"Haydn, what are you thinking?"

Chogula took a glass of milk and placed it on the dining table covered with snow-white linen. She turned her head and asked. Lee Haydn looked straight at the Istria Shipyard not far from the bay outside the window, and fell into a habitual daze.

They now live in a crimson villa on a steep hillside by the sea, with a clear panoramic view of the entire shipyard from the windows, and the other direction is the pointed roof of the Ivant Cathedral and the Gothic-style office building of the Imperial Mail Shipping Company.

"I was wondering if it was necessary to build another 20,000-ton dock." Li Haydn said. In the bay, the expansion of the Istria Shipyard has started since he returned from the Far East a year ago. Two 6,000-ton and a 12,000-ton dry dock are installing ship locks. On the other hand, several newly built factories have also begun to be topped off. From time to time, the sound of ding-knit iron tools hitting is not unpleasant.

"Oh my God, you have invested nearly 7.6 million kroner in the shipyard, and you still have to spend money?!" Qiaogula shouted. Although the man in front of her is very profitable, she is definitely not slow to spend money. She has never seen the company's dividends, and even her usual expenses rely on the income from her own manor.

"Now Ferdinand is on the 'Queen Elizabeth' and started his global journey. When he returns to Vienna, he will become very interested in the navy, and our opportunity will come." Lee Hayden said lightly. In fact, he was thinking about how to steal the orders of two Argentine Navy cruisers from the Italians. "We have to prepare in advance."

"But I usually have to use money, Haydn," said Chogola.

"Okay, okay, in the future, you can withdraw 20,000 kroner bonuses from the company's profit every year." Lee Hayden said helplessly.

"This is definitely not enough, I need two hundred thousand," said Chogula.

"What are you doing with that much money?" Lee Hayden jumped up, "We have only two of us, oh, of course, and little Luther." Luther is the son of Chogula, who is only four years old this year.

"Hundred thousand!" Jogula took a step back, and Lee Haydn had to agree to her request.

He looked at Jogula's snow-white chest and remembered one thing he thought of when he was sweating profusely in bed last night, "Pistol movement, yes, it seems that I need to build my own internal combustion engine plant and automobile plant."

"Hey!" Jogula raised the volume helplessly, "Have you agreed?"

...

"Haydn, you will never stop adding new things that have not been verified by practice on the drawings. The new battleship design of the Imperial Navy may not be completed in 18.95." Lieutenant General Popel sighed. The old emperor's mind was in trouble and he actually sent his nephew, an assistant shipbuilding engineer, to the Navy Technical Committee. Now it has brought great trouble to the design of the new ship.

"General Popel, before we start designing a new warship, we must first determine its performance and purpose. I insist that the request made by the Admiralty at the beginning was wrong." Lee Haydn said, "A warship with a displacement of less than 6,000 tons actually requires four 240mm cannons to be installed, and only those ugly open-air turrets can be chosen."

The focus of the debate between Lee Haydn and Poppel is artillery and armor. Since the French invented the partition threaded gun bolt as the artillery locking device in 1880, the naval naval gun finally completed the transformation from borehole to breech gun. Since 1875, the British have begun to try to equip warships with rotating turrets. Since then, various turret designs have emerged one after another. It was not until the early 20th century that the fully enclosed rotating turret completely replaced the turret.

This is an era of mixing turrets and fully enclosed rotary turrets. Even the British, who were extremely sensitive to naval technology, have not yet completely replaced the exposed rotary turrets with fully enclosed rotary turrets. With the popularity of smokeless fired gunpowder, thick smoke generated during artillery firing is no longer an insurmountable difficulty. The benefits of using a fully enclosed rotary turret with heavy armor are obvious. Otherwise, the debris caused by a high-explosive bomb in the enemy during naval warfare would be enough to kill the main gun on a warship.

The trouble before Lieutenant General Popel is whether the new warship of the Imperial Navy should be an armored ship or a cruiser. According to the budget, it can only be designed as a cruiser. However, the Navy requires it to be an armored ship and be equipped with at least 4 or more 240mm artillery pieces. In this way, its only option is an open-air stud turret, because the fully enclosed rotating turret is much more complex and heavier than a stud stud turret.

As the chief designer and shipbuilding director of the Imperial Navy, General Poper is well aware of the development of the world's navy and the latest technologies. The problem is that in the application of new naval technologies, he and warship designers from various countries will be troubled by many aspects. First, the naval technology is changing with each passing day and develops too fast. Many newly built warships become "outdated goods" even before they are launched, which is also a reality that no country's navies cannot avoid. Secondly, the application of new technologies poses great risks, and it also means more expenses. Before these new technologies are tested in actual combat, no one can guarantee that they will definitely play a certain role in improving the performance of warships.

Finally, there are troubles from the budget of the Admiral and the parliamentary department. The Admiral always wants to get the best and most powerful warships, while the parliament is trying to reduce the naval military expenses. The Hungarian parliament has never passed any budget bill on naval appropriations. The Magyars, who have the long coastline of Croatia and Dalmatia, have always believed that they are a standard landlocked country and have no intention of bearing the 30% coastal defense expenses they promised.

Lee Haydn strongly advocates the use of a fully enclosed main turret and equipped with smaller caliber rapid-fire cannons, which is obviously not accepted by the Admiralty. On the other hand, it is the watertight compartment design. Lee Haydn advocates canceling all horizontal and vertical compartment watertight doors according to the German method, and only the watertight caps on the top of each deck are retained.

"This will make the sailors in the navy scold to death. For example, if the sailors in the bottom cabin think about the next cabin, they will have to climb up through three to four decks and then climb down from adjacent grids." Popper said, "Why are we setting up the cabin doors? Not for the convenience of movement." Since the British naval engineer Samuel Bensham first used the watertight cabin technology invented by the Chinese to build warships in 1795, the watertight cabin design of ships around the world has always been like this.

"The problem is that it is not reliable and solid enough. On the other hand, in the tense battles, sailors often forget to close it in time. Especially when they are shot, this has seriously violated the original intention of setting up these cabins." Lee Haydn said, "What's the complaints and scoldings of the sailors, we can't hear them anyway. Our cabin design is to improve the anti-sinking and survivability of warships, not to be praised by sailors."

"Well, let's give up on this debate, and I agree with your idea of ​​integrating some of the compartment armor into the hull structure, which needs to be done again," Popper said. "But it's not possible to cut armor to increase speed. The navy needs armored ships rather than cruisers."

"Then let them add additional funds."

"This cannot be done, and it is impossible for the parliament to approve it." Popel shrugged his shoulders. Now he threw the problem to Lee Haydn, allowing him to experience his difficulties.

But Lee Haydn did not expect the Naval Technical Committee to adopt his suggestions. He was too young and had been promoted to Naval Lieutenant Colonel, but it was just because he was a member of the Habsburg family. Now he was not qualified to allow the old guys in the Naval Technical Committee to listen to his suggestions patiently.
Chapter completed!