Volume 1: The Battleship Yitian Changes into the Sino-Japanese War of 1894 Chapter 79: Finally a Nail
As soon as the war ended, Sun Gang obtained the consent of the generals of the Beiyang Fleet and Ding Ruchang, and issued an order to the Fuzhou Shipyard to build two new submarines, and put forward specific requirements. First, they must be able to sail in the ocean and have a high endurance and speed. Second, they must be able to be used for surface combat. Third, they must stay underwater for a longer time. The reason why he put forward these currently somewhat "harsh" conditions was to test the ability of Chinese ship designers to design independently and see what level they were at. When the Fuzhou Shipyard sent people to request submarine design drawings, he also said that there was no need to follow the drawings completely, meaning to give them room to play freely. At that time, they were full of confidence, but he felt uneasy. After they left, he regretted it a little, for fear that they would create a monster for him.
When he heard that the Fuzhou Shipyard had completed the project so quickly and even sent someone to drive a submarine over, his first reaction was to jump up and run to the dock.
When he rushed to the dock, many officers and soldiers were gathered there watching the excitement. When they saw him coming, they automatically made way for him. When he walked closer and took a look, he widened his eyes in surprise and was speechless.
Unlike the submarines he had imagined, the two ships in front of him looked like extended large torpedo boats, except that they had no masts and their tonnage was a bit too large (they looked to be about 1,000 tons, larger than both the "Feiting" and the "Flying Eagle").
It looks like it's fully enclosed.
Completely different from the "Changjing" submarine, these two submarines adopt the design of surface ships, but also take underwater navigation into consideration. The entire boat shape is somewhat similar to the German U-boat during World War II, but there are still big differences. The overall look still gives people the illusion that it is a surface ship.
What surprised Sun Gang even more was the large-caliber rapid-fire gun mounted on the boat. It seemed that his statement that it could be used for surface combat had some misleading effect.
Seeing him coming, the two acting captains came forward to greet him. Both of them were graduates of the Fujian Naval Academy, one was called Chen Dingce and the other was called Lu Wenjin, both were garrison captains. According to them, the two submarines were jointly researched and designed by the technical personnel headed by Zheng Jielian of the Fuzhou Shipyard. As the requirements proposed by Sun Gang were quite difficult, these talented people racked their brains and came up with a strange workaround. In order to take into account the long-distance voyage and increase the speed, they adopted a design similar to the appearance of the "Guangyi" class torpedo cruiser and the "Dingyuan Affiliated No. 1" torpedo boat, and made it into the shape of a surface ship. Usually, they go out to sea for cruising, mainly on the surface. Once they encounter the enemy, they dive underwater and attack with torpedoes. After they succeed, they surface and leave. In order to take into account the surface navigation, the underwater performance of this class of submarines has not been improved much. Moreover, due to the problem of battery power, although it can dive to a depth of 20 meters, underwater navigation is much slower than surface navigation.
Chen Dingce told him that after the two submarines were completed and tested at sea, their endurance was about the same as that of the "Guangyi" class torpedo cruiser, but their surface speed could reach 20 knots! However, they were much slower when submerged, with a maximum speed of only 8 knots. In addition, because the hull was large, the batteries were easily exhausted and had to be frequently surfaced for charging. This was an "imperfect" aspect, and the Fuzhou Shipyard also admitted that there was no better way for the time being, so they could only slowly find ways to improve it in the future.
After listening to their introduction, Sun Gang finally realized that the two things made for him by these talented people from the Fuzhou Shipyard could not be called real submarines in the strict sense. They should be considered as the "semi-submersible ships" of later generations. However, under the current technical conditions, the Chinese were able to make a "semi-submersible ship" by themselves, which was a miracle in itself!
Sun Gang boarded the two "submarines" with a pleasant surprise and took a closer look. He learned their detailed data. They were all the same class of boats, using the then new double-layer hull design of the West, with a standard displacement of 950 tons, driven by internal combustion engines on the surface, with a speed of 20 knots, and driven by electric motors underwater, with a speed of 5 to 8 knots. The main weapons were two 14-inch torpedo tubes at the bow and one at the stern. As the main weapons for surface combat, they were equipped with a 120mm large-caliber rapid-fire gun at the bow and a 57mm Hotchkiss single-barrel machine gun at the stern. Since they were mainly used for sea raids, in order to ensure high speed, some unnecessary things were removed. However, Chinese designers, through the bloody lessons of the Fengdao naval battle, tried their best to use high-quality steel plates to strengthen their protection. In general, this was an excellent warship with a very sophisticated design, which fully reflected the wisdom and creativity of the Chinese people at that time. At this time, Sun Gang stood on their deck and actually felt like he was in a dream.
