Chapter 744 - Continuous Stream

The Rolling Mill possessed two Cold Drawing Steel Pipe Machines and two Cold Rolling Steel Pipe Machines for producing seamless steel pipes. Naturally, even without these machines brought from another spacetime, given Lingao's industrial standards, self-manufacturing a few cold drawing steel pipe machines wouldn't pose significant difficulty.

The Rolling Mill had already accumulated ample experience in manufacturing cold-drawn seamless steel pipes—thus far, all gun barrels produced in Lingao were cold-drawn seamless pipes. With such extensive production experience, producing another specification of steel pipe presented no problem.

The new boiler still employed riveting technology, with materials entirely of low-carbon steel. Equipment on ships couldn't be treated like land-based installations—once a problem occurred, the consequences were far more severe. Early marine boiler explosions had invariably caused major accidents. Safety came first.

Sun Li and Zhou Bili had previous experience building Lancashire boilers. They consulted extensive materials, compared the advantages and disadvantages of various boiler types, and with computer-assisted design and selection, ultimately designed and manufactured a "Zhurong Type II" fire-tube boiler. Its overall structural strength far exceeded the Lancashire boilers they had imitated in earlier years.

The finally manufactured boiler easily reached the expected output pressure during pilot ignition: 3.5 KG/CM output pressure. Such a substantial output value was already double that of boilers used by the Great Eastern in the 1850s. The Great Eastern had used old-style box boilers with output pressure less than 1.8 KG/CM. To provide power for its 4800hp marine engine, it had required six such massive box boilers.

The only thing worrying Sun Li was that the pressure gauge on this boiler had some issues. He remained very concerned that an indication error might someday cause a tragedy.

With such high-pressure boilers, not only could cabin space be conserved, but a foundation was laid for developing triple-expansion or even quadruple-expansion steam engines in the future.

According to the rated 500hp steam engine output power, just one such boiler could meet the engine's demands. However, ships had many places that used steam—surplus steam could serve for cooking, providing distilled water for crew members, and numerous other applications. It was finally decided to install two such boilers in the 854 Modified hull.

The 854 Modified project group remained prudent, deciding to start by selecting only the simpler-to-manufacture 500hp steam engine as power. Marine steam engines had special requirements regarding size and operation mode, so standard steam engines widely used in Lingao's industries currently couldn't be directly installed on ships. A specialized marine steam engine had to be developed. Zhan Wuya's opinion was that this engine should be standardized equipment—if there were no special requirements, it would be universally installed on all ships requiring 500hp power.

Finally, Sun Li and others responsible for steam engine development decided to use the reciprocating inverted vertical steam engine, which had been widely used and technically mature in the mid-to-late 19th century. It occupied the smallest floor area in the hull, and if necessary, two machines could be installed inside the ship, laying a foundation for later twin-propeller use. This steam engine, led by Sun Li, was a compound expansion type with higher efficiency than before and could be improved to triple and quadruple expansion in the future. The Manufacturing Directorate decided to start with compound expansion imitation and improve step by step.

Besides the 500hp main engine, two existing 12hp small steam engines would be installed for auxiliary operations, including raising and lowering sails, driving cannon operation, and launching or recovering small boats.

After the power scheme was resolved, the largest technical bottleneck of the 854 Modified shipbuilding project ceased to exist. The last relatively significant technical difficulty was the paint used for the hull. Although the ship bottom was sheathed with copper and no longer required special antifouling paint, the entire hull still needed paint for material protection.

There was no modern paint in this spacetime, and botanical substitutes like raw lacquer, soybean oil, and hemp oil all had quantity shortage problems. Finally, the ship coating used asphalt paint extracted from coal tar. Asphalt paint provided strong anti-corrosion effect and was the most widely used marine coating in the European shipbuilding industry before the large-scale adoption of modern paint. This foul-smelling substance coated on the hull gave the entire ship an ugly light-black appearance—so much so that the first batch of Lingao-made modernized ships came to be called "Black Ships."

Naturally, truly building a ship into functional form and launching it for operation wasn't merely a matter of constructing a hull and installing an engine. With every step the 854 Modified project advanced, the Manufacturing Directorate and Planning Agency discovered countless new problems requiring solutions. Some required the Planning Agency to source new raw materials through various channels. Some required industrial departments to manufacture new equipment. Most problems, however, stemmed from having only technical data but no truly knowledgeable professionals. Everything relied on Transmigrators themselves to grope, understand, and experiment.

