A Gift for Germany

  Hudong Shipyard, Lin Xiao looked up and asked Xu Jianyin who had just come in: "Mr. Zhong Hu, is the German design finished?"

  Xu Jianyin said: "Yes, they have booked a ship ticket back to Germany after a week. The first 15 students from the Merchant Marine School who are going to study in Germany are also ready."

  "That's just right, I have something to show them," Lin Chong said, and then called Xu Jianyin's assistant to invite the designer from the Volker shipyard over.

  Lin Xiao was very enthusiastic when he saw Streicher, and the two of them talked for a while about sending personnel from the shipyard to study in Germany. Then, he invited the Germans to his desk, "Mr. Streicher, I have several design plans and drafts of warships here, take a look." As he said this, he spread out several sheets of paper on the table.

  Schtreiche walked over, took a rough glance, and saw that they were three-view drawings of several warships with some notes in English. He looked at Lin Xiu with some confusion.

  "Oh, this is the latest design scheme of the American South Carolina-class battleship, and another is an alternative armored cruiser design. Due to the delay in Congress' approval of new battleship construction plans, Americans are promoting this new type of warship to the Qing Navy. Some designs are quite interesting, take a closer look." Lin Rong explained, with a preconceived reason.

  Streicher sat down in the chair and began to read through the design specifications, initially still somewhat skeptical. Although the Americans' industrial capabilities were indeed very strong, their navy was not something to be admired, and compared to the Germans, the things made by the Americans were still a bit rough around the edges.

  But as soon as he saw the line graph, Streiche's face turned solemn, and his body was unknowingly buried in the drawing paper.

  Lin Xiao saw this, couldn't help but smile slightly. It's no wonder he was a designer from the large shipyard, with extensive experience and knowledge. He almost immediately spotted the unique features of this design. The three drafts he provided were for battleships, armored cruisers, and light cruisers. All three warships uniquely adopted main guns of uniform caliber arranged along the central axis, which was a revolutionary design before the Dreadnought was actually launched.

  The concept of a uniform main caliber gun actually dates back to 1901, and by 1902-03 this discussion had become quite common. Italian designers were the first to propose a scheme for placing guns of uniform caliber along the centerline in a full turret arrangement. However, it was the United States' South Carolina-class battleships that truly pioneered this design, with the US Navy submitting a construction plan for the "South Carolinas" to Congress as early as 1904, although this plan never received Congressional approval.

  It was not until the British Dreadnought was built and launched that all pre-dreadnought battleships in the world became obsolete, at which point the United States Congress authorized the construction of two "dreadnought" South Carolina-class ships, by which time the British had already laid down three dreadnoughts.

  Since the death of Vulkan, no other shipyard has produced a master shipbuilder like him. The Navy's long-term partner shipyards have expanded to six, and some, such as Kiel's Germaniawerft, Bremen's AG Weser, and Hamburg's Blohm + Voss, have surpassed Vulkan in size, which is also the main reason for the shipyard's move to Hamburg.

  Scheer quickly grasped the key points of these drawings: all were uniform caliber main guns, with four aft superfiring twin turrets arranged along the centerline. This allowed for maximum firepower to be brought to bear in a broadside engagement. This arrangement saved the weight equivalent to two turrets compared to the amidships arrangement, which allowed designers to add larger caliber guns and thicker armor on ships of the same displacement.

  This was especially important for the Vulkan shipyard, which was currently plagued by naval orders, meaning that if the German Navy's design department adopted Vulkan's designs, the yard would receive as many orders as possible.

  Moreover, for Strasser himself, if the warship he presided over to design was adopted by the German Navy, it not only meant a huge fortune but also brought honor and fame. At least, he could become the chief designer of the naval design department, and there was also a possibility of obtaining the title of Chief Designer.

  Schtreiche's breathing became somewhat rapid, he raised his head to look at Lin Xiu, "Seeing these drawings is very inspiring, but I don't know what you're doing this for?"

  "We don't believe in the American shipbuilding technology, but it's different with Germany. We have bought many warships from Germany before and they all performed very well. I think if such warships were built by Germans, the Qing Navy might be very interested. Of course, this mainly refers to those two cruisers. You know that the Qing Navy is rebuilding now, and if purchasing battleships would cause great difficulties, it's mainly because of opposition from Japan and Britain." Lin Xiang shifted the topic: "We will send students to Vulcan to study, I hope some of them can participate in the design work of new warships, we need such talents very much."

  Streich thought for a moment: "This is no big deal, I can arrange a few people as my assistants."

  "Alright, it's settled!" Lin Xuan smiled and said: "I wish you a pleasant journey, and also wish that the new armored cruiser can be built as soon as possible. At that time, I will invite the naval commander of the Qing Dynasty to go with me to see the new warship you designed!"

  Stimulated by Lin Chu, Streich's enthusiasm was in full swing. On the passenger ship returning home, he began to prepare for the design of a new warship. He chose to start with an armored cruiser because after the "Lünen" class armored ships, the Imperial Navy was planning to build a new class of armored cruisers.

  The Germans' work efficiency was indeed high, and after returning to Germany, von der Tann completed the design of the new armored cruiser in just over two months. The ship, with a standard displacement of 13,000 tons, was planned to be equipped with four twin 240 mm main guns, which were already the standard equipment for German battleships at that time.

  Rudolf Siegel, the managing director of the Stettiner Vulcan shipyard, approached Dietrich, head of the design department at the Imperial Navy Office. The chief engineer of the German Navy was immediately captivated by Siegel's designs; the new armored vessel design solved many problems that had plagued previous designers and achieved revolutionary results in firepower and protection.

  Dietrich immediately stopped the ongoing design of the Scharnhorst-class armored ships after carefully calculating the data on the design drawings, then wrote a detailed explanation book and personally took the drawings to find Navy Minister Tirpitz, telling him that it may be necessary to reassess and redesign the armored ship construction plan already approved by Congress.

  Tirpitz was appointed as the Secretary of State for the Imperial German Navy in 1897 by Kaiser Wilhelm II. Under his guidance, the German Navy grew to 19 battleships, 8 armoured cruisers and over 40 light cruisers by 1903, making it the second largest naval power in the world after Britain, surpassing France.

  Since the beginning of the 20th century, the progress of industrial technology has brought about more and more innovations and changes, which have had a profound impact on the strategic and tactical thinking of navies. As the highest leader of the German Navy, Tirpitz also realized this fact.

  But in the application of new naval technologies, Tirpitz was troubled by several aspects. Firstly, naval technology is advancing rapidly, and many newly built warships are already "outdated" before they even enter service. Secondly, the application of new technologies carries great risks and also means more expenses, and no one can guarantee that these investments will have a certain effect on improving the performance of warships without actual combat testing. Another aspect is that the development of the navy has always been constrained by budgetary funds, and Tirpitz took a cautious and conservative attitude towards new technologies, so the German Navy's influence on naval technological progress was indeed disappointing compared to Germany's industrial and technical capabilities.

  ;