Reincarnated as Napoleon II-Chapter 106: Auxiliary Ships
"Father, the tour wouldn’t end here," Napoleon II said.
"You mean there’s more ships?" Napoleon I asked.
"Yes," Napoleon II confirmed as he walked over to the door, leading to the adjacent room. Napoleon I followed him while their wives were still inspecting the modern warships that would be fielded for the French Navy.
Inside, Napoleon I saw different ships on different pedestals, encased in glass. He approached one of them and noticed the difference.
"This one doesn’t have weapons on them," Napoleon I commented.
"That is because it doesn’t need weapons," Napoleon II said as he stood next to him. "What we are looking at is a ship that will revolutionize our commerce."
He continued, "I have signed a decree that would strengthen the country’s shipping so that we may not be dependent on foreign ships, such as the British," Napoleon II said and added. "It’s called the French Merchant Shipping Act. It asked the Empire of France to build 100 modern merchant ships to promote commerce across the Empire of France. And this ship is the answer to that act."
"What do you call it?" Napoleon I inquired.
"I call it Victory Ships," Napoleon II revealed.
Napoleon II did not select the Victory design out of preference alone. He chose it because he had already studied what had failed before.
The Liberty-type cargo ship proved that ships could be built quickly and in large numbers. But speed of production came at a cost. Weld seams cracked under stress. Steel plates fractured in cold waters. Some hulls split under heavy seas. They were ships built for emergency, not for decades of service. They moved cargo but many required reinforcement long before their expected lifespan.
And reinforcement meant money.
A hull failure at sea meant more than lost steel. It meant cargo gone, crews lost, trade contracts broken, insurance premiums rising. One design flaw multiplied across a hundred ships became a national liability. Napoleon II had no intention of repeating that mistake.
The Victory configuration corrected those weaknesses.
The hull was longer. Frame spacing was adjusted to distribute stress evenly along the keel. Steel composition was improved to resist brittleness in colder waters. Weld lines were reinforced and inspected under stricter standards. Hatch openings were strengthened to prevent cracking during loading operations.
Where the Liberty ships moved at roughly eleven knots, the Victory design could sustain fifteen to seventeen. That difference meant shorter crossings. Faster turnover. Fewer days exposed at sea. A merchant fleet that moved quickly could compete.
The projected specifications were displayed beside the model:
Victory-Class Merchant Vessel –
Displacement: Approx. 15,000 tons (full load)
Length: 138 meters
Beam: 19 meters
Draft: 8 meters
Propulsion:
— Single steam turbine
— 6,000–8,500 shaft horsepower
— Single screw configuration
Cargo Capacity:
— Approx. 10,000 tons deadweight
— Multiple reinforced cargo holds
Range:
— Transoceanic capability
Crew:
— 40 to 60 personnel
Construction would follow a modular system. Hull sections fabricated inland. Engines produced in centralized facilities. Components were standardized so that repairs in Marseille would not differ from repairs in Brest. Identical parts meant predictable maintenance. Predictable maintenance meant lower operating costs over time. 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚
"And you are saying you can build 100 of these annually?" Napoleon I asked.
"Well at a start it would be difficult to reach that quota as this design is modern, similar to the naval warships that we saw earlier, but as time goes by, constructing these ships would be faster as the workers in the shipyards mature."
"Okay, so this one carries the goods and troops of the Empire of France. Now what about the other ships?" Napoleon I said, looking over to the next one.
"That one is an oil tanker," Napoleon II said as he guided his father toward the final pedestal.
The model was heavier through the midsection than the merchant cargo ship they had just examined. The bow was rounded and blunt compared to the sharper lines of the cruisers. The superstructure was positioned aft, rising above the engine room block, leaving the forward two-thirds of the deck long and uninterrupted except for evenly spaced hatches and pipeline runs.
Napoleon I stepped closer.
"This one looks built for weight," he observed.
"It is," Napoleon II replied. "Fuel weight."
The design drew from a high-capacity fleet tanker concept developed for sustained naval and industrial supply. Unlike general cargo ships, the interior was not divided into large holds. Instead, it was arranged into multiple longitudinal and transverse liquid cargo tanks, separated by bulkheads that strengthened the hull and limited fluid movement.
