Egyptian News 1912-1913

[Talos]

Possibly modified madness. ;) I must fiddle with...

[Tanthalas]

if you come to visit the NS dont bother with swords, (but gifts of Haram Girls would be greatly apreciated) lol I played with the same kind of theory rock and everyone told me I was insane (hence I didnt presue it)

[Talos]

The Harem girls didn't last long on this voyage, unfortunately... :-\ But we'll see if they can hook you up with something good.

[The Rock Doctor]

Good stuff.  I'll write a briefing story of sorts in a day or two.

[Talos]

Alright, sounds good. I, meanwhile, have some other news articles and HY reports to write.

[The Rock Doctor]

6 January 1913:  Cartagena

Pier 32 was a bit out of the way, but the decision had been made to park Saada there so that the Egyptians had a good view of the armored cruiser Matador as construction continued upon her.  Deputy Foreign Minister al-Battani was greeted by his Colombian counterpart, Richard Granville, as well as Admiral de Irujo and Vice-Admiral Calderon.  Speeches were made, but neither party was interested in dragging out that phase of the visit any longer than necessary.  The Egyptians wanted to see ship and blueprints, and the Colombians were willing to oblige them.

"Today, we thought we would show you a few examples of existing ships in our inventory", Admiral de Irujo suggested.  "Tomorrow, we can examine blueprints and springstyles."

"Very good", al-Battani replied.  "Where do we begin?"

"There", de Irujo replied, pointing towards cruiser not much larger than Saada as the men began walking.  "That is San Lucia, lead ship of a class of two, and half-sister to the Boyaca class.  It's actually Boyaca that I'd prefer to be showing you, but both she and her sister are on distant stations in the Pacific at this time.  I'll be discussing the capabilities of Boyaca - San Lucia can serve as a visual approximation."

"My first impression is that they are lightly armed", al-Battani noted.  "I assume this is a trade-off for other characteristics."

"Indeed.  They were designed to fit some relatively small drydocks, but are relatively slim to promote reasonable operating speeds.  In combination, this limits deck space, so there are four 140mm guns, with a firing rate of around a dozen rounds a minute, and a single anti-airship guns.  Four torpedo tubes are carried.  The top speed of both classes is about twenty-six knots. 

"We built the Boyacas for the purpose of being command ships at two small, distant stations.  To that end, they have long-range wireless, command facilities, and are fitted to lay sixty mines.  We modified the design for the San Lucia class, which functions as a command element for our battleline's screening elements or communications relays for the flagship of the Battle Fleet.  The minelaying capability was deleted in favor of additional communications equipment."

"I see where you are coming from", al-Battani said.  "The Boyacas are fairly flexible, a useful quality for a smaller navy with limited resources.

"That is indeed where I'm going", de Irujo confirmed. 

He looked over to Vice-Admiral Calderon, who continued, "With a range of eight thousand miles at ten knots, using coal, we can build an updated Boyaca with a top speed of twenty-six and a half knots.  With the next generation of turbines, which we expect to be available in nineteen fifteen, the top speed would be an estimated twenty-seven and a quarter knots.  I concede this is going to be on the low side for new protected cruisers, but it does offer an economic, multi-purpose ship."

They spend the next hour touring the cruiser, her captain leading the way.  One pier over, a smaller, older vessel was tied up.

"Our next visit is the torpedo-boat David", Admiral de Irujo said.  "She is one of eight Santa Maria class boats, laid down in 1899 and 1900.  They are due for a refit, but given our current torpedo-boat replacement program, the decision has been made to scrap the class shortly.  I have been authorized to advise you that these ships would be available for purchase, at a dollar cost of $0.15 each - plus the cost of any refit that might be desired.  Without a refit of some sort, there is little scope to actually improved the vessel significantly, but each does offer three torpedo tubes and twenty-seven knots; this may constitute an improvement on your own older boats."

The tour of David was much quicker, on account of her much smaller size.  The young teniente in command seemed mildly bewildered at having so many senior personnel following about, but provided a reasonable examination of the ship.  Al-Battani was noted that the boat looked somewhat worn, but he wasn't going to rule out the idea as an alternative to the smaller torpedo-boats he'd been authorized to purchase.  On the other hand...

"This is the torpedo-boat Kourou.  With a light displacement of two hundred thirty-six tonnes and a draught of just a metre and a half, she and her five sisters are designed for riverine operations, but can operate along the coast.  The armament is light; we opted for a greater number of smaller torpedo tubes, but could fit a twin carriage for eighteen inch tubes aft, and a single tube on the bow in place of the two smaller weapons you see here.  Top speed is twenty-five and a half knots, but the range is short.  It is our expectation that an updated class with improved machinery could have increased bunkerage.  The result would still be fast enough to catch capital ships or raid along your coasts at night."

"Interesting", al-Battani mused.  "Small guns, though."

"Sufficient for dealing with pirates or civilians; she is not intended to fight larger warships", de Irujo answered. 

"The current 65mm and 47mm guns might be replacable with a three-incher", Calderon suggested.

de Irujo continued, "I had wanted to show you one of the new Quito class torpedo-boats under construction, but it happens that none are building in Cartagena.  We can examined their specifics tomorrow, however, along with the Santa Isabel class that we'll start in July."

