Chapter 414

Chapter 414: New Port of Hamburg

November 12, 1872.

East African Navy Lieutenant Commander Julian and East African Port Designer Roy Weiss brought two naval warships to Richard Bay. Julian belongs to the serious Austrian navy. Because Richard's Bay was so far from East Africa, Filippo Archduke Dinant could not go to Richard's Bay himself, so he authorized Julian to go there.

Julian stood on the foredeck, full of spirit, watching his little "fleet" ride the wind and waves of the sea. It is a completely new feeling that one cannot experience in the Adriatic Sea. Black smoke billowed north with the sea breeze. .

The navy wants to move freely across the ocean, instead of being stuck in a big bathtub in the Adriatic like the Austrian navy. However, Julian still has some unfinished ideas. It would be better if he could pilot an armored ship, that would be more likely. He is the embodiment of the romance of soldiers at sea.

Richards Bay is located on the east coast of South Africa, with Maputo to the north and Durban to the south. We can imagine here the defensive pressure in East Africa.

As a result, Archduke Ferdinand assigned two warships currently serving in the East African kingdom to Julian to command, which certainly came as a surprise to young Julian. He wasn't even a captain in the Austrian navy. Not only was he promoted to East Africa, but he also directly commanded two warships.

Of course, the most important thing is that the East African Navy never lacks salaries, and social benefits are better than Austria's. Although salaries are lower than in the Austrian Navy, the cost of living in East Africa is much lower than in Austria.

The East African Navy has a total of eight capital warships, two of which will be withdrawn to Haiti. This means that the East African Kingdom actually only has six warships available.

Two battleships commanded by Julian were withdrawn from the Austrian navy and sent to East Africa. It cannot be said that they are old friends so they are not strangers.

If two warships had been deployed to protect South Africa, Crown Prince Ferdinand would certainly have felt heartbroken. However, because East Africa wanted to buy new ships, Crown Prince Ferdinand became more generous. Without new warships, all of East Africa, even Crown Prince Ferdinand, would not object to a navy being assembled and sent to South Africa.

However, when East Africa occupied this location, the name Richard's Bay did not exist. Instead, the East African Kingdom called it New Hamburg Bay, and the proposed port to be built here by East Africa was also called New Hamburg Port.

The reason why the name New Hamburg Port is different from ports such as Dar es Salaam and Mombasa is because it was built entirely by the East African Kingdom and has no historical burden. Hamburg played an important role in German history, especially during the Hanseatic League. As a nomadic people migrating from the interior, the Zulu people had no concept of ports, leaving the entire coastline of the Zulu kingdom in a state of desolation.

Royavis: "New Hamburg Port is positioned as a dual-use military and civilian port. According to the geographical conditions of the New Hamburg Bay, we can develop two ports, build a civil port on the shore of the bay and build a military port in the southern interior. In this way, the military port can achieve double insurance.

The shape of New Hamburg Bay is roughly trumpet-shaped, but has two narrow areas. The first is that the width of the mouth of the bay is about 800 meters, and there is another narrow mouth about 500 meters along the channel inward. This width is not too wide but is much better than conditions in the Port of Durban. The Durban harbor mouth is just under 400 meters away.

In addition, this configuration naturally divides Hamburg's new port into an inner port and an outer port. The old Port of Durban also had this layout, but the inner and outer wharves of the Port of Durban were created by building embankments on both sides.

Julien: "Should a military port be located at the mouth of the bay? It seems pointless to put it inside. In addition, I feel that the north side of the inner harbor also has good construction conditions, even better than the two locations you chose. , why not use it? Rojaves: "Because it's not necessary. I had a private discussion with His Royal Highness the Crown Prince before coming here. Actually, at first I also wanted to choose the north of the inland port as the port construction area, but the crown prince told me that currently South Africa is not a key construction area in East Africa, so there is no need to pursue it. . an oversized gate, as long as it is enough.

Ernst Ceci believes that the new Hamburg port could become the largest coal and mineral export port in East Africa in the future, so he has booked a place in advance. In its previous life, the Port of New Hamburg was called Richards Bay (or Richards Bay Port). This is one of the largest coal export ports in the world. In its previous life, South Africa produced more than 200 million tons of coal a year and the majority of coal exports were made through the port of New Hamburg. and only Ernst knew about the existence of huge coal reserves in South Africa.

Ernst currently has no plans to develop coal mines in South Africa. The coal mines in East Africa (mainly Tanganyika and Kenya) were now full and the role of the new Hamburg port was to facilitate the export of raw materials from East Africa to South Africa. Cost savings.

Because South Africa bordered the British Cape Colony and the Colony of Natal, it was also the area with the greatest defensive pressure in East Africa. A certain number of troops will be kept there for a long time. Military consumption was indispensable, sea transport was clearly the most important. Road transport costs are very high, unless Zimbabwe develops, agriculture develops and raw materials can be exported to neighboring South Africa.

Julian: "If that's the case then it makes sense, but our problem right now is that it's so deserted here, we can't even see a single person."

Royavis: "Because the Zulus usually live inland, they don't care about the coast. Having lived in East Africa for so long, except for a few Arab-believing black people in the Kingdom of Zanzibar, I have never seen a single black fisherman. But don't worry about building the port, the South African army will help us and they now have a large number of slaves in their hands.

The East African army stationed in the former Zulu Kingdom was mainly deployed north of the Tugela River, across the British colony of Natal, while the South African army headquarters was in Pretoria.

Julian: "The map shows two large lakes north and south of New Hamburg Harbor. I wonder if we can use them.

Royavis: "The lake in the south is unlikely. In fact, this is a large swamp with very shallow water. The lake in the north is possible. Its size even exceeds the New Hamburg Bay. Thing The best part is that it has a natural river. Hamburger Bay is newly connected.

In fact, the population of Richards Bay in its previous life was mainly distributed on both sides of Hubei. As for the natural river channel, just a little modification can achieve better connection with the new port of Hamburg.

The river is only seven meters wide, connects to the mouth of the lake and only needs to widen to about 800 meters. The width of the river below is more than 20 meters, and the width downstream is more than 100 meters. If it can be used well, it will significantly increase the value of the New Port of Hamburg.

Julian: "South African lakes are really strange in that way. These lakes are not small in size and are distributed close to the coast. There are three large lakes around New Hamburg Harbor alone, and there are over three hundred more lakes farther north. Lake Saint Lucia, stretching over an area of ​​square kilometers, is also close to the shore.

This chain of lakes stretches along the South African coast like a string of pearls. The lake closest to the sea is even less than two kilometers away. As the map shows, the land in between looks like a thin line, aligned with the chain of coral reef islands off the East African coast. opposite.

(End of this chapter)