.What does 4 months mean?

For an ordinary person, when his daily life is highly repeated, 4 months may be a blink of an eye, which is surprisingly fast, but there is nothing to achieve.

For a country, four months is enough to complete the journey from the founding of the country to its decline, and it may be just an extremely ordinary period of time, without major events or waves, and will soon be forgotten by people.

On such a bright spring day, Chen Tian and his group, along with the accompanying generals, experts, royal servants and escorted guards, walked slowly on the wide and straight road in the shipbuilding area of ​​the Navy Shipyard in the San Francisco, the Americans built the new main ship platform.

Not far ahead of them, but what was lying there was not the mighty battleship in the gun barrel forest as people imagined, but a huge dark gray hull. It had no superstructure at this time, and even the outside of the hull was not completely covered with steel plates. From a distance, it looked more like a leftover fish, rather than a large main battleship with strong firepower and solid armor in the near future and able to show off its power in the ocean.

Despite this, no one in the group was disappointed.

For a larger shipyard, four months is enough to build a large 100-ton fishing boat with iron-shelled steel. If standardized parts and running water operations are used and there are enough skilled workers, they can also build a decent medium-sized merchant ship that can carry out ocean-going activities. However, as long as anyone with shipbuilding experience knows, it is impossible to complete a light warship of more than 3,000 tons in 4 months, let alone a large battleship of 30,000 tons!

Since the launch of the Dreadnought, the speed record of building main ships in countries around the world has been maintained by the "Default". The warship started construction and laying keels in October 1905, launched in February of the following year, and sea tests in October. Even if the inspection of new equipment took some time, it was still officially put into service in December. In contrast, the German Nassau class of the same level took 2 years and 3 months, while the Caesar class with a slightly larger tonnage took a full three years, the Americans' first level fearlessness.

The ship "South Carolina" was not announced to be put into service in the fourth year after the start of construction due to budget issues. At the same time, the Satsuma-class battleships built by Japan were put into service for similar reasons until the fifth year after the start of construction. Since then, the main ships of various countries have become larger and larger, and the firepower, armor and speed requirements have become higher and higher. The time for building a battleship has been extended. By the late 1920s, it usually took 2 to 3 years, or even longer.

In this era, even Germany, the most powerful country in industrial strength and technology, is difficult to repeat the miracle of the "Dreadless". Taking the Schánhorst-class heavy cruiser, which has already entered mass construction as an example, with sufficient manpower and abundant capital and resources, this class of warships will take about 270 to 300 days from laying the keel to launching the water.

The fastest record from start of construction to service is 637 days, while the tonnage of Schánhorst is only 2/3 of that of this new American warship.

Because of VIP visiting the place, today's naval shipyard is particularly cautious. This atmosphere also makes Chen Tian feel completely different from visiting the German shipyard: although the workers here are busy, they do not have the enthusiasm of the German shipyard workers.

After walking for a while, Chen Tian realized that on one hand, there were people who enjoyed victory and on the other hand, there were people who slept on firewood and tasted gallbladder. The psychology between the two was naturally very different.

“It really looks like a big 'pike', isn't it?"

"Yes, except for those underwater places, I'm afraid there is no such slender body!"

"I think its navigation performance must be very good, and its speed should be more than the number they announced to the public. It may be faster than 2 or 3 knots."

"I agree! Look at its bow, it should be a fly-scissor bow, but it is different from the traditional shape! In my impression, it seems that only the Japanese Navy has adopted this design, and they call it...uh, it seems to be a curve..."

“Hyperbola bow?”

"Yes, hyperbolic bow! A unique design with good wave resistance!"

"It's a pity that I can't see which boiler and turbine they want to use... If I were asked to choose, Curtis would be the first choice!"

"But Americans also know that more than half of Curtis' shares are in the hands of merchants in our country. That means Curtis cannot keep the performance of any kind of turbine he produces confidentiality!"

Compared with Chen Tian, ​​who had been silent, the two technical experts from the German Navy behind were discussing heatedly. Of course, the voice of this kind of discussion was very small, and only a few people around could hear it.

Chen Tian listened to the conversation between the two experts without saying a word. He was very interested in warships and had research on them in daily life, but it was just about the general performance of warships and the strategies and tactics of naval combat. It can be said that they are some rough lines. As for the details, such as the data on the design of the warship and the process technology during construction, Chen Tian almost knew nothing. Because of this, he needed to use the analysis of experts to make a judgment. Judging from the current situation, the warship that the Americans are building attaches great importance to maneuverability, which is consistent with the analysis and speculation of the intelligence department.

"Have you noticed those two gantry cranes?" one of the experts whispered, "They seem to be something special!"

"It looks normal!" Another expert looked up at the two large gantry cranes standing on the side of the ship platform. They were used for hoisting boilers, turbines, turrets, and main guns. They are generally installed before the hull is completed. The larger the warship, the weight of its supporting boilers, turbines, and main guns will increase accordingly. Especially for the main gun, a 406mm caliber naval gun single barrel itself exceeds 100 tons, while a turret composed of thick armor can reach 1,600 tons!

"Can we determine from the appearance that they can lift up at most?" Chen Tian turned his head and asked the technical expert who was slightly taller behind him.

"This is not difficult, Your Majesty!" The expert took a last look at the two gantry cranes and answered with certainty: "It is very close to the gantry cranes we used when we built the Graf-class battleship, and it may even be of the same model!"

"So the Americans are preparing to install the Graf-class naval gun?" Chen Tian was a little surprised because the Graf-class was equipped with a 406mm naval gun, and the German intelligence department's previous estimate of the main gun specifications of this American warship was no higher than the 343mm gun of the Caesar Fitle III class. The difference between the two is a whole level!

"No, your majesty! The specifications of the gantry crane have nothing to do with the caliber of the main gun!" Another expert, who was basically the same age as the former, and they both wore large monocle glasses, but their figure was relatively short, answered before his companions.

"In fact, this has something to do with the habits of naval shipyards in various countries!" The tall man added after a brief thought, "For example, Americans like to use large gantry cranes, although they don't actually need that big one, while the Japanese are always careful to calculate and want to hang 200 tons of things, they will never use 300 tons of gantry cranes! Another point is that in order to prevent the enemy from knowing the situation of their warships as much as possible, the shipyard may also use more than a few levels of gantry cranes so that enemy experts can make inconsistent speculations!"

"So that's it..." Chen Tian was a little disappointed. He originally thought that he could infer the main gun specifications of the battleship by looking at the gantry crane, but now it seems that this view is a bit too simple.

"Your Majesty, although we cannot speculate on what kind of guns the Americans will install on it in the future from the current state of this warship, based on our previous observations of the "San Francisco" and combined with the appearance of the hull of this new warship, we can at least be sure that this warship must have a very important structural connection with the "San Francisco". It can even be said that the construction of the "San Francisco" is to verify whether a new design is reasonable, and the ultimate use of this design is not to build a heavy cruiser of the same level as the "San Francisco"!"

The shorter expert said such a big story in one breath.

Chen Tian glanced at the tall expert again, and judging from his expression, he also agreed with this speculation.

"That is to say, the 'San Francisco' is a reduced-proportion test ship, and this one is..."

The two experts nodded slightly.

"According to that ratio, this warship will be installed..." Chen Tian lowered his voice and said, "The main gun is not more than 365 mm?"

The two experts nodded again, and the short expert whispered:

"It is very likely that it is a 280mm gun, which emphasizes shooting accuracy, speed, high speed, and strong defense. It is used to fight against the main ships with large caliber but poor shooting accuracy of the Mexican Navy. It will be a good choice under the current situation!"
Chapter completed!