Reborn In 17th century India with Black Technology

Raya Shipyard, Mangaluru

It is a busy month as cargo moves in and out of the shipyard on the coast of the Arabian Sea, located on the outskirts of Mangaluru City. The Raya Shipyard is working at full capacity, with all of its dry docks occupied by battleships and warships under construction.

Most of the battleships under construction are commissioned by the Navy of the Bharatiya Empire, while the remaining are export versions of the Pune Class Battleship, built with compartmentalization technology.

Although the Pune Class Battleship is almost three years old, it is still a fairly new ship compared to how long battleships of its calibre remain in service. Adding to the fact that the Pune Class Battleship is an excellent ship, famous both locally and abroad, the demand for the Pune Class and its variants has not dropped.

Not to mention that the Raya Shipyard, which has the most dry docks in the empire, has not stopped taking orders; even the remaining three shipyards in the empire are continuing to manufacture these ships for the Bharatiya Navy and for the Europeans.

In such a situation, where the production capacity of all the major shipyards is almost fully occupied, the task of producing the prototype of the five swords was like a bolt from the blue, pushing all shipyards in the empire to their absolute breaking point. Given that the prototype had to be built within 60 days, these shipyards were already in a state of overdrive and overheating.

In such a tight schedule, a tense atmosphere is naturally formed, where everyone in the shipyard is hurrying to complete their job. The workers have turned into emotionless manufacturing machines, their hands turning into tireless robotic limbs.

In the Raya shipyard, where everything seemed to fit in place like an intricate puzzle, there was an unusually large isolation barrier made of cloth covering the main dry dock of the shipyard, standing out like a sore thumb.

This dry dock is currently the largest in the Bharatiya Empire, right alongside the dry dock in the Shivaji Shipyard, both capable of constructing ships with displacements of up to 3,000 tonnes.

Currently, in the largest dry dock in the Raya Shipyard, a large behemoth of a ship is being constructed. Its gigantic size, imposing presence, and military might could already be seen from the shape of its hull alone. Just from a glance, there was no doubt that this ship was at least 2,000 tonnes, easily becoming the biggest ship the shipyard had ever built.

This is naturally the Delhi Class Battleship under construction. For a ship of such scale, which is bound to be the flagship of the Bharatiya Navy for years to come, adequate precautions have been taken to ensure no secrets about the ship are leaked.

For one, unlike other places, the mechanics working on this particular ship all wore white uniforms without any pockets to prevent the workers from mistakenly or maliciously stealing anything from within the isolation barrier. n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

For two, a whole squadron of Bharatiya Commandos was stationed outside the isolation barrier, not only to stop any threats that may come from outside but also to protect the advanced technology of the Bharatiya from within.

For three, all the elites involved in the construction of the battleship, be it the chief designer, chief Builder, their assistants, the scientists, or the engineers, have been provided with separate work quarters, which are isolated further from the area where the actual ship is being built.

This decision was made to ensure that no sensitive information—whether it be blueprint designs, drawings, or anything else, can leave the isolated rooms and reach the construction area, where it would be exposed to the danger of leakage. Even though all the workers of the ship have undergone background checks, there is no such thing as being too careful.

"Sir Danior, this design I feel is too unfriendly and not practical, as this beam right here would come under a lot of stress during extreme storms, so it is not right to place another beam on it to attach the cannons.

It’s better for you to find another suitable place," Vedant Iyer, the chief builder of the ship, wiped the sweat from his forehead and complained with an annoyed expression to Danior Boswell, one of the two chief designers of the battleship.

Vedant Iyer had become fed up with the various impractical designs in the finalised design blueprint. Even though he knew that Danior Boswell was someone very important and not to be provoked, he still couldn’t help but express his dissatisfaction from time to time.

Vedant knew that this was not good for him since the designer held more weight in the naval industry than he did as a chief builder, but there was nothing he could do, as unfortunately, due to the stress he had accumulated over the last few weeks, his considerations had become less and less. He had become fed up trying to find ways to implement the design according to the blueprint.

Initially, he had expected something similar to happen, and he had already guessed that his task wouldn’t be smooth sailing like the previous tasks. He was responsible for taking charge of the construction of the Vinayak Class Frigate, Hampi Class Sloop, and Pune Class Battleship, so he had a wide range of expertise in bringing the things in the blueprint to reality despite hardships.

