Joseph immediately said.,
"You all have done an outstanding job in enhancing the strength of the French Navy. Starting this month, all of you will be promoted one grade in the Talent Committee's evaluation and will receive a special stipend from the Brest Shipyard."
Murdock and the other two showed joyful expressions and bowed together.,
"Thank you, Crown Prince!"
You must know that being promoted one grade by the Talent Committee means getting a bigger villa, a more luxurious carriage, more maids, more income, and a highly revered social status—according to regulations, His Majesty the King meets regularly every year with all talents of grade C and above and holds a banquet for them—this is a distinction that many nobles could only dream of.
After distributing the rewards, Joseph seriously added,
"Next, the development of the Super High Pressure Steam Engine will depend on you! I promise, the day the 200-horsepower steam engine is completed, I will personally apply for titles of nobility for you."
Murdock and the others quickly bowed again,
"Your Highness, rest assured! We will not disappoint you!"
Soon, Joseph boarded the "Brown Crystal Stone" escort ship and sailed out to the open sea beyond the harbor.
Not far off, the "Mediterranean Light" sounded its steam whistle, with thick black smoke billowing from the chimney, clearly ready to set sail.
The first event was a speed competition between the "Mediterranean Light" and a paddle sail ship.
Previously, a test ship fitted with just one steam engine had already left the paddle sail ship far behind; a new battleship equipped with two steam engines totally dominated.
In less than 15 minutes, the "Mediterranean Light" had opened a distance of more than 600 meters from its adversary, which was beyond the maximum range of a 24-pound Cannon.
This meant that if the "Mediterranean Light" sailed past the side of an enemy ship, it would be out of reach of the enemy's cannon fire in no more than 15 minutes.
And that was against a paddle sail ship, if it were against a slow-starting pure sail battleship, it would likely escape the enemy's firepower within 10 minutes.
You know, in this era, smoothbore cannons were notoriously inaccurate, and a naval battle could take several hours to sink an enemy ship.
10 minutes could almost be considered a fleeting moment.
Joseph clapped his hands in satisfaction at the performance of the steam battleship, but to his surprise, the next to compete against the "Mediterranean Light" was a huge third-rate battleship, "Valiant."
The steam escort ship looked almost like a little toy in front of the third-rate ship that was more than twice its size.
Joseph turned to Marquis Castelli,
"What is this meant to demonstrate?"
"Actual combat, Your Highness," the Navy Minister said, "As you stated, with the right tactical support, our new battleship can certainly hold its own against battleships in the Mediterranean."
"You have done very well," praised Joseph. Although this idea was his, the Navy had finished the specific tactical design and trained sailors capable of executing it in less than half a year, which was an absolutely astonishing efficiency.
The long whistle of the steamboat pierced the sky as the "Mediterranean Light" took the lead, almost instantly losing the huge battleship from sight.
The "Valiant" took quite a while to align its bow with the "enemy ship," its sails fully open, but the wind here was not very strong, causing the sails to hang lazily.
The "Mediterranean Light," maintaining a sufficient distance, used its advantage of quick maneuverability to swiftly move in front of the "Valiant's" bow and then directly crossed it, facing its own side directly towards the opponent's bow.
This was a typical "T-bone" tactic—battleships of this era were equipped with a large number of cannons on their sides, but the bows and sterns had only a few cannons. Thus, if one could align their side with the enemy's bow or stern, it would create a situation of unilateral firepower output.
The cannons of the "Mediterranean Light" began to roar, while the "Valiant" hastily turned its hull. However, just as its side was about to turn around, the steam escort ship immediately powered up and slipped away.
Then, the steam escort ship circled back, using its absolute speed advantage to again cross in front of the "Valiant's" bow and opened fire once more.
The exercise lasted for over half an hour, the "Mediterranean Light" consistently held a dominant position, forming a "T-bone" stance and completing the firing four times, while the "Valiant" did not manage a single full broadside.
At the end of the exercise, the "Mediterranean Light's" chimney spat out a thick puff of smoke and sped away. The third-rate battleship desperately gave chase but could not even catch its exhaust smoke.
Joseph rose again to lead the applause, and other navy officers and shipyard workers also excitedly joined in with cheers and claps.
Everyone was well aware that currently the third-rate battleships were the absolute main force of the fleet—first and second-rate battleships were expensive and difficult to make full use of their firepower, so they served more as symbols of the fleet, or relied on their robust hulls to charge into enemy ranks—which meant that France only needed a large number of cheap and easy-to-build steam escort ships to contend with the main fleet of the British in the Mediterranean!
According to the current pace of the Brest Shipyard, it would only take about a year to build 20 "Mediterranean Light-class" escort ships.
Of course, with the firepower of the escort ships, it was very difficult to sink a battleship, at most they could damage it, but the British fleet had a difficult time resupplying in the Mediterranean—now, aside from the western part of Algiers on the North African coast, everything was controlled by France, the British had to return to Gibraltar to complete resupply. Whereas the French Navy could resupply anywhere.
In this way, by persisting in waging a war of attrition against the British fleet, the latter would soon have to withdraw from the Mediterranean Sea because their ships would need to return to port for repairs and due to lack of supplies.
After the maiden voyage ceremony, navy officers talked enthusiastically about the future situation as they left the port with the Crown Prince.
Joseph was listening to Navy Shipbuilding Director Borda explaining the construction plans of the steam escort ships when his eyes suddenly caught sight of a uniquely shaped small boat moored in a narrow waterway on the north side of the port.
The boat had scattered few sails but was equipped with a waterwheel-like wooden wheel on each side of the hull, and a chimney stood in the middle of the ship.
"A steam paddle boat?" Joseph curiously gestured toward the small boat and asked Borda, "Is that a prototype from the shipyard? Can it navigate?"
The Shipbuilding Director paused, then smiled and said,
"Your Highness, that was manufactured by a gentleman named Geoffrey. He arrived at the shipyard two months ago with the boat and a blueprint, claiming he had designed a new type of battleship.
"We reviewed his design and found it to be just a steam paddle boat, so we did not adopt it.
"However, Mr. Geoffrey has a decent design talent and unique insights into steamboats, so I hired him as a designer at the shipyard.
"Oh, after he saw your invented steam battleship, he never mentioned his little boat again."
Joseph vaguely remembered that in a documentary introducing the father of steam paddle boats, Fulton, it seemed that a Frenchman named Geoffrey was mentioned—who had successfully built a steam-powered boat more than a decade before Fulton, but had to give up because the steam engines in France were of such poor quality.