008 -- Ships

Excerpt from the forward to "The Shipspotter's Guide: A Handbook for the 13th century." