Reborn In 17th century India with Black Technology

Vijay continued to inquire.

"Tell me about the rest."

"Yes, Your Majesty." Gangadhar obliged, as he took out more blueprints from his document bag.

"The next warships come under the medium-class Bharatiya naval vessels, namely the Colombo-class frigate and Chennai-class clipper. Similar to the previous two designs, we opted for designs with similar specifications in order to ease logistics and have similar parts for both ships to facilitate better maintenance and reduce costs"

"Naturally as a result of the decision taken, both these ships are made of wood. Both ships have a similar length of 47 meters, a beam of 13 meters, and a draft of 6.5 meters. The hull shape is also similar, with a long and narrow hull that aids in fine entry and reduced drag. The keels are deep for balance and reduced leeway.

Both ships have copper sheathing and are of a three-mast design with a mast height of 33 meters and a sail area of 2,500 square meters. The speeds, however, are different.

While the Colombo-class frigate can reach anywhere from 10 knots to 13 knots, it is nowhere close to the speed of the Chennai-class clipper, with speeds averaging from 13 knots to a staggering 18 knots, making it undisputedly the fastest ship in the Indian Ocean and most likely the entire world."

"Both ships have a similar hull-to-length ratio of 1:4, with a similar tonnage of 800 tons and almost similar cargo capacities—300 tons for the Colombo-class frigate and 200 tons for the Chennai-class clipper. The crew capacity is 200 sailors for the frigate and 150 sailors for the clipper. The frigate can carry up to 45 cannons, while the clipper can only carry 20.

Both ships are equipped with iron ballast for enhanced stability."

"The Colombo-class frigate is designed by Vishesh Neelathri from the Boswell Design Bureau, and the clipper is designed by Anant Raj Shetty from the Berunda Design Bureau."

Putting aside the fact that the Colombo-class frigate is highly similar to the French Héméném frigate and the Chennai-class clipper is highly similar to the American Baltimore-class clipper, Vijay was more surprised by the designer of the Chennai-class clipper. It was actually his cousin from his maternal side.

Vijay knew that Anant Raj Shetty got into the Berunda Design Bureau because of the Shetty family’s investment in the Berunda Shipyard, but he didn’t expect his cousin to be so talented. He was pleasantly surprised by this cousin of his.

As for the specifications of the ships, he had no complaints. After seeing the shapes of the ships in the blueprint and recognizing their possible predecessors, he was satisfied, as both the Héméném frigate and the Baltimore clipper were excellent in the 18th century.

"These blueprints are good as well. I approve of them."

Gangadhar was relieved that His Majesty was satisfied.

With great care, he took out a larger blueprint and handed it to His Majesty as if he were presenting a cherished ancestral heirloom.

"This is the design blueprint we have finalized for the Delhi-class battleship, the flagship of the Bharatiya Empire, which will remain so for at least a few years."

Vijay was shocked because as soon as he saw the blueprint, he immediately realized which ship it was based on.

It was the HMS Victory, the legendary battleship, which was in service even in the 21st century. Its service had far exceeded two centuries and was moving toward the third.

This ship was one of the reasons for the British Empire’s dominance on the ocean. Vijay could not believe that the Bharatiya Empire was on the verge of constructing such a ship, even though he could see that the Delhi-class battleship was a toned-down version of the HMS Victory.

"Who designed this ship?"

Gangadhar knew that His Majesty would like the ship because, even when he first laid eyes on the finished blueprint, he couldn’t take his gaze away from it, even if he wanted to.

"Well, Your Majesty, the designer of the ship is quite complicated because we originally received two different drafts with similar specifications for the Delhi-class battleship. The two blueprints were presented by the Boswell Design Bureau and the Berunda Design Bureau."

"The design blueprint from the Boswell Design Bureau focused on offence and defence while maintaining acceptable manoeuvrability."

"Meanwhile, the blueprint submitted by the Berunda Design Bureau was the complete opposite, excelling in maneuverability and speed but with average offensive and defensive capabilities."

"I made the decision to have both design bureaus collaborate to find a middle ground between the extremes. It was from this collaboration that we got this design blueprint."

"Although neither the power, speed, nor defence reaches the extremes of the previous blueprints, it has successfully achieved a very high level in all three aspects, making it highly adaptable to changing circumstances in war."

Vijay was quite satisfied with the decision taken and the result achieved. "The decision was right, and by the looks of it, this battleship does seem like a formidable flagship for our Navy. But the specifications...?"

"Well, Your Majesty, the material is made from the strongest and rarest wood, with a length of 63 meters, a beam of 16 meters, and a draft of 7.5 meters. The hull shape is balanced, and the keel is a standardized design. It has copper sheeting similar to all previous designs, with a four-mast setup, each mast standing at 14 meters, and a sail area of 3,000 square meters.

Its speed can reach anywhere from 14 to 16 knots becoming the fastest battleship in the Indian Ocean, with a hull-to-length ratio of 1:24. The total tonnage, or displacement, of the ship is 2,125 tons. Its cargo capacity is 500 tons, requiring 350 crew members to sail the ship, and it has 64 artillery decks."

