Chapter 202: A Constant Stream

The rolling mill housed two cold-drawing and two cold-rolling seamless steel tube machines. Even without these machines, brought from another timeline, Lingao’s industry could have produced its own cold-drawing machines without much trouble. The mill already had ample experience in manufacturing cold-drawn seamless tubes—all the gun barrels produced in Lingao to date were made this way. With this expertise, producing another specification of steel tube was a simple matter.

The new boiler still used riveting technology, and all its components were made of low-carbon steel. Equipment on a ship is not like that on land; a single failure at sea can have far more catastrophic consequences. The history of early marine engineering was written in the wreckage of boiler explosions. Safety was paramount.

Sun Li and Zhou Bili, drawing on their experience building the Lancashire boilers, consulted a wealth of materials, weighed the advantages and disadvantages of various designs, and, with the aid of computer-assisted design, finally produced the “Zhurong II” fire-tube boiler. Its structural integrity far surpassed that of the Lancashire model they had previously replicated.

During its pilot run, the new boiler easily reached its expected output pressure of 3.5 kg/cm², double that of the boilers used on the Great Eastern in the 1850s. That legendary vessel had used old-fashioned box-type boilers with a pressure of less than 1.8 kg/cm². To power its 4,800-horsepower engine, it had required six of them.

The only thing that troubled Sun Li was a persistent issue with the pressure gauge. He worried that one day, an incorrect reading would lead to tragedy.

With such a high-pressure boiler, they could not only save precious space in the engine room but also lay the groundwork for the future development of triple- and even quadruple-expansion steam engines.

A single Zhurong II could meet the demands of the planned 500-horsepower steam engine. However, a ship had many other uses for steam: cooking, distilling fresh water for the crew, and more. It was decided that two of the new boilers would be installed in the hull of the 854-modified.

The project team cautiously decided to begin with a relatively simple 500-horsepower steam engine. Marine engines have unique requirements for size and operation, so the standard steam engines widely used in Lingao’s industry could not be simply dropped into a ship. A dedicated marine engine had to be developed. Zhan Wuya insisted that this engine be a standardized piece of equipment, to be universally installed on all ships requiring 500 horsepower unless special circumstances dictated otherwise.

Ultimately, Sun Li and the steam engine team settled on the reciprocating inverted vertical steam engine, a technologically mature and widely used design from the mid-to-late 19th century. It had the smallest footprint in the hull, and if necessary, two could be installed, paving the way for future twin-propeller designs. The engine Sun Li oversaw was a more efficient compound-expansion type, a design that could be improved upon to create triple- and quadruple-expansion engines in the future. The Manufacturing Directorate decided to start by replicating the compound-expansion model and gradually refine it.

In addition to the 500-horsepower main engine, two existing 12-horsepower auxiliary steam engines would be installed to handle tasks such as raising and lowering sails, operating the cannons, and launching and retrieving small boats.

With the power plant settled, the greatest technical bottleneck of the 854-modified project was broken. The last major hurdle was the paint for the hull. Though the bottom was sheathed in copper and needed no special antifouling paint, the rest of the hull required protection.

In this era, modern paint did not exist, and all plant-based oil substitutes—raw lacquer, soybean oil, hemp oil—were in short supply. In the end, they coated the ship with asphalt paint extracted from coal tar. Asphalt paint is a powerful anti-corrosive and was the most common marine coating in European shipbuilding before the advent of modern paint. This foul-smelling substance, when applied to the hull, gave the ship an unsightly black color, so much so that the first modernized ships produced in Lingao came to be known as the “black ships.”

Of course, to truly build a ship, launch it, and put it into service required more than just a hull and an engine. With every step forward, the Manufacturing Directorate and the Planning Commission discovered countless new problems. Some required the Planning Commission to source new raw materials; others demanded that the industrial departments manufacture new equipment. But the most common problem was a lack of expertise. They had technical data, but no one who truly understood it. Everything had to be explored, learned, and tested by the transmigrators themselves.

