The Navy of God against Charis naval superiority

If you can arrange to get close enough to a ICN ship to use a spar torpedo, it might be worthwhile to attempt a boarding. While it is unlikely the CoGA could simply sail off with the ship, they might be able to recover enough artifacts, not to mention maps, codebooks and other valuable intelligence to make it worthwhile.

And if the boarding party can't secure the ship, they can always try to destroy the ship by getting to the magazine space or coal bunkers and setting a fire.....

if the NoG dies, then it will be ages before another navy like that would be built to go against charis, one due to the cost, and the other, no driving force like the church to push it into being. eventually some one will start a navy for their coast, but nothing on charis scale. It will be decades before the next major navy will be built, the world would need to deeply change, as the science and industry for the building needs to have spread and developed.

Thucydides wrote:If you can arrange to get close enough to a ICN ship to use a spar torpedo, it might be worthwhile to attempt a boarding. While it is unlikely the CoGA could simply sail off with the ship, they might be able to recover enough artifacts, not to mention maps, codebooks and other valuable intelligence to make it worthwhile.

And if the boarding party can't secure the ship, they can always try to destroy the ship by getting to the magazine space or coal bunkers and setting a fire.....

Not having much idea about how a steam ship works, would they know to set the bunkers on fire? The layout of the magazines is likely to be quite different as well, so even if they boarded, they would probably have trouble with the compartmentalization that occurs in more modern designs.

Hi Pokermind,

Trying to sneak one past us, eh?

The Spar torpedo was only a speculated invention of the forum, there's no such textev anywhere, as was pointed out on the other thread.

Better luck next time.

L

pokermind wrote:Posted this on the Snippet # 7 thread:

"OK Thirsk’s most capable armored ships have crank powered screws and are armed with a spar torpedo. Should such a torpedo be detonated under the keel even a King Harold VII will have it's back broken, let alone a Rottweiler's. A night attack using them would be devastating if they can catch the Charisian navy with it's pants down.

RFC used such attacks in 1634 The Baltic War he co-authored with Eric Flint. "

Now any visibility limiting factor nite, fog, or generated smoke can be used for a masked spar torpedo attack, and small galleys using stealth rather than armor may be the Navy of God's only answer.

Poker

lyonheart wrote:Hi Pokermind,

Trying to sneak one past us, eh?

The Spar torpedo was only a speculated invention of the forum, there's no such textev anywhere, as was pointed out on the other thread.

Better luck next time.

Yep.

There is no textev that Thirsk has Spar Torpedoes. There's no textev that Thirsk or any of his people are even THINKING of torpedoes or underwater attacks. And what happens in the 163x series is utterly irrelevant to Safehold because the 163x series not only takes place on a different planet, it takes place in a different universe and time period that not even Merlin can get access to.

And barring such things as Ghost Rider, Weber likes to telegraph tech developments well in advance of their actual use. If Thirsk had spar torpedoes, we would have read about it by now, either by Thirsk being briefed about them or the Inner Circle reviewing intel on them.

And even if he had them, in order to get past the protection of the KH, he needs to have a very huge charge (remember, he has only black powder, and not one that is as good as the charisian). Such a charge would need to be kept completly dry while underwater, and, since it's supposed to be in front of the screw galleys, small ships with arleady a heavy protection in the front, adding another burden in such a position may be problematic for the ship stability. It would be at the tip of a spar, thus giving it an important leverage effect. I'm not saying it would automatically be a problem, but it could...

So, no, there is no spar torpedoes, and the idea may not work as well as some are thinking anyway...

OlorinNight wrote:And even if he had them, in order to get past the protection of the KH, he needs to have a very huge charge

Er, all we need is the spar long enough to place torpedo under the ship bottom.

(remember, he has only black powder, and not one that is as good as the charisian). Such a charge would need to be kept completly dry while underwater,

Please, it isn't a problem, because spar torpedo is underwater only for a small period of time. They are placed in water only directly before attack.

Dilandu wrote:

OlorinNight wrote:And even if he had them, in order to get past the protection of the KH, he needs to have a very huge charge

Er, all we need is the spar long enough to place torpedo under the ship bottom. .

Yes, and if the charge is not enough to damage the KH, then what? A spar long enough is definitely NOT enough...

Dilandu wrote:

(remember, he has only black powder, and not one that is as good as the charisian). Such a charge would need to be kept completly dry while underwater,

Please, it isn't a problem, because spar torpedo is underwater only for a small period of time. They are placed in water only directly before attack.

It may help, but you still need your powder to be dry. And have a way to detonate it from the boat itself. The torpedo not being for long in the water will help, it will not change anything if it is not sufficiently waterproofed...

OlorinNight wrote:
Yes, and if the charge is not enough to damage the KH, then what? A spar long enough is definitely NOT enough...

If you didn't believe that your charge is enough, then what are you doing in God's own Navy's torpedo boat, faithless one?

Actually, almost all 1890th warships is pretty vunerable to underwater damage. Even if the one hole won't destroy KH, the Charisian would have a lot of problem just to tow it to Charis for proper repair... It may even sunk on the way; the road from Dohlar Gulf to Charis is pretty long one.

It's the one reason why i'm strongly against the iron-hulled ironclads for Charis; the only way to repair them would be to bring them in metropoly. This is the reason, why the France in 1880th - the mighty France, with her great shipbuilding and superior to even british naval engineering - build a wooden-hulled ironclads for colonial service, despite that they already started to use (first in the world!) steel for ocean irocnlads. They simply haven't the industry in their colonies to repair the metal hulls.

Dilandu wrote:It may help, but you still need your powder to be dry. And have a way to detonate it from the boat itself. The torpedo not being for long in the water will help, it will not change anything if it is not sufficiently waterproofed...

It may be done sufficiently waterproof for a short time even by the avaliable technology. For that matter, we could place the main charge in some metal casting and use a second charge (or even a group of) to ignite it.

OlorinNight wrote:...

It may help, but you still need your powder to be dry. And have a way to detonate it from the boat itself. The torpedo not being for long in the water will help, it will not change anything if it is not sufficiently waterproofed...

Waterproof fuses are pretty straightforward. Every cherrybombs and m80s have had them since forever. My grandfather used to use "Dupont spinners" apparently a century ago to increase his fishing success.

I even accidentally got some trout that way once as a kid not meaning to--tied an m80 to a rock and threw it in a creek and well all of a sudden there some trout were just floating there asking to be taken home and fried.