Chapter 739

In April 1808, the stone bear boarded the Denver, the second warship of Shangjing class, in San Diego. It was the newest steel warship of the Imperial Navy, which had just completed a two month sea trial in the Pacific Ocean and had been carefully trimmed from the dock.

Compared to the original Carlos class, Denver was much bigger. The Empire's most advanced warship is comparable to the ordinary destroyers of later generations. With a displacement of 5760 tons and a maximum displacement of 6480 tons, Denver is the largest and most advanced warship in the world.

The most important thing is that the warship can run as fast as 19 knots under such a large displacement. If it sails at a cruising speed of 11 knots, Denver's maximum range can reach nearly 3000 nautical miles.

Compared with Shangjing, the first ship of Shangjing class, Denver, which was launched only one year later than Shangjing, is undoubtedly more advanced.

As a matter of fact, with the strong support of Shi Xiong, both Yanhuang Academy of science and technology and the two major shipyards of the Empire are now in waves in terms of the design and construction of new warships. As long as they are not the crazy warship design scheme with big brain holes, they can basically pass through here.

Stone bear is very supportive of the innovation of scientific researchers. Unless it is really unreliable design, stone bear is willing to try. Even if this takes on some unnecessary losses.

The progress of science is inseparable from the innovation of scientific research personnel. Only by continuous innovation of scientific research personnel and strong support from the state, can we continuously promote the progress of science and technology.

Especially with a lot of knowledge and experience from later generations in his mind, Shi Xiong naturally understands that those innovations are correct and unreliable.

Therefore, with the help of the stone bear, the level of scientific and technological research and development of the empire is rising rapidly almost at the speed of running.

Denver is a case in point.

In particular, the firepower configuration of Denver has been greatly improved on the basis of Shangjing.

First of all, after more than 20 years of research and development and continuous correction, imperial Yanhuang Institute of science and technology finally came up with a set of gun aiming system with mature technology. This set of gun aiming system, which integrates optics, mathematics, geometry and other disciplines, has no difference in performance with the Dreier MK3 fire control console in World War I.

The gun aiming system was named "Cassel fire control console" by stone bear in recognition of Luther Cassel, a French scientist who led the scientific research team for 26 years.

This French scientist, who joined the imperial Yanhuang Academy of science and technology long before the outbreak of the war of independence, first joined the research and development of artillery aiming system. Later, with his excellent ability, he gradually became the leader of the scientific research team with more than 120 people.

After he became the leader of the team, Cassell took out several sets of shipborne gun aiming system, and the final finalization was the Cassell fire control console installed on the Denver.

Stone bear has always been generous in naming inventions and creations. From the earliest Ferguson rifles to Carlos class warships to the present Cassel fire control console, as long as you develop something excellent enough, stone bear will never be stingy in naming it after the developer's surname or name.

Denver is not only equipped with the world's first semi-automatic mechanical shipborne gun aiming system, but also adjusted the shipborne gun according to Shi Xiong's opinion.

The steel warships built by the empire before were basically equipped with all the powerful guns of the Empire on the deck, which could guarantee the powerful firepower of the warships, but it also brought great difficulties to the logistics supply.

Just like Shangjing, the first ship of Shangjing class, carries guns ranging from 76mm to 152mm. There are as many as four kinds of ammunition for these guns of different calibres.

So in the construction of Denver, stone bear unified the caliber of Denver's main gun according to the design idea of later British fearless battleships.

That is, the main guns on Danfo are all 152 mm dual main guns!

This way of carrying the main gun with the same ballistic performance can better make Cassel fire control console give full play to its due power, instead of calculating the trajectory and firing angle of 152 mm artillery, 122 mm artillery, 105 artillery and 76 artillery, like Shangjing

Before there is no real computer, this semi-automatic mechanical fire control console can calculate four kinds of guns at the same time, which will greatly delay the development of gun firing frequency and accuracy.

At least the range of the Imperial Artillery is far enough and the fault tolerance rate is large enough, which can give the imperial warships an overwhelming advantage.

However, since such problems have been found on the Shangjing and even the Cherokee class warships, it is undoubtedly the best gun to use Denver to improve and test the uniform ballistic performance.

Denver was only equipped with two caliber guns, one was the most powerful 152mm gun of the Empire, and the other was the fastest 76mm gun of the Empire.

Denver was equipped with nine 152mm twin turrets, the first five and the last four, which were the main guns of the warship. At the same time, eighteen 76mm guns were carried as auxiliary guns, while all 122mm guns and 105mm guns were banned.

The effective range of the 152mm main gun is more than 15km, and the total weight of the high explosive grenade used is 49kg, with a charge of 7.5kg.

Because the weight of the shell has been increased, the 152 mm main gun can maintain a good hit rate at a distance of 8 km, which is more than 122 mm artillery.

Therefore, when the Danfo launched a salvo fire at a distance of eight kilometers from the enemy ship, 18 152 mm main guns fired at the same time, which was extremely powerful.

The firing rate of the 76mm gun is as high as 15 minutes, which is used as the auxiliary gun of the warship and can make excellent defense to the warship itself.

It can be said that in addition to the tonnage and artillery, the Denver is no longer much worse than the fearless class of later generations

And because of the thicker steel plate, Denver is similar to the Cherokee class in size, but many times more defensive than the Cherokee class.

Even the large caliber fortress gun can't penetrate the armor of Danfo at close range when there is no armor piercing projectile in the era of sail warship. As for the solid shell of the sail warship, if it wants to penetrate the armor of the Danfo, it's just a dream.

Such a steel warship with powerful firepower and heavy armor is the existence of no solution in this era.

Such an excellent warship, which combines the most advanced military technology of the Empire at present, is the most powerful steel warship in the Great China Empire and even in the world.

On this day, the stone bear will take this ship to sea, under the escort of eight new class III windsurfing battleships, cross the Pacific Ocean, and then join the Shangjing in Davao to inspect the colonies in the Pacific. And finally to the country on the other side of the ocean