In the depths, there are only torpedoes. (And love.)
- Location
- Across the universe
Monday, August 27th, 1923
János Müller taps on your desk, awkwardly staring into the distance.
"My son is off to sea again, and has left orders behind that my granddaughter is to be kept under very strict supervision at all times," he tells you. "Not that I think there is anything wrong, the man is being a bit overprotective. Back in July, she disappeared for almost a week without telling anyone and then showed back up at her aunt's house without a word of explanation, but she has been an obedient daughter since then. I think Tamás does not want me to become a great-grandfather soon."
He coughs. "I noticed the expense receipts for two passengers to Trieste and back. And Herr Schmidt at the yard described your traveling companion to me when I gave him a phone call. I do not disapprove of a match, but perhaps we should have a long and frank talk sometime before my son's ship comes back from deployment."
You pause, considering how to reply to that, when the old man changes the subject.
"I wish we had a better notion of what the French are doing with the Courbet ships. There are four of them, and we know almost nothing. They are holding their cards close to the chest. Ah, Heinz! Do you have anything new about the Courbets?" The old man waves out of the open door, ending the chance for a private conversation about Birgit.
"Ach, you old man, you asked me that last Thursday! Today I know that we didn't know what I thought we knew on Thursday. The Vickers man has a cousin in Toulon and vacation time coming, it may have just been a coincidence after all."
Thursday, September 13th, 1923
Today, you scheduled a long business lunch with Severino, Gergely, and a representative from Škoda, who was trying to figure out whether or not Škoda should bid to supply the 21 cm guns called for on the refit Viribus Unitis. They will be competing against Krupp in that bid if they do so; the delays in the construction of the new Prinz Heinrich cruiser class, delays in the construction of the new Prussia class battleships, as well as the decision to refurbish and recycle a number of older-model guns on recently scrapped ships on new construction, have left Krupp in a tight position and eager to sell new 21cm guns elsewhere.
You told the Škoda representative to hold off on bidding until you're done negotiating with Krupp – you are trying to get a favor out of Krupp, and that would be valuable leverage. He didn't seem very happy about it, but did think that meant it was likely he could get a future favor out of him, especially when you told him to try to sell more of the new 12cm gun.
Gergely was very excited about the proposed refit of the Viribus Unitis, and spent much of lunch talking about how wonderfully amazing the ship will be as the command ship of a cruiser squadron. You had your hands full trying to keep Severino from challenging the representative on his patriotism; Severino seems to hold the opinion that any man too interested in making a profit isn't enough of a patriot.
Friday, September 14th, 1923
"Look, it is simple, as this Italian parliamentarian says – we need a third way," Severino tells you, his arms crossed over each other. "I am not saying I want to be an Italian, they are crazy, but the man has a point. We need a third way. The capitalists will bleed the country dry if you let them, and as for the socialists, well, they will soon be the end of Spain, and then you will see how bad the socialists are."
You frown. "I'm still not quite clear on this idea of a revolutionary vanguard, but the pamphlets you showed me yesterday seemed alarming enough, yes. But both of those ways seem new – shouldn't the old way of, um..." You pause, trying to find something a little less backwards-sounding than feudalism. "… nobility, patronage, respect for breeding and all that be called the 'first way' if it came first?"
Severino shrugs. "Well, I think he is not exactly wanting an old way, and there were, well, inefficiencies in the old way. This Benito Mussiliñes, he is trying to make a new and more effective way, though he has some respect for tradition. I think it is a wonderful idea."
"I hope not too wonderful. You remember the Dalmatian files that the intelligence service sent us? I don't trust the Italians to stay our allies, Severino." You tap your fingers and sigh.
At least the reconstruction efforts on the Andrea Doria class are proving expensive and lengthy, you think to yourself, as Severino fills you in on the many ways that he thinks that someone like this "Benito Mussiliñes" fellow is just what Spain needs as it edges near the brink of proletarian revolution.