This tanker used a full double-bottom construction and reinforced longitudinal framing. The structure distributed the immense weight of crude oil or refined fuel evenly along the keel. Expansion trunks ran upward through the deck to manage vapor pressure. Pump rooms were isolated aft, separated from cargo tanks by heavy bulkheads for safety.
The specifications were mounted beside the model:
Fleet Oil Tanker –
Displacement: Approx. 24,000–26,000 tons (full load)
Length: 168 meters
Beam: 23 meters
Draft: 10.5 meters
Propulsion:
— Steam turbine plant
— 9,000 shaft horsepower
— Single screw configuration
Speed:
— Approx. 16 knots sustained
Cargo Capacity:
— Approx. 140,000 barrels of fuel oil equivalent
— Multiple segregated cargo tanks
Range:
— Ocean-going endurance suitable for transatlantic routes
Crew Complement:
— Approx. 50 personnel
The deck piping was arranged in straight, accessible lines for rapid connection to shore facilities. High-capacity centrifugal pumps allowed faster loading and discharge than earlier tanker types. Reinforced hatch coamings reduced structural fatigue during repeated pressurization cycles.
Napoleon II selected this configuration deliberately.
Earlier tanker designs sacrificed structural integrity for speed of construction. Hull plating thickness varied. Weld procedures were inconsistent. Several suffered from stress fractures along deck seams when operating in heavy seas.
This design corrected those vulnerabilities.
The hull framing was strengthened. Steel grade selection accounted for cold-water brittleness. Expansion joints and stress relief cuts were integrated into high-load sections. The result was a tanker built not just for volume, but for endurance.
France’s modernization would require oil in quantities no sailing fleet had ever imagined. Warships driven by turbines, merchant ships crossing oceans at higher speed, locomotives, industrial boilers, mechanized agriculture—all demanded steady fuel flow.
Napoleon II did not stop at the tanker.
He moved to the next pedestal, where a broader, box-shaped vessel sat under glass. The hull was wide and deep, with a blunt bow and a long flush deck broken by cranes and hatches. The stern opened into a ramp structure, reinforced and squared.
"This one is built for landings," Napoleon II said.
It was designed to carry troops, vehicles, and supplies directly onto hostile shores. The interior decks were arranged in tiers, allowing infantry, artillery pieces, and future mechanized units.
Next stood a replenishment vessel, slimmer than the tanker but longer than the merchant cargo ships. Deck rigs and transfer booms ran along both sides. This ship existed to keep fleets at sea. Fuel, ammunition, spare parts, and provisions could be transferred while underway. Warships would no longer need to return to port for every resupply. A navy that could refuel in open water could project power far beyond coastal limits.
A different model followed—painted white, marked with large red crosses on the hull and deck. Clean lines, wide windows, and expanded upper decks distinguished it from combat vessels. This was a hospital ship. Inside, compartments were arranged as surgical wards, recovery rooms, and operating theaters. It carried no offensive weapons. Its purpose was preservation of life. In war, it would follow the fleet and retrieve the wounded. In peace, it could answer epidemics, disasters, and colonial emergencies.
Beside it stood a repair ship. The hull resembled a cargo vessel, but the superstructure was taller and broken by heavy crane arms. Inside were machine shops, foundries, spare boiler sections, and shaft machining equipment. Damaged destroyers or cruisers could receive temporary structural repairs without returning to Brest or Toulon. Floating workshops meant damaged fleets could remain operational.
Further down the line was a vessel with spools mounted along its midsection and reinforced cable guides at the bow. It was designed to lay communication cables across seabeds. Submarine telegraph lines, later electrical transmission routes, would link colonies and mainland.
Another model carried a reinforced bow shaped differently from the rest. The hull curved upward, plated thick at the front. This ship was built to break ice. It would force passages through frozen northern routes, keeping trade open in winter and extending French access to Arctic waters.
Bulk carriers followed—deep-hulled ships with large open cargo spaces for ore, grain, and coal. Their design emphasized volume and ease of loading. As French industry expanded, raw materials would need transport in mass quantities. These ships would move iron from Africa, grain from Eastern Europe, and coal between ports without delay.
"Oh," Napoleon I said as he stepped back from the last ship. "So this is all the auxiliary ships huh?"
Napoleon II nodded. "Make sure you remain healthy for the next five to ten years, father, or you won’t see this ship sailing across the seas."
"You always say that to me," Napoleon II harrumphed. "Okay, I’ll do my best to keep myself alive until then."
