Steel Empire
Revising Ship Design

Berengar was currently in his study, sitting in his chair, and drawing up new blueprints for a series of ships he wanted to build for his Navy. He has been doing this for hours and again is what people call sleep deprivation.

While the Linde-Class of the Line Ship is the pinnacle of naval ships, at least in ships powered by sails, it is frankly redundant and will require a lot of resources, especially from oak. Such a ship was a huge expense, and he could only build a few of them before venturing into America. 

Simply put, he realized that the construction of such a ship was a waste of his limited resources, at least until he began colonization. As his successor, Berengar is currently drawing up plans for a 38-cannon fifth-class frigate that will become the standard battleship for its fleet in the Mediterranean.

A frigate is a single deck vessel that is fast and maneuverable. In the Mediterranean with little wind, at least when compared to the Atlantic, such a ship would be much more helpful in securing its power. They will also be fully capable of traversing the new world and protecting Berengar's interests abroad.

The fifth-grade frigates with 38 guns will be armed with a total of thirty-eight 32-pound guns and several rotatable Schmidt cannons. With this fleet of ships, no one would be able to challenge his authority in the Mediterranean.

However, it was not only the frigate he designed, but also a cutting tool for trade and transportation. Clipper is a high-speed and long-range ship. So much so that it would not even need to be armed since there were no ships in this world that could chase after him.

Thus they were the perfect design for a merchant ship and would allow him to exchange goods quickly between his colony and his homeland in the future when he had a large Colonial Empire. For now, these two ship designs would allow him to gain control of the Mediterranean and quickly engage in trade with the various powers in the region.

Berengar had changed the zinc-plated hull design to galvanized steel and made it slightly thicker to protect against enemy cannon fire. This galvanized steel-coated hull will be properly varnished with a black paint base layer and a white stripe over the gun deck. Overall the ship will be very effective in protecting from enemy fire and wood-eating parasites, thus increasing the life of the ship and reducing maintenance costs.

As for her Linde-Class of the Line Ship, it would be stored until the time where she had the means to produce such large ships in large quantities. Although it might disappoint Evio, the man was also practical, and as such, he would indeed be convinced to focus production on the Frigate and the Clippers. 

After completing the blueprints for his new ship, Berengar quickly began designing the Navy uniform. As usual, he focused on renaissance era designs for his clothes. In particular, he was inspired by the clothing worn by an ancient British privateer known as the Sea Dog during the Elizabeth era of his past life. The uniform is designed in black, charcoal, and gold. 

Now there is only one more thing to take care of, and this is very important. The flown Navy flag would symbolize that his ship was from the Duchy of Austria. At this point, the idea of a Navy and a national flag, for the most part, did not exist.

Berengar had been thinking about this for quite some time and had a rudimentary idea in his head. Now that he was a Duke, he actually planned to change his emblem, and because of that, he designed it first. Earlier the emblem was quite simple; it was very creepy in black and gold. There was also a white bend in the middle that separated the two factions. 

Now that he was a duke, he intended to make something more complicated. So he created a white field with a black eagle in the middle. This eagle wears a golden crown and has a golden beak with a red tongue and white eyes. The wingspan of the eagle has a visible golden bulge, and in the center of its body is the old emblem of its family. The eagle's feet and claws were also made of gold. 

After designing the new emblem, Berengar designed his naval flag, which would one day become the basis of his national flag. It was a Prussian flag with a white center and thin black stripes at the top and bottom. However, unlike the Prussian flag, there is also a thin layer of gold underneath. In the middle of the white, there was his new emblem inside. 

In the future, every Austrian ship, whether it be a military ship or a merchant ship, will fly this flag or some of its variants. It would symbolize that they were from the Duchy of Austria and were protected by its powerful Navy. Any attack on an Austrian ship would be considered by Berengar as an act of war.

With the ship, the design completed, her Navy uniform, her new emblem, and her naval flag Berengar had one major task left. He had to think of a name for the frigate and its class. He thought about the matter deeply and decided to name the frigate after himself. Berengar Class Fregat. As for the clipper, they were not warships, and therefore he did not feel the need to give them a Class designation. 

After taking care of business, Berengar leaned back in his chair and stretched his upper body while yawning. He had been in this chair for quite some time, and therefore, wanted to stretch his legs. So he got up from his seat and started sending new designs to the respective builders.

Berengar had written to the shipbuilder about the reason why he needed to shift work to frigate and clipper construction instead of the mighty ship from the path he had originally designed. 

He would attach this letter to the blueprint and send it with an armed caravan to Trieste so that his rivals could not intercept the critical scheme and steal it. He attached great importance to the construction of his Navy, and had no intention of leaking his ship designs to any other country. 

After sending the designs to the people responsible for making them happen, Berengar entered his grand hall, where he sat on his ducal throne. It was at this moment that Linde entered the room with their little child in her arms. Hans grew day by day, and not only in size, but also in brain capacity. 

The boy, who was not even a year old, had already started saying more words than just "mamma and dadda", which completely convinced Berengar that this child would become a genius. As Linde approaches Berengar, their son grabs her father and struggles within his mother's grasp.

Seeing this, Berengar smiled and took the child from his mother's embrace before putting it on his lap. This caused Linde to frown as she had always regarded it as her seat, especially when Berengar was on this ducal throne. 

Seeing the look on his girlfriend's face, Berengar smiled wickedly before teasing her.

"Why is Linde, my dear, are you possibly jealous?"

Linde, of course, looked the other way and frowned further, refusing to respond to Berengar's words. Hans looked at his mother and father and caught a glimpse of understanding in his eyes. So he reached out to his mother and spoke to her.

"Mama! Mama!"

With this, Linde grabs Hans from Berengar's grasp and then sits on Berengar's own lap with a satisfied expression; in doing so, she caresses Hans' strawberry blonde hair, which matches hers and praises her son.

"My baby boy is very considerate and understanding!"

Berengar smirked at this but looked at the child carefully; this child was too smart for his good. Somehow, she realizes that her mother is jealous because she is sitting on her father's lap and making compromises.

This level of intelligence is frightening when one considers that Hans is not even one year old. This only reinforced Berengar's belief that the boy was destined for great things. 

After sitting on his ducal throne for a while, Berengar grew tired; after all, he had burned the midnight oil that came up with his design and thus decided to take a break. He made sure to kiss the cheeks of his lover and child before sitting down, forcing them to stand with him.

"I'll go get some rest; see you later."

With that, Berengar went to his bedroom, where he fell asleep. As for Linde and Hans, they would continue their day as usual.