"Excuse me," Marie says, grabbing hold of your arm and pulling you out of Severino's office. "A Miss Elizabeth Hadik is sitting in your office insisting that you should go visit Fiume. I told her this simply wasn't possible, but she wouldn't go away."
Her grip lingers on your arm as the two of you head down the hallway to your office, something you find puzzling; she has been fairly cold and distant towards you since that fateful day in the coffeehouse when she confessed to tossing Birgit's cookies into the trash. As you enter the doorway, her hip shoves against yours firmly, in a fashion that could be considered playful and intimate as seen by the occupant of your office, the woman named Hadik Erzsébet.
Miss Hadik gives you a difficult to interpret but intense look, her eyes flickering upwards to meet yours.
"Come back to Fiume with me. It will do you some good to get out of the town for a little bit, and I think you could benefit from seeing the deconstruction in progress. Taking apart is much like putting together, no?"
Marie releases her grip on your arm and flounces over to her desk with almost enough sway in her slender hips to dislocate one of them. "Max, tell this woman to go away."
You sigh, glancing at Marie wearily.
"We shall become a pair of persons of an extensively discussed association," you say, gravity dripping from your unusual grammatical choice. You then apologize to Ms. Hadik, telling her that you do need to visit the Danubius yards and it would be convenient to get out of the office for a bit.
You then apologize to Ms. Hadik, telling her that you do need to visit the Danubius yards and it would be convenient to get out of the office for a bit.
Monday, October 8th, 1923
You sigh deeply as you read the report. It is a very detailed report on the 1921 Vickers model of anti-aircraft fire control system discussed in the Bretagne Report. More precisely, it is an accumulated two hundred and ten pages of information on how not to build one. The fire control device is a very complicated piece of machinery. Fortunately, though, having such an exhaustive catalog of mistakes will help in future development. You hope. Having an actual hardware sample would also be nice.
Speaking of future developments and hopes… your thoughts drift back as you set the report down and sip your coffee.
There is something special about spending an entire day confined with someone. Thirteen hours on the ride to Trieste; thirteen hours back from Trieste; and two evenings in company in between. It is hard not to talk at great length. Hard not to become familiar. Hard not to… well… you reflect on the memories.
You can remember her falling asleep snuggled up on your shoulder adorably. Not that much more than snuggling happened, but she was very adorable and snuggly when sleepy.
Tuesday, October 22nd, 1923
"I had better plan on staying through Halloween, then. This will take a little while to sort out properly." You nod at Johann Schmidt.
"Well, we have just been following the directions, but it is a very confusing thing. The men have never put together anything quite like this before, and trying to test for a good fluid seal is difficult. It is … how do we say, a particularly unique piece of genius?" Johann looks at you questioningly, and you can see him mouth at least unique as he looks away.
"Surely you do not have a need for so much fuel oil. The men think it could be filled with ballast water instead more cheaply."
"Your concerns are understandable, and of course if fuel is used, the compartments will need to be flooded with water to maintain position in the water. The pumping systems are therefore of utmost importance." You nod confidently.
The truly massive torpedo defense system designed for the Alpen encloses an unusually large volume of fluid, in an attempt to work around the treaty restrictions. Fuel oil (and ballast water) are not counted within standard displacement, a concession to the British and their need for long-range vessels. It is a unique arrangement, and you dare to think that no other naval design bureau in the world has thought of a system so ambitious and advanced. (The details should be kept secret, of course, lest the British copy it on the Nelson and Rodney.)
By wrapping the torpedo defence around over a thinner below-waterline section of the belt, you've made it so that shells that strike under the waterline are defused in the torpedo defence system. Furthermore, putting your "extra fluid" in compartmentalized tanks inside the regular fluid layer will help add another level of defense.
To some degree, the extra fluid is a fiction, you're here to fill Johann in on the secret real plan. The British may think you're filling the ship with fluid chambers, but while these chambers will be filled with fluid, initially, you have plans to fill it with an odd petrochemical that some chemists in town have been working on. Introduced to you by a friend of one of the secretaries, who left a sample behind on Severino's desk after she quit. It is solid and smells odd, but it squishes and floats well. It might serve as a buoyant buffer and compressor, and if it is discovered ... well, it burns, so you could conceivably pretend it is an emergency fuel of some sort.