Vijay kept nodding along, pleased with what he was hearing. "The specifications look good. Well done."

"What about the Guwahati-class armed merchant ship?"

"Your Majesty, since this ship has three versions, it could not be designed in a conventional manner, so the designers divided the Guwahati-class armed merchant ship into two parts."

"The first part is the foundation, which consists of the hull and the supporting structure."

"The second part is the modular components, which are used to build the ship according to its usage requirements."

"For example, after building the hull for a container series ship, modular parts are added to fit the containers in place, and mechanisms are incorporated for better loading and unloading."

"For the carrier series, different modular parts are added depending on the type of material being carried. For example, for ore, multiple basins are attached to the deck, each capable of carrying several tons of iron ore. Similar modifications are made depending on the type of load."

"As for the military series armed merchant ship, there aren’t too many changes from the traditional Bheema-class merchant ship, except that it is larger, and the construction is a bit more complex."

Vijay was satisfied, as this was originally what he had in mind when he put forward the condition for a versatile merchant ship, but he was curious. "Who designed this?"

Gangadhar thought for a while and remembered the names. "Well, Your Majesty, this ship was designed in a joint collaboration between the Southern United Naval Design Bureau and the Molin Design Bureau."

"A total of four major designers participated in this design: Puneet Shetty, Balakrishna Pujari, Bhargav Reddy, and Leonardo da Marcola."

"Apparently, right after the task of designing new battleships for the empire was issued to various design bureaus, the director of Reliance Shipping and Shipbuilding, Naveen Ambani, immediately persuaded his partners to give up on all other designs and fully focus on designing the merchant ship they were most familiar with, especially one capable of carrying containers and more."

"The Southern United Naval Design Bureau was responsible for designing all the modules in the second part of the ship’s construction, while the more experienced and traditional Molin Design Bureau was responsible not only for the foundation of the ship but also for completely designing the military series of the Guwahati-class armed merchant ship."

"That’s a good way to make the best use of existing resources. Naveen did a good job," Vijay praised without hesitation.

Vijay immediately released the promised benefits to the designers after approving the design and meeting with Gangadhar. Not only that, orders were swiftly issued to construct the prototype of each ship to begin testing and eventually mass production.

The orders passed through the most efficient Arkha Drishti communication channels and reached various major shipyards of the empire within a few hours.

"It’s approved!!"

"Ahhhh!"

*Roar!* n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

Cheers and celebrations immediately broke out in various design bureaus and the shipyards associated with the design bureaus, especially Raya Shipyard, Shivaji Shipyard, and Berunda Shipyard.

As the news reached the Shetty family and the Kalyan family, both realized that they would need to establish their own design bureaus in order to obtain all the benefits from the expansion of the Bharatiya Navy.

Ravi Shetty and Pawan Kalyan realized they had missed a big opportunity by not establishing their own design bureaus during this first round of major naval expansion. Even though they knew they would eventually receive orders from the navy, they were sure that their competitiveness would drastically decrease compared to other shipyards whose design bureaus had participated in the designing process.

Naturally, when their shipyards would build the ships, it would take longer and require more resources due to trial and error without the assistance of the ship’s main designers.

After holding a shareholders’ meeting and receiving unanimous approval, Ravi Shetty, representing the Shetty family, and Pawan Kalyan, representing the Kalyan family, immediately established two new design bureaus: the Chola Design Bureau and the Ashoka Design Bureau, named after their respective shipyards.

A thing to mention is, Ravi Shetty, due to constant profits from his other businesses, has continuously bought shares of the Chola Shipyard from its regular investors at a premium price. As a result, the Shetty family, who were already the largest shareholders with 40% of the shares, now hold 54%, making them the undisputed owners of the company.

If the Shetty family desired, they could privatize the company, but unfortunately, Ravi Shetty does not have enough liquid assets to buy out the remaining 46%, as the value of the Chola Shipyard has significantly appreciated.

It was a similar situation for the Kalyan family. Initially, during the sale of Ashoka Shipyard, the Kalyan family held 30% equity in the company. Large investors like Bhupathi held 7%, and Bakshi, the largest textile manufacturer in the empire, held 15%.

However, as the Kalyan family’s presence in the construction industry grew, they increased their equity in the shipyard, while Bhupathi and Bakshi’s equity remained constant. Bhupathi had shifted his focus entirely to the medical industry, driven by the rise of new chemicals, mass production methods, and technologies.

He no longer had liquid capital to invest in a shipyard that promised long-term profit rather than short-term gains. Similarly, Arjan Bakshi’s full attention was now on the production of a new line of garments made from strengthened cotton threads.

Currently, the Kalyan family holds 46% of the equity in Ashoka Shipyard, edging closer to absolute ownership.

The five swords of the Bharatiya Empire, symbolizing the empire’s growing influence beyond Asia, had just laid the foundation to eventually reach the highest glory.

P.S. Thank you Cryptomoney, for the IceCola