Reborn In 17th century India with Black Technology
Chapter 902 - 902: The Thesis Defence (3/3)

There was silence throughout the auditorium. No one wanted to be the first to question the Prince of the Empire. Everyone knew that His Majesty was broad-minded and wouldn't take offence at being questioned, but no one was sure how the Prince would respond. Would he hold a grudge? Given His Majesty's character, the son he raised was unlikely to be a tyrant, but the people who wanted to test the assumption were almost none.

Vijay was disappointed when no one questioned Agni, and he was just about to raise a question himself, but before he took action, to his surprise, someone else spoke up. An elderly man who looked to be nearing his 50s raised his hand. Vijay leaned forward to see who it was, and a smile slowly formed on his face. It was Danior Boswell, sitting quietly in a corner. He didn't know he had come, but it was a pleasant surprise nonetheless.

"Excuse me, Your Highness. As someone involved in the naval industry, I completely agree with you on the feasibility of adding metal plating to the wooden hulls of ships. In fact, what many don't realise is that this kind of technology is already being used to some extent."

"For large vessels, we already copper plate the hull below the waterline to avoid biofouling and rotting of the wood, so the concept you are mentioning is not entirely foreign. But my question is: if the ship is metal-plated like you suggested, from top to bottom, have you calculated how high the displacement of the ship will reach? Have you calculated that the ship can be top-heavy, and extreme modifications have to be made to make it stable? And even if this ship is stable and will not sink, have you thought about what kind of sails will be needed to move this ship forward at an acceptable speed to be used in the navy?" It could be seen clearly from his tone that he didn't think the technology was practically applicable. This made all the people hold their breath in nervousness, afraid of how the Prince would react. Thankfully, what they worried about did not happen.

Agni was surprised after identifying the person asking the question as Danior Boswell, the chief designer of many ships in the empire, including the empire's flagship Surat class.

"Thank you for the question, sir, and I would like to quickly add I am a huge fan of your work."

"The straightforward answer to your question is, it is practically impossible to make a typical military ship with metal plating. The ship will be too broad, too bulky, and will be very unreliable. But—pay attention to the word *typical*—what if the ship using such technology is not a typical military vessel, but a specialist that does not require much movement?"

"Everyone, please pay attention to the screen."

The next moment, the banner of the title that Agni had hung fell down, and behind it a unique-looking ship appeared. As soon as it appeared, Danior Boswell's eyes lit up. He immediately understood what Agni wanted to do, and this understanding made him excited.

'It's a brilliant idea,' he said to himself.

The freshmen and some of the less informed audience did not understand the significance of the ship on the screen. Thankfully, Agni soon explained:

"This is one of the first ships manufactured by the Empire and put into production. It is called the Dristhi Class."

"It is a 50-tonne, two-hull design which was used to protect our coastline during the time when the Europeans could come into our waters anytime they wanted. It was also used as communication nodes for the Arkha Dristhi Communication Channel."

"Currently, it has lost its military usage, but it is still the backbone of communication between various coastal cities in the Empire."

"Now, the reason why I'm talking about this ship is that it does not require much movement. It stays in place and completes a very specific task, which is defence and communication."

"So I propose in my research a new type of ship for exactly the same role the Dristhi Class had been put into service for all those years ago."

"A naval ship that doesn't move much but will act as a floating fortress of the Bharatiya Empire on water."

Just when Agni was about to continue, he saw a middle-aged man raising his hand.

Agni motioned for him to speak out.

"Excuse me, Your Highness, but the ship you are mentioning is not very practical at all. For the last five years, we have had fewer than 200 incidents at the naval border. You yourself said that the Dristhi Class is no longer being used for military purposes, then what is the use of manufacturing a similar ship, which, from the looks of it, appears more expensive?"

Agni drank a cup of water as he listened to the question, after which he respectfully asked the man to sit down.

"I thank you for your question, sir. I assume by your accurate knowledge of naval incidents, you belong to the Navy?"

"Coast Guard, Your Highness."

"Oh, thank you for your service," Agni said as he did a Namaskara. "And to answer your question, it is definitely feasible, because although we didn't encounter any major troubles near our immediate border, the trouble we are encountering at the gateways into the Bharatiya Mahasamudhra, more specifically at Madagascar and Samudra Nagari, is increasing year by year."

"My proposal is to have the ships be stationed in these gateways and completely build a solid metal floating wall to deter any enemies of the Bharatiya Empire and to safeguard our interests."

The middle-aged man wore a look of enlightenment because he had not considered that ships like the Dristhi Class could be used in other places. Now that he thought about it, the usefulness of such turret ships in the gateways of the Bharatiya Mahasamudra seemed to be more significant than the Dristhi Class all those years ago.

It was not only the middle-aged man; many people in the crowd were enlightened. Even Danior Boswell nodded continuously, vaguely seeing the image of His Majesty the Emperor, who considers every small detail when he comes up with a plan, in Agni.

"Now, to end my report."

The curtain was pulled once again, and a different design drawing appeared, but this time it was for a weird ship that looked unusually wide—it was more like an island than a ship.