The ship is also wrapped with a massive fluid-filled bulge wrapping the lower reaches of the ship, which is in turn filled with cylindrical void-filled chambers designed to absorb the force of an explosion.
"Well, sir, I'm sure you folks at the design bureau know what you're doing." Johann shifts weight. "The torpedoes get bigger and more powerful every few years. The men say that the newest British torpedo is over eight meters long."
"Don't worry, Johann. We have torpedoes too, and we'll be more ready for theirs that they will be for ours," you say. "Ours are big enough, and never mind the wild rumors, the Alpen and Karpaten will be adequately armed themselves."
Currently, while the plans for the position and number of launchers is still in flux (the decision has been made to have above-water launchers and not interfere with the main armor belt that way), the intention is that the Alpen class carry an existing torpedo of a size that Silurificio Whitehead of Fiume is readily prepared to supply, 53cm x 7.5m.
Sunday, November 11th, 1923
"We already have a Spanish expert. I can't see us hiring another Spaniard to fill out our Spain intelligence section," you say, stirring your coffee.
"First," Severino tells you, "I am Portuguese, so I am not really a Spaniard even if I did live there after I was no longer welcome in Portugal, and Nicolau is a Catalan, so that is zero Spaniards, rather than two. Second, Nicolau cannot tell you a thing about what is going on in Spain even now while he lives in Madrid. He is a recluso, man who has no social life and never gets …"
Severino gestures suggestively.
"But he is a genius with electromechanical machines. And with guitar. And we are having such trouble with the French computing device, and his mother, she has told him it will not be safe in Madrid much longer, so he wrote to me asking how it is that he can move somewhere other than back with his mother – he is twenty three, he is too proud he moved out and to the city to move back in. I tell him Vienna is wonderful and tell him we need him and offer him a big salary and his own personal secretary, since we are having so many." Severino beams with pride.
You involuntarily cringe. Your efforts to distract Severino by assigning him personal secretaries from the pool has depleted both the secretarial pool and the discretionary budget, since after the first disastrous assignment you had to start offering the pool secretaries significant pay raises in order to get them to work with Severino.
"How big of a salary?" you ask.
"Oh, not very much, really, just six hundred krone per month, but I told him you might give him a bonus," Severino says airily.
"Severino, I don't pay you six hundred krone a month," you say cautiously. The figure seems a little much for a nineteen year old Catalonian electrician.
"Oh, I am surprised you pay me at all. It isn't as if I need the money, really," Severino says modestly.
"Thanks to your antics the personal secretary is out. In fact, if your current one quits, she will not be replaced. As for the young Catalan, 450 krone a month and a phone line. If he is the genius you say and he helps us sort out the French computing device, then he could get a raise to 600 krone," you say, glaring at Severino.
Friday, November 16th, 1923
"That photograph is definitely from Nikolayev," János says, tapping his finger on the picture. "It has changed a bit since I saw it, but definitely Nikolayev, so no, it is not a misfiled image of the Pyotr. It is hard to say for sure how far ahead it is, but I must agree it looks alarmingly near to being ready to launch. I do not think the Pyotr is as far along at Petrograd. The Ivan may very well be the first of the Pyotr class to enter service, the Russians have probably hastened it along on account of the excitement over Armenia."
The naval arms restriction treaty appeared to cripple the Russian Black Sea Fleet, filled as it was with pre-dreadnought battleships of limited use on the open sea. With the transfer of the Bayern, the Russians seemed poorly matched against the Ottoman fleet in the Black Sea, measuring four battleships against four battleships of similar weights … plus four battlecruisers. The Ivan Grozny, however, is expected to change that calculation.
