The Empire

[Mad.Hatter]

*shakes his head with quiet amusement of secrets well kept*

[MWBailey]

S.S. Ariadne, 26 guns,

What kind of guns?
Do I place you at a spearhead or in a supporting role?
I mean, fielding 26 large howitzers is impressive, but you'd be useless in the thick of it.
Same if it were 26 75mm cannons - good in close quarters, but crap if you wanted to fire support.

you army chaps and your field artillery. *sigh* Bore size isn't everything. And you don't fire every single gun in a broadside. if you're smart, you go "by the numbers" and have at the very least, one numbered set  relaoding whilst another fires. of course, an airship doesn't jump about like an ocean going ship does, so single guns can be usedwith great accuracy, especially repeating cannons.

We have ten guns on either side, mounted in half-turrets projecting from the Envelope hull, the rest rest in top and bottom mounts, with no gun size exceeding a four-pounder. rifle shells larger than that are a waste of cargo space.

[Hyren von Henry]

For ease, this is set out in the same format as the Right. Hon. bizarre chicken's list.

The Royal Aeronautical Company proudly presents:

The Flag of the 1st Subjugation and Annihilation fleet the Lady's Grace!

Length: 625 metres
Width: 64.3 metres
Height: 89.24 metres

Crew Compliment:
62 Engineers form the Royal Engineering Guild.
62 Gunners from the Imperial Artillery Collage.
200 Aero-Marines, mostly ex-millitary, split into 4 companies - Assult and boarding actions.
50 Sentinels (defence and crew discipline) from the Company's own school of commissariat.
59 service staff (servants, minor noncombat technicians, cooks, cleaners)
25 engine and envelope engineers.

There are then 20 officers of various ranks in the command group, answering to the Captain.

Weaponry:
26 16 inch (406 mm) main guns - Shock suppresses, gyroscopes and floating bays (to minimise tremendous recoil)
20 4.7 inch (102 mm) Mk VIII anti-aircraft clockwork turrets.
1 89 metre high ramming "blade", with aero-marine insertion pod and blast deflectors. We are also proud to announce that the new "static charge" collector has been successfully linked up, meaning massive electrical damage can be cause to the enemy ship on contact (If capturing isn't desired).
numerous swivel guns for ship-to ship fighting, also able to fire grappling hooks and lead shot.

Equipment / other:
One hanger, containing 12 assult pods.

The New aetheric telephonic communication array, capable of up to 250 miles of hailing, with optional all frequency broadcast.
Cargo bay with space for up to 12 months' supplies.
Armoured Ammunition Bay, can also be jettisoned in case of fire.

50 single-man rotary assult packs, can also be used for outboard maintenance.

The ship herself is constructed in the segmented armoured hull pattern, and can withstand numerous breaches before being forced to retire. The 26 main guns are positioned equally, but are unable to fire upon each other or the envelope in case of enemy boarding actions.

The assult pods have internal crew shock resistors, and are launched via the B.B.C method.

The Captain's quarters boasts a restaurant and ballroom, complete with fully automated clockwork orchestra.

The main thrust is delivered by 14 (two sets of seven) Burgelot and Swingthton aero-engines, with the smaller J.S Mill arrrays for directional thrust. 3 Roc thrusters are used for the acceleration required for Ramming Speed.

EDIT:

It should be noted that this is primarilly an anti-airship craft, designed to remove any local resistance from the skys that may harm the company's share values. It can also serve as an escort ship for the larger "leviathan" class troop transporters.

We regret to inform that her sister ship, the Princess of Dispair was lost on the 30th of January, attempting to ram through a pirate convoy consisting of 13 ships. Unfortuantly it is reported the last ship in the line was only damaged, and thus was able to make a forced landing outside the Brundenburg straits.

[steamtastic]

I made my pirate ship out of duck tape and happy birthday balloons. It fly’s two feet off the ground and you could probably bat it down with a stick.
But I love my airship I do.

Your thing sounds impressive – but where’s the heart?

All machine and no soul that’s what it is.

