Dreadnought

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Oldrac the Chitinous
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Dreadnought

Post by Oldrac the Chitinous »

The Dreadnought class of battleships were the largest and most powerful vessels in the Forum Navy in the 21st and 22nd centuries. Originally constructed for the ruling Ad Captandum Vulgus party during the <<SMB Civil War>>, they did not see use in combat until the <<War of 2101,>> about 40 years later.

At the start of the Civil War, the Forum was five years into an economic boom that started with the development of the Generalized <<Postcount++ Formula>> in 2045. The hawkish ACV wasted no time in putting this new wealth to use expanding the military, and directed the <<Immortal Nine>> to make preparations for outright war against the steadily growing Zach Can't Draw faction. Anticipating that the ZCD rebels might seek assistance from foreign navies, Major-General <<Edprimeminster>> ordered the construction of four ultra-heavy warships. Funds dried up rapidly as the war progressed, however, and the ACV was forced to put the project on hold.

Production resumed in 2054, and all four ships were completed the following year. They were commissioned in the order they were completed: On March 11, SFNS Echidna; on May 18, SFNS Jormungandr; on July 7, SFNS Grendel; on August 19, the flagship, SFNS Tucker's Mom. Each ship displaced 80,000 cubic feet of water, and was armed with a primary battery of twelve 50-Caliber Carthage Ship-Mounted Railguns, nine Pandemonium Land/Sea/Air Mortars, and four torpedo bays. Other features included self-healing armor and active buoyancy control, allowing the ships to submerge for short periods of time. They were designed for a crew of 3500, but could be run for long periods by as few as 1500. The total cost was estimated at 15 billon posts, over twice the initial projected cost of ¶6 Billion.

From their construction until 2101, the Dreadnoughts stayed on semi-active duty with a crew of approximately 2400 apiece, performing occasional patrol, escort, and police missions. They were continually modernized as new technology became available, and during this time the Forum was considered a significant naval power, on par with the much larger navies of more established nations.

The bombing of the SFNS Grendel on 9 January, 2101 is widely considered to be the deciding factor that pushed the Forum into the War of 2101. Echidna was instrumental in breaking the siege of <<Weiner Island>> early in the war, but was destroyed in that battle. Jormungandr fared better, winning a number of key battles before being scuttled in a boarding attempt shortly before the conclusion of the war. Only Tucker's Mom survived the conflict.

Because the Forum had no organized Navy during the Great Nomadship, ownership of Tucker's Mom was a point of sore contention. Virtually all of the major factions from the old Forum had some claim to the vessel. The two strongest claims were made by Zach the Evitable, and Morgan Asherian, the Head of <<House Asherion>>. Zach the Evitable's argument was that, because Tucker's Mom was formally commissioned in the name of his uncle <<Zach the Magnificent>> (as was traditional at the time), she belonged to his next of kin. Asherian claimed that, since House Asherion provided the largest portion of the funding for the ship of any surviving faction, the ship was rightfully theirs.

House Asherion ultimately won out, and Tucker's Mom remained in service for almost three decades more. Eventually, though, as world navies began to rely more on spacecraft than water vessels, it became increasingly difficult to justify the expense of keeping Tucker's Mom afloat, so on August 19, 2130, she was decommissioned. Plans were made to cannibalize her weapons and armor for use in newer craft, and to melt down her hull, but they never came to fruition. Finally, in 2157, to commemorate the Reunification of the Forum, Tucker's Mom was returned to Weiner Island and opened to the public to serve as a Museum of Forum History.

Author's Commentary:
Most present-day military historians agree that a fleet of smaller, cheaper warships would have been a wiser investment on the part of the ACV. However, the Dreadnoughts provided a very real benefit during peacetime: They made the world take notice of the Forum in a way that a bunch of smaller ships would not have.
Last edited by Oldrac the Chitinous on Wed Mar 11, 2009 4:12 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Dreadnought

Post by Edminster »

What year exactly were the Dreadnoughts commisioned? I was attempting to add this information to the Chronology, but discovered it to be absent.

Also! Your article mentions that Tucker's Mom remained in sevice for a further three decades after the War, and yet at the same time was decomissioned in 2120, a mere nineteen years after the beginning of the War. Could you revise these dates, please?
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Re: Dreadnought

Post by Oldrac the Chitinous »

Careful with the word 'commission' - it means something different for warships than it does for portraits.
The construction orders for the Dreadnoughts were signed at the very beginning of the Civil War; the papers are dated June 11, 2050, but there is some doubt if that was the actual day of the signing.
In any event, I would advise against including that date in the Chronology - it seems to me that including it would clutter the timeline, and really, the commissioning of the Dreadnoughts wasn't terribly important to the Forum until their construction actually finished.
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Re: Dreadnought

Post by Edminster »

My apologies for careless usage of terminology; I am not an expert in Naval matters.

I asked for the specific date because the current chronology will be split into a much more easily-readable form whence this project reaches completion. Technological, social, and Military advances will each have their own line, as will significant personages.

((If you happen to have a copy of The Past Through Tomorrow lying around, you can see the type of Timeline I am talking about. Unfortunately, I cannot find a suitable example on-line.))
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Re: Dreadnought

Post by Edminster »

Oldrac the Chitinous wrote:Image
Predating the SMBC Forum Navy by decades, the Modship Banhammer was nevertheless a force to be reckoned with in coastal waters.
Jawesome.
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Re: Dreadnought

Post by mountainmage »

We didn't ban ChooChootrain, though.
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Re: Dreadnought

Post by Edminster »

I thought our brandishment of the Ship was one of the reasons he ran off, though.
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Re: Dreadnought

Post by Oldrac the Chitinous »

mountainmage wrote:We didn't ban ChooChootrain, though.
By exercising your Moderatioral powers, you caused ChooChooTrain to stop coming to the forum. Let's not argue semantics.
Police said they spent some time working out if they could charge the man with being armed with a weapon, as technically he was armed with part of a fish.

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Re: Dreadnought

Post by mountainmage »

But...I love arguing semantics. :(
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