"At present, the Sultan Muhteşem Süleyman I may be the most powerful ship in the Black Sea, but that will not last for much longer. However superior the German battleship may be to the Nikolai, the Ivan more than reverses that margin. My best estimate is that the Ivan has more firepower than any two Ottoman battleships, more than any other battleship afloat anywhere in the world. It has, let us not forget, no less than a dozen sixteen inch guns – British-built, so I will suffer no delusion that they are likely to be defective instruments of destruction. With the level of training I expect from the Turks, I would wager on the Ivan against their entire squadron of German-built battlecruisers."
The old man's pessimistic pronouncement leaves you in silence for a minute.
"The good news," you tell him, "is that we won't have to deal with the Ivan until after it has smashed its way through the Turkish fleet. Unless the Turks should align with the Russians."
"Stranger things have happened."
János Müller taps on your desk, awkwardly staring into the distance.
"My son is off to sea again, and has left orders behind that my granddaughter is to be kept under very strict supervision at all times," he tells you. "Not that I think there is anything wrong, the man is being a bit overprotective. Back in July, she disappeared for almost a week without telling anyone and then showed back up at her aunt's house without a word of explanation, but she has been an obedient daughter since then. I think Tamás does not want me to become a great-grandfather soon."
He coughs. "I noticed the expense receipts for two passengers to Trieste and back. And Herr Schmidt at the yard described your traveling companion to me when I gave him a phone call. I do not disapprove of a match, but perhaps we should have a long and frank talk sometime before my son's ship comes back from deployment."
You pause, considering how to reply to that, when the old man changes the subject.
"I wish we had a better notion of what the French are doing with the Courbet ships. There are four of them, and we know almost nothing. They are holding their cards close to the chest. Ah, Heinz! Do you have anything new about the Courbets?" The old man waves out of the open door, ending the chance for a private conversation about Birgit.
"Ach, you old man, you asked me that last Thursday! Today I know that we didn't know what I thought we knew on Thursday. The Vickers man has a cousin in Toulon and vacation time coming, it may have just been a coincidence after all."
Thursday, September 13th, 1923
Today, you scheduled a long business lunch with Severino, Gergely, and a representative from Škoda, who was trying to figure out whether or not Škoda should bid to supply the 21 cm guns called for on the refit Viribus Unitis. They will be competing against Krupp in that bid if they do so; the delays in the construction of the new Prinz Heinrich cruiser class, delays in the construction of the new Prussia class battleships, as well as the decision to refurbish and recycle a number of older-model guns on recently scrapped ships on new construction, have left Krupp in a tight position and eager to sell new 21cm guns elsewhere.
You told the Škoda representative to hold off on bidding until you're done negotiating with Krupp – you are trying to get a favor out of Krupp, and that would be valuable leverage. He didn't seem very happy about it, but did think that meant it was likely he could get a future favor out of him, especially when you told him to try to sell more of the new 12cm gun.
[] Tell the Škoda representative to hold off on bidding until you're done negotiating with Krupp – you are trying to get a favor out of Krupp, and this is leverage.
[] They should not do so, because you are sure this is a one-off gun contract.
-[] The 19 cm caliber used on the Erherzog Karl class is a more likely candidate for a heavy cruiser gun, and Škoda is well positioned to pick up those contracts – Krupp is unlikely to compete.
-[] The Austro-Hungarian navy is not likely to build new heavy cruisers for a while in any event.
[] Demur on the subject of advice on 21cm guns, but plead with him to try to push to sell more of the new 12cm anti-aircraft gun.
[] They should propose to copy the older-model 21cm/45 Krupp guns that were on the overweight SMS Blücher, and were subsequently installed on the Habsburgs when they were downgunned and reclassified as cruisers. They are a little bit less powerful, but it will make for easier logistics to have more of the same gun in service.
[] They should make an ambitious proposal with a new cutting-edge extra-powerful 21cm/55 gun - the Austro-Hungarian navy will surely need such powerful guns on new treaty-limit cruisers, and Škoda may even be able to export guns to some neighbors.
[] (write-in)
[] They should not do so, because you are sure this is a one-off gun contract.
