Chapter 592 From Frigate to Dreadnought
1 million pounds is roughly equivalent to 25 million francs.
This amount of money may be nothing to the British Royal Navy.
After all, the cost of a 74 gunboat as the core combat force, that is, a third-level battleship, is 60,000 to 70,000 pounds. Including training costs, military pay, dock fees, maintenance costs, etc., it is only about 90,000 pounds. If you just go out to sea and fight once, the cost will skyrocket.
So 1 million pounds can probably build 10 third-level battleships, which may not be enough.
This may not be intuitive enough. For example, during the Seven Years' War, the British built 32 third-level battleships in one go, as well as a large number of first- and second-level battleships.
Millions of pounds are gone with just a splash of water.
But what Joseph wants to build now is just a frigate. It is the lowest level among serious warships.
An ordinary 28-gun light frigate costs less than 10,000 pounds. Even a heavy frigate, what the British call a fifth-class frigate, costs only about 18,000 pounds.
Of course, although "Mediterranean Light" is also classified as light protection, the cost has skyrocketed due to the use of new technologies.
Sane estimated the cost to be close to 400,000 francs per vessel, which is equivalent to 16,000 pounds.
After all, the price of an LJ52 steam engine is as high as 50,000 francs - there is no way, the top technology is applied, and the output is very low, so the price cannot be kept down at all.
Even the main shaft and propeller are made using ultra-high-precision processing technology, and the cost of a set is 6,000 francs.
However, after building 20 "Light of the Mediterranean" class ships, the total cost was only 320,000 pounds.
The cost of a subsequent heavy frigate equipped with three steam engines may reach 30,000 pounds. 12 ships is 360,000.
The total construction cost of the two-class frigate is 680,000 pounds. Including the later training and usage costs, it will cost about 850,000 pounds.
Carona even still has hundreds of thousands of pounds left in the "fund-raising money" from the UK.
Joseph planned to invest all the money into the navy this time, and even wanted to add another sum. After all, history has proven that it is impossible to completely defeat the British without a powerful fleet.
Joseph knew very well that the frigates alone could only harass the British Navy in the "bath" of the Mediterranean and use tactics to drive it away.
But if you want to have a fleet decisive battle, you still have to rely on powerful third-level battleships.
The displacement of third-level battleships is as high as more than 1,600 tons, and they require at least a 400-horsepower steam engine to barely drive them.
The later Napoleon had a displacement of 1,870 tons, but was equipped with a 960-horsepower steam engine.
However, the Napoleon can achieve a speed of 14 knots, which is not necessary in the current naval battle. Therefore, Joseph plans to use 400 horsepower for transition in the early stage, which is enough to reach a speed of 12 knots.
After all, the current third-level ships cannot even run 10 knots. The speed of 12 knots is 20% to 30% higher than the speed, which can be called crushing.
Joseph patted the Minister of the Navy who was still in ecstasy and had not recovered: "This is nothing, we will have a 'dreadnought' in the future. That is a battleship that can defeat the British head-on. ”
Yes, he is going to name the future steam-powered third-class ship "Dreadnought".
The main thing is to follow the British path and leave the British with no way to go. And compared with the overwhelming advantage of the dreadnoughts before World War I over the battleships of the same era, the steam-powered third-class ships had no less advantage over the sailing battleships.
The Marquis of Castries nodded again and again with excitement. Although he didn't know what a "dreadnought" was specifically, but His Royal Highness the Crown Prince said it could defeat the British fleet, then it must be possible!
After all, His Highness has just built a magical battleship like the "Light of the Mediterranean", and now he is completely like the Crown Prince's "little fanboy".
However, Joseph also knows very well that France's current technical capabilities are still a long way from the "dreadnought".
At the very least, the power of the steam engine must reach about 200 horsepower, so that two of them can barely drive the huge body of the third-level ship.
It is definitely a very difficult challenge to increase the power from the current 50 horsepower to 200 horsepower. It is estimated that it will have to start with a completely new steam engine structural design and break through a series of technical problems such as metal smelting, forging, finishing, and testing.
This depends on the efforts of the "Three Masters of Steam Engines" in France. All I can do is provide them with R&D funding support. After all, the theoretical aspects have been told to Murdoch a long time ago.
However, once a breakthrough is made in the 200-horsepower steam engine, it can be directly used to develop trains. That was the biggest explosion point of the Industrial Revolution!
It was nearly noon, the Marquis of Castries and a group of officers and designers surrounded Joseph and headed to the restaurant.
For the construction of new warships, Joseph had dinner with them almost every day, so that they could have discussions at any time.
The laboratory is still some distance from the officers' mess. Joseph said to the Marquis of Castries beside him: "Although the new battleship has not been built yet, you must start crew training as soon as possible. After all, this is This ship is completely different from any other ship in the past.”
Although the Naval General Staff has been established, due to the special nature of the navy, a ship is almost an independent small society, especially when going to sea. At that time, the captain was the king and was extremely cohesive - so it was difficult for the General Staff to influence the interior of the navy. At present, the recruitment and training of sailors are still led by the Lord of the Admiralty.
The Marquis of Castries immediately leaned forward and said: "Yes, Your Highness, I promise to recruit enough crew members within three months. After another year of training, we should be able to go into battle."
"Four months?" Joseph frowned slightly, "Why does it take so long? Doesn't the Navy have ready sailors available?"
The Marquis of Castries hurriedly explained: "Your Highness, even a light frigate, a 150 sailors are also needed. 20 ships are more than 3,000 people, which is difficult to recruit at once."
After asking in detail, Joseph understood the current operating mode of the navy.
It can be said that naval soldiers and merchant sailors in this era were not interoperable.
The Navy usually does not maintain a redundant crew team. When it needs manpower, it recruits them on merchant ships and fishing ships.
Of course, sailors usually gather in some taverns and other places to wait for news.
The "bohemian love of freedom" character of French sailors made it difficult for the navy to recruit enough manpower.
In comparison, the British Navy opposite is more experienced. They usually send out spies to find out basic information about the sailors on merchant ships and fishing boats.
Once they need people, they will directly send troops to capture the "strong men". After the sailors boarded the warship, they couldn't go home even if they wanted to.
This leads to the fact that every time a large-scale naval battle occurs, the mobilization efficiency of the British Navy is much higher than that of France.
(End of this chapter)