Sane looked at the Crown Prince with confusion: "Iron shell? What do you plan to use it for?"
Joseph replied without hesitation: "Of course, it’s to resist cannonballs."
Sane shook his head with a smile, equally without hesitation: "That’s impossible, Your Highness. Even to defend against cannonballs shot from a distance, say a 24-pounder from 500 ters away, you need at least 5 centiters of thick iron plate."
He quickly calculated in his mind: "This would add at least 250 tons to a fourth-level battleship. You know, even though the propulsion of steam battleships is quite strong, such heavy load would reduce its speed to below 9 knots, and seriously affect the carrying capacity for coal and supplies."
He spoke rather politely, but in truth, a fourth-level ship with a displacent just over 1,000 tons, if the armor alone weighs a quarter, would hardly be navigable.
Joseph nodded with so regret, "Ironclad" ships seem out of reach in the short-term.
Moreover, 5 centiters of armor is insufficient. He recalled that historically, the "Napoleon" had armor of 10 to 12 centiters, capable of resisting the direct shots from a Russian Army 32-pounder. It was then truly of practical value.
The main issue is still the steam engine’s power, otherwise even heavier ships could be propelled by significant force.
Sane comforted the Crown Prince: "Your Highness, if you want to enhance protection, we can at most increase the steam battleship’s hull by another 4 centiters thicker, aning the oak hull."
Joseph sighed, the additional few centiters on the wooden hull would hardly have an effect, at most strengthening the defense against cannons under 12 pounds. While in battleship engagents, the main weaponry is cannons over 24 pounds.
He casually asked: "How much heavier can new ships weigh compared to regular fourth-level ships?"
"About 25 tons, Your Highness."
This weight is barely worth ntioning...
"Wait a minute." Joseph suddenly stopped walking, who said this weight couldn’t be utilized, he thought of iron ribs.
In this era, the structure of warships is basically to first lay a thick keel, the main support fra at the bottom of the ship. Then along the keel, every 0.7 to 1.5 ters, install a pair of arched ribs from the bow to the stern. And the hull is supported by these ribs.
Currently, ship ribs are all made of oak. If replaced with iron, it can greatly increase the ship’s defense—
If enemy cannonballs hit the position of iron ribs, they are almost impossible to penetrate. Even the oak hull within a dozen centiters front and rear of the rib will beco substantially more resilient due to strong support.
In other words, nearly half of the ship will transform into an enhanced defense area!
Joseph didn’t bother calculating himself, directly asked Sane: "If all the ribs on the ship are replaced with iron, how much weight would be added?"
Sane couldn’t respond "instantly" this ti, because ribs are curved, accurate calculations require calculus.
After seven or eight minutes, Sane looked at the calculation results in his notebook and said: "About 15 tons, Your Highness."
"That ans it’s totally bearable." Joseph said excitedly, "Then we’ll replace all ribs with iron, this will greatly enhance the ship’s defenses."
Sane froze for a mont, then shook his head: "Your Highness, I’m afraid it’s not feasible."
"Oh? Why?"
The chief designer patiently explained: "Your Highness, you know that iron items on the ship rust very easily, especially the ribs that soak partially in seawater—this stems from the hull needing to take in ballast water when empty—which makes the situation more severe.
"Moreover, ribs are load-bearing components, even if they rust one-fifth, they will struggle to support the ship’s structure, possibly leading to severe warping of the hull.
"In fact, the Spaniards once used iron bolts to strengthen the connection between ribs and keel, as a result, they had to replace all bolts every three months. Later, they had to switch back to wooden wedges."
The humidity at sea is very high, and the air contains salty water vapor, causing iron items to rust extensively.
Joseph imdiately thought of stainless steel, but the Namura Steel Factory has only produced manganese steel so far, stainless steel is nowhere in sight.
Recalling various rust prevention thods from later generations, he quickly found one he could use: "We can protect the iron ribs with sacrificial anodes."
Sane blinked: "You an, sacrificial... anodes what?"
"The essence of tal rusting is losing electrons to oxidization..." Joseph said just one sentence and stopped, "The principle can be elaborated by Mr. Coulomb.
"In practice, it’s about adding a block of zinc to iron components, better if galvanized. This way, ’rusting’ occurs to the zinc block, while iron remains intact."
Hmm, explaining the "galvanic cell effect" is too complicated, mainly because people of this era barely have a concept of electricity. If you tell them about donating electrons from a tal more active than iron, to protect iron from participating in oxidation reaction, they might listen as if they haven’t.
Sane naturally nodded chanically: "You, are sure this works?"
"Of course, you can verify by experints yourself." Joseph said, "In the future, just need to periodically replace anodes... uh, aning replace the consud zinc blocks."
Sane’s eyes started shining. The Crown Prince’s academic reputation he had long been aware of to the point of weariness, now filled with excitent, having no doubt—he as a ship design expert naturally understands the significance of replacing all ribs with iron.
He promptly added: "Your Highness, if steel materials can be used extensively, then ’rib beams’ can also be swapped for iron, further increasing defense density. Probably adding another five to six tons."
Rib beams are the transverse beams between ribs, also capable of resisting cannonballs.
Before Joseph could speak, Sane slapped his thigh forcefully: "Furthermore, the rivets needed for copper plating at the ship’s bottom can be replaced with iron, reducing rivet density by about 30%, significantly speeding up construction."
Joseph didn’t quite understand: "You an rivet density is?"
Sane hurriedly explained: "Your Highness, you previously ordered copper plating for all warship bottoms, and because iron rivets rust easily, we have to use brass rivets to secure copper plating.
"You know, brass is very soft, to ensure copper plating doesn’t fall off, rivet density must be increased.
"But now, with your rust prevention thod, we can use hard iron rivets."
Joseph praised the chief designer’s ability to utilize new technologies but imdiately thought of another issue: "Wait, you an the current rivets fixing the copper at the ship’s bottom are brass rivets?"
"Yes, Your Highness."
"Then the copper’s material is?"
"Also brass, Your Highness."
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