The dispute in the meeting room became more and more intense, from day to night.


    In order to stimulate his brain hole, Haite even went out to pick up the design team members who had been idle at home for more than half a year and were looking forward to Haite''s getting out of trouble.


    A dozen tall, short, fat and thin people sat among the randomly stacked gold coins, burning tobacco, filling coffee, red eyes and sticking their necks. We can imagine the chaos in the conference room.


    But anyway, they succeeded.


    At 11 p.m., as Humphreys wrote his last stroke on the draft paper, everyone cheered and burst into deafening cheers.


    Haite won the honor of being the first to report the results to Lorraine.


    "Mr. KENWAY, I''m good at high-speed ships. Now I''ll report our ideas to you on high-speed, excellent speed and flexibility."


    With a crash, he turned around the plans and stacks of drafts in front of him.


    "The first is sailing. On the basis of the original Bermuda sail, the Bermuda sail pattern is fully adopted. At the same time, the bow inclined mast is lengthened to 15m, so that it can place five large triangular bow sails."


    "The overall canvas layout is as follows: the main mast has seven narrow side cross sails, six foremasts, four rear masts, full wing sails, five large triangular bow sails, the front main mast catches sails on four sides, the main rear mast catches sails on three sides, and the rear mast is 20 meters high with bone soft longitudinal sails."


    "At the same time, we have abandoned the original white glue water line coating and replaced it with the most expensive ship bottom coated copper. The copper sheet is 1 inch (2.5 cm) thick. It is expected to increase the speed by 20%, and the excellent wind and flexibility can meet your requirements!"


    Karen stood up after him: "you know I''m good at warship design in traditional fields, so I''ll report the attack and defense layout."


    "In terms of firepower, we still maintain the design of single-layer gun cabin, but we have comprehensively upgraded the gun door and caliber, reaching 54 doors of the whole ship."


    "Among them, the gun cabin adopts 30 32 pound long-range guns on both sides as the main gun, the main deck is equipped with three front and four rear guns, and 14 24 pound short guns on both sides are close combat auxiliary guns. The bow gun is double-layer, two 68 pound mortar guns and two 18 pound short guns, the stern gun is double-layer, two 12 pound medium guns and four 18 pound medium guns."


    Lorraine turned his eyes. "Karen, thirty-two pounds long and sixty-eight pounds of mortar are non civilian, and the unheard of twenty-four pounds short. Where are you going to find it?"


    Karen raised his hand and pointed to Haite: "the 24 pound short is a great creation of the rostannis gun factory in Boston. It has changed the disadvantage of small caliber and low loading of the upper gun and greatly improved the cutting power of the high-speed ship. It is ridiculous that the US Navy has no warship suitable for using it, and Britain, France and other powers do not know its existence."


    "But after all, it is a local specialty of Boston. The general manager said he can get it. He can even prepare the equipment license and approval of the United States."


    "As for the origin of 32 pounds... Plymouth once had a design, that is, to apply the special retraction track and gun base of heavy artillery on medium caliber and small caliber naval guns, just like improving the loading speed of heavy artillery, to achieve British speed in medium and small caliber, and further widen the gap between Britain and other countries in artillery loading speed."


    Karen shrugged: "this plan naturally miscarried due to cost and cost performance, but it has formed two products. First, the mature and reliable modification scheme of additional turret is in my mind; second, the heavy artillery turret has become a separate commodity, and for some reason, it has not been included in non civilian."


    "So my plan is to buy a turret from Britain, buy 32 pounds through the count of galvis and refit it by myself."


    "The French gun is light and accurate, with long range and high durability. With the blessing of British speed, even if it is a medium-range bombardment of 300 to 500 meters, our battlecruisers will not lose to the class III ships of any country."


    Lorraine was stunned by this crazy idea. With British speed and French precision, he came up with the best 32 pound long gun in the world


    What is important is that this scheme is indeed feasible, has a high possibility of success, and will hardly encounter difficulties in the process.


    But he soon thought of a more critical problem and took a breath.


    "From today on, this transformation plan is listed in the top secret of the shipyard. No one is allowed to spread it, and it is not allowed to be applied to the ships of any individual or country without the special permission of the board meeting. At the same time, the outsourcing involving the transformation of castings should be mixed with other projects, and even the transformation can only be carried out secretly by the on-site personnel."


    "In a word, if you don''t want to become the enemy of life and death of the Royal Navy, this plan is rotten to your heart. Even your wife and children are not allowed to disclose it! I need you to swear for it."


    ……


    When such explicit concerns are raised, the smart people present will certainly not fail to think of the key.


    Everyone solemnly swore, and many still swore poison. Faith, soul, family, reputation, all kinds of valuable things were put on the altar just to make Lorraine and his companions believe that they would keep secrets.