-[] The 19 cm caliber used on the Erherzog Karl class is a more likely candidate for a heavy cruiser gun, and Škoda is well positioned to pick up those contracts – Krupp is unlikely to compete.
-[] The Austro-Hungarian navy is not likely to build new heavy cruisers for a while in any event.
[] Demur on the subject of advice on 21cm guns, but plead with him to try to push to sell more of the new 12cm anti-aircraft gun.
[] They should propose to copy the older-model 21cm/45 Krupp guns that were on the overweight SMS Blücher, and were subsequently installed on the Habsburgs when they were downgunned and reclassified as cruisers. They are a little bit less powerful, but it will make for easier logistics to have more of the same gun in service.
[] They should make an ambitious proposal with a new cutting-edge extra-powerful 21cm/55 gun - the Austro-Hungarian navy will surely need such powerful guns on new treaty-limit cruisers, and Škoda may even be able to export guns to some neighbors.
[] (write-in)
Gergely was very excited about the proposed refit of the Viribus Unitis, and spent much of lunch talking about how wonderfully amazing the ship will be as the command ship of a cruiser squadron. You had your hands full trying to keep Severino from challenging the representative on his patriotism; Severino seems to hold the opinion that any man too interested in making a profit isn't enough of a patriot.
Friday, September 14th, 1923
"Look, it is simple, as this Italian parliamentarian says – we need a third way," Severino tells you, his arms crossed over each other. "I am not saying I want to be an Italian, they are crazy, but the man has a point. We need a third way. The capitalists will bleed the country dry if you let them, and as for the socialists, well, they will soon be the end of Spain, and then you will see how bad the socialists are."
You frown. "I'm still not quite clear on this idea of a revolutionary vanguard, but the pamphlets you showed me yesterday seemed alarming enough, yes. But both of those ways seem new – shouldn't the old way of, um..." You pause, trying to find something a little less backwards-sounding than feudalism. "… nobility, patronage, respect for breeding and all that be called the 'first way' if it came first?"
Severino shrugs. "Well, I think he is not exactly wanting an old way, and there were, well, inefficiencies in the old way. This Benito Mussiliñes, he is trying to make a new and more effective way, though he has some respect for tradition. I think it is a wonderful idea."
"I hope not too wonderful. You remember the Dalmatian files that the intelligence service sent us? I don't trust the Italians to stay our allies, Severino." You tap your fingers and sigh.
At least the reconstruction efforts on the Andrea Doria class are proving expensive and lengthy, you think to yourself, as Severino fills you in on the many ways that he thinks that someone like this "Benito Mussiliñes" fellow is just what Spain needs as it edges near the brink of proletarian revolution.
"Excuse me," Marie says, grabbing hold of your arm and pulling you out of Severino's office. "A Miss Elizabeth Hadik is sitting in your office insisting that you should go visit Fiume. I told her this simply wasn't possible, but she wouldn't go away."
Her grip lingers on your arm as the two of you head down the hallway to your office, something you find puzzling; she has been fairly cold and distant towards you since that fateful day in the coffeehouse when she confessed to tossing Birgit's cookies into the trash. As you enter the doorway, her hip shoves against yours firmly, in a fashion that could be considered playful and intimate as seen by the occupant of your office, the woman named Hadik Erzsébet.
Miss Hadik gives you a difficult to interpret but intense look, her eyes flickering upwards to meet yours.
"Come back to Fiume with me. It will do you some good to get out of the town for a little bit, and I think you could benefit from seeing the deconstruction in progress. Taking apart is much like putting together, no?"
Marie releases her grip on your arm and flounces over to her desk with almost enough sway in her slender hips to dislocate one of them. "Max, tell this woman to go away."
You sigh, glancing at Marie wearily.
"We shall become a pair of persons of an extensively discussed association," you say, gravity dripping from your unusual grammatical choice. You then apologize to Ms. Hadik, telling her that you do need to visit the Danubius yards and it would be convenient to get out of the office for a bit.
"Wir werden ein paar Leute einer gründlichen besprochenden Verwandschaft seien" is a very unusual construction.
