The Decisive's chief designer, Sane, saw the Crown Prince's grave expression and immediately stepped forward to explain, "Your Highness, the original design did indeed mount eighteen 32-pounder Cannons, and there were no problems at all during the tests in the Mediterranean Sea. But afterward, when we tested her in the rougher waters of the Atlantic Ocean, we found that firing too many heavy guns would prevent the hull from maintaining stability."
He carefully glanced at Joseph. "As you know, The Decisive is only 12.7 meters wide, after all..."
Joseph knew that the cannons of this era all fired toward one side of the ship's broadside. That meant that if the hull was not wide enough, the recoil from a large number of heavy guns firing would cause the ship to sway sideways.
Even if sailing safety was not taken into account, under such violent shaking, there was simply no way to guarantee the cannons' firing accuracy.
And the waves of the Atlantic Ocean would worsen the ship's roll.
But as a main-force warship, the firepower of ten 32-pounder Cannons was clearly a little too weak.
He looked at the chief designer and said, "Could the hull be widened a little more?"
Sane shook his head helplessly. "That would bring a whole series of problems, Your Highness. The most direct one would be a great increase in sailing resistance and a drop in speed. In fact, thanks to the powerful output of the Steam Engine, The Decisive is already much wider than an ordinary Fourth-rate Ship. For example, Jason is only 12.3 meters wide."
It seemed as if it had only been widened by 0.4 meters, but for warship design, that was already an enormous improvement.
One had to know that France's current standard third-rate battleships were only 13.7 meters wide,