Chapter 289: Frederick.
Chapter 279 The Frederick
The birth of the eldest son was a relief to many, and the entire court of Vienna was filled with laughter that spoke of the joy of the newborn.
Europe to take the name is very casual, casual to the jaw-dropping, according to Franz know there are people grandchildren more than ten generations, continuous use of a name.
Really do not know how they usually get along, father and son with the same name is okay, you can use the old, small to distinguish, if you encountered five generations of the same family, this name is not directly let a person collapse?
Considering this terrible consequence, Franz decided that it was better to be cautious. The unlucky name’s were ruled out first, and the names of the two unlucky people who committed suicide and were killed in history were the first to be eliminated from the list.
At the family meeting, Franz asked, “Do you think it would be better for the little one to be called Caesar, or Peter, or maybe Frederick, Leopold, and of course other names could be mentioned?”
The Empress Dowager Sophie was the first to say, “I think it would be better to be called Rudolf, lest there be too many renames among the nobility.”
Franz finally understood the origin of the name Rudolph in history, the feelings were set by this one.
However, the situation is different now, in the face of the precocious Franz, Empress Dowager Sophie’s influence has greatly diminished.
In the child’s right to name, or he himself more say, now take out the discussion, that is Franz himself is also confused, not sure what to call the eldest son good.
Archduke Karl proposed: “I think it’s better to call Karl, I’m the old Karl, he’s the young Karl, how kind this name sounds!”
This suffocating reason, directly let Franz ignored, he is still not used to this kind of renaming, even if he wants to rename, he can’t rename with his own family.
Empress Helen suggested, “How about calling Franz, it’s easy to call him that way.”
Franz rolled his eyes, why did he feel like this was picking a fight? Looking at her cautious expression, Franz was sure that this was not looking for trouble.
With the four people with a say in the court, each holding their own opinion and no one being able to convince anyone, Franz decided it was time to ignore their opinions.
“Peter it is then!”
“Why?”
“Why?”
“Why?”
Having just identified his son’s name, he was confronted by everyone’s collective questioning. Looking at the angry three people, Franz felt that if he couldn’t give a reasonable explanation, there was a high possibility that he would have to eat his words today.
“You all have different opinions, so for the sake of family harmony, why don’t you all just rule it out!”
Empress Dowager Sophie said seriously, “Very well, then Peter should be excluded as well, it’s only fair to do so!”
This proposal was supported by Archduke Karl and Empress Helen, and with three to one, “Peter” also lost the election.
Franz said indifferently, “Well, let’s vote on the remaining alternatives, and the one with the highest approval rating will be the little one’s name!”
Franz thought he still had the decency not to give his son a strange name out. After all, he was the Crown Prince and also wanted to save face.
Many people in Europe have a long list of names, don’t think it’s strange, it’s very likely that the parents argued endlessly, and finally just added all the names proposed by everyone.
One name is a boy’s team, which can only be considered pediatric, and a direct copy of a soccer team.
As for what to call them in the future? Isn’t it a waste of time to talk about that when you have pitiful parents?
“Then let’s vote!”
……
The crowd agreed to a democratic vote, and in the end “Frederick” won by two votes, Franz guessed that the Habsburgs had more Charles the Great.
……
Minister of the Navy Philcox said excitedly, “Your Majesty, the construction of our first ironclad is complete, and we are waiting for you to name it.”
It had to be said that this ironclad came at a really good time, in time for the birth of the Crown Prince. Needless to say Franz knew that this was deliberately arranged.
Coincidence, where in the world are there so many coincidences?
Unsurprisingly, in the days to come, the Vienna government would receive a series of other happy news, and they would coincide with the same day as the birth of the Crown Prince.
There was nothing strange about it. If the East could be auspicious, how could the Western world be exempted? We are all bureaucrats, and no one is much worse off than anyone else.
Franz said calmly, “Let’s call it the Frederick!”
Since his men were so knowledgeable, of course he wouldn’t object. These weren’t too much, at most, the ironclad was built and waited in the dock for a few days for the Crown Prince.
The purpose was naturally to brush up the sense of existence, otherwise once the Crown Prince was born, the entire media of the new Holy Roman Empire went to pay attention, who would still remember the ironclad ah?
The new Holy Roman Empire is a land power country, originally the people’s attention to the navy are very limited. Once you miss the opportunity to attract attention to the iron armor ship, the next time there is powerful news to attract everyone’s attention, you don’t know what year it will be.
Domestic people are more concerned about the birth of the Crown Prince, international attention on the “Frederick” ironclad.
Everyone is playing with sail battleships, Austria suddenly came up with ironclad ships, which makes many people very sudden, this iron lump will not sink?
December 12, 1856, that is, the day after the birth of the Crown Prince, Frederick’s ironclad ship from Venice port, began to test sail.
There was no press present, it was a military secret, Franz would not expose the internal information of the warship just to save face.
