After their defeat in the Mediterranean Sea naval battle, the British began reforming their navy. Although the government's finances were in poor shape, the British Navy had indeed learned from the pain and wanted to carry out a comprehensive overhaul.
The British began trying to build larger ships, equipping them with more guns and thicker armor.
The British had long possessed the capability to achieve all of this, but the main reason they had never made changes was the lack of sufficient power for their ships.
Of course, before that, there had also been the question of whether iron-hulled ships would sink to the bottom. But by now, they no longer needed to worry about that. After all, the Austrians had already verified it for them: iron-hulled ships not only would not sink, but could also gain greater advantages in naval battles.
As for ship propulsion, the British invented larger steam engines, but they still could not compare with Steam Turbines.
In fact, the British still had no concept of Steam Turbines at this point. They merely believed that the Austrian Imperial Navy's steam engines were larger. British engineers were quite proud of their steam-engine technology, even disdaining to study the Austrian Empire's technology.
Franz had not expected this. He had assumed the coming naval war would be extraordinarily fierce, which was why the Austrian Empire had been building ships so frantically—hoping to crush its opponents in the number of new warships, or at least match the British.
When Franz heard that the British were still following their old approach, his first reaction was that it was an enemy Smoke Grenade, deliberately luring the Austrian Empire into underestimating them.
Until the British new warships appeared, Franz continued building ships without pause.
Although the situation differed somewhat from what Franz had