Chapter 248: Ironclad Ship

  Chapter 241 Ironclad Ships

At the time of the outbreak of the Near East War, the rest of the world was equally uneventful, Britain, France and Russia started to fight, which made the Americans far away across the ocean feel that the opportunity has come.

First of all, Cuba to do things, by the Spanish cut off the tentacles, touched a nose, and was warned by Britain and France, had to continue to shrink back to pretend to be a grandson.

However, the Americans still did not die, in July 1853, the Americans created the Black Ship incident in Japan, with the threat of force to force the shogunate government to accept their conditions, signed the Japan-U.S. Kanagawa Treaty.

According to the shit nature of the Great Powers, it was naturally impossible for them to watch the Americans monopolize Japan’s interests, so they all joined in, with Britain, France, Holland, and other countries being the first to enter, forcing the Shogunate government to sign a similar treaty.

The news reached Vienna, allowing the Austrian colonialists to see the opportunity and want to take advantage of it to get in on the action. The Vienna government was discussing whether to follow suit and take advantage of the fire.

Prime Minister Felix spoke up and said, “Your Majesty, Japan is too far away for us to whip around, and besides, we don’t have much interest over there, so there’s no need to spend too much energy.

Right now our focus is still on developing domestically, especially combing the South German region, rather than taking action in East Asia, it would be more in our interest to infiltrate the German Federal Empire.”

Minister of the Navy Philcox objected, “Your Excellency Prime Minister, we don’t need to pay much to take action in the Near East, the Dutch can force the Japanese government to compromise, it’s not hard for us to get equivalent benefits.

The Japanese government is now in a state of shock and would not dare to refuse our offer.

Even if diplomacy fails, we have agreements with Holland, Spain, and Portugal to get supplies from their colonies, and it won’t be hard to send a fleet to Asia to deter Japan.”

It wasn’t as if Austria had done nothing in trying to open up overseas colonies. Treaties with fallen colonial empires for the supply of overseas ports was one of the measures, at the price of Austria not being allowed to plot against the overseas colonies of various countries.

In the short term it was a blank check, there were no overseas colonies in Austria’s hands, though no one doubted that Austria had the strength to open up overseas colonies.

As a rule, the entrance of a new empire is bound to seize the sphere of influence of the old empire. The Vienna government released goodwill willing to coexist peacefully, everyone naturally will not oppose.

Metternich analyzed: “There are many countries that are eyeing Japan, and now that they have opened their gates, I am afraid that everyone will flock to them.

In fact, the Russians had long had plans to colonize Japan, and had it not been for the outbreak of the Near East War, I am afraid it would not have been the turn of the Americans to take the lead.

In the current international situation, it’s not much of a problem for us to join in and get a piece of the action, but if we want to get a bigger share of the profits, we’ll have to send in a naval fleet.”

Austria’s navy was not good, even after Franz had come to power and made some expansion.

But the strength and weakness are contrasted out, compared to Britain and France two naval powerhouse that is not worth mentioning, bullying this era of Japan naturally does not exist pressure.

However, this does not become Austria to the Far East to send a naval fleet of reasons, the key is still to look at the interests.

After hesitating for a moment’s effort, Franz made a decision: “The Far East is not the focus of our expansion, even if it is to carry out overseas colonization, we must also try to avoid conflict with European countries.

For now, let’s all aim at the unclaimed land, it doesn’t matter if it’s a little bit desolate, just start as accumulating experience.

What we should do now is to send out more expeditions to explore the lands that have not yet been occupied by various countries, as long as it is an area that is easy to rule, we can take it down to practice, there is no need to overly chase after immediate interests.

Just follow the countries’ footsteps when it comes to Japan, just get a portion of our benefits, no need to continue with expansion.”

This was something Franz said easily on the surface, but in reality, deep down inside, he was dripping blood. It was hard to catch up with the last train of the colonial empire, but because of the relationship between the naval strength, can only go to pick up some of the British and French leftovers.

If you don’t know what to do to grab the fat meat, not to mention Britain and France, I guess Spain, Holland, these old colonial empire can let Austria eat and go.

Overseas colonization is not just about strength, but also about the way to rule. As a newcomer ventured to join in, these old empires do not have to intervene by force, casually dig a pit, you can make you lose the bottom of the sky.

This includes the historical American seizure of the Philippine Islands, which appeared to be a win, but in reality had its share of pain. In the hands of the Spaniards rich land, to their hands became a money-losing goods.