You then apologize to Ms. Hadik, telling her that you do need to visit the Danubius yards and it would be convenient to get out of the office for a bit.
You have two different women to respond to at once, listing the possible combinations of responses seems a bit much to do here. You can try anything from planting a kiss to flee the building.
Monday, October 8th, 1923
You sigh deeply as you read the report. It is a very detailed report on the 1921 Vickers model of anti-aircraft fire control system discussed in the Bretagne Report. More precisely, it is an accumulated two hundred and ten pages of information on how not to build one. The fire control device is a very complicated piece of machinery. Fortunately, though, having such an exhaustive catalog of mistakes will help in future development. You hope. Having an actual hardware sample would also be nice.
Speaking of future developments and hopes… your thoughts drift back as you set the report down and sip your coffee.
There is something special about spending an entire day confined with someone. Thirteen hours on the ride to Trieste; thirteen hours back from Trieste; and two evenings in company in between. It is hard not to talk at great length. Hard not to become familiar. Hard not to… well… you reflect on the memories.
You can remember her falling asleep snuggled up on your shoulder adorably. Not that much more than snuggling happened, but she was very adorable and snuggly when sleepy.
[] After thirteen continuous hours of company, you found yourself disgusted by her very presence. Unfortunately, you had to keep putting up with it through the entire ride back.
[] You learned quite a bit about what life is like for a person growing up in a normal two-person family with full-blooded siblings. You're not quite sure what to make of that yet.
[] You can remember her falling asleep snuggled up on your shoulder adorably. Not that much more than snuggling happened, but she was very adorable and snuggly when sleepy.
[] The meals; the conversation; the daring kisses stolen in the quieter hours of the ride.
[] The surprising way that she took matters into her own hand. Or mouth.
[] You really hope Birgit isn't pregnant thanks to that bit of foolishness.
[] (write-in)
[] You learned quite a bit about what life is like for a person growing up in a normal two-person family with full-blooded siblings. You're not quite sure what to make of that yet.
[] You can remember her falling asleep snuggled up on your shoulder adorably. Not that much more than snuggling happened, but she was very adorable and snuggly when sleepy.
[] The meals; the conversation; the daring kisses stolen in the quieter hours of the ride.
[] The surprising way that she took matters into her own hand. Or mouth.
[] You really hope Birgit isn't pregnant thanks to that bit of foolishness.
[] (write-in)
Tuesday, October 22nd, 1923
"I had better plan on staying through Halloween, then. This will take a little while to sort out properly." You nod at Johann Schmidt.
"Well, we have just been following the directions, but it is a very confusing thing. The men have never put together anything quite like this before, and trying to test for a good fluid seal is difficult. It is … how do we say, a particularly unique piece of genius?" Johann looks at you questioningly, and you can see him mouth at least unique as he looks away.
"Surely you do not have a need for so much fuel oil. The men think it could be filled with ballast water instead more cheaply."
"Your concerns are understandable, and of course if fuel is used, the compartments will need to be flooded with water to maintain position in the water. The pumping systems are therefore of utmost importance." You nod confidently.
The truly massive torpedo defense system designed for the Alpen encloses an unusually large volume of fluid, in an attempt to work around the treaty restrictions. Fuel oil (and ballast water) are not counted within standard displacement, a concession to the British and their need for long-range vessels. It is a unique arrangement, and you dare to think that no other naval design bureau in the world has thought of a system so ambitious and advanced. (The details should be kept secret, of course, lest the British copy it on the Nelson and Rodney.)
By wrapping the torpedo defence around over a thinner below-waterline section of the belt, you've made it so that shells that strike under the waterline are defused in the torpedo defence system. Furthermore, putting your "extra fluid" in compartmentalized tanks inside the regular fluid layer will help add another level of defense.
