1855 United States Tycoon

"That's the boat." Scrooge said to Morgan, pointing to a boat that was testing in the pool, and then he turned around and came to thirty men in white lab coats standing on the other side of the pool. The year-old young man shouted, "Crouch, please come over, um, come over and tell us about this ship."

"Okay, Mr. MacDonald, I'll come right now," the man responded. However, the pool in the laboratory was quite large, and the man had to put the things in his hand, and had to explain to his assistant by the way. So before he walked around the long test pool, Scrooge still had time and Morgan said a few words.

"See that ship. It has a standard displacement of 60,000 tons, which is larger than any ship we have built before. It is also the largest ship built by mankind so far. But because of the breakthrough in the design of the ship, The resistance of this ship when sailing at low speeds is unexpectedly small. When sailing at a speed of about 12 knots, this ship can save about 10% of fuel."

"So many?" Morgan stopped. "How is this done?" Obviously, Morgan, who considered himself a half-ship expert, was very interested in it.

"Oh, this is more complicated to talk about. It involves fluid mechanics, vortex power, and many other very professional things. Even me, it takes a long time to understand. Do you really want to know?" Zhi smiled and looked at Morgan.

"Damn it, can't it be explained in a simpler language?" Morgan really, as Scrooge expected, flinched in front of a lot of nouns, although they didn't know what they meant, but sounded very powerful.

"To put it simply, this young man discovered that when a ship is sailing, the vortex brought up can generate a kind of force, and if used appropriately, it can offset the influence of wave making resistance to a certain extent. Well, this kind of force is used. Named after his surname, it is called Charchevli. Relying on the use of this force, our new ship has less resistance than ordinary ships, which makes our new ship very economical." Scrooge explained.

"Very nice boy. Well, this design should also make the warship we build faster?" Morgan asked.

"Unfortunately, this design is only useful at the low-speed end. As the speed increases, the positive effect of the Charchef force becomes smaller and smaller. At around 18 knots, it is basically useless. After 18 knots, , And even have a counterproductive effect, and if it reaches 30 knots, the combination of this force and wave-making resistance can even damage the keel structure of most ships. Therefore, no matter whether it is a warship or a high-speed cruise or yacht, it is not used. This design is available. Only some freight ships that are not sensitive to speed can use this design." Scrooge held his hands on the guardrail by the pool, staring at the large-scale model in the pool that was undergoing seakeeping tests. , Said to Morgan.

"Mr. MacDonald, Mr. Morgan, how are you." At this time, Crouch Charscheef had bypassed the long pool and walked to Scrooge and Morgan's side.

"Well, good guy." Scrooge nodded and said, "Tell our boss, JPMorgan, about the characteristics of this boat."

"Okay," Crouch replied. Then he turned to Morgan and started to introduce his new design to Morgan...

...

Soon, news about the Morgan McDonald Shipyard's plan to produce a brand-new giant cruise ship with a displacement of up to 60,000 tons for Mobil Oil appeared in various newspapers. Of course, the reporting angles of different newspapers are different. For example, the Sun newspaper, which has a more civilian audience, focused its coverage on the huge size of this ship and made it and similar ships in other countries, especially those made by the British who have always hated the people of United States. Compared with ships of similar purposes, they unceremoniously referred to the British shipbuilding technology as scum.

The New York Times, which claims to be rational, objective, and neutral, pointed out that although the shipbuilding technology of United States has made considerable progress, the ship is still just a ship on the drawing, and even the work of cutting steel plates has not yet started. . In addition, the ship is too big, so a new special slipway is needed, and the construction of the giant slipway has not yet been completed. Therefore, the ship will not be able to be built on the slipway until at least August next year. So at this time, I cheered for it, and I felt that America’s shipbuilding technology was the world’s first, and it was a little earlier.

The "Science" magazine, which focuses on science and technology, analyzed the technological advantages of this kind of ship. For example, based on the results of pool experiments, the navigation performance of this kind of ship, especially in high sea conditions, should be very good. In addition, , In order to quickly load and unload oil, this ship uses a variety of brand-new technologies...

