Herald of Steel



Lady Inayah did try to ask Alexander why he needed the six months, and what was the issue, but he simply avoid it and said there was an issue but he would be able to soon solve it.

And the conversation ended there.

Between Lady Inayah and Alexander, that was.

While Pasha Farzah was far more interested in knowing the capabilities of this new ship than building it.

Or maybe one might say its limitations as the longer he looked at the replica, the more skeptical he became of its viability.

And so he expressed such doubts as such, saying in a deep voice, "Hmmm, this ship is very good in design. But I do have concerns," as then turned to ask Alexander, "But I believe there will be a demonstration?

"So let's see how it performs before I speak them out aloud. I could be wrong."

The aged man said this with an unusually grave voice and a deep wrinkle on his forehead as if something great was troubling him.

'I really hope I'm wrong about this,' He said to himself.

While Alexander for his part could not think of anything wrong with the trireme and felt this was the superweapon that would enable him to dominate the seas not only around Zanzan, but the entire Middus sea which all these superpowers shared a coastline with.

And to accomplish this he had even added to this design that he did not tell the others.

For instance, in addition to the steel pegs, he also used cement as a binding agent between the vertically stacked wooden planks, further strengthening them, and then replaced the bronze ram with hardened steel.

All this meant that his ship was sturdier than any other ship, hit harder than any of them, and could not be also at sea unlike most of them.

Needless to say, Alexander was thus very proud of his creation and so was eager to prove the aged man wrong, thinking this ancient man did not know what he was talking about.

Thus, to showcase the prowess of his 'improved ship', Alexander had the steel pegged trireme whose one side had been destroyed again dragged out to sea, and its good side was made to face this 'improved ship'.

The intention was to use the double-hulled ship to ram the poor half-destroyed ship again and attempt to split it in two in just a single strike, thus showing the sheer difference in magnitudes of power between a regular trireme and this improved version.

While to an outside onlooker, the whole experiment looked like that Alexander just really disliked the poor steep pegged trireme.

But as a bit of time went by, it became apparent that for the little new guy, it would appear fortunately luck was on its side.

Because as soon the 'improved ship' was told to row out to attack the trireme, Alexander immediately noticed the problem that Pasha Farzah might have foreseen.

He noticed that this 'super ship' could barely move!

From the shore, he could clearly see the close to two hundred oarsmen put all they had into rowing the oars as fast as they could, but still could only get the ship to advance at a sluggish, sleepy pace, almost like it was moving through goo.

It seemed that this bid to make the ship superstable Alexander had made the trireme too heavy!

In fact, it weighed almost ten times as a regular trireme, but the number of oarsmen was the same as a regular trireme.

Meaning the ship could only move at 1-2 knots.

Ramming at such speeds would be harmless to most enemy ships, that is if they ever manage to get hit in the first.

Because if you get hit by something moving at such speeds, you got no one else to blame but yourself.

"I knew it." Pasha Farzah immediately let out a sigh of regret after seeing this, saying, "Not only is the ship too heavy, its hull is too deep. So the enemy is able to retreat to shallower waters, it won't be able to pursue them in fear of getting stuck in the sand or coral."

"Worse, it might not even work as a cargo ship because it won't be able to port at most harbors due to that long hull."

Pasha Farzah seemed to be raining freezing cold water on Alexander's parade.

And the fact that these were all mostly true made it feel even colder as Alexander felt he was hit in the guts with it.

Pasha Farzah was right on all fronts.

Most of the harbors of this time were quite shallow and might not be able to accolade the lengthy bottom hull, while if Alexander send these to battles, the enemy would simply swerve to the sides and hit them on the flanks, and since these ships would not be able to row away, the enemy could simply board them to neutralize the soldiers.

It appeared that Alexander had made a magnificent but ultimately not very good ship.

"Bu..but could not you make the ships bigger? To make them carry oarsmen. Or use more sails?" While Lady Inayah, who was very much disheartened by Pasha Farzah's analysis, quickly gave these proposals, hoping to save this lovely ship that had the potential to earn her so much money.

Now on the surface, her suggestion seems to make sense.

There was also the historical precedent in Alexander's past life where ships much bigger and much heavier, weighing as much as 1,500 tons were propelled using sails and the power of the wind.

But Alexander could only shake his head ruefully at this, indicating that it would not be possible, making Lady Inayah's heart almost bleed.

And there were several reasons why it would not work for him in this particular circumstance.

One was that making the ship bigger would also make it heavier.

So they would be back to square one.

And as for building bigger and better sails and rigging, it was possible.

But it would not help in this situation.

The reason being how naval battles were fought in this time and age.

Which was by ramming.

This meant ships would ram other ships, and if they got lucky they would immobilize the opponent in the first strike thus making the enemy unable to participate in the fight, following which the attacker would back up their ship and go ram another ship.

Or if they were not that lucky, they would board the rammed ship and kill all its occupants, before backing up to continue the fight elsewhere.

So as it could be seen, the ability to back up one's ship was critical in naval battles of this time.

Something that was not really possible using sails.

Which was not a problem for ships in the 16th century as they used cannons to hit ships hundreds of meters.

But it was a problem for Alexander who had no such weapon.

And he also did not know the recipe for gunpowder to make those weapons.

So it appeared that his dream of dominating the ships during an invincible fleet of concrete ships would have to sleep for a while longer.

Now to be fair it was not all doom and gloom for Alexander.

Not as much as Pasha Farzah was making it out to be anyway.

Because Alexander could at least think of a rebuttal about the harbor problem.

So turning to face Pasha Farzah, he first said with a smile, "Thank you for your insight my lord. This is exactly why I wanted your esteemed self to view these ships and give your opinion. It seems like this concept ship was a bit of a failure haha," he lightly chuckled.

But then claimed, "But I also believe you are incorrect about it being a bad cargo ship because it cannot access most harbors."

"For you see, this trireme might look like the height of an ordinary trireme, but actually it is a lot taller. It's just that a lot of it is underwater as the concrete hull also drags a lot of the boat into the water."

"And so its cargo space is a lot more than it appears."

As soon as Alexander claimed this, a small fire was lit in Lady Inayah's eyes, who had been until now listening to the men speak a bit listlessly as she really did not care.

But now, given where she thought Alexander was going, she was suddenly very interested, for she could easily guess what Axx was about to say.

Which was, "So I believe that given the option to carry more cargo at one time and much more safely, most ports will be willing to expand their port to accommodate us."

"Because it will make them richer!"

"Yes! Yes!" The moment Alexander finished, Lady Inayah let out a burst of joyous shouts, her eyes dilating in glee.

What Alexander said made perfect sense to her, and she believed that even if this ship could not revolutionize warfare, it would certainly be able to revolutionize trade.

"Hmmmm, perhaps. How much can it carry?" Pasha Farzah asked tracing his chin, still a bit skeptical.

The amount of increased cargo would determine the ship's usefulness.

And he was not disappointed in this, as Alexander gave quite favorable numbers.

"This one is just a prototype. But if built properly, at least a few thousand tonnes…around 5 to 8 tons."

This was massive, as regular cargo ships of this time only could carry 1,000 tons, and hence Alexander's new ship found its life elsewhere.