This is still the rich Philippine Islands, if it were a poor country, it is expected to lose even more money.

Colonization also depends on the cost, no experience in colonial management, blindly joined the colonial army, ready to lose money to death!

In contrast, Franz is more willing to go to the uninhabited islands to plant the flag, just send a few soldiers stationed on the oath of sovereignty, and do not have to worry about someone to seize.

Of course, this kind of island, either geological conditions are poor, or is too small, do not expect to have much interest, at most can only be a resource reserve area.

Minister of the Navy Philcos proposed: ”Your Majesty, we have been developing in the European continent without making our voice heard in the world, which is very unfavorable for us to open up overseas colonies in the future.

How about organizing a naval cruise around the globe to visit various countries around the world, and in the meantime, find a chance to take some of the unclaimed lands as our first step out of Europe.”

The rise of almost every maritime power is inseparable from a large-scale naval battle. Obviously Austria had no such opportunity and could not find such a stepping stone.

England and France simply couldn’t win, still couldn’t win after twenty years of development, and Franz didn’t want to go to his death just yet to challenge the maritime overlords.

Retreating to the next best thing, unfortunately none of the remaining countries were worthy of Austria’s challenge. Just look at the map, everyone is simply out of reach, and there is not enough conflict of interest.

Unless one goes and punches the Ottoman Empire, which at one point in history was ranked fifth in the world in terms of navy, which is barely good enough.

But according to the current situation, Franz is very doubtful that the Ottoman government still has the money to build such a fleet out.

There is no suitable opponent can only go another way, anyway, Austria is the old empire, and do not need to determine the status of the powers through the war, was on the field, and why bother to grab the ticket?

As a civilized man, Franz hated war. In his opinion war means risk, and a madman who ventures to start a war without enough benefit will never make it in this era.

Now the proposal of the Minister of the Navy was actually made based on the international political environment. Since Austria was adopting a conservative colonial strategy, forceful deterrence was important.

Even if you can’t scare Britain and France, you should at least show your strength to deter other countries, lest you encounter unnecessary trouble when colonizing overseas.

Historically, in the early 20th century, the Americans established their position as a maritime power by sailing around the world in a bold and majestic manner.

The Austrian navy was a prerequisite for the feasibility of such a voyage, but the Austrian navy had to be able to do it. This Franz is very skeptical, far across the ocean is not so simple, this era around the world is still challenging.

In case of an accident in the middle, pretending not to become a fool, then the fun will be big. The Austrian Navy can not have the experience of the global industry, warships can not afford to eat is a problem.

If a warship breaks down in the middle of the day, where will it be repaired? Ocean industry, how to get logistical supplies? How can naval officers and soldiers withstand the long-term life at sea? All these aspects have to be considered.

Franz asked directly, “Philcos, are you sure our navy can do this without making an international joke?”

With so much at stake, Philcos naturally did not dare to guarantee it. Not to mention the Austrian Navy, even the British and French navies did not dare to guarantee that a circumnavigation would be conducted without problems.

Filkos agitated, “Your Majesty, this is a medium-term strategic concept, and it is certainly not doable at first. We can first choose to go to an ocean voyage route to accumulate experience, and then when the time is ripe to carry out a global circumnavigation.

Moreover, our Navy Ministry is not unprepared, in order to narrow the gap of strength with the British and French naval powers, our self-developed ironclad technology has already matured.

We have already placed an order, and it is expected that within two years, the first ironclad will be ready to enter naval service.

This epoch-making warship will surely rewrite the history of naval warships, eliminating the current naval warships of all countries.”

As a catching up, the best way to gain an advantage in the navy was to push for technological innovation, eliminating the old warships and putting everyone back on the same starting line.

Historically, the German Navy exploded because the Dreadnought era descended upon them, allowing them to see the opportunity to catch up with the British.

The Austrian Navy was no exception, if they developed sail battleships to catch up with the British and French, no one had the confidence, the gap between them was just too big.

Since three years ago, Franz put forward the concept of ironclad ships, it has attracted the attention of the Austrian Navy, through the careful study of the shipyard engineers found that in theory the ironclad ship is feasible.

Since it is feasible, naturally we have to carry out research and development, these years the Austrian Navy increased military expenditure, most of them invested in warships research and development, now finally to blossom.

No matter how many sailing warships the British and the French had, once the ironclad ships were introduced, these warships were to be eliminated.

Blocking the technology was impossible, in this era the navies of various countries were only a conceptual breakthrough away from the ironclad, and technologically there was no longer much of a problem.

