Greece’s Roman Road

"A multi-million pound business, it's hard to imagine that Vickers and Armstrong would turn down such a lucrative business, and if they do, that's fine, we're taking orders from other countries, not only the British can build it. Battlecruisers, I think American shipyards would be very happy to receive such an order," Constantine replied confidently.

Cantoriotis nodded thoughtfully and said: "If possible, the US warships are now more suitable for the Greek Navy. I heard that the new large warships built by the United States have already abandoned coal and started to use heavy oil as a powered"

The boilers of the Invincible-class battlecruisers are co-fired with kerosene, and mainly use coal. Greece just lacks high-quality coal storage, and all hard coal needs to be imported from overseas.

Therefore, the use of British-style battleships by the Greek Navy is unfavorable for the Navy to ensure the stability of the fuel source channels for warships.

On the contrary, American warships that use heavy oil completely. The oil field in Ferry, Albania, currently has an annual output of about 100,000 tons, which is more than enough to supply the heavy oil needed by the Navy.

"The advantages of oil compared to the traditional fuel coal are obvious.

Oil-fired boilers are more efficient, which can greatly improve a ship's speed and acceleration.

In the case of carrying the same weight of coal and oil, the operating radius of the fleet using oil can be increased by 40%".

"Moreover, the effect is even more remarkable. After the ships use fuel oil, the fuel supply of the fleet will be more convenient."

"In the vast sea, when the fuel consumption of warships is about to bottom out, it is very troublesome to move the coal on the coal carrier to the warship. Because coal is solid; using heavy oil is different. Heavy oil It is a liquid, and it is convenient to use pipelines to inject heavy oil from tankers into warships."

"The disadvantages of using coal for warships go beyond the difficulty of supplying fuel. Putting coal into the boiler requires manpower. This work is not only heavy, but also requires skilled skills. The boiler workers need to be careful to spread the coal evenly in the furnace. The most important thing is that every three to four hours, the boiler must be turned off to clear the ashes from the combustion chamber, which is not only cumbersome and heavy, but also brings a lot of constraints during combat.”

Speaking of which, Cantoriotis put his hands up and said helplessly: "Can you imagine what it would be like during the battle when the warships in the fleet stopped to clean up the ashes?"

"It's different if you use heavy oil, you can use the valves on the pipeline to easily adjust; under the same power, the number of boilers used by heavy oil is less, and the officers and soldiers can be relieved from the heavy coal stowing operation. more crews are devoted to combat missions”

Hearing this, Constantine asked curiously: "It's impossible for the British to not know the benefits of using coal for warships. Is there a reason why they still insist on using coal as the main power for warships?"

Cantoriotis said: "That's for sure. As an admiral, the British's insistence is easy to understand, just like the Americans actively promote fuel-powered warships, because the United States is rich in oil production."

"Even though the British know the benefits of oil warship fuel, they still insist on using coal because Britain has abundant coal resources, but a drop of oil cannot be produced."

"Moreover, the Royal Navy coal suppliers would be vehemently opposed to the shift."

Constantine shrugged and said, "Maybe America's all-oil-powered warships are more suitable for Greece, but, you know, we have a deep "friendship" with Britain."

Everyone present here are high-level military and political leaders of Greece, and they naturally understand the meaning of Constantine's so-called friendship - Greece is the sphere of influence of the British.

In this case, business in Greece is naturally given priority to the British, and friendship between countries needs to rely on money to maintain.

To some extent, Greece’s purchase of British warships also has the intention of paying protection fees.

Seeing that almost everyone agreed to the plan to purchase warships from the United Kingdom, Prime Minister Alexandros rubbed the corners of his eyes and said with a headache: "I roughly estimated that the expansion plan for the navy and the army would cost about 350 million in total. - 400 million drachmas, money the government is suddenly unable to come up with"

"The cost of the Navy accounts for most of it, about 250 million drachma, and the recruitment of the Navy's crew is expensive."

Unlike the army, the navy crew members are almost all technical arms, requiring high professional quality, and the work is relatively hard.

Alexandros regretted for a while. If this money was used to repay foreign debts, it would be enough to repay all of Greece's current foreign debts, instead of paying creditors with tens of millions of interest every year.

"Prime Minister, the money must be allocated in installments. The Navy's warships also need to be paid according to the construction progress of the shipyard. The same is true for the Army, which will form new divisions in batches."

The results of the meeting in the Ministry of Defense Building were submitted to King George by Prime Minister Constantine and Alexandros, and King George's permission was obtained.

Afterwards, with the support of the navy, it spent 6 million drachmas to imitate the Athens Military Academy and established a new naval academy in Athens, which is specially used to train naval officers.

In August 1907, Kantoriotis, commander of the Greek navy, personally led a team to England to negotiate the purchase of warships.

After that, Constantine got the news from the United Kingdom. On behalf of Greece, Cantoriotis successfully signed an agreement with the British Armstrong Shipyard. The Greek Navy commissioned the Armstrong Shipyard to build an invincible-class battlecruiser at a price of 2.6 million pounds. .

Afterwards, Cantoriotis will conduct an on-the-spot inspection of the battlecruiser Invincible, which is under construction at the Armstrong Shipyard's Arsips Shipyard.

Invincible battlecruiser, with a standard displacement of 17,373 tons, a full-load displacement of 20,200 tons, a best speed of 25.5 knots, equipped with 4 double-mounted 45x caliber 305mm main guns, 12 single-mounted 45x diameter 4-inch secondary guns , 7 machine guns, 5 18-inch underwater torpedo tubes.

Once such a warship enters the service of the Greek Navy, even if the two German 10,000-ton battleships purchased by the Ottoman Navy, the Brandenburg-class battleships, successfully enter the service of the Ottoman Navy, the Greek Navy can still occupy the Aegean Sea advantage.

At the same time, the United Kingdom will send a naval team to Greece. They will not only guide the Athens shipyard to start construction of another battlecruiser in Greece, but will also be responsible for training qualified battlecruiser crews. Moreover, under the smooth entry of the two warships After serving in the navy, this naval group is also responsible for "guidance" with the ship.

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