Chapter 589: A Strategic Material
The Inflexible was slowly towed back to the dock, and an uneasy silence settled over the group.
Joseph, accompanied by Borda, Sané, and others, boarded the ship to investigate. Inside, the steam engine, overstrained and deformed, lay like a grotesque, defeated beast. The aft compartment was littered with shattered wood fragments, evidence of the main shaft's catastrophic failure due to severe vibrations.
After meticulously measuring and documenting the damage, Joseph disembarked and prepared to return to the design office. Just then, Murdock came rushing toward him, panting and visibly excited.
"Your Highness, five... five hours!"
"Five hours of what?"
Murdock turned and pointed toward the distant hull testing lab. "The new propeller has been running for five hours straight without any issues!"
Joseph's face lit up with joy. He quickly boarded a carriage with the group, heading for the testing lab.
The facility was as large as a basketball court, centered around a glass water tank large enough to dwarf an average person. Inside, a fully operational LJ52 steam engine roared as it drove a cylindrical wooden shaft extending into the tank. At the far end of the shaft, the new propeller churned the water, creating a flurry of bubbles. Though it vibrated slightly, it ran stably, restrained like a mighty beast subdued by its handler.
Murdock gestured to his partner, Sandell, who was adding coal to the steam engine's furnace.
Sandell glanced at the clock and called out, "Five hours and thirty-six minutes. Everything's holding steady."
A collective cheer erupted from the surrounding engineers and technicians.
"Thank God! We finally did it!"
"I knew it—His Highness's design had to work!"
"This invention will put our warships ten years ahead of the competition!"
Joseph beamed with pride and turned to Murdock. "Did Mr. Garman use a new technique?"
Indeed, after repeated vibration failures, Joseph had sought the expertise of Garman, his father's mentor and the finest clockmaker in France. He tasked Garman with crafting the propeller using watchmaking precision, the highest level of craftsmanship available in this era.
Murdock nodded. "Yes, Your Highness. Mr. Garman said he improved the polishing method and changed the material for the main shaft."
"Oh?" Joseph raised an eyebrow. "What material did he use?"
"I didn't ask."
Joseph gestured to Éman. "Please bring Mr. Garman here."
The Secret of the Guaiacum Wood
Half an hour later, Garman arrived at the testing lab. Watching the propeller spin flawlessly after six hours of operation, the clockmaker made the sign of the cross repeatedly. "Thank God! It must have been His divine guidance that brought Miss Bérenice to me!"
"Miss Bérenice?" Joseph blinked in confusion.
Borda interjected, "Your Highness, I believe that's the maid assigned to assist Mr. Garman at the shipyard."
Joseph turned to Garman, amused. "Mr. Garman, did the maid help with your work?"
"Yes, Your Highness." Garman nodded emphatically. "You mentioned before that the main shaft required wood that was as uniform and hard as possible.
"One day after dinner, I was muttering about this problem, and Miss Bérenice overheard. She mentioned a type of extremely hard wood—guaiacum wood.
"She said it's the hardest wood she's ever seen. Natives in Jamaica use it for paddle shaft sleeves, and her family happened to own a piece."
Pointing at the spinning propeller, Garman continued, "That's the one. At first, I didn't pay much attention, but when I examined the wood, I immediately realized it was perfect for the shaft!
"It's not just hard and resistant to deformation—it even secretes its own oil, which means it can work without additional lubrication. I crafted it into the main shaft, and, well, here we are!"
Joseph's mind raced. A wood that could secrete oil, was exceptionally hard, and resistant to deformation—this sounded familiar.
He vaguely remembered reading about something like this in a modern news article about naval engineering. It had mentioned a similar wood referred to as the "destroyer-saving shaft." In the story, a navy had faced repeated main shaft failures on its destroyers due to design flaws. When replacement parts were unavailable, a veteran craftsman used a special self-lubricating wood to save the fleet.
Could this guaiacum wood be the same material?
If this wood was capable of serving as the main shaft for modern 3,000-ton destroyers, it would undoubtedly handle the demands of 400-ton frigates from this era.
Joseph reasoned aloud, "It seems that the vibration issue wasn't just due to the propeller's precision. The main shaft likely underwent slight deformation under rotational stress, creating asymmetric forces."
Sané, the chief designer, added, "Alternatively, the shaft's high hardness and self-lubrication may have compensated for minor imperfections in the propeller."
Joseph's expression turned serious. "This guaiacum wood isn't just valuable—it's a strategic material."
He immediately asked Éman to summon Miss Bérenice and inquired, "Where did you obtain the guaiacum wood?"
The maid, visibly nervous, stammered through her response. Eventually, Joseph pieced together her story. Her father, a sailor in the Caribbean, had once saved a Jamaican merchant. As thanks, the merchant gifted him a large piece of guaiacum wood, which the family had kept as a valuable decoration until Garman purchased it.
Joseph rewarded Bérenice with a 1,000-franc bonus and instructed the intelligence bureau to secure confidentiality agreements from her and her family.
A Race Against the British
Next, Joseph summoned a botanist and asked about the wood's origins.
"Your Highness, as far as I know, guaiacum wood primarily comes from Jamaica," the botanist replied. "It's occasionally brought to Europe by spice or medicinal traders."
"Jamaica?" Joseph frowned deeply.
That was British territory. He needed to act fast to secure a stockpile of the wood before the British realized its significance.
A New Test
A week later, the shipyard acquired several more pieces of guaiacum wood from herbal markets. Garman crafted full-size main shafts, which were installed on the Inflexible.
Under the midday sun, the frigate, now equipped with its new propulsion system, took to the calm waters of Brest Bay.
This time, it overtook the test oar-and-sail frigate in just 25 minutes, cruising effortlessly ahead. The Inflexible ran for four continuous hours before stopping due to a steam engine malfunction. By that point, it had left the oar-and-sail frigate trailing 20 kilometers behind.
Joseph turned to Murdock, smiling. "Now it's up to you. We need it to operate smoothly for at least a full day."
He didn't blame Murdock for the steam engine issue—after all, high-pressure steam engines were cutting-edge technology barely a year old. The fact that they had reached this level of stability was impressive.
Murdock exchanged glances with Sandell, hesitating.
"Your Highness," he said cautiously, "this might take two years. This level of pressure is rarely used elsewhere."
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