Chapter 376: Dividing the Battleship

Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

“Of course, General, but my shipyard hasn’t been renovated yet, so I haven’t suggested it,” Wesley said generously.

William Benson choked on Wesley’s words. ‘How shameless is that? You’re a soldier.’

Wesley ignored the look in the other man’s eyes and continued as if nothing had happened. “The development of the Navy’s ships is still in the exploration stage. That’s my opinion. The current warships have not reached their peak. It’s mainly a matter of technology, but I don’t have the slightest problem with these.”

“As for me, I divided the general ship into specific categories. The first type is naturally the battleship, and the development of the battleship is inevitably an increase in the caliber of the main gun, which is inevitable. The increase in caliber is inevitably accompanied by the increase in tonnage, so the battleship is getting bigger and bigger.”

“The second type is cruisers. I divide cruisers into heavy cruisers and light cruisers. The third type is called destroyers.” Wesley actually divided four types of warships.

“Can you elaborate?” William Benson asked impatiently.

Wesley thought for a moment. “General, I hope you won’t spread the word after you hear it. Although other shipyards don’t have my technology, the design concept is still very important.”

“Don’t worry, I won’t spread it, but you want to take all the orders from the Navy?”

“Of course not, because the number of ships the Navy needs is a huge number. My shipyard cannot eat it, but I need my shipyard to be the first shipyard in the United States.”

“Okay, I understand.”

“There’s no need to talk about battleships. Everyone knows that. It’s nothing more than technology and design. If the Navy needs the latest capital ship, our shipyard can participate in the bidding. I don’t think there’s any problem with those bids.”

“Cruiser, as the name implies, is a ship that has been at sea for a long time. Like armored cruisers today, it requires individual combat capabilities, and heavy cruisers are designed for this purpose. Light cruisers move with the fleet and take on the role of fleet alert.”

“The destroyers are divided into offshore destroyers and ocean-going destroyers. The offshore is mainly to defend the coastline and the naval base, while the ocean-going ones are to move with the fleet. These ships don’t need to install too big a gun. Their only function is to prevent local lightning strikes and to patrol the coast, and they can be relied on to strike enemy warships after the battle.”

“That’s a good idea. It’s carefully divided. Can you produce all these warships?”

“Of course, but my shipyard has only completed a 20,000-ton shipyard. Now it is building a 30,000-ton shipyard. It will take a few months.”

“Does it need to be so big?” Benson asked in surprise.

“If it weren’t for the technical problems of the workers, I would have built a 500 million-ton shipyard directly. They need to start production from small ships now. This is not something my technology can do.”

“Okay, then the Navy can give you an order first, an order for four destroyers. What do you think?” William Benson threw out the bait directly. This bait is very small, but it also means that if the Navy is satisfied, the follow-up orders will come continuously.

“No problem. We can start work immediately.”

With everything settled, Wesley went straight back to New York. The number of freighters and tankers he wanted was large, all of them ten-thousand-ton. Ten-thousand-ton freighters and tankers in this era were not too big, but it was a good choice for the workers.

Wesley went straight to John Rister. “I have an order for four destroyers, built directly from a 5,000-ton deck, to gather the already skilled welders here.”

“What destroyer? We don’t have a designer to produce an army!” John Reese shouted in surprise.

“That’s me. Go and arrange for the workers. I’ll be drawing in the office for the next few days and then build according to my blueprint. As for the weapons, I’ll throw them directly into the arsenal to be produced. They have the equipment and technology. I’ll leave them there.”

“You’ve wanted to produce warships for a long time, haven’t you?”

“Of course. What else would I do with the big shipyard?” Wesley asked John Lister to do the preparatory work while he began to draw the design blueprint for the destroyer.

John Benson did not have anyone to organize the argument at all. There was a reason for Wesley to build it directly. First of all, the price of four destroyers was not high. They were very cheap for the Navy, and they could see the new battleships. At the same time, the Navy could not accept them if they were not satisfied. This was a test given to Wesley by John Benson.

Wesley also understood the Navy’s plan, and he was confident that it would succeed. Battleships were now very long because of their boilers and power systems. It would take three or four chimneys alone, and Wesley’s design would be epoch-making.

While Wesley was designing, on the other side, William Benson had temporarily stopped the other battleship orders of the Navy. The orders were almost completed, and the other orders were all stopped. There were many shipyard workers who were at a loss and hurriedly ran to the Navy to ask.

“Everyone, don’t be anxious. We stopped not to cancel the order, but to make some changes. I hope that everyone can wait for more details. I will give you the news in three months at most.” This is the Navy’s explanation.

Three months was the time for Wesley’s side to produce warships. It was completely in accordance with the wartime system. Three shifts of work used a large number of skilled workers. For this purpose, the cargo ships and oil ships were stopped. In any case, it was Wesley’s own order. It was the same for the munitions factory. However, there was not much equipment for the four destroyers this time, so there was no need to rush the production. There was time to produce step by step, and the power company’s ship power system needed to be accelerated.

The various shipyards naturally had people in the navy. They quickly found out who the instigator of this incident was, but they did not overreact because these people saw great benefits.

The Navy was going to have a big development, and it was not happy with the ships it was making now. If this guy Wesley Gibson could come up with better ships, then they could equally share them.

Although Wesley was expanding the shipyard, the navy of a country was not something that a shipyard could eat. Moreover, Wesley would also have new designs and technologies coming out. Even if they could not get the core aspects, some sides were good.

These capitalists were too shrewd and directly saw the benefits. Although they could not start work in three months, the losses were actually not big. Compared to what they got, it was just small money.