"...The construction of the 854 Modified project powerfully promoted the matching and systematization of the new industrial system, enhancing the overall collaboration ability and consciousness between industrial departments. Industrial departments established 2 new industrial departments for this project, manufactured 297 units (sets) of new equipment, among which 46 units (sets) were large equipment, manufactured 2515 pieces (sets) of process equipment and molds, trained 3490 person-times of technical personnel and workers..."

(Excerpt from History of Contemporary Industry: Shipbuilding Industry Volume, First Edition, Internal Distribution, citation not permitted without permission)

Such stumbling progress was full of adventure, waste, frustration, disappointment, and surprise. So much so that Zhou Ke once said in a drunken slip: considering the various difficulties he experienced in the 854 Modified project, rushing to start Project 854 back then had been an unrealistic "Great Leap Forward."

Compared to the 854 Modified project, the construction process for six 500-ton class wind-steam hybrid power ships was considerably more streamlined. Technical achievements and experience gained in building 854 Modified could be immediately applied to these vessels. Many accessories, tools, and equipment manufactured for 854 Modified could also be used directly on these ships.

According to the regulations of the "First Shipbuilding Refit Plan," the construction of this batch was designated Project 901. After some design discussion, the final Project 901 scheme was to copy the Northern "90-day gunboat" from the American Civil War. The lead ship USS Unadilla had started construction in late spring, launched in mid-August, and commissioned in late September—hence the name "90-day." The construction cycle of this warship was remarkably short, winning the appreciation of Transmigrators who urgently needed new ships.

The final construction specifications for Project 901 were: waterline length 48 meters, beam 8.5 meters, maximum draft 2.9 meters, displacement 690 tons, deadweight 507 tons, double-masted Barquentine rig. One 500hp steam engine installed, single propeller. Also installed: one 12hp auxiliary steam engine. Maximum speed 10 knots. Crew 114. The Admiralty designated it as a Fourth-Rate Gunboat.

The positioning of this Fourth-Rate Gunboat was to undertake route escort and long-range patrol tasks, as well as freight missions. Its coal bunker area was adjustable, dynamically changing coal loading volume or cargo loading volume according to mission requirements.

The 500hp tugboat was named Project 621. Tugboats not only had to tow barges; since a large batch of large-tonnage ships was being put into construction, future berthing and docking of these ships entering and leaving port couldn't be handled by small-horsepower steam Daihatsu boats. High-horsepower tugboats would be needed to assist large ships in docking and undocking.

Project 621 adopted twin paddle wheel propulsion. Paddle wheel propulsion had the advantage of shallow draft, suitable for activities in coastal and harbor areas—if necessary, it could also enter larger inland rivers. Moreover, it didn't fear entanglement by fishing nets and waterweeds common in offshore and inland river environments. Twin paddle wheel maneuverability was also relatively good, fitting well with the two roles Transmigrators had assigned to it.

While shipbuilding engineering was proceeding like a raging fire, at the Navy's request, modification of the various steam boats originally in the fleet was also placed on the agenda. They would be converted in batches to use Tieli Mu bearings and newly manufactured cast iron propellers to improve small boat combat capability. The Navy planned that once modification was complete, part of the armed Daihatsu steam boats would be shipped to Hong Kong and other locations for various short-distance maritime duties, cooperating with Type II double-masted patrol boats as the main force of the Hong Kong and Pearl River Basin Detachment Fleet.

The massive shipbuilding and ship repair tasks poured into the shipyard in a continuous stream, forcing Zhou Ke to demand a 12-hour double-shift system. Originally they had adopted an 8-hour three-shift system, but the scarcity of workers made it impossible for Zhou Ke to maintain such a labor framework. Extended working hours became necessary.

"Otherwise, three shifts are meaningless. At the current shipbuilding scale, my workers aren't even sufficient to maintain two shifts." Zhou Ke complained when meeting Wu De. "Not only must you approve my two-shift plan, but you also have to supplement workers—even untrained workers are fine. At minimum, they can serve as coolies."

Wu De said: "Making workers labor 12 hours continuously—can you ensure workers won't have problems in the long run? A few skilled workers dying from work injuries would be a tremendous loss."

"It's said 19th-century workers generally worked 12-14 hours. I think maintaining a 12-hour work system for a few months won't have major impact. Strengthen the food somewhat—I want to apply to give workers more food allowance, especially protein free ration quota and candy. Also, energy supplements can be distributed."

Wu De agreed to his request. Subsequently, he ordered that labor forces recently completing "training" from the quarantine camp be prioritized for the shipyard. And the weekly "Learn Industry" activities of Fangcaodi were mostly changed to "Learn Labor" at the shipyard and other shipbuilding-related industrial departments. Though these students might not understand technology, they could at least read and calculate—this most basic skill was also rare among Lingao's worker population.

(End of Chapter)