To some degree, the extra fluid is a fiction, you're here to fill Johann in on the secret real plan. The British may think you're filling the ship with fluid chambers, but while these chambers will be filled with fluid, initially, you have plans to fill it with an odd petrochemical that some chemists in town have been working on. Introduced to you by a friend of one of the secretaries, who left a sample behind on Severino's desk after she quit. It is solid and smells odd, but it squishes and floats well. It might serve as a buoyant buffer and compressor, and if it is discovered ... well, it burns, so you could conceivably pretend it is an emergency fuel of some sort.
The ship is also wrapped with a massive fluid-filled bulge wrapping the lower reaches of the ship, which is in turn filled with cylindrical void-filled chambers designed to absorb the force of an explosion.
[] The sheer depth of the torpedo belt.
[] The massive fluid-filled bulge wrapping the lower reaches of the ship, which is in turn filled with cylindrical void-filled chambers designed to absorb the force of an explosion.
[] The height of the so-called "torpedo belt" above the water, acting as an outer layer to the main armor belt.
[] The fluid-filled chamber in the second of three false bottoms underneath the ship, designed to protect the ship against explosions from directly underneath.
[] The use of two spaced fluid filled belts.
[] The use of three spaced fluid filled belts.
[] The extra fluid is a fiction, you're here to fill Johann in on the secret real plan. The British may think you're filling the ship with fluid chambers, but you're really…
-[] (write in devious plan for cheating)
[] (write-in additional innovations)
At least one feature will be included. All features with majority support will be included.
[] The massive fluid-filled bulge wrapping the lower reaches of the ship, which is in turn filled with cylindrical void-filled chambers designed to absorb the force of an explosion.
[] The height of the so-called "torpedo belt" above the water, acting as an outer layer to the main armor belt.
[] The fluid-filled chamber in the second of three false bottoms underneath the ship, designed to protect the ship against explosions from directly underneath.
[] The use of two spaced fluid filled belts.
[] The use of three spaced fluid filled belts.
[] The extra fluid is a fiction, you're here to fill Johann in on the secret real plan. The British may think you're filling the ship with fluid chambers, but you're really…
-[] (write in devious plan for cheating)
[] (write-in additional innovations)
At least one feature will be included. All features with majority support will be included.
"Well, sir, I'm sure you folks at the design bureau know what you're doing." Johann shifts weight. "The torpedoes get bigger and more powerful every few years. The men say that the newest British torpedo is over eight meters long."
"Don't worry, Johann. We have torpedoes too, and we'll be more ready for theirs that they will be for ours," you say. "Ours are big enough, and never mind the wild rumors, the Alpen and Karpaten will be adequately armed themselves."
Currently, while the plans for the position and number of launchers is still in flux (the decision has been made to have above-water launchers and not interfere with the main armor belt that way), the intention is that the Alpen class carry an existing torpedo of a size that Silurificio Whitehead of Fiume is readily prepared to supply, 53cm x 7.5m.
[] ...an existing torpedo of a size that Silurificio Whitehead of Fiume is readily prepared to supply.
-[] 45cm x 5.25m
-[] 45cm x 5.5m
-[] 45cm x 5.75m
-[] 53cm x 6.5m
-[] 53cm x 6.86m
-[] 53cm x 7.2m
-[] 53cm x 7.5m
[] An imported torpedo
-[] (write-in torpedo)
[] A new size of torpedo
-[] (write-in size)
-[] 45cm x 5.25m
-[] 45cm x 5.5m
-[] 45cm x 5.75m
-[] 53cm x 6.5m
-[] 53cm x 6.86m
-[] 53cm x 7.2m
-[] 53cm x 7.5m
[] An imported torpedo
-[] (write-in torpedo)
[] A new size of torpedo
-[] (write-in size)
Sunday, November 11th, 1923
"We already have a Spanish expert. I can't see us hiring another Spaniard to fill out our Spain intelligence section," you say, stirring your coffee.
"First," Severino tells you, "I am Portuguese, so I am not really a Spaniard even if I did live there after I was no longer welcome in Portugal, and Nicolau is a Catalan, so that is zero Spaniards, rather than two. Second, Nicolau cannot tell you a thing about what is going on in Spain even now while he lives in Madrid. He is a recluso, man who has no social life and never gets …"
Severino gestures suggestively.