This is the second-class submarine designed and built by the Chinese!
Chen Dingce also told him that on the day of the sea trial, Liu Buchan, the admiral of the Fujian Navy, was so envious that he almost vomited blood. He immediately modified the Fujian Navy's order. He originally planned to get six cruisers, but he reduced it to three, and the other three were all converted into this new type of submarine. The Guangdong Navy was also envious when they knew about it, and increased the order for two new submarines. The news was passed to Zhang Zhidong, the Minister of Nanyang. Zhang was unwilling to lag behind and bought four more submarines for the Nanyang Navy. In this way, it won't be long all four fleets of the Chinese Navy will have submarine forces!
Upon hearing the news, Sun Gang couldn't suppress his excitement.
If these submarines can form combat effectiveness, combined with future battleships, who would dare to show off their might and cause trouble at China's doorstep?
Soon, the two new submarines officially joined the Beiyang Navy's combat sequence. Sun Gang named one of them "Haijiao" and the other "Haibao". The captain of "Haijiao" was Wen Junfeng, and the captain of "Haibao" was Qu Feipeng (a graduate of Tianjin Naval Academy). The Beiyang Fleet's rear camp submarine detachment was officially established and separated from the torpedo boat detachment. In this way, the Beiyang Fleet's four "equipment" of "hammer", "anvil", "chisel" and "nail" were complete.
Now, even if the Russians came knocking on his door right away, he would feel much more at ease.
Wen Junfeng was almost excited about the new submarine. In the name of training sailors, he drove the "Haijiao" all over the sea and conducted several diving tests, proving that the quality and performance of this class of submarines were quite good. Sun Gang told the two captains about his "wolf pack" tactics, which surprised the top student from Tianjin named Qu Feipeng. He immediately discussed the specific training methods with Wen Junfeng and started targeted training.
He only heard about their training results after the Beiyang Fleet returned from the south.
That day, the Beiyang Fleet returned to Lushun. When it was about to reach Weihai, the ships on the way reported that there seemed to be an unidentified ship following them, but the other party appeared and disappeared from time to time, and its whereabouts were uncertain. Lin Tai was secretly shocked and asked the entire fleet to be on alert. But one day he found that a ship that should be a warship was always wandering not far from "Dingyuan". He was angry and immediately ordered Qiu Baoren's "Haining" cruiser, which was currently the fastest in the Beiyang Fleet, to chase it, "regardless of which country's ship, it must be captured." Qiu Baoren received the order and immediately ordered the "Haining" ship to rush out of the array and approach the unidentified ship at high speed, but the speed of the other party was not slow! Seeing the "Haining" rushing over, he immediately turned around and fled for his life. After a while, it disappeared on the sea like a ghost, which surprised Qiu Baoren. Qiu Baoren looked around but did not find the target. He was afraid of being too far away from the fleet, so he had to return to the ship, but soon after he came back, he found that the ship actually appeared near "Kaiyuan"! Qiu Baoren was shocked and immediately sent a signal to the "Kaiyuan", but the ship disappeared after a while. The officers and soldiers on the "Kaiyuan" thought they had seen a ghost. Even Lin Yongsheng, who had never believed in superstition, was a little confused. Lin Taizeng was very annoyed and ordered to speed up to Lushun. When they were almost at Lushun, the waves suddenly rolled up not far from the left side of the "Dingyuan", and a strange mastless ship that had never been seen before surfaced. If they had not seen the flying golden dragon emblem on the bow and recognized it as one of their own, the officers and soldiers of the fleet who had been "harassed" for so long would almost open fire.
"It moves like a rabbit and moves like a ghost." This is Lin Taizeng's evaluation of the submarine after he came back. He also admired the combat skills of the two submarine captains and said, "Such a good ship, we should add more."
"I have placed an additional order with the Fuzhou Shipyard to build two more ships." Sun Gang said, "With the cooperation of submarines, armored warships and fast ships, our navy will be able to roam the seas and defend against powerful enemies outside the country in the future. It should not be a problem."
"The thought of our own ironclad warships is indescribably exciting." Lin Taizeng looked at him and said, "If you can accomplish this feat, you will be the first person in the history of coastal defense."
Listening to his comrades' excited words, Sun Gang's heart also began to beat fast.
He doesn't want any fame, he just wants China to face the ocean and truly stand up one day!