Parameters of the Frederick:
Displacement: 8708 tons;
Length of ship: 118 meters (107.2 meters between plumb lines);
Breadth: 17.6 meters;
Draught: 7.9 meters Power;
Mixed steam and sail power, 1 horizontal reciprocating steam engine, 10 coal-fired boilers, output 5,770 hp;
Maximum speed with single shaft and single propeller: 14.56 knots
Coal load: 860 tons;
Armament: 10×110-pound tail-mounted rifled guns, 20×68-pound front-mounted smoothbore guns, 4×40-pound tail-mounted rifled guns;
Armor: armor belt 4.5 inches thick, lined planking 18 inches thick;
Crew: 695;
Cost: 800,000 Shenduan.
Franz was just a naval novice and couldn’t understand these messy parameters, but one thing he did know was that the era of the sail battleship was over.
“Frederick” was born, broke many world records, this is the world’s largest tonnage, the strongest warship.
Before the birth of similar warships, there was no pressure to bully the sail warships, and that was enough.
Originally this was used to scare people, even if the combat power is strong, it is not possible to rely on a warship to erase the Austrian Navy with the British and French naval strength gap.
The simple truth that more ants bite more elephants is something Franz still understands. Used to scare people can be, why need to fight and kill?
London
As a sea power, the introduction of the ironclad Frederick directly shook the London government.
Prime Minister Granville growled, “I need an explanation as to why the Austrians have gotten ahead of us, and what is the Royal Navy doing with all that military spending every year?”
If it was the army that had been overtaken, he could take it easy and drink his coffee, they were a sea power anyway, if they ranked the armies of European countries, they wouldn’t even make the top five.
Not the navy, the world’s number one Royal Navy, actually lagging behind in warship technology, thousands of sail battleships all ready for obsolescence overnight.
This kind of heart drop, obviously not the British can accept. Even if it is a short period of time to be surpassed, no matter what, it should not be no existence Austrian.
Naval Minister James explained: “Prime Minister, the Royal Navy has been in the ironclad research, the Austrians first got the ironclad, not that their shipbuilding technology is more advanced than ours, just that they do it earlier.
Since 1850, the Austrians have invested a lot of money in the research and development of ironclad ships, and in early 1855 they started to formally build them, which took nearly two years to complete.
The Royal Navy only received funding this year to start a research and development program, a temporary lag is inevitable, at most five years we can catch up and surpass the Austrians.”
Prime Minister Granville shook his head and said, “I don’t want to hear your explanation, if you want an explanation you can go talk to your MPs!
All you have to do now is to announce our ironclad plans, we must build ironclads in the shortest time possible, even if it’s just a look-alike, we must have them!”
It was typical of the way politicians thought about things, and Prime Minister Granville cared less about an ironclad than the chain of political reactions that would result from it.
The arrogant British could not tolerate any backwardness in their navy, and now that they were being overtaken, the opposition would certainly not let this opportunity pass.
It was a good thing that the Navy had put the ironclad project on the table just shortly after Granville’s cabinet took office. Then the blame can be put on the predecessors, who missed the time to develop the ironclad, which caused the shipbuilding technology to temporarily lag behind.
Foreign Minister Thomas reminded, “Your Excellency the Prime Minister, according to the intelligence we have gathered, this ironclad ship built by the Austrians may have a displacement of between 8,500 and 9,000 tons, and is also equipped with tail-mounted rifled cannons.
After the commissioning of this ironclad, the naval balance in the Mediterranean Sea has been broken, and our Mediterranean fleet is no longer capable of suppressing the Austrian navy.
In this case, the Vienna government is likely to engage in new small action. Of course, they don’t dare to provoke us yet, but that’s not necessarily true for the Ottoman Empire.”
Granville rubbed his forehead, he realized that the position of Prime Minister of the British Empire was really not a good one, the Russians had just stirred up trouble in Central Asia, and the Austrians were coming again.
This is the international order these days, the strength is strong to go to get more than a share of the benefits, the Austrian Navy to obtain a short-term regional advantage after the expansion is more than normal.
“Can we suppress the ambitions of the Vienna government?” Prime Minister Granville asked
Thomas analyzed, “It’s difficult, unless we’re willing to go to great lengths to mobilize more fleets into the Mediterranean, or to preempt their objectives and leave them no chance.”
Granville denied, “That’s impossible, we don’t have that many fleets to put into the Mediterranean, much less take on the Ottoman Empire first.
We gave the Ottoman Empire a promise to guarantee their territorial integrity, and even if it’s just for the sake of international reputation, we can’t just sit back and do nothing at this point.
Is it possible to introduce the Austrians to another area so that they will abandon their actions against the Ottoman Empire?”
Thomas thought for a moment and said, “It can be tried, if we join forces with the French to apply pressure, there is a good chance that the Vienna government will give up their expansion in the Mediterranean, after all, they don’t want to break the Vienna system that has just been established.”
Embarrassing, didn’t realize that Karl and Charlie could be translated with the same word, but it doesn’t matter, I’ve changed it
(End of chapter)