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Chapter 1181: The Warship Designer

Sané looked at the Crown Prince, his expression clouded with confusion. "An iron shell? What exactly do you intend to use that for?"

Joseph answered without a second thought. "To deflect cannonballs, of course."

Sané mirrored his promptness, shaking his head with a polite smile. "That is impossible, Your Highness. Even if we only aimed to defend against shots from a distance—say, a 24-pounder from 500 meters away—we would need iron plating at least five centimeters thick."

He performed a quick mental calculation. "On a fourth-rate ship of the line, that would add over 250 tonnes of weight. Even with the formidable thrust of a steam engine, such a massive load would drop the vessel's speed below nine knots. Furthermore, it would severely limit the capacity for coal and other essential supplies."

He was being diplomatic. In reality, for a fourth-rate ship with a displacement of just over 1,000 tonnes, if the external armor accounted for a quarter of its weight, the vessel would be practically unseaworthy.

Joseph nodded, a trace of disappointment flickering in his eyes. It seemed that "ironclads" were not feasible in the immediate future.

Moreover, five centimeters of armor was hardly impressive. He recalled that the historical Napoleon-class ships featured armor between ten and twelve centimeters thick, capable of withstanding direct hits from Russian 32-pounders. Only then did it possess true combat value.

The primary issue remained the insufficient power of the steam engines. Otherwise, even the heaviest hull could be forced through the water with enough raw power.

Sané offered a word of comfort. "Your Highness, if you wish to enhance our defensive capabilities, we could increase the thickness of the steam warship's hull by another four centimeters. I am referring to the oak planking, naturally."

Joseph sighed. Adding a few centimeters of wood would have negligible impact. At most, it might stop a 12-pounder. In a duel between ships of the line, the primary weapons were heavy guns of 24 pounds or more.

He asked casually, "How much extra weight can the new ship carry compared to a standard fourth-rate vessel?"

"Approximately 25 tonnes, Your Highness."

'That little weight is better than nothing, I suppose...'

"Wait." Joseph suddenly came to a halt. Who was to say that small amount of weight couldn't be put to good use? He suddenly thought of iron ribs.

The structure of warships in this era followed a basic blueprint: first, a massive keel was laid down as the central spine of the ship's bottom. Then, along that keel, pairs of curved ribs were installed at intervals of 0.7 to 1.5 meters, stretching from bow to stern. The hull planking was then mounted onto these ribs for support.

Currently, these ribs were made of oak. If they were replaced with iron, the ship's defensive strength would increase dramatically.

If an enemy cannonball struck a spot reinforced by an iron rib, penetration would be nearly impossible. Even the oak planking within a dozen centimeters of the rib would see its resilience multiplied due to the rigid support behind it.

In other words, nearly half of the entire ship's surface would become an enhanced defense zone.

Joseph didn't bother calculating it himself and asked Sané directly, "If we replaced all the wooden ribs with iron ones, how much weight would that add?"

The designer didn't have an instant answer this time. Because the ribs were curved, an accurate calculation required calculus.

After a full seven or eight minutes, Sané looked up from his notebook. "Roughly 15 tonnes, Your Highness."

"In that case, it is well within our tolerance," Joseph said excitedly. "We shall replace all the ribs with iron. This will significantly bolster the warship's durability."

Sané hesitated, then shook his head. "Your Highness, I fear that is not practical."

"Oh? And why is that?"

The chief designer explained patiently, "Your Highness, as you know, iron components on a ship are extremely prone to rust. The ribs, in particular, are often submerged in seawater—partly because ballast water is pumped into the hold when the ship is empty. This makes the corrosion even more severe."

He continued, "The ribs are load-bearing components. If even a fifth of their thickness is lost to rust, they will fail to support the hull structure, potentially leading to severe deformation of the entire ship."

"In fact, the Spaniards once tried using iron bolts to secure their ribs to the keel to increase structural strength. The result? They had to replace every single bolt every three months. Eventually, they were forced to revert to using wooden wedges."

The humidity at sea was immense, and the air was thick with salt spray. Iron objects were prone to widespread, rapid corrosion.

Joseph immediately thought of stainless steel, but the Namur Steelworks had only just managed to produce manganese steel. Stainless steel was still a distant dream.

He searched his memory for various rust-prevention methods from the future and quickly found a viable one. "We can use a sacrificial anode to protect the iron ribs."

Sané blinked. "You mean... a sacrifice... what was that?"

"The essence of metal rusting is the loss of electrons through oxidation..." Joseph began, then caught himself. "I will have Mr. Kullen explain the theory to you in detail later."

"To put it simply into practice: we attach a piece of zinc to the iron components. Galvanizing them would be even better. This way, the zinc block will 'rust' away while the iron remains intact."

Explaining the galvanic cell effect was too cumbersome, mainly because people of this era had very little concept of electricity. If he told Sané that a more active metal would donate electrons to prevent the iron from participating in the oxidation reaction, the man likely wouldn't understand a word of it.

"Are you certain this will work?"

"Of course. You can run an experiment to verify it yourself," Joseph assured him. "In the future, we will only need to periodically replace the anodes—that is, replace the zinc blocks once they are nearly consumed."

Sané's eyes began to sparkle. He had long heard of the Crown Prince's reputation in the academic world. At this moment, he didn't doubt the claim for a second; his heart was filled with nothing but sheer joy. As a naval design expert, he understood exactly what it meant to have iron ribs.

He quickly added, "Your Highness, if we can use iron so extensively, we can also replace the intercostal beams with iron. That would further increase the defensive density, adding perhaps another five or six tonnes of weight."

The intercostal beams were the horizontal supports between the ribs, which could also deflect incoming fire.

Before Joseph could respond, Sané slapped his thigh with excitement. "Furthermore, the rivets used for the copper sheathing on the hull can also be replaced with iron. This would allow us to reduce the rivet density by about thirty percent, which would significantly speed up construction."

Joseph didn't quite follow. "What do you mean by rivet density?"

Sané hurried to explain, "Your Highness, you previously ordered that the bottoms of all warships be sheathed in copper. Because iron rivets rust so easily, we have been forced to use brass rivets to secure the copper plates."

"But as you know, brass is very soft. To ensure the copper plates don't peel off, we have to use a very high density of rivets."

"But now that we have your rust-prevention method, we can use hardened iron rivets instead."

Joseph was highly impressed by the chief designer's ability to apply new technology. However, a new question suddenly occurred to him. "Wait, did you say the rivets currently used for the hull copper are brass?"

"Yes, Your Highness."

"And what about the material of the copper plates themselves?"

"Those are also brass, Your Highness."