Chapter 6: Perfect Equipment

  Giuseppe Garibaldi-class armored cruisers, laid down in 1894 and commissioned in 1896. Nearly ten ships of this class were built for the Italian Navy, Imperial Japanese Navy, and Argentine Navy. Displacement ranged from 6775 to 7700 tons. Normal speed was around 20 knots. Armor protection included a main belt of 6-inch armor extending from the waterline to the middle deck. The bow and stern had 80mm armor plating, while the turrets were protected by 152mm armor. Giuseppe Garibaldi's armament consisted of one 10-inch gun at the bow and stern, with a firing rate of one round every 40 seconds. Secondary armament included five 6-inch guns and three 4.7-inch guns on the sides, as well as ten 57mm and ten 37mm guns. (Other ships in this class had variations, including replacing the main turrets with twin 8-inch guns or increasing the secondary armament to seven 6-inch guns while removing the 4.7-inch guns.)

  From the technical conditions at that time, the Garibaldi class achieved a perfect balance of firepower, speed and protection. The full-speed shooting cannon configuration implemented the main fire output method with high-explosive shells and rapid firing in naval battles at that time. The largest possible and moderately thick protective area made it possible for the Garibaldi to ensure that it would not be penetrated while maximizing the guarantee of firepower and buoyancy (both the bow and stern had armor belts). This avoided the problem of a rapid decline in firepower during combat due to insufficient gun protection, as well as various tilting problems caused by secondary protective belts being thicker than the hull. Of course, the 80mm front and rear waterline armor could not withstand the impact of large-caliber guns, but it was completely possible to avoid being hit by 6-inch caliber guns. Moreover, what is even more valuable is that the Garibaldi was the first to combine a waterline armor belt with a turtleback deck, with coal bunkers in between. Even if the main battery was penetrated, not much water would enter, because there were coal bunkers behind the main battery, which naturally prevented too much water from entering. Even if the coal bunkers were empty, there was still the turtleback deck to prevent flooding and control the amount of water that entered. As for speed, a speed of 20 knots was quite realistic. It couldn't compare with turtleback cruisers, but it was faster than most battleships at that time. Those who were slower than him couldn't catch up with him, while those who could catch up with him weren't as fast as him. Therefore, in summary, the Garibaldi was undoubtedly a miracle of shipbuilding history at that time!!

  However, Garibaldi was not without its flaws. Affected by the conditions of the time and various subjective factors, there were still some areas that needed improvement for Garibaldi. Firstly, Garibaldi did not use an efficient water-tube boiler, which was not considered a flaw at the time, as most warships were using fire-tube boilers. However, as a perfectionist, equipping Garibaldi with advanced water-tube boilers was necessary. Secondly, completely abandon the useless ram bow. Historically, the Japanese cruiser Yoshino was sunk by Garibaldi's sister ship (Asahi), and to avoid such tragedies from happening in the Beiyang Fleet, the ram bow had to be removed. At the same time, to improve speed, the original bow also needed to be replaced with a clipper bow suitable for high-speed navigation. Thirdly, there was only a series of strengthening measures left, as it would still have been inferior compared to newer 10,000-ton cruisers if used until 1905.

  Comprehensive technology, design, purpose and the hardware facilities of the Beiyang Fleet itself, Xu Jie spent 3 days completing the new technical standards for the Garibaldi-class. The first overall design, with a tonnage expanded to 8,500 tons, adopted a subdivided compartmentalization design, dividing the entire ship into 40 watertight districts and 256 watertight compartments (referencing the historical German production of the Japanese cruiser Yakumo, slightly more). At the same time, a double-bottom hull was used to increase anti-sinking capabilities (mainly for protection against torpedoes and mines), with a clipper bow. Second, firepower was increased by replacing single 10-inch guns with twin 10-inch guns, while reserving sufficient space for future upgrades (historically, the Garibaldi did not have a fully turret structure, so its firing rate was slower, at only one shot every 40 seconds; later British 10-inch guns could reach one shot every 20 seconds). The remaining firepower remained unchanged but with increased ammunition storage. Third, protection was strengthened to better resist 12-inch caliber naval guns, with the main armament reinforced to 8 inches and the upper 6 inches remaining unchanged. The front of the turret was reinforced to 10 inches, and all gunhouses were standardized at 8 inches (including 120mm gunhouses). Fourth, the propulsion system: originally, the Garibaldi-class had a speed of 20 knots and an engine power of 13,000 horsepower; in order for the new ship to reach speeds above 22 knots, it was suggested that the main engines be replaced with 17,000 horsepower ones, which would allow the warship to achieve its designed speed when combined with the clipper bow. Xu Jie had originally planned to follow Italy's Pisa-class and replace the 6-inch guns with 8-inch ones, as the 6-inch guns could not penetrate the non-critical protected areas of later cruisers; however, considering the size and maintenance capabilities of the Beiyang shipyard, he wisely abandoned this plan (from a technical standpoint, this ship was also only started after 1912). Thus, the basic technical indicators for this strengthened Garibaldi-class were completed under Xu Jie's planning.

  However, it's not easy to achieve. Firstly, the supply of water tube boilers, this thing can't be produced in Italy. Can only find France (by the way, France's power system is quite NB. In the past, the British Empire bought French water tube boilers for their own cruisers. During World War I, France had 80,000 horsepower units. And during World War II, in 1940, the French battleship Richelieu was equipped with an overloaded power unit of 178,000 horsepower, and its experimental speed even reached 32.5 knots. In contrast, the Bismarck, which is revered by the Germans, had only 160,000 horsepower. The gap is obvious.

  Secondly, the armor problem, from a historical perspective, Harvey's hardened armor was invented in 1890. However, Xu Jie prefers to use Krupp's hardened armor because of its better performance. But it was 1893 at that time. If he can't help some factory produce enough Krupp armor before 1892, Xu Jie will have to settle for using Harvey armor.

  Thirdly, the 10-inch guns and turrets, this thing is currently a super-era product, historically there were none before 1894. He has to rely on his memory to design one, and then choose a factory to produce it. As for actual production capacity, history tells Xu Jie that production capacity is not a problem. In the 1880s, Italy could already manufacture battleships of over 10,000 tons. At least four shipyards can produce battleships of this size. And in his known historical process, between 1890 and 1893, Italy did not produce any new battleships. That is to say, without exception, these shipyards' production capacity can fully meet Xu Jie's needs.

  Of course, the last and most important problem is the money problem!!! Historically, the hull price of Garibaldi was ￡500,000, and with weapons added, it was around ￡600,000. (This son bought it for ￡740,000, which has a hint of being ripped off) And if he wants to build this ship well, ￡700,000 is unavoidable!!! Where does the money come from?! It's a problem!!!!!