Chapter 207: The Fast Cruiser
The Monarch-class battleship has a hull length of 146.1 meters, a beam of 26.8 meters, and a draft of 8.67 meters. This battleship's crew consists of 988 personnel, with a normal displacement of 18,490 tons and a full load displacement of 20,910 tons.
It is expected to use the same design as the Dreadnought, with four steam turbine propulsion units and 18 coal-burning steam boilers, which would allow the Monarch to achieve a maximum speed similar to the Dreadnought, with a top speed of around 21 knots.
In terms of armor protection, the Monarch-class battleship follows the armor protection system of the Nassau-class. The strongest protection is found in the armor belt along the midship sides, with a thickness of around 300 millimeters, providing protection to the engine and boiler rooms.
The armor thickness on the front of the main gun turrets and the command tower is 280 millimeters, matching the maximum protection level of the Dreadnought. To reduce weight, the Nassau-class battleship used an armor scheme that tapered from the middle to the ends of the hull.
The Monarch-class, however, did not reduce the thickness of its side armor, which resulted in a predicted full load displacement that was nearly 400 tons heavier than the Nassau-class at full load.
In summary, aside from the fact that the firepower system still uses the German-standard 280mm guns, the Monarch's propulsion and armor systems balance well with those of the Dreadnought, and its armor protection is even superior. Once the guns are upgraded to 45-caliber or even 50-caliber 305mm guns, the Monarch-class will be a true Dreadnought, with comprehensive improvements across the board.
After the design of the Monarch-class battleship was completed, Arthur was in high spirits and even gave a check for 10,000 Australian dollars to each expert who contributed to the design.
Although it would still take some time before production could begin, and there would be a period of trial and error in the production process, the actual launch of the ship might take another two or three years. But for Arthur, the fact that Australasia would soon have its own Dreadnought was enough.
Moreover, most of the great powers had only reached this stage at best, and simply having a Dreadnought design was already impressive. Australasia might even be ahead of some of these great powers in the Dreadnought field.
Although Australasia kept the Monarch-class battleship design secret, Wilhelm II still learned about the Dreadnought design.
While Wilhelm II was surprised that Arthur wasn't rushing to build the Nassau-class, but rather was using the Nassau and Dreadnought designs to create a better Dreadnought for Australasia, he was still deep in thought regarding the choice of new technology like steam turbines instead of the older three-cylinder reciprocating steam engines.
The older three-cylinder reciprocating steam engines and coal-fired boilers used in the Nassau had already passed many tests, ensuring practical reliability. But could they truly compete with the steam turbine technology used by the British? Even Wilhelm II, and probably even the German experts, couldn't be sure.
The reason they opted for the older technology in the Nassau-class was more to observe the real-world data from the Dreadnought's sea trials, to see if any issues arose before making a final decision.
However, based on the three Dreadnought designs available to Germany at the time, the Nassau-class, modified with Germany's best efforts, was still lagging behind in terms of its power system.
For this reason, Wilhelm II made two decisions: First, to find ways to further improve the Nassau's power system, ensuring that its predicted maximum speed stayed consistent with the Dreadnought and Monarch, at 21 knots. Second, he ordered Germany's military factories to conduct large-scale research on 305mm guns, so that in the future, Germany would not fall behind in the industry, with new battleships all using 305mm guns.
Arthur also had a brief conversation with Wilhelm II, during which they reached an important trade agreement. Australasia would share the Monarch-class battleship design with Germany in exchange for Germany sharing its future research on artillery and submarine technology within three years.
This was a significant opportunity for Australasia. While Germany had not yet mastered the 45-caliber 305mm gun technology, within two years, they would catch up and successfully develop a 50-caliber 305mm gun, which would significantly enhance the firepower of warships—an essential technology for warship development.
Another area of interest was Germany's submarine technology. As of now, Germany's submarine technology was somewhat behind in terms of the major powers. This was largely because Germany hadn't paid much attention to submarine development when the technology was first emerging.
Germany's first submarine, the Fisch, was built in 1902 based on designs by a Spanish engineer. It wasn't until 1904 that Germany established the Submarine Construction Office to oversee the development of the German Navy's submarines.
To date, Germany's submarine technology was not advanced, but they had significant potential in this area. Given that Germany was the most likely source of submarine technology for Australasia, Arthur was certainly not going to pass up the opportunity.
Wilhelm II was very satisfied with the trade, as he knew the Monarch-class was the most advanced warship ever designed by Australasia, and it was top-tier by global standards. Even in Germany, Wilhelm II knew that it was impossible to share such cutting-edge technology with other countries without significant consideration.
Because of the trade, Germany's 1907 shipbuilding plans were different from the historical timeline. Originally, Germany had built four Nassau-class battleships in 1904: Nassau, Westfalen, Rheinland, and Posen. However, after acquiring the seemingly more advanced Monarch design, Germany's Navy decided to modify Rheinland and Posen to Monarch-class specifications, with the construction of these ships set to begin in mid-1907.
After completing the deal with Germany, Arthur presented another challenge to the naval experts: to develop a powerful warship with excellent speed and firepower, but with reduced armor protection—a fast battleship or battlecruiser.
To ensure the experts understood what a fast battleship was, Arthur carefully explained the concept to them.
A fast battleship, in essence, is a battlecruiser. Every country has a different perspective on battlecruisers. The United Kingdom was the first to build battlecruisers, emphasizing firepower and speed, while de-emphasizing armor protection.
Germany also later built its own battlecruisers, emphasizing armor and speed while downplaying firepower. Regardless of the approach, a battlecruiser is a ship that sacrifices some armor and firepower in exchange for greater speed, which has high tactical value.
Because of its high speed, a battlecruiser can fight battleships head-to-head, or alternatively, use its speed and firepower to dominate smaller, non-battleship ships. It can also maneuver around enemy fleets to block or intercept them.
Compared to the Dreadnought, a battlecruiser is better suited as a main battleship to expand Australasia's fleet.
This doesn't mean that Dreadnoughts are unimportant to Australasia, just that their rapid development makes large-scale construction impractical in the short term.
After receiving Arthur's orders, the naval shipyard design team got back to work.
Arthur had basic requirements for the so-called fast battleship: it should achieve a speed of at least 25 knots, be equipped with at least ten 280mm main guns, and leave room for future upgrades to 305mm guns.
What does this mean? This means that the ship's firepower would already rival that of a battleship and even be comparable to the newly born Dreadnought.
As for speed, while the Dreadnought's maximum speed was only 21 knots, Arthur's requirement for the fast battleship was 25 knots, which was a significant change.
To balance its firepower and speed, Arthur agreed to reduce the armor in less important areas.
However, which areas to reduce armor and by how much was still open for discussion.
The experts were quite troubled by Arthur's requirements, and some of the issues could only be addressed with advice from the German experts.
However, this was not their fault. The first battlecruisers were the British Invincible, Inflexible, and Indefatigable, which were known as the Invincible-class battlecruisers.
Although these ships were already under construction, they wouldn't be launched until 1907. Before their launch, they were kept under strict secrecy, just like the Dreadnought, and were one of the British Navy's top secrets.
This meant that, apart from the British experts, not many shipbuilding experts had yet encountered the theory behind battlecruisers.
This once again highlights the strength of British shipbuilding—warships that revolutionized naval warfare, like the Dreadnought and battlecruisers, all came from British shipyards.
(End of Chapter)
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