[MWBailey]

The Ariadne's heart is encased in a high-resiliency monocoque armor hull, protected by enough rapid-fire repeating guns to down a planet, front and rear rocket tubes, is fast enough to outrun anything that can outgun her, and outguns anything fast enough to catch her; she is as maneuverable as a monoplane-- and her aether-caterpillar drive is utterly silent.

[Acadian Angel]

The Ariadne's heart is encased in a high-resiliency monocoque armor hull, protected by enough rapid-fire repeating guns to down a planet, front and rear rocket tubes, is fast enough to outrun anything that can outgun her, and outguns anything fast enough to catch her; she is as maneuverable as a monoplane-- and her aether-caterpillar drive is utterly silent.

The opening titles of Red October started sounding about halfway through that...imagine my delight at the "aether-caterpillar" drive.  Do tell, what is the steampunk equivalent ot a Crazy Ivan?

[MWBailey]

LET THEM SHUDDER AT OUR SILENC--er? "crazy Ivan?" not really, unless you add vodka and a dash of absinthe. Er, no, wait, thats a "crazy tsarist." I think a crazy Ivan is a submariner's hornpipe or something...

[Sir Nikolas Vendigroth]

I'm struggling to post a picture of the IFS Mercator - one of my newest light anti-ship cruisers. Failbucket's living up to its name.

With 3 independently rotating batteries of 9 deck guns, 4 recessed anti-air guns and an auto-tracking 40mm repeating cannon, the Raphael-class light cruisers are a force to be reckoned with. To further the on-deck armament, moderate-capacity bomb bays are fitted to the underside of the airship. This ship was never intended as a bomber, but would perform admirably.

Reacting armour, which momentarily thickens the hull at the point of impact was developed at Stanford specifically for use on the Raphael-class cruisers. Field tests of this armour at the proving grounds at Medway have shown that it can successfully repel hits from 6-inch AP shells time and again without losing any integrity.

Intended as the lighter, more numerous part of a main battle fleet, the Raphael-class cruisers are necessarily manouverable, as independent bouyancy and attitude controls and 4 turbojet engines show. The Raphael-class cruisers use carvorite and varying steam pressure to achieve lift, no out-dated envelopes here! Concievably, a Raphael-class cruiser could operate in hard vacuum, or under ten miles of water, although the shipyard administrators discourage this practice.

The top speed of the Raphael-class cruisers is around 120 miles per hour, but at this speed the armament must be locked down and the powerplant carefully monitored.

Crewed by 20 men, they're not a drain on personnel, and due to the well-established technologies used in their construction, all 'features' are well-documented. The engineer's papers list causes of, and solutions to all known faults. The sheaf of papers is currently 3 pages thick, including introduction and glossary. the crew manifest is as follows. Backup crew are not shown on this maifest.

Gunners, Deck - 4. 3 main, 1 40mm
Gunners, AA - 4.
Engine room staff - 6
Bridge staff - 5 (1 captain, 1 tactical control, 1 helm, 1 navigator, 1 ÆDAR operator)
Loading equipment operator - 1

The first production run of 25 has just been completed. 10 will be put up for general sale at 100 pounds of gold for a basic model. Headrests and chrome plating cost extra.

[bizarre_chicken]

I'm struggling to post a picture of the IFS Mercator - one of my newest light anti-ship cruisers. Failbucket's living up to its name.

I don't suppose it'd be a cruiser, with that size. More of a gunboat, really. nice and speedy.

[Hyren von Henry]

I made my pirate ship out of duck tape and happy birthday balloons. It fly’s two feet off the ground and you could probably bat it down with a stick.
But I love my airship I do.

Your thing sounds impressive – but where’s the heart?

All machine and no soul that’s what it is.

I like to think that this thing is seeped in enough blood to be counted as a heart, or perhaps a spleen.

[Sir Nikolas Vendigroth]

In which case, my Raphael-class ships are the fingers, or possibly the feets.

[MWBailey]

Ariadne's the utterly-silent fingernails, then. At least, that is, until we can find a suitable chalkboard...

[Maj. Clive Hathaway]

Do tell, what is the steampunk equivalent ot a Crazy Ivan?

Its called a Crazy Franz. But you have to have syphilis to properly execute it...

[Miles (a sailor)Martin]

Or have worked as a hatter for a few years;^)>X