Reborn In 17th century India with Black Technology

3rd April 1658

All the European ambassadors staying in the Bharatiya Empire were surprised when they suddenly received a message from the Minister of External Affairs, S. Jaishankar, about the Bharatiya Empire being ready to send its diplomats to various nations in Europe.

There was a small misunderstanding after receiving the message from Minister Jaishankar. A few European diplomats thought they were being fooled especially since it was the first day of April when they received the message. They knew how careful the Bharatiya Empire was in sending its diplomats to Europe. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

The Bharatiya Empire was so hesitant that there was even a joke among the European diplomatic community: "The day the Bharatiya Empire sends its diplomats to Europe is the day pigs will fly over the Thames." The Europeans could not understand why the Bharatiya Empire was so cautious in sending their diplomats. There were even dissatisfied comments like, "Why are they taking so long?

Do they want to establish a diplomatic relationship or not?" and "Can’t they learn from us and send a high-ranking noble as a diplomat? Oh wait, there are no nobles in this godforsaken land—what a sin."

Although such comments were not openly stated in the presence of important people from the Bharatiya Empire, these sentiments clearly existed among the European diplomatic community living in the Bharatiya Empire.

This sentiment explains why disbelief was so high among the Europeans when the Bharatiya Empire was ready to send their diplomats.

Although not completely sure about the seriousness of the message sent by the Minister of External Affairs, the European diplomats did their job by immediately contacting their leaders and informing them of the situation. Meanwhile, mysteriously, middle- to high-level politicians or people in power in the Bharatiya Empire started to resign and unusually disappear from society.

Since such occurrences were rare and random, they did not raise any attention from the public, but it was different at the highest levels of power in the government. The Prime Minister and some of the keen Cabinet ministers immediately knew that His Majesty had made a move.

The 8 delegates who were selected to represent the Bharatiya Empire were gathered in a conference room, and Minister Jai Shankar briefed them on their additional tasks when they reached their destination in Europe.

Roshan was not present at the briefing, but he held his own meeting with the senior agents of Bharatiya External Pragya, who were previously entrenched in positions of power within the Bharatiya Empire.

When it was time to depart, the eight diplomats and the agents were paired together and boarded the Pune-class battleship.

Along with a dozen or so merchant ships, three Pune-class battleships in a line formation left Mangaluru Port, their destination being South Africa and, finally, Europe.

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Vijay, after bidding farewell to the diplomats, promptly returned to the capital as he had received a message from Ganesh that Admiral Gangadhar had arrived at the Royal Palace with the blueprints for the new warships of the empire.

"Has it been two months already?" Before he realized it, two months had already passed since he assigned the task, and due to many things happening during these two months, he had almost ignored the design requirements for the Navy he had put forward.

Excited, Vijay boarded his carriage, took the third lane, which is only meant for emergencies, and swiftly left for the capital.

Just to be clear, Vijay taking the third lane is not an abuse of power, as it is within the Emperor’s right to travel quicker in order to fully make use of his time. Also, if he were not allowed to take the emergency lane, it would actually be unfair, as Vijay would end up blocking traffic due to all the onlookers arriving to see him, not to mention the security risks it would pose.

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The travel only took half a day, and Vijay was in the Simhasana Bhavana right before Agni came back from his classes.

Vijay knew that Gangadhar was quite satisfied with the blueprints the ship designers of the empire had made, just by looking at his ruddy face, which was filled with excitement.

"Your majesty, the blueprints for the five warships and one armed merchant ship have been selected."

"Out of the four design institutes, we received 20 submissions, and among these 20 design blueprints, after analyzing and simulating each one of them with the help of the Research and Analysis wing, I have been able to select six designs that unanimously appealed to the upper echelons of the Navy."

Vijay was satisfied. "Go on then, let’s see them."

"Right away, Your Majesty," Gangadhar excitedly took out the document as if he were a child showing off his toy. Considering the blueprint was for a battleship of hundreds of tons, it might as well have been a toy for the admiral.

"The first two design blueprints are for the Kolkata-class clipper and the Amaravathi-class frigate. Originally, these two ships had completely different designs, but in order to ease logistics and have similar parts for both ships to facilitate better maintenance and reduce costs, we chose two ships with similar specifications."

"Both the Kolkata-class clipper and the Amaravathi-class frigate would be built out of different kinds of wood—oak, pine, and teak—depending on the part being built, sourced from the Himalayan region of the empire."

"Both ships have a similar length, with the clipper around 35 meters and the frigate 31 meters."

"Both ships have similar beam and draft, with 7.5 meters and 3.5 meters, respectively."

"The hull shapes of the ships are also similar, with a long, narrow hull and fine entry at the bow to reduce drag."

"The keels are also similar, with a deep keel for balance and reduced leeway."

"In order to increase the lifespan of the warships, a new sheathing feature has been implemented, where copper is plated on the bottom of the ship to reduce rotting and biofouling." Vijay wanted to immediately order the use of different materials, as copper is a main component of the electrical revolution, but considering that the alternatives are even more expensive and the electrical revolution is at least a decade away, he gave up.

Gangadhar continued:

"Both the clipper and the frigate have a two-mast design, with alterations made to make the frigate more maneuverable and the clipper swifter."

"Both ships have a mast height of 27 meters and a sail area of 1,500 square feet."

"As for speed, it has seen a huge improvement with the new technologies we’ve developed. Even the Amaravathi-class frigate is currently able to reach speeds of 12 knots, a speed previously possible only for the older generation clipper."

"As for the Kolkata-class clipper, it has speeds ranging from 12 knots to 16 knots, making it the undisputed fastest small ship in the Indian Ocean, and possibly all the oceans."

"The rest of the features, like the hull-to-length ratio, displacement, and cargo capacity, are similar, with the ratio being 1:4.67, displacement at 200 tons, and cargo capacity at 60 tons for the clipper and 70 tons for the frigate."

"As for the number of people required to run the ship, it is 40 for the clipper and 50 for the frigate. As for armaments, the clipper is lacking in firepower, as it can only be equipped with a dozen guns, but the frigate has a lot of options, as it can carry almost 24 cannons."

"Overall, according to the design blueprint, the specifications and safety standards, these ships meet the standards imposed by the Bharatiya Standards Organization, according to the 60,000 series."

Vijay was surprised by the design blueprint because, just by looking at the shape of both ships, he could immediately recognize that the Kolkata-class clipper was based on a British ship known as the Endymion, which was quite famous in his past life as the fastest frigate of its time, launched in 1797.

Although the current Kolkata-class clipper lacked in many aspects, Vijay was sure that it was the precursor to the Endymion.

As for the Amaravathi-class frigate, he was once again certain that its shape was highly influenced by the French frigate Medée, built in 1763 in his past life. This frigate was also quite popular for its time, having served in the Seven Years’ War in the 18th century and in the early years of the French Revolutionary War.

What surprised him even more was how effectively the knowledge he had implanted in the designers had been utilized.

"Both the designs are outstanding. Who came up with them?" he asked.

"Believe it or not, Your Majesty, the design of the Kolkata-class clipper was created by the designers at Boswell Design Bureau without the help of their chief designer, Daniel Boswell, or their deputy designer, Vishesh Niladhri. Apparently, the design team completed it themselves.

As for the Amaravathi-class frigate, it was designed by the team at Berunda Design Bureau with the assistance of their chief designer and some university professors proficient in fluid mechanics."

Vijay was quite satisfied with the blueprints. "All right, both meet the requirements. We can approve this design. Let them build the prototype right away and ensure it passes testing."

P.S, sorry for ruff edit, I broke my phone today, don’t have much time to edit