"I propose that a ship be built to carry the best guns in the Empire as well as to host the Arkha Dristhi platform. The ship will be under 400 tonnes in displacement, and it will be built with internal I-beam frames every 1.5 metres, transverse ribs, and a reinforced keelson 1.2 metres wide, modified keels for roll damping. It will have a universal platform to install all types of smoothbore guns, a platform for a Bajaj Mark 5 gun, three removable masts with square sails which could be removed and tucked away in the ship when the ship is in turret mode, and when it needs to be moved, the sails could be put on once again and the whole ship could be towed away by a larger ship in case of servicing or maintenance purposes."

"The ship will have a broad and flat bilge design so that it will have maximal stability while stationary, and four 5-tonne sea anchors which keep the ship from being affected too much by large waves."

The screen at the back fell down once again with the pull of a string. Everyone thought that the report was over, and clapping started to be heard, but to everyone's surprise, even Vijay's, Agni did not get off the stage. Instead, he stayed on it and brought out a young man with a dark complexion who was wearing a pair of spectacles.

"A report on nickel-manganese alloy steel." This title immediately caught the attention of Vijay. If he was not mistaken, this is the same steel that was used on armours in the earlier ironclad vessels. 'When did this brat participate in this research?' Vijay wasn't expecting it.

Looking at the surprised faces of everyone, Agni smiled, "It can be said that the report I have given until now could only be considered barely acceptable, since I don't have any actual evidence to show my concept at work."

In fact, no one accepted this reason because most of the thesis reports are like the one Agni made—sound in theory and logic, having experimentation and prototype models, but no actual results. According to them, Agni's project was already perfect, since no one expected him to design the whole ship himself and build it. The things he had done were already more than enough. He not only presented his core logic through an experiment, but he also convinced several professionals in the empire with his suggestion. If he doesn't qualify for a proper thesis defence, then who will?

However, no one voiced out their thoughts as Agni had already started to speak.

"The idea of metal plating the ships came to me after witnessing many ships being modified in Bhagat Shipyard."

"After I got the idea of metal plating the ship, I immediately conceptualised what type of ship the metal plating could be used on and where the ship could be used, but I was missing one key link—and that was what type of metal to use."

"I first considered the most abundant metal, iron, but unfortunately, it turned out to be too brittle, weak, and very heavy. It was not worth it for the drawbacks it had. I immediately considered copper since, like Sir Danior Boswell mentioned, it is already being used in the hulls. It is very strong, durable, and corrosion-resistant as well. But unfortunately, it is too costly. Copper plating the whole hull would cost a fortune. I then considered steel—an abundantly obtainable metal that is both lighter and stronger than iron, showing better weather resistance as well."

"I was very sure that this was the metal I was going to use, but after coming back to the college to prepare for my thesis defence, I came across second-year student Jaswant Mahavira, a student majoring in metallurgy."

"He put forward a very interesting proposition where he theorised a metal alloy that would be as light as steel but stronger, more durable than steel, rounded off with slight corrosion resistance and bulletproofing against small-calibre bullets."

"At that moment, I knew that this alloy was practically made for the metal plating of naval vessels."

"So after several months of continuous research, we have finally achieved satisfactory results and mastered the production technology of a nickel-manganese alloy which we call Loha-MV1, or Mahabharata Grade One."

"Now, my fellow classmate and researcher will come forward and explain some of the specifics about the alloy."

Jaswant was a little embarrassed due to the high praise the prince had given him, but fortunately, he was not a person with stage fright. Although not as confident as Agni, he still came forward and spoke loudly:

" The Loha-MV1 has a similar density and elasticity to normal steel, but its tensile strength, yield strength, impact resistance, and hardness are all more than twice as high. It has moderate corrosion resistance due to the presence of nickel, and its thermal conductivity and melting point are nearly the same as regular steel. Its main drawbacks are slightly lower forgeability and greater difficulty in smelting, but considering its military applications, We see them as acceptable trade-offs. "

"I would like to apologise beforehand because I'm not able to disclose the preparation method of the alloy, as there is a chance that this metal will go into the military-controlled materials list, but I can disclose the composition."

"Iron is 95%, nickel is 2%, manganese is 2%, carbon is 0.3%, silicon is 0.3%, and sulfur, phosphorus, and other controlled impurities are around 0.05%."

"The sample metal in my hand will be handed over to the management. Interested people can get in touch with them to verify our claims."

"Thank you for your time."

Loud applause broke out. Vijay, Kavya, Vedant, and Tanvika, all four members of the royal family, along with Principal Govindraj Chandrasekhar and Chief Secretary Ganesh, were standing and applauding. In the audience, people like Danior Boswell and other important figures had also stood up. The freshmen were the most excited, some even started to whistle, drawing scoldings from the teachers. Watching all this, Vijay and Kavya felt extremely proud, while Vedant unknowingly clenched his fist, ' I will be on that stage soon enough, Big Brother. You can't leave me too far behind. ' Agni had really outdone himself.

P.S. Damn it became big, but i guess its goo for agni.

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