Chapter 145 Follow-up shipbuilding program

Chapter 145 – Follow-up Shipbuilding Program
While Paul and Admiral Austin were whispering, Quake was filled with ’emotion’ as he looked back and forth at the new ship.

Even though it had been two days since he took over, he was still in a state of excitement.

The South was not only larger than the Hope, and equipped with more guns, but also improved on the shortcomings found during the Hope’s use. The Hope was a test ship after all, while this new ship, which made up for all the shortcomings, could be said to be perfect in Quirk’s eyes – of course, only in this class of ship.

At Allen’s somewhat incredulous look, Quirk hugged the mast of the Southern and said to himself in a tone as if confessing to a lover, “I’ll always love the Southern.”

Allen had a black line on his face as he recalled the time when he had just become a Naval Candidate, Captain Quirk led them on a tour of the USS Hope with pride, and at that time he also said, “I’ll always love the USS Hope.”

It had only been a few days and the Captain’s favorite had changed. Oh well, maybe it’s not a contradiction for men.

……

After the tour of the Southern, Paul and the others went to a conference room in the shipyard, where Captain Superintendent Rubin and veteran shipwright Benjamin carried out a new model of a sailing ship – a model of a two-masted transom.

“After building three sloops, we have acquired a great deal of experience in design and construction, and it was time to take our technical achievements to the next level, so we built this model of a two-masted schooner, which is the next stage of our shipyard’s attack.”

Paul scrutinized the ship model fore and aft, left and right, with a vague feeling that it seemed familiar.

He suddenly hammered his palm, startling those around him, “Isn’t that the Cold Raven?”

The details were different, but the general structure was indeed very similar to the Cold Raven from Assassin’s Creed.

Rubin and Benjamin were surprised, “The Chill Crow?”

Paul shook his head, “Just now I suddenly thought of an excellent name, the first such ship built will be called the Cold Raven.”

“Good name! Good name!”

Rubin clapped his hands repeatedly, “Lord Earl is truly literate!”

Benjamin, on the other hand, threw Rubin a look of contempt, this could even be flattering. He felt that the name was unimpressive, but since it was the lord who gave the word, he had no choice but to acquiesce.

The old shipwright said unconvincingly, “Lord Earl, in fact, I think we are fully capable of building bigger ships, such as that model you gave us earlier-the Stockholm, that three-masted transverse sailing ship.”

He didn’t know why the lord called that ship the Stockholm, which seemed to be a place name, and the name of the other big ship, the Victory, was quite understandable, but with even with his confidence, he didn’t dare to rashly start building a huge ship like the Victory.

“Think of the scenario, she can be armed with two decks of cannons and can carry more cargo, with her your navy is perfectly capable of dominating the seas, your merchant fleet could easily even bypass the Bay of Horns and trade directly with the more distant eastern nations, and along the way I guarantee you that not a single ship could pose a threat to her.”

Paul had asked the shipyard executives to give him a suggestion for a follow-on development, and while Benjamin and Rubin were discussing it, the old shipwright wanted to take a leap of faith and build true sail battleships in a single step, while Rubin, the superintendent, insisted on building them one step at a time, building them step by step, from the smallest to the largest.

In the end, Rubin, in his capacity as shipyard superintendent, overpowered the old shipwright and took a conservative approach to the design of the new ship, building this model of a two-masted transatlantic sailing ship.

Benjamin secretly complained, “Really, obviously younger than me, but his guts are not even as good as an old man like me.” “Hmm! I actually agree with this line of thinking of Supervisor Rubin.”

After listening to the differences between the two, Paul still felt that Supervisor Rubin’s line of thought was more prudent.

From small to large level by level construction, although a little slower, but the success rate is high ah, built out of the ship at least can be used, direct one-step words are certainly very tempting, but the risk of failure is also very big, in case of failure, a large amount of money down the drain not to mention, wasted manpower and man-hours is also Paul can not afford.

He remembered the Swedish “Vasa”, which was a complete tragedy.

Stupid ass – oh no, Sweden, after joining the Protestant camp in the Thirty Years’ War, in order to ensure that the Baltic Sea right to the sea, the urgent need to develop the navy, in order to formulate a series of “big building” program, and the Vasa is the product of the Navy’s strong military program.

At that time, the reigning king of Sweden was Gustav II, known as the “Lion of the North”, this great emperor can be described as a generation of military genius, the Catholic allied forces on land to defeat, and immediately turned the tide of war at that time, Paul’s many military reforms in many of the contents of the reference to this famous king.

But he was a complete amateur when it came to the navy, and he ordered that the Vasa must be built as soon as possible in order to be put into action against Poland, regardless of reality.

The ship’s designers and builders were forced to work faster and faster with little time to spare, and with the king, then far away in Poland, again and again making new demands that overrode the original design, the design of the Vasa was changed from a single gun deck to a double deck to hold as many as 64 guns at the behest of Gustav II.

The Swedish shipbuilders, inexperienced in the construction of double-decked battleships, were unable to deal with the center of gravity of the taller hull.

The superstructure, which was designed to be too tall for the sake of grandeur under the influence of courtiers bent on pandering to the king, was further weighed down by a number of intricately crafted wooden sculptures of the “Gloria” type, which were suspended high above the hull. The Vasa’s center of gravity just keeps getting higher and higher.

Then, on her maiden voyage, she sank, in front of everyone’s eyes, by a gust of wind, after only 1,300 meters, into the bottom of the sea at a depth of 32 meters, taking with her the lives of 30 crew members, with hundreds of civilians and officials, foreign ministers, witnessing the whole event.

Now Alda, the pirates have been eliminated, the threat of the sea side has been greatly reduced, and large-scale ocean trade has not yet begun, for the time being does not need to be so big ship.

Therefore, it is better to be prudent and avoid risks wherever possible.

“You are the lord, whatever you say.”

Benjamin shrugged his shoulders, feeling a little discouraged.

Paul assured him, “Haha, don’t be discouraged, Master. There will be bread, there will be milk, and sooner or later we will build bigger ships, and they will get bigger and bigger. When the southern route opens, even if I don’t need it, our merchants will force you to build big ships.”

Only then did the old shipwright recover his spirits.

For those of you who don’t know, the term “Swedish Donkey” is a term used amongst the players of P. It’s a jibe at the Swedish gaming company Paradox.

Similarly, players of The Witcher also call its production company “Polish Donkey”.

(End of chapter)