Munitions Empire

Chapter 539 505 New Battleship

The sound of metal clinking echoed through the shipyard, a large shipbuilding factory owned by Shireck, originally dedicated to producing steel Ming Wheel Ships.

Now, Sofia had taken it over, and she gathered more than half of the consortium's elite workers to build the Shireck Consortium's own super warship here.

Having acquired propeller propulsion technology, Sofia naturally could not stand idly by and watch the Great Tang Group dominate the seas. Therefore, Sofia wanted to be a challenger, or rather, a sharer of maritime interests!

The massive hull was redesigned, and this warship sported a brand-new design, presenting an unprecedented challenge to Shireck's designers.

In the end, the experienced designers still completed their task, and then began the construction of this behemoth!

The Shireck super warship took inspiration from the Great Tang Group's Dreadnought design philosophy. After all, Jade City-class battleships had visited Qi Country and had been to Brunas, their appearance witnessed by many.

The imposing hull and the mighty cannons on it left a lasting impression on many. Various painters had depicted the Dreadnought docked in the port, one of which even ended up in Tang Mo's collection.

Since many technologies had already spread, it was often possible to easily copy a rival's design just by using one's eyes.

Imitating developed designs could save a lot of trouble. Shireck's new battleships were plagiarized just like that.

Regrettably, a mere imitation would always fall short, and after copying the exterior, Shireck's designers encountered unprecedented difficulties in many critical aspects.

For example, Shireck copied the turret layout and exterior design of the Dreadnought but could not replicate the internal structure of the warship.

Especially the long-range optical sighting equipment exclusive to the Great Tang Group, which requires precision engineering, was impossible to plagiarize.

To compensate for the performance gap caused by such issues, Shireck's solution was to increase tonnage, add more armor, and enlarge the caliber of the cannons...

This method was akin to boosting the in-game stats: thicker armor and larger cannon calibers naturally meant a more powerful warship.

However, in reality, a larger caliber doesn't always mean stronger firepower, nor does thicker armor guarantee higher defense.

Defensive capability depends not only on the thickness of the armor but also on the technology used to assemble it, the quality of the armor, and the position it's installed...

Firepower is not just about cannon caliber but also involves the density of fire, the choice of ammunition types, and considerations of chamber pressure and firing rates.

Moreover, sometimes technology isn't something you can surpass simply because you want to.

The foreman overseeing the construction of Shireck's Dreadnought was discussing this very "super" Dreadnought with his boss, "Sir, about the lifespan of our 320mm cannon barrels... actually..."

"You don't need to worry about that! Although the lifespan may not be impressive, its theoretical performance is certainly stronger than Great Tang Group's 305mm caliber," the supervisor said proudly.

If one merely looked at the number of warships, the Shireck Navy's data was quite frightening: they had 36 new warships and three battleships, plus a dozen or so Ming Wheel Ships left over from the last war...

Although the Great Tang Kingdom's navy clearly had more ships and seemed to be of better quality, the Great Tang Navy had to be spread across Brunas, Dragon Island, Eternal Winter City, Winterless City, Linshui, and Dongwan Port.

Thus, the Great Tang Navy, which had controlled the seas since its inception, seemed to have encountered a challenger this time, an ignorant challenger.

Unfortunately, the commanders of the Shireck Navy didn't yet know that the warships they had spent all their money on were essentially large toys with poorer targeting systems, garbage propulsion systems, tonnage without adequate protection, and outdated artillery technology.

"As far as I know, we're not the only ones building similar warships, right?" the chief Shireck craftsman asked in a low voice.

"Indeed, as far as I'm aware, many countries are building their own new warships, some larger, some smaller," said the Shireck Consortium executive with his hands behind his back, quite sentimental.

In the past, Shireck monopolized the workshops of many countries and nearly had a monopoly on the construction of sail warships.

Because at that time, whoever built warships needed to purchase cannons from Shireck to arm those sail warships.

But now, as technology has spread, and some countries have gradually completed industrialization, or at least partial industrialization, they all possess a certain production capacity.

As these countries industrialized, they took back control of weapon production into their own hands, which actually broke Shireck Consortium's previous marketing model.

For Shireck, the loss brought about by many countries gradually escaping its control was already causing them great distress.

Countries no longer named their warships after the producer; they preferred to use Great Tang Group's naming method, categorizing their own warships as destroyers, ironclads, cruisers, and battleships. It's just that actually, no country was equipped with battleships, and most didn't even have cruisers.

To catch up with the gap, various countries were trying every means possible to enhance the power of their own navies - if they couldn't purchase them, they would build their own.

Consequently, many new types of warships emerged like bamboo shoots after a rain, with many countries also making so-called improvements to their own warships, resulting in a plethora of oddities.

Some countries primarily focused on imitation, copying the destroyers of the Great Tang Group or the Shireck Consortium.

Others focused on improvement, arbitrarily equipping destroyers with larger caliber guns, or creating monsters that were between the tonnage of cruisers and destroyers.

All in all, the development of naval vessels was still in a primitive state, with everyone's imagination running wild and many immature design ideas.

It was the same with tanks.

"By next year, we will see a fascinating picture where those maritime nations with more warships rise up to challenge the dominance of the Great Tang Group," laughed the head of Shireck coldly, as if seeing the Great Tang Group in deep trouble.

"That's really great!" the craftsman leader quickly offered his flattery, "With your assistance, Lady Sofia, you will surely win the final victory!"

"Heh, hahahaha!" The complacent Shireck leader, upon hearing the compliment, became even more smug and laughed heartily.@@@@