    After a circle of people swore, most of the excitement in the conference room had dissipated.


    There was no one to mention the 32 pound long thing. Even the 68 pound mortar was put on hold for the time being. Lorraine only allowed the gun position to be vacated, and Lorraine slowly thought of other things.


    Karen continued his report.


    "In terms of defense, we are ready to introduce the full coverage gun gate scheme."


    "Building a gun cabin on the gun position on the main deck is the mainstream of the design of small and medium-sized military ships. On the one hand, it can reduce the fire preparation process on the upper deck and improve the overall reaction speed of the warship; on the other hand, it can give better protection to the upper gunners and let them focus on the enemy to the greatest extent."


    "In the second step, we are going to stick armor on the outside of the hull, especially on the front line of the gun cabin."


    "At present, the mainstream armor is generally cast iron, with a thickness of 1 inch (2.5 cm), 2 inches (5.1 cm) and 2.5 inches (6.4 cm), but only 2.5 inches can defend against 24 pound direct attack at 50 meters, so that''s our only choice."


    "In terms of implementation, the use of patch iron armor to defend the important parts of the ship body is the latest modification technology in recent years, but it is not military technology. We can easily find excellent craftsmen in Europe, and the only thing we need to invest is money."


    "The last step is the third step, mast protection."


    "Considering the situation that it is necessary to tangle with class I or class II ships under special circumstances, we analyze that due to the huge height difference between the freeboards of both sides, the projectile that is most likely to cause fatal attack to us will be chain projectile."


    "Once the mast is broken by the chain bullet, we will lose the speed we rely on to escape. This is our biggest death hole."


    "So the key to deal with this situation is to protect the mast. Our scheme is very simple. We install iron protection at the root of the mast for three meters, which is connected by rivets, with a thickness of 2 inches, taking into account the protection performance and the center of gravity of the mast. We think this scheme is enough to protect the mast from being broken at the same root."


    "The above is all the plans for the attack and defense end!"


    Among the applause, Karen took his seat, and the last master Humphreys stood up to face Lorraine.


    He said angrily, "Mr. KENWAY, I''m best at building mathematical models and adjusting the center of gravity, so I''ll make a final summary this time."


    "Based on the above transformation plan, the final theoretical data of the Battlecruiser is 62.2 meters long, 13.6 meters wide, 7.5 meters draft, 2500 tons of drainage and 400 full loaders."


    "Its upwind speed can reach 13 knots, upwind 4.5 knots, turn around for 15 minutes, and the turning radius is no more than three hull, giving consideration to speed and flexibility."


    "In terms of firepower, it is preset that the main gun is 32 pounds long and the auxiliary gun is 24 pounds short. The strongest firepower is the 68 pound mortar gun at the bow of the ship, which can cause destructive direct attack on the first-class ship at close range."


    "In terms of protection, the core part can withstand three rounds of direct attack by 24 pound guns and one direct attack by 32 pound guns at a distance of 50 meters. It has won all class IV ships and can effectively suppress class III ships."


    "Due to the small adjustment of the ship body in the transformation scheme, there is no need to customize new wood components. It is expected that the main construction time will be 18 months and the special transformation will be 18 months. The construction budget includes labor, ship loading, consumption and sea trial, with a total of about 150000-180000 pounds, close to twice the basic construction price of class I ship, and the full allocation price exceeds 30 percent."


    "It''s 30% more expensive than the fully equipped first-class ship..." Lorraine opened his mouth, but he couldn''t say the word of giving up this decadent, so he had to bite his teeth. "Isn''t it making money... Making money! That''s it!"


    When the repressed and restrained cheers began, Lorraine knew that it was the heartfelt gratitude of a group of technology houses when they found the wronged big head.


    Humphreys flushed with excitement, and his voice trembled faintly.


    "After preliminary calculation, most of the transformation can be successfully completed, only 32 pound guns..."


    "What happened to the gun?"


    Humphreys gritted his teeth: "the recoil force of the 32 pound long gun is too large, and the aspect ratio of the new ship is larger than that of the general capital ship. Therefore, in the environment above medium waves, it is estimated that there may be a large rear elevation, which will have a significant impact on the artillery stability."


    "There are two plans now. One is to remove at least four main guns per chord and reduce the total number of guns to 46. The other is to replace a total of 8 guns on both sides of the single side of the gun cabin with 18 pounds, but it will greatly reduce the fire intensity of the experimental ship..."


    Lorraine blinked: "is it just because of the aspect ratio?"


    Humphreys nodded: "draft and tonnage are enough, only aspect ratio..."


    Before he finished, Lorraine had taken it in doubt.


    "Since it''s just the aspect ratio, why don''t you consider fin stabilizer?"