But the Delhi Class Battleship he was currently working on was on a whole new level of complexity, even compared to the Pune Class Battleship, which had already given him a lot of trouble.

Danior Boswell, looking at the muscular man who had become a little thinner since he started working with him, felt helpless. He had been hearing complaints from Vedant ever since the ship started its construction about impractical designs. Danior Boswell was powerless in this situation, as there were indeed some impractical designs in the final blueprint of the Delhi Class Battleship.

But what could he do, no matter how well they tried to simulate the construction of the battleship using whatever mathematical and physical knowledge they had, they ultimately failed to account for all variables. As always, the blueprint had to be adjusted according to the conditions of reality, and it could ultimately only serve as a general guide for constructing the battleship.

Similar to Vedant, Danior Boswell also had a lot of trouble with the construction of the Delhi Class Battleship on his theoretical side, as the number of impractical designs in the blueprint was staggering.

For example, starting from the way the keel was built in the blueprint, a single Himalayan oak tree with a height of more than 40 meters was deemed sufficient to lay a solid foundation for the hull. However, when the design team was very confident in the theory, they were all dumbfounded when it was put into practical use.

The faces of the designers turned white as the timber could not withstand the weight of the hull being built on top of it and began to show hairline cracks. So, they had to improvise and come up with a way to composite multiple trees, invent a method to piece them together, make it watertight with a new chemical compound, and finally use bronze nails to prevent rust.

They also decided to apply copper plating to the keel to increase its lifespan.

This was only one of the many troubles Danior Boswell had encountered. For this reason, Danior Boswell did not take any offense at the harsh words of Vedant Iyer. Both of them were sincerely invested in the completion of the Delhi Class Battleship, so it really did not matter if Vedant did not politely remind him as he had at the beginning.

Danior calmly explained his consideration, "Vedant, if I place the cannon platform in other places, it will affect the combat effectiveness of the ship. You have to find another way to make it work." Danior indeed found that if the cannon was attached to the beam previously thought of, the beam would not withstand the pressure of both the turbulence and the recoil force of the cannon.

However, changing the location of the cannon platform would mean giving up the best attack angle while sacrificing the spots excellent defensive security.

Surrounding workers, looking at their two biggest bosses quarreling, didn’t seem surprised.

"Hey, the boss is quarreling again."

"How long do you think the quarrel will last?"

"30 minutes."

"One hour."

"10 minutes."

"Alright, place the bets. The person with the nearest guess wins all the money."

The quarreling between the chief designer and the chief builder was a favorite pastime for the workers, as it allowed them to feel momentarily like humans again. They looked for the ultimate dopamine stimulation within a short time span and began to place bets on how long Danior and Vedant would quarrel.

This had become a daily occurrence for them; as each part of the ship was built only after the quarrel between these two had ended. The entire Delhi Class Battleship was constructed based on the compromise between the theoretical design expert, Danior Boswell, and the practical construction expert, Vedant Iyer.

Raya Shipyard is not the only facility facing such problems; Shivaji Shipyard is also experiencing similar issues as it constructs the Gwalior Class armed merchant ship alongside three other vessels.

Although Leonardo has never designed or built a ship of 2,000 tonnes, he hails from The Republic of Venice and possesses knowledge and theoretical experience accumulated from Venice’s rich shipbuilding heritage. Overall, he took far fewer detours than Danior Boswell and Gana prabu Berunda, but since he lacked real practical experience, running into problems was inevitable.

His quarrels with the person in charge of building the ship, Raghav Solanki, had become a daily occurrence at Shivaji Shipyard. The same could be said for Reliance Shipping and Shipbuilding, which had taken on the task of constructing the modular attachments for the C and CR series of the Gwalior Class armed merchant ship.

Secret constructions were ongoing in nearly all major shipyards of the Bharatiya Empire, and the naval industry had become exciting once more. Local manufacturers supporting the major shipyards realized something significant was about to happen after receiving orders for various parts with increased requirements.

Some brave manufacturers began planning to expand their companies to secure as many orders as possible for the upcoming naval expansion.

The booming naval industry was prominently featured in Bharatham Daily by The editor in chief Meera, Which brought the attention of the southern part of the empire to the Naval Industry

In fact the reason for the news being spread through the newspaper was not entirely to promote naval expansion; Vijay had his own separate motivations, as he was the one responsible for the news being published. He aimed to direct a significant portion of the empire’s attention toward the naval sector while discreetly starting the weeding plan he and Selvan had discussed.