Chapter 219: Chapter 206: Fast Cruiser

The Monarch-class battleship has a hull length of 146.1 meters, a hull width of 26.8 meters, and a draft of 8.67 meters.

This battleship has a crew of 988 people, a standard displacement of 18,490 tons, and a full-load displacement of 20,910 tons.

Since the propulsion system plans to use four steam turbines similar to those on the Dreadnought-class, along with 18 coal-fired drum boilers, the Monarch-class battleship’s speed does not differ much from the Dreadnought-class, and its top speed is also expected to reach 21 knots.

In terms of armor protection, the Monarch-class battleship adopts the armor protection system of the Nassau-class battleship, with the most robust protection being the armor belt in the middle of the ship, with a thickness of about 300mm, providing protection for the engine room and boiler room.

The protective armor thickness of the main guns turret and command tower is 280mm, which is on par with the Dreadnought-class maximum protection level.

In order to reduce weight, the Nassau-class battleship has its side armor gradually reduced from the middle towards the ends.

However, the Monarch-class battleship does not weaken its side armor, causing the estimated full load water capacity of the Monarch-class battleship to be about 400 tons more than that of the Nassau-class battleship.

In summary, aside from the current use of 280mm main guns in line with German mainstream artillery, the propulsion system and armor protection of the Monarch-class battleship can balance with the Dreadnought-class, and its armor protection is even superior.

If in the future all the guns are replaced with 45 caliber or even 50 caliber 305mm main guns, the Monarch-class battleship will become a true Dreadnought-class, achieving all-round improvement.

After the design of Monarch-class battleship was completed, Arthur was in a very good mood, and even gave each expert involved in the blueprint design a 10,000 Australian dollar check.

Although it will still take some time to start production, and the battleship may not be launched for another two or three years, having a Dreadnought-class of their own is enough for Arthur.

Moreover, most of the powerful nations have only made it to this level, so it is already good to have a design blueprint for a dreadnought-class.

Australasia may be ahead of some powerful countries in dreadnought-class battleships.

Although the Monarch-class is highly confidential, William II still learned of its design.

Although surprised that Arthur didn’t rush to produce the Nassau-class battleships, but rather based on the technology of the Nassau-class and the existing Dreadnought-class to produce a better, unique Australasian dreadnought-class.

But William II couldn’t help but ponder whether the improved Nassau-class was really on par with the steam turbine technology adopted by Britain and Australasia, instead of the old three-cylinder reciprocating steam engine.

The practical performance of the old three-cylinder reciprocating steam engine and coal-fired boiler used on the Nassau-class battleship has been well-tested and is not a concern.

But could it truly rival the steam turbine technology on the Dreadnought-class and Monarch-class? Even German experts are not so sure.

The reason they chose the old technology for the Nassau-class is to see the actual data of the Dreadnought-class trials and whether there will be any problems before making new plans.

However, looking at the currently known three dreadnought-class designs, the Nassau-class, upgraded with all of Germany’s efforts, is indeed falling behind in propulsion technology.

As a result, William II made two decisions: first, to try to improve the Nassau-class’s propulsion system again, keeping its maximum speed at 21 knots, consistent with the Dreadnought-class and Monarch-class; Secondly, he ordered German military factories to conduct extensive research on 305mm guns, as Germany must not fall behind in this industry as the new battleships would all adopt 305mm guns.

Arthur also had a brief conversation with William II, and the two sides reached an important trade agreement: Australasia would share the Monarch-class battleship design with Germany in exchange for sharing German advances in artillery and submarine technology for the next three years.

This is crucial for Australasia. Although Germany has not yet mastered the 305mm 45-caliber gun technology, it managed to catch up and successfully develop a 50-caliber 305mm gun in just over two years.

This will greatly enhance the firepower of the battleships, and is an indispensable technology for developing warships.

Secondly, there is German submarine technology. Up to now, German submarine technology has been lagging behind among the major powers.

This is largely because Germany did not pay much attention to the development of this technology when submarines were first born.

Germany’s first submarine, the Trout, was built in 1902 based on the design of a Spanish engineer.

It was not until 1904 that the German Navy established a submarine construction office specifically responsible for naval submarine construction.

