Australia 1671

Chapter 20: Hm? An Ironclad?

This afternoon.

Dozens of trucks and cars transported the timber cut in the morning to the open space near the warehouse in the shipyard dock area on the north side.

According to the shipyard and construction bureau’s plan, a factory to process and dry ship timber would be built here to support the navy’s shipbuilding projects.

Unlike the two 150,000‑ton docks to the south, which were built on land and now defunct, this 50,000‑ton reversible floodable dock on the north side was right by the sea and retained some docking functions.

Although this dock could no longer build tens‑of‑thousands‑of‑tons ships, after drainage restoration, it could still construct medium and small ships under ten thousand tons.

Of course, this depended on having sufficient shipbuilding materials and stable power supply.

At that moment, on the third‑floor stands of the workshop west of the dock, wearing a white safety helmet and glasses perched on his nose, chief engineer of the original shipyard design institute and deputy director of the shipbuilding bureau, Cai Ruihua, was presenting his suggestions to naval Minister Yang Yunfeng and Deputy Minister Su Shengyun, along with industrial‑mining commissioner Chen Wenyun and director of the mechanical bureau Zhao Chengming.

“Commissioner Chen, Captain Yang, Captain Su, and Director Zhao, my colleagues Old Qin and I have spent recent days in the design institute’s archives reviewing numerous eighteenth to nineteenth‑century wooden sailing warship and early ironclad steamship materials.

We all believe that with the steel and equipment the shipyard currently has, we can try to first build two to three iron‑hulled steamships with displacements around 1,500 to 2,500 tons—without laying off so many workers.

Once built, these iron‑hulled steamships could serve as the navy’s main vessels after the Guiyang and Rizhao ships are immobilized due to fuel shortages!

By the time we exhaust the existing steel, if there’s still no large‑scale steel smelting capacity, we can build iron‑ribbed wooden motor sailboats—there’s no rush!”

Chen Wenyun frowned, instinctively thinking the idea was unlikely to be realized in the short term, because building ships independently required solving many issues, most obviously related to steel processing.

Indeed, the shipyard’s warehouse stored ten‑plus thousand tons of steel, but these materials were prepared for large ships—not ready to be used directly for other vessels.

There were also problems with welding and sealing hull plates, and manufacturing matching steam engines and power systems… the troubles were too many—it would be simpler to build wooden ships or iron‑ribbed wooden hulls to address the availability issues first.

That was also why Li Yingchun and he decided to reassign most of the shipyard’s workers.

There was no choice—in modern society, the division of labor among enterprises was highly specialized, and stepping outside the system would cause everything to falter.

However, Chen Wenyun and Cai Ruihua were old colleagues; although he thought the suggestion improper, he still nodded and said, “Old Cai, since you say it’s possible, then tell us your reasons!

Minister Yang and Minister Su are here, too—let’s hear their opinions.”

Yang Yunfeng, wearing his white officer’s standard uniform, smiled and replied when addressed: “I’m not technically proficient, but if you can build ironclads, that’s obviously better than wooden ships!

But, Engineer Cai, I have one question: can the shipyard and machinery plant’s equipment produce compatible hull plates and marine steam engines? How feasible is this plan?”

Cai Ruihua smiled at the naval captain and then glanced at Chen Wenyun, the chief engineer who had long since ceased delving into technical details. He gently shook his head and said, “Captain Yang! Our group is a military‑industrial enterprise with first‑class domestic and even international technology and skilled workers!

Even with existing conditions, building a nineteenth‑century‑level steam ironclad would not stump us!

We can use the machinery plant’s hydraulic presses and cutting equipment for hull plate processing.

If welding conditions aren’t permissible, we can still use riveting!

Design is even less of a concern—we have plenty of historical materials and archives in the design institute to draw upon for designing a warship suited to our needs and era!”

“As for marine steam engines…” he pointed to Zhao Chengming, the corpulent man beside him, also wearing a white helmet.

“Let Director Zhao answer that—he is more familiar with his factory’s production capacity!”

Zhao Chengming beamed at being called “director” by Cai Ruihua. He glanced at the frowning Chen Wenyun, then turned to Yang Yunfeng and patted his chest confidently: “What’s so hard about machining steam engines?

Our factory workers are all skilled; as long as the backup power station supplies electricity and the machines run, give me the drawings and materials—while we can’t boast of manufacturing high‑precision steam turbines, producing the main components of a simple multi‑cylinder marine steam engine is still easy!

However, marine steam engines are a system project; the design institute must provide workable drawings and plans—like condenser design, lubrication issues, and sealing the underwater drive shaft…”

Zhao Chengming spoke fluently, causing Cai Ruihua to nod repeatedly—this fat man indeed had some level of expertise, and hit the mark better than Chief Engineer Chen, who no longer focused his mind on technical matters.

He continued the topic: “…We are working on the ship drawings, but finalizing them formally will take some time. Minister Yang, Minister Su, if the navy has any requirements, please raise them soon, so we avoid mid‑construction modifications.”

Yang Yunfeng and Su Shengyun exchanged glances; the latter smiled and said, “We haven’t been idle these days, either—we’ve been studying naval warships and naval battle materials from this era.

If the 1,500‑ to 2,500‑ton steam ironclads you mentioned can be built smoothly, our requirements are approximately: long range, low failure rate, and large‑caliber guns, those three points!”

The shorter naval officer continued: “Until the mid‑nineteenth century, sailing warships were the mainstay of naval battles. If we have enough steam ironclads, we can surely dominate the seas!

But early steam ironclads suffered from low range, high failure rates, and were heavily dependent on coal ships and coaling ports—which is unacceptable to us.

From southern Australia to the Guangdong‑Fujian coast is over 10,000 km, so the new warships must either have at least 15,000 km endurance or be equipped with sails to increase range!”

“…The new ironclads must indeed have sails!”

Cai Ruihua nodded in agreement: “Our current idea is to take inspiration from the British navy’s 1863 HMS Northumberland ironclad cruiser and optimize it.

We plan displacement around 1,500 to 2,000 tons, and gun configuration will be arranged once our steel mill and arsenal are built.

With approval from the Cabinet Committee and your navy, I can guarantee the first ironclad will be completed in six months!”

Seeing Cai Ruihua’s full confidence, Chen Wenyun on the side felt embarrassed—he had earlier assured Li Yingchun that the shipyard couldn’t resume production; now Cai claimed they could build steam iron‑hulled ships… how was he to explain this to Li Yingchun?