As for the Wall Street Journal, which is the most professional in economics, it analyzes the advantages of this type of ship from an economic point of view:

"The huge carrying capacity has greatly increased the efficiency of shipping, which has reduced the transportation cost by at least two-thirds. And the huge water distribution brought about the excellent sailing performance under high sea conditions, which makes this kind of ship can be used in Sailing on the toughest routes in those seasons that are least suitable for navigation has greatly increased the flexibility of use... The emergence of this kind of ship is almost directly announced. The oil tanker is completely obsolete. Compared with this monster ship, which is almost like a prehistoric behemoth, they have no chance of winning in the transportation race across the ocean. It is almost certain that as long as this giant oil tanker can be successfully put into operation. If used, those oil tankers with small displacements will be eliminated in a short period of time.

By the same token, super tankers have the same advantages over general tankers. It can be predicted that with the maturity of the construction technology of super large displacement ships, more and more giant ships will appear on the ocean transportation routes one after another. By that time, those ships with limited capacity will be in the future. It will almost certainly be eliminated in time. Because only a transportation company with a large number of such ships can survive and develop. If a shipping company still uses those old ships, they will soon find that their operating costs will make them face competitors. There is no resistance at all. Therefore, the emergence of this kind of ship almost directly means a big change in the transportation industry and shipbuilding industry..."

...As the Wall Street Journal analyzed, Morgan McDonald’s giant oil tanker called "Poseidon" broke all previous rules of oil tanker competition and reduced the transportation cost of oil by nearly two-thirds. This allows companies that own such ships to obtain substantial profits in the transportation process, or means that in competition with other companies, they can easily defeat their competitors with simple methods of lowering freight costs, because they are completely You can reduce the price to the point where your opponents need to post upside down to follow up, and you can also ensure that you have a good profit.

Therefore, whoever can first own such tankers can quickly gain an advantage in the oil transportation market. Under such circumstances, although the two new berths prepared for the production of this type of ship have not been completed in time, the orders received by the shipyard can be auctioned five years later. With such encouragement, Morgan McDonald Shipyard announced that it will add two more such large berths.

Since the supertanker has not had time to launch, it has already shown such a wonderful money scene. Therefore, shipbuilding companies with a little ability all over the world have invested in the competition of building supertankers. The British, Germans, even French and Italians have joined the game. The British regard this supertanker battle as a struggle to maintain national prestige. So they declared that they had formulated a plan to build a larger and more advanced supertanker than the United States’ "Poseidon". "Poseidon" rivals the super tanker. In addition, the construction of a new and larger slipway has begun.

As for Germany, their emperor, who sometimes has minor problems, has always been known to be very happy. But on this matter, his reaction was a lot slower. He even felt that it would not be a bad thing if the British were willing to use the berths that could be used to build battleships and battlecruisers to build civilian ships.

Of course, the German emperor’s lack of foresight was quickly corrected. His generals who had close ties to the business owners told him that producing supertankers was a very profitable thing, and with it, they could expand further. The ability to build battleships. In addition, manufacturing such a giant tanker can also provide a large number of employment opportunities and allow the economy to quickly recover from the depression.

As for France and Italy, they didn't even say that they would compete with the United States and Britain for the crown of the world's largest ship. They don’t expect the own supertanker to surpass the British and the United States in performance, but they all see this point, that is, the berth of the United States and the British, especially the large berth required for the production of supertankers. In fact, it is very limited. Therefore, their production speed cannot be too fast. And those transportation companies may not be able to wait that long. If at this time, they can develop a supertanker that is comparable in performance to the United States’ Poseidon, or has a limited gap, then those orders that can’t wait will definitely fall into their hands.

...

"The craze for giant oil tankers is always on the rise. The next step is to work hard on ordinary cargo ships." Looking at the information in his hand, Scrooge thought.

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