…The construction of the 854-modified project effectively promoted the integration and systematization of the new industrial system, enhancing the overall coordination and awareness among the industrial departments. For this project, the industrial departments established 2 new divisions, built 297 sets of new equipment, including 46 large-scale sets, manufactured 2,515 sets of process equipment and molds, and trained 3,490 technical personnel and workers…

(Excerpt from Contemporary Industrial History: Shipbuilding Industry Volume, first edition, for internal circulation, no unauthorized quotation)

This stumbling progress was an odyssey of adventure, waste, frustration, disappointment, and surprise. So much so that Zhou Ke, in a drunken slip of the tongue, once declared that given the immense difficulties they had faced, the hasty launch of the 854 project had been an unrealistic “Great Leap Forward.”

Compared to the 854-modified, the construction of the six 500-ton sail-steam hybrid ships was a much simpler affair. The technical achievements and experience gained from the 854 project could be immediately applied to these new vessels. Many of the parts, tools, and equipment manufactured for the 854 could also be used directly.

According to the “First Shipbuilding Preparation Plan,” this new batch of ships was designated Project 901. After some discussion, the final plan was to copy the “90-day gunboat” of the Union during the American Civil War. The lead ship of that class, the USS Unadilla, was started in late spring, launched in mid-August, and commissioned in late September, hence the name. The short construction time was a major draw for the transmigrators, who were in desperate need of new ships.

The final specifications for Project 901 were: a waterline length of 48 meters, a beam of 8.5 meters, a maximum draft of 2.9 meters, a displacement of 690 tons, and a deadweight of 507 tons, with a two-masted Barquentine sail rig. It would be equipped with a 500-horsepower steam engine, a single propeller, and a 12-horsepower auxiliary steam engine. Its maximum speed was 10 knots, with a crew of 114. The Naval Department classified it as a fourth-class gunboat.

The role of this fourth-class gunboat was to undertake route escort and long-range patrol missions, as well as cargo transport. Its coal bunker could be adjusted to flexibly change its coal or cargo capacity depending on the mission.

The 500-horsepower tugboat was designated Project 621. The tug was not just for towing barges. With a growing number of large-tonnage ships under construction, the low-power steam launches could no longer handle the task of docking and undocking these vessels. High-power tugboats were needed to assist the large ships in and out of port.

Project 621 used twin paddle wheels for propulsion. Paddle wheels offered the advantage of a shallow draft, making them suitable for coastal and harbor operations, and, if necessary, for navigating larger inland rivers. They were also less susceptible to entanglement by the fishing nets and aquatic plants common in these waters. The maneuverability of twin paddle wheels was also excellent, perfectly suiting the two roles the transmigrators had envisioned for it.

While these shipbuilding projects were in full swing, the navy requested that the existing steam launches be modified. They would be refitted in batches with ironwood bearings and newly manufactured cast iron propellers to improve their combat effectiveness. The navy planned to transport some of these armed launches to Hong Kong and other locations to handle various short-distance maritime tasks, serving as the main force of the Hong Kong and Pearl River Delta detachments alongside the Type II two-masted patrol boats.

The endless stream of shipbuilding and repair tasks pouring into the shipyard forced Zhou Ke to request a 12-hour, two-shift work system. They had previously used an 8-hour, three-shift system, but a shortage of workers made it impossible to maintain.

“A three-shift system is meaningless at this point. With the current scale of shipbuilding, I don’t have enough workers to even maintain a two-shift system,” Zhou Ke complained to Wu De. “Not only do you have to approve my plan, but you also have to give me more workers—even untrained ones will do. At least they can serve as laborers.”

“If you make the workers work 12-hour shifts continuously,” Wu De asked, “can you guarantee there won’t be problems in the long run? It would be a great loss if we lost skilled workers to industrial accidents.”

“I’ve heard that workers in the 19th century generally worked 12 to 14 hours a day. I don’t think a 12-hour system for a few months will have a major impact. We can increase their food supply. I want to apply for more food subsidies for the workers—especially the free allocation of protein, and candy. We can also distribute energy supplements.”

Wu De agreed to his request. He subsequently ordered that the shipyard have priority in selecting labor from the quarantine camps. The weekly “work-study” activities at Fangcaodi were also redirected, with most students now “learning labor” at the shipyard and other industrial departments related to shipbuilding. Though the students might not understand the technology, they could at least write and perform basic calculations—skills that were a rarity among the Lingao workforce.