern coast of Germany. A small town in the West Asian Islands, which is also the origin of the name of the shipyard.
In East Africa, especially the east, there are many place names with the suffixes of root, den, and fort, which are similar to those in South Germany. On the contrary, East African officials rarely name them this way.
But it is not impossible. For example, the original Rufuma River was the national border between East Africa and the Portuguese colony of Angola. There were many military strongholds, so there were many places with the suffix "Fort".
Many names in East Africa are copied and pasted directly from German, so it is not surprising that Bartekum Shipyard uses such a name.
"Your Highness, our Baltekum Shipyard specializes in small and medium-sized fishing boats. It is regarded as a relatively high-ranking shipyard in East Africa in this field. It can produce about forty fishing boats every year, with a total tonnage of more than 2,000 tons. It specializes in supplying Bento They are used by fishermen between the Strait of Pakistan and the Strait of Zanzibar.”
The hulls Ernst saw in the shipyard were indeed not large, so the output was considerable, because the field of civilian ships in East Africa was not originally large. thriving.
This can be seen from the eating habits of East Africans. Although East Africa has a vast sea area, the demand for seafood does not match the population of East Africa. It would be okay if East Africa was a landlocked country, but East Africa does It is a two-ocean country.
On the contrary, the shipbuilding industry in the inland lake areas of East Africa is very developed, especially the shipbuilding industry in the Great Lakes area. Near the Great Lakes area are important grain production bases and rubber and other cash crop production areas in East Africa, exports Large quantities need to be transported by ship, and then transferred to railway transportation in Kisumu City, transported to cities along the Northern Railway or exported directly in Mombasa.
Or it can be transported to cities along the central railway through branch railways in Mwanza City, mainly for the domestic market. As for exporting in Dar es Salaam, it is not cost-effective unless it is to In Australia or South America, the city of Dar es Salaam has an advantage, but in this era Australia is a big prison, and South American products are similar to those in East Africa, and there is more competition between the two sides.
"Last year, the total number of registered ships along our coast in East Africa exceeded 7,000. This is the result of more than ten years of accumulation, but we are still far from being a major maritime country." said the person in charge of Bartekum Shipyard.
Of course, this data does not include the Hechingen Ocean Trading Company and the number of merchant ships on Zanzibar Island. In addition, there are still more than 10,000 ships in East Africa. The ships on Zanzibar Island Many of them fly the flags of Oman and other countries, and there are even more ships of the Hechingen Ocean Trading Company.
“Well, the exploration of the sea is inseparable from ships as tools, and the shipbuilding industry is also part of the strength of East African countries. You must guard against arrogance and impetuosity, be down-to-earth, and work step by step in technology to overcome difficulties and contribute to The East African shipbuilding industry has accumulated valuable experience,” Ernst encouraged.
The Baltekum Shipyard ranks not far behind among East African shipbuilding companies. As for the leader of the East African shipbuilding industry, the Bagamoyo Shipyard is the leader, while the leader in the field of civilian ships is Heixing. Two shipyards owned by Gen Ocean Trading Company.
So many of the technologies of Bartekum Shipyard are the result of spillover from the previous companies. East African shipbuilding technology comes from Europe, and Bartekum’s technology has changed hands again, so it is not very advanced. .
"Your Highness the Crown Prince, we would like to make some progress in this area, but unfortunately we are unable to do so. There are only three technicians in our factory, and they are all hired from Austria at high prices. The rest are experienced old shipwrights. But their experience has been passed down from generation to generation. They are more conservative than innovative, so it is really difficult for us to engage in technology. We can barely keep up with imitation."
Ernst: "In this regard. You don’t have to worry, everything is difficult at the beginning. The shipbuilding industry in East Africa has only been developing for a few years, and now the framework has been set up. This is progress. First, master the technology at hand. If there are more talents in the future, there will be no problems. Don't think about becoming fat in one bite. "As for the difficulties of the Bartekum Shipyard, it was really difficult when the factory was first built a few years ago. After all, it was very poor. Not to mention how rich it is now, it is still worse than most shipyards. Much stronger.
Because they are state-owned enterprises, enterprises such as Bartekum Shipyard have also enjoyed government financial allocations in recent years, so their development is still very good, at least among the workers The benefits and treatment are not bad.
“The shipbuilding industry has undergone earth-shaking changes, that is, in the past few decades, mainly due to the huge development in power and materials, so you must also adapt to this change. As far as I know, our factory Sixty percent of the core equipment is imported from Europe. You can start with something simpler. Even if you can't copy it, at least understand the principles. It's best to develop the advantages and disadvantages to fill your own shortcomings. "
It is indeed difficult for Bartekum Shipyard to develop and design its own, but the current technical barriers are not very high.
For example, Watt, the reformer of the steam engine, was an engineer who was born as a worker. Although East Africa currently lacks high-level talents, there are still some talents with middle school education and have received relatively modern knowledge.
Like many employees at Bartekum Shipyard, in addition to skilled shipbuilders, many newly recruited employees and apprentices have a secondary school degree, or at worst a primary school degree. If they can combine knowledge with work When you get up, you can also find and solve many problems, that is, problems with high and low probabilities.
Ernst then went to several shipyards. The shipyards in Bagamoyo not only include sea-going ships, but also ships used in inland rivers. After all, the city of Bagamoyo is at the outlet of the Little Rhine River. Haikou.
Ernst was particularly interested in a military shipyard, which was affiliated with the Bagamoyo Shipyard and was considered a subordinate unit of the Bagamoyo Shipyard. It was researching submarines and there was no finished product yet.
Needless to say, the role of submarines in the military field is already in the 1880s, which happens to be an important window period for submarine research and development, because other countries do not pay attention to the role of submarines.
East Africa is not too late to start in this field. At present, the test machine can dive about five or six meters. If we increase research efforts now, will we be able to achieve overtaking in corners?
Ernst plans to make submarine research and development independent and make it a key project of the East African Navy to tap more talents from the German region, and East Africa also has a natural experimental base.
Lake Solon (Tanganyika) is very suitable as a place for submarine research and development. Its average depth exceeds 500 meters and the deepest exceeds 1,470 meters, second only to Lake Baikal. Lake Baikal is an important nuclear submarine experimental base of the Soviet Union.
Except for being slightly worse in depth than Lake Baikal, Lake Solon is superior to Lake Baikal in all other aspects. After all, Lake Baikal is connected to the outside world by the Siberian Railway, and the area where Lake Solon is located is East Africa. In the hinterland, the infrastructure will not be bad in the future. Kigoma, Bujumbura, and Mbeya are all important cities in East Africa. Mbeya is the current heavy industry center in East Africa and can provide support for submarine research at any time.
(End of this chapter)