Munitions Empire

Chapter 324 320 new-style warship

In a shipyard workshop of Shireck, thousands of people gathered around a large ship temporarily modified, conducting the final checks.

This ship was designed by Shireck's genius engineer, built through enhancements as an entirely new type of warship that overturned previous sailship designs, adopting an unprecedented layout.

Indeed, this was a steamship, powered primarily by steam engines, no longer reliant on sails, but propelled continuously by the power of machinery.

"Gentlemen, we have proven that the smartest people in this world aren't just from that shitty Great Tang Group! We also have technicians worth boasting about! They too can create the most advanced weaponry in the world!" On the scaffold, the plump Shireck director proudly waved his arms and boasted to all the dignitaries present for the launching ceremony.

Behind him, the oddly-shaped warship was slowly pushed towards the sea by the workers.

This dock was actually quite old; its size was not large and indeed not the best choice for constructing large-tonnage warships.

However, the volume of this warship was not large either, and compared to the ironclad warships of the Great Tang Group, its length could even be considered somewhat pitiful.

There was no helping it, as the actual Brunas-class warships of the Great Tang Group were hovering around a hundred meters in length, whereas the warship before them was less than 60 meters long.

But this was already the largest ironclad warship that the Shireck Consortium could build, because if it were any longer, the keel joining techniques they possessed would not suffice to support the heavy hull.

Despite this, it was still incredibly heavy—the steel-plated hull meant this warship sat much deeper in the water than other sailships.

Because of the deep draft, this ship couldn't enter shallower rivers, and even some smaller seaports were inaccessible to it.

The fat director of the Shireck Consortium was unfazed by these flaws because the warship before him was truly the first steam-powered warship that Shireck could produce.

Therefore, he spoke excitedly, sparing no words of praise, and triumphantly announced to all the onlookers: "Next, we are about to witness the launching of this new type of ship! It shall become our new weapon!"

Warm applause erupted from below, as everyone felt that after a long silence, Shireck was finally back on the right path to development in certain areas.

The decayed Shireck was finally awakened, no longer complacent, at last focusing on innovation and development like they did a century ago.

For the shareholders of Shireck, there could be no more exciting news. Their stocks would become more valuable, their net worth would rise! The future was also looking more promising.

So they clapped excitedly, expressing their emotions. Although they had lost the 11-nation war, Shireck would eventually gain even more!

The fat man was quite proud, for it was he who had brought this endless potential for development to the group. So recently, he had become the most esteemed representative among the directors and had regained some power that was rightfully his.

There was no way around it; his workshop was too important for Shireck—it had a set of industrial technology equipment similar to that of the Great Tang Group.

Moreover, it had two types of new weapons ready for mass production—one was a semi-automatic individual weapon, and the other was a very advanced metal cartridge bolt-action rifle.

The successful acquisition instantly provided Shireck with two products that could match the individual weapons of the Great Tang Group in performance, thus saving the precariously positioned Shireck Consortium from crisis.

The young man in front of him had not disappointed Hansen's expectations. After joining Shireck, he immediately constructed a brand-new warship for them!

An armored, brand-new, steam-powered warship clad in iron! He resolved Shireck's troublesome issues in the most direct way possible.

Shireck's technicians, who had never seen Great Tang Group's ironclad warships, struggled without success to understand the principle behind the propeller.

Even if they guessed the design of the propeller, they lacked the experience to solve the issue of the drive shaft's sealing technology—they were completely ignorant about this technological aspect, lacking both data and theoretical support.

Therefore, Shireck's steamships had long been unable to hit the water, which left Shireck significantly lagging behind the Great Tang Group in the realm of naval weapons.

The young man who had just joined Shireck thought outside the box and solved their dilemma.

He employed the principle of water wheels, installing two huge, symmetrical water wheels high up on either side of the ship, driven by a steam engine to turn the wheels and propel the ship forward.

Yes, Shireck's first generation ironclad warships used the design of a paddle wheel ship, a somewhat outdated thought process.

However, being outdated brought its own advantages—at least this ship did not need to consider watertight structures for the drive shaft, and so the design was substantially simplified.

Although the speed of this type of ship was slow, it was indeed faster than a sailboat, and, crucially, it didn't rely on sails. It could sail against the wind, substantially increasing its versatility.

Of course, the paddle wheel ship had its own flaws—the biggest two being low propulsion efficiency and the paddle wheel obstructing the placement of cannons on the warship.

Compared to the Great Tang Group's warship, which had numerous cannons on its flanks, Shireck's new ironclad had only a couple of cannons, mounted at the bow and stern!

But these two cannons were copied from the Great Tang Group's breech-loading cannons by Shireck, with a performance that was much better compared to the muzzle-loading cannons on previous sailing warships.

Moreso, these two cannons were installed within rotating turrets, protected by iron plates, thus their survivability was much greater than a muzzle-loader set straightforwardly behind a gun port.

All in all, this was a brand new warship—the most advanced warship of Shireck!