So far, the submarine technology Germany has mastered is not advanced, but Germany has enormous potential in developing submarines.

Moreover, now the most likely source for Australasia to acquire submarine technology is Germany, and Arthur naturally won’t let this opportunity slip away.

William II was very satisfied with the deal to exchange complete design information of the Monarch-class battleship for artillery technology and submarine technology within three years.

After all, this can be regarded as the most advanced warship independently designed by Australasia, and its level of advancement is definitely top-notch in the world.

Even if this technology were in Germany, William II would not think it possible to share it with other countries without bleeding, let alone relatively backward Australasia in terms of technology.

Because they had obtained the complete design information of the Monarch-class battleship, Germany’s 1907 construction plan differed from history as well.

Originally in history, Germany built four Nassau-class battleships in 1904, namely Nassau, Westfalen, Rhine, and Posen.

After having the seemingly more advanced Monarch-class battleship, the German Navy made a temporary decision to modify the Rhine and Posen into Monarch-class battleships, and their construction time, like the other two Nassau-class battleships, was in mid-1907.

Having just finished the deal with Germany, Arthur once again gave the naval experts a difficult problem, which was to develop a fast battleship, or battlecruiser, with powerful firepower and excellent power, and to somewhat reduce armor protection capabilities.

In order to let these experts have a thorough understanding of the so-called fast battleships, Arthur carefully explained it to them.

The so-called fast battleship is actually a battlecruiser in the true sense.

Each country has different views on battlecruisers. The first country to build battlecruisers was the United Kingdom, and their concept of battlecruisers emphasized firepower and speed while relatively disregarding armor protection.

On the other hand, Germany also built their own battlecruisers in the future, and their view on battlecruisers emphasized armor and speed while relatively disregarding firepower.

However, no matter what the view is, battlecruisers are warships with high tactical value, which slightly reduce armor or firepower in exchange for higher speed.

With high speed and firepower that matches battleships, battlecruisers can fight battleships and use their speed and firepower to suppress smaller ones; non-battleship warships suffer absolute crushing.

It is also because of the high speed of battlecruisers that it is possible to flank the enemy fleet during naval battles and surround and intercept them.

Compared to battleships, as long as the high-speed advantage of battlecruisers remains, they will not fall behind the times as quickly as battleships.

Compared to the newly-born dreadnoughts, battlecruisers are more suitable as main battleships to expand the scale of Australasia’s warships.

Of course, this doesn’t mean that dreadnoughts are not important for Australasia. It’s just that the speed of dreadnoughts’ upgrades is too fast, and they are not suitable for large-scale construction in a short time.

After receiving Arthur’s order, the design team of the navy shipyard became busy again.

Arthur had the most basic requirements for this kind of warship called a fast battleship; the speed must reach at least 25 knots and be equipped with at least ten 280mm main guns, leaving room for improvement to install 305mm main guns later.

What does this represent? This represents that this kind of warship already has firepower comparable to battleships, and even powerful enough to compete with the recently-born dreadnoughts.

Looking at the speed again, the current highest speed record for battleships is only 21 knots for the Dreadnought-class battleship, while Arthur’s maximum speed requirement for fast battleships has reached 25 knots, which is not a small change.

Although Arthur agreed to cut the armor of some unimportant areas to balance the powerful firepower and speed, it remained a contentious issue as to which part of the armor should be reduced and to what extent.

Arthur’s requirements made the experts in Australasia quite troubled, and they had to indirectly consult the German experts regarding some of the issues.

But it’s not their fault. The world’s earliest battlecruisers were the Invincibles of the British – the Invincible-class battlecruisers: Invincible, Indefatigable, and Resolute.

Although the construction of these three battlecruisers had begun, they would not be launched until a year later in 1907.

Before they were launched, these three battlecruisers were kept secret, like the previous dreadnoughts, and were considered one of the top secrets of the British Navy.

This also meant that apart from the current British experts, there were not many shipbuilding experts who had been exposed to the theory of battlecruisers.

This can’t help but praise the British shipbuilding industry’s advanced and powerful capabilities, as dreadnoughts and battlecruisers, which changed the naval system and structure, were all born in shipyards of the British Empire.