The next vessel was clearly a river boat of some kind, but of a strange configuration.  "This is the Buho, one of four riverboats built to support amphibious assaults in the Amazon rivershed.  The boat can embark one hundred twenty soldiers, and lands them by nosing to the riverbank and disembarking them via these two gangways on the bow.  The quick-firing guns above provide fire support if the landing is opposed."

"It's not a type I had been looking for, but we do take an interest in the security of the Nile", al-Battani conceded.

"As the lifeblood of your nation, I'd be surprised if you didn't", de Irujo said.

Al-Battani nodded. "This has been very interesting, Admiral, and I appreciate your time and that of your personnel.  I will look forward to meeting with you agian tomorrow."

[The Rock Doctor]

7 January 1913:  Cartagena

Deputy Minister Granville met with Deputy Minister al-Battani for breakfast, and the latter and his team were subsequently whisked over to Armada headquarters in a pair of Rolls y Royce motorcars for the continuation of their meeting with Admirals de Irujo and Calderon.

"A lovely city, but surprising quiet in the night", al-Battani remarked as they walked through the halls of the building.

"Other than the harbour district, the city centre tends to empty out after the bureaucrats go home", de Irujo replied.  "If you want to see a place with night life, try Cayenne."

"I've heard of that place - I believe I will pass", al-Battani said.  "I want to thank you for yesterday's tours; hopefully having those ships present was not terribly inconvenient for you and your people."

"Not at all", de Irujo confirmed.  "I've no doubt many of those men spent the evening carousing in the Harbour District and quite enjoyed themselves."

"This is the voice of experience speaking?", al-Battani queried.

de Irujo smiled.  "Let's have a look at some blueprints."  The group had now arrived at the Design Bureau office, and de Irujo led them into a boardroom where Calderon was waiting with a stack of binders and numerous large sheets of paper.

"Good morning, Deputy", Calderon said, as one of his aides closed the door behind them.  "We have here a number of designs both as line drawings and springstyles - these being technical summaries of the designs.  While some of these designs are currently being developed or even built, many represent ideas that simply did not meet our requirements and were not acted upon.  This doesn't imply they are flawed - merely that they did not fit into our operational concepts."

"I understand", al-Battani acknowledged. 

"Now, I gather that our naval attache in Suez has shared some information regarding this first design.  It's an unprotected cruiser, with a strong emphasis on speed and torpedo load.  To our knowledge, there are no faster cruisers, and very few faster torpedo-boats, actually in existence at present."

"Yes, this design was shared with us", al-Battani confirmed.  "The naval attache - I do not recall his name - implied that the design was not well-favoured here, but our own individuals were intrigued enough to do some 'back-of-the-envelope' calculations for variations that might better suit our purposes."

"There's a strong view that four torpedo boats are a better choice for mass torpedo operations than a single cruiser, even if their speed and seaworthiness are reduced", Calderon noted.  "Our naval attache probably does not know of this variant to the design", he continued, sliding the drawing of 'Madness' aside to reveal the next blueprint in the stack.

"This version's speed is somewhat more in keeping with typical protected cruisers currently under construction", he said.  "It should be fairly evident at a glance why this would be the case."

al-Battani leaned forward, a puzzled look on his face.  His aides looked - with the exception of one grinning younger officer - equally befuddled.  "That is...", al-Battani muttered, glancing at the technical summary in the bottom corner of the drawing.  "Merciful Allah..."

"We happen to have four in storage", Calderon explained.  "One of my staff was curious to see what could be done with them."

"Can it work?"

"Technically, it appears so, although as you see, the above-decks layout is a little crowded compared to the other cruiser design."

"What would you do with it, Sir?", one of the Egyptian officers asked.

"Well, with something like that, you could shoot a fair ways inland in support of troops or against enemy installations and infrastructure, while still being fairly capable of extracting one's self from harm.  Hitting another cruiser would be difficult as a result of the low rate of fire, but if you did hit..."

"Yes...", the Egyptian agreed.  "Has the necessary turret design been done?"

"No, but it would only take six months at most", Calderon said.  "I could put a team on it next year, allowing construction to begin in July 1914."

"Thoughts?", al-Battani asked his team.

"I like it, Sir", the young officer replied, still grinning.  "Picture the look on the Italians' faces..."

"There is that", al-Battani admitted.

Vice-Admiral Calderon slid the drawing aside, exposing a more conventional torpedo-boat.  "This is our Santa Isabel class torpedo-boat, which begins construction in five months.  Her top speed approaches thirty-one knots, and she carries a strong torpedo load along with a useful gun armament.  Fire control, wireless, a dozen depth-charges, and sixteen mines can be fitted."

"Depth charges?", al-Battani queried.

"Time-delayed mines for attacking submerged submarines", Calderon said.  "If these are not of interest, they could be removed in favor of four additional mines, or simply to increase the ship's weight reserve."

"I see.  There's also a smaller gun - for shooting at airships?"

"That's correct", Calderon affirmed. 

"How many of these ships can you build at a time?"

"More than we can afford", Calderon answered.  "The Armada typically lays down six per year.  We could double or triple that if we felt compelled to do so."

"This is good to know", al-Battani noted.  "Now, are there submarines design that we might examine?"

"Absolutely - we have a fair bit of experience building five hundred tonne boats, and are now examining options for boats of up to twice the displacement."

"Perfect", al-Battani said. 

[Desertfox]

Hmm... The Zionites will be sure to talk to the Egyptian once he is back. Some of those ships sound VERY interesting...