"But he is a genius with electromechanical machines. And with guitar. And we are having such trouble with the French computing device, and his mother, she has told him it will not be safe in Madrid much longer, so he wrote to me asking how it is that he can move somewhere other than back with his mother – he is twenty three, he is too proud he moved out and to the city to move back in. I tell him Vienna is wonderful and tell him we need him and offer him a big salary and his own personal secretary, since we are having so many." Severino beams with pride.
You involuntarily cringe. Your efforts to distract Severino by assigning him personal secretaries from the pool has depleted both the secretarial pool and the discretionary budget, since after the first disastrous assignment you had to start offering the pool secretaries significant pay raises in order to get them to work with Severino.
"How big of a salary?" you ask.
"Oh, not very much, really, just six hundred krone per month, but I told him you might give him a bonus," Severino says airily.
"Severino, I don't pay you six hundred krone a month," you say cautiously. The figure seems a little much for a nineteen year old Catalonian electrician.
"Oh, I am surprised you pay me at all. It isn't as if I need the money, really," Severino says modestly.
"Thanks to your antics the personal secretary is out. In fact, if your current one quits, she will not be replaced. As for the young Catalan, 450 krone a month and a phone line. If he is the genius you say and he helps us sort out the French computing device, then he could get a raise to 600 krone," you say, glaring at Severino.
[] "Well, I may as well fulfill that foolish promise of yours."
[] "Write back and give him this offer."
-[] (write-in salary offer)
[] "Six hundred krone a month, I can do. His own personal secretary? No. We're running short of good secretaries thanks to your antics. If this one quits, I'm not replacing her, by the way."
[] "Well, you'll have to write him back and apologize to him, because I am not taking on some young Catalonian friend of yours because he doesn't want to move back in with his mother."
[] (write-in)
[] "Write back and give him this offer."
-[] (write-in salary offer)
[] "Six hundred krone a month, I can do. His own personal secretary? No. We're running short of good secretaries thanks to your antics. If this one quits, I'm not replacing her, by the way."
[] "Well, you'll have to write him back and apologize to him, because I am not taking on some young Catalonian friend of yours because he doesn't want to move back in with his mother."
[] (write-in)
Friday, November 16th, 1923
"That photograph is definitely from Nikolayev," János says, tapping his finger on the picture. "It has changed a bit since I saw it, but definitely Nikolayev, so no, it is not a misfiled image of the Pyotr. It is hard to say for sure how far ahead it is, but I must agree it looks alarmingly near to being ready to launch. I do not think the Pyotr is as far along at Petrograd. The Ivan may very well be the first of the Pyotr class to enter service, the Russians have probably hastened it along on account of the excitement over Armenia."
The naval arms restriction treaty appeared to cripple the Russian Black Sea Fleet, filled as it was with pre-dreadnought battleships of limited use on the open sea. With the transfer of the Bayern, the Russians seemed poorly matched against the Ottoman fleet in the Black Sea, measuring four battleships against four battleships of similar weights … plus four battlecruisers. The Ivan Grozny, however, is expected to change that calculation.
"At present, the Sultan Muhteşem Süleyman I may be the most powerful ship in the Black Sea, but that will not last for much longer. However superior the German battleship may be to the Nikolai, the Ivan more than reverses that margin. My best estimate is that the Ivan has more firepower than any two Ottoman battleships, more than any other battleship afloat anywhere in the world. It has, let us not forget, no less than a dozen sixteen inch guns – British-built, so I will suffer no delusion that they are likely to be defective instruments of destruction. With the level of training I expect from the Turks, I would wager on the Ivan against their entire squadron of German-built battlecruisers."
The old man's pessimistic pronouncement leaves you in silence for a minute.
"The good news," you tell him, "is that we won't have to deal with the Ivan until after it has smashed its way through the Turkish fleet. Unless the Turks should align with the Russians."
"Stranger things have happened."
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