During this period, the French navy also started the road of ironclad research and development. The British also had a similar plan in 1856 after obtaining the information of French ironclads.

Of course, from research and development to the final service will certainly take time, the adoption of new technologies can not be smooth sailing, even a few years in advance to start research and development, Franz is not sure who can be the first to build ironclad to.

He asked for the construction of an ironclad ship, not an ironclad ship with a layer of iron on the outside of the warship. If it was just adding a layer of iron skin, it had been introduced hundreds of years ago, and there was no need for research and development.

Prince Wendischgretz questioned, ”Iron armor ship? Mr. Filkos, are you sure that an all-iron battleship loaded with cannons won’t sink and will still be able to run?”

This was the opinion of most people, and many people’s first impression was that it was going to sink. An ironclad was certainly much heavier than a wooden warship, and with guns, ammunition, men, and so on, it was a question of whether it could run.

Filkos said with dissatisfaction, ”Your Highness the Prince, please don’t question my professionalism. If it’s the same tonnage, an ironclad definitely can’t compare its load with a wooden warship because of its self-weight.

But wooden warships are limited by raw materials, and nowadays, the technology of each country can only build warships with a displacement of over four thousand tons at most, while ironclad ships do not have this limitation.

We just need to enlarge the tonnage of warships, can make up for this little problem.

The armor of an ironclad ship can block the enemy’s artillery attacks, and even the 48-pounders will give it a little trouble at most.

And because the hull of an ironclad is more solid, we can also equip explosive shell cannons to deal with sail battleships that can finish off the enemy with a single shot as long as they hit the vitals.

Ironclads are powered by steam engines, so there’s no need to worry about their speed, so we can refer to steamships.

A single iron armor ship on the battlefield can easily take out a dozen or so sail battleships.”

These were the advantages of the iron armor ship, the disadvantage was naturally the skyrocketing cost, these problems Philcox naturally would not say it out.

Anyway, as long as Austria wanted to carry out colonial expansion, after seeing the power of the ironclad ship, the cabinet would not be able to give up.

Prince Wendischgraetz continued, “I’m sorry, Filkos, I’m not questioning your specialty. It’s just that there are some doubts that the Ironclad has so many advantages, so why aren’t other countries building them? Could it be that our shipbuilding technology has become number one in the world?”

Filkos said with a confident chest, “Your Highness the Prince, this statement is not accurate, we are not the only ones who are interested in ironclad ships.

As far as I know, the French also have a similar design, only they haven’t started implementing it yet.

Both Britain and France have a large number of sail battleships, and once the era of ironclad ships arrives, all of these battleships of theirs will have to be eliminated.

This is not only an economic loss, but more importantly, they lose most of their naval superiority, and everyone will have to work on the same starting line again.

Therefore, even if they had plans in this regard, they had to weigh the pros and cons. Risking to push forward the innovation of shipbuilding technology would bring not only benefits, but also a possible disaster.

As latecomers, we are not under pressure in this regard. Because of the lack of overseas colonies, the size of our navy is far from being comparable to theirs.

Even if we were to push it all back, it would still be us who would have the advantage. In fact, only two ironclads are needed now to top the total tonnage of the Austrian navy.”

Finance Minister Karl exclaimed, “What, an ironclad actually has a displacement of over 10,000 tons, how much does that cost?”

Nothing surprising, naval warships are not big in this era, and the total tonnage of the Austrian Navy is just a little bit.

What surprised the finance minister was not that the warship was big, but the professional reaction to how much it would cost to build such a warship.

Filkos said calmly: “Not so much, I just exaggerate a little, the displacement of the ironclad is only 8,000 or 9,000 tons.

The specific data will be known only after it is built, you all know that the role of new technology is full of uncertainty, and it is acceptable to have a little error in the final displacement.

The cost is indeed a little higher than ordinary warships, but the excellent performance of the ironclad is still worth the price, together with the weaponry, it will be about three to four million guilders, and won’t exceed five million.

This is the first iron armor ship, many technologies need to be experimented with, and the cost will come down when more are built later.”

A single warship plus weaponry took up a third of the navy’s annual budget, Franz knew that the era of naval money burning had arrived.

With this amount of money to build sail battleships, can build five or six first-class main ships, this is bound to bring even more huge financial pressure on the colonial empire.

The people fell into a deep thought, all began to weigh the pros and cons, whether to provoke a new round of naval arms race.

(End of chapter)