How to Start a War (2.8)
Northern Orcsen, Dracheknochen Port, Blauwald Province.
Located on the northern coastline of the kingdom, it lay to the east of the Belleriant Peninsula, which split the eastern and western shores apart.
Geographically, this area was yet another fjord formed when glaciers carved into the land in the age of creation, the era when stars rained from the heavens. Due to its deeply indented coastline extending far inland, it was a naturally excellent harbor.
In summer, with today’s highly developed railway network, visitors came from all over Orcsen to see the three large beaches nestled within the bay. At the innermost part, where the fjord split into two branches, the western one had long served as one of Orcsen’s foremost commercial ports, acting as the kingdom's hub for maritime trade with the neighboring country, Lovarna.
The eastern branch housed a secondary port called Grosshafen.
And occupying the entirety of Grosshafen as their base of operations was the Orcsen Kingdom Navy’s main sea force—the Tempest Fleet.
"Tempest" was another name for the Northern Sea.
To the north of here, there were no more continents or large islands.
There were only a few small, uninhabited island groups called Zuhof and Novaya, discovered long ago by Elfynd fishermen and Lovarna explorers. Beyond those lay the vast, frozen polar icecap dominating the northern celestial pole.
Some scholars even believed that long ago, before the Starfall, a landmass once extended like an arm from the Star-Euro continent into those waters, and that it had been blown away when the stars fell.
Indeed, when looking at a map, the island groups formed an unmistakably clear arc, which many believed to be remnants of large star fragments that struck the land, once part of the Star-Euro continent.
Setting aside the truth of that theory—
The Northern Sea was rough, especially in winter.
Brutally rough.
With nothing to obstruct the currents flowing toward Lovarna, massive ice floes would drift south, sometimes pressing all the way to the Star-Euro continent itself. The cold could be extreme.
Thick fog frequently formed over those waters as well.
Hence the name: Tempest Sea.
“... Why do we even build ships like this for a sea like this...?”
Lieutenant Colonel Ernst Grindemann, captain of the Orcsen Kingdom Navy gunboat Möwe, stood gloomily on the bridge, wearing his white summer cap with a sunshade pulled low and a work jumpsuit.
An Orc.
With resolute brows and a slightly more angular jaw than most of his kin, he was young for a lieutenant colonel.
According to the female Orcs who worked in taverns for officers and sailors, he possessed the dependable aura of an “ideal big brother.”
At the moment, however, his rugged features, hardened by long exposure to the salty sea wind—and other factors—looked utterly exhausted.
The Möwe was truly a small vessel.
Displacement: 620 tons.
Length: 51 meters. Beam: 8.2 meters.
Draft varied with load, but with full ammunition and two-thirds of fuel and water, it sat at about three meters.
On that tiny hull, two masts stood fore and aft, with a bridge and a slender-looking smokestack between them.
She was a steam-sail hybrid, capable of running under steam or sail, known as a steam-sail ship.
Her main armament consisted of one 12-centimeter breech-loading cannon mounted on both the foredeck and aft deck. In addition, there were small 4.7-centimeter guns on each side.
And that was all for armament.
The final feature was a ram, extending sharply below the waterline from the bow.
A ram.
Modern warships were still equipped with such things.
This was due to the countless technological innovations and revolutions in naval warfare over the past thirty years, which had thoroughly disrupted the balance between offense and defense.
In crude terms, the general flow went something like this:
First, the age of sail gave way to the adoption of steam engines, and with that, ships became far more maneuverable than anyone had ever imagined.
At first, steam was used only for entering and leaving port, but with improvements in engine performance and reliability, steam power became primary, with sails serving merely as auxiliaries.
Next, even large naval cannons evolved from muzzle-loading to breech-loading, dramatically increasing their rate of fire and destructive power.
As with firearms on land, loading shells from the rear was a revolutionary breakthrough at sea as well.
The rate of fire was entirely different.
In the age of muzzle-loaders, one had to stuff powder down the barrel, ram in the shell, have sailors muscle the cannon out through gunports, aim, fire, recoil, clean the bore—and repeat.
With breech-loaders, loading, aiming, and firing became dramatically faster and more efficient.
At the same time, cannon materials evolved from bronze to iron to steel. Rifling was introduced, and shells became pointed, further increasing firepower.
The combination of increased mobility and greater firepower allowed for highly dynamic gun battles at sea.
The result?
All-wooden warships, once the mainstay of every navy, disappeared.
With wooden hulls unable to withstand modern firepower, ships began to have iron, and later steel, armor plates fitted to their sides, vastly improving their durability.
The superior strength of these materials also led to their widespread use in ship construction itself.
But that, in turn, led to another problem:
Cannons could no longer penetrate ship hulls.
No matter how much gunfire was poured into them, warships refused to sink.
The balance had been disrupted again, leading to an absurd situation.
After much deliberation, the world's navies adopted a drastic solution: ramming.
Ships were equipped with massive, hardened, razor-sharp structural rams integrated into their bows, capable of striking an opponent’s hull below the waterline and punching gaping holes that would flood the ship.
Of course, this tactic assumed that the ramming ship would remain unharmed.
Tactically, it worked.
With steam engines allowing far greater control than in the age of sail, a ship could ram its opponent, reverse engines, disengage, and leave the enemy hull fatally breached as seawater poured in.
This was known as the "ramming tactic."
The Möwe was built as part of that tradition.
Thus, despite her small size, she had been constructed with a ram.
Part of this had to do with Orcsen’s unique national circumstances.
Orcsen was, without a doubt, a land power.
With most of its territory inland and surrounded by human nations, it was only natural for the kingdom’s military to be centered around its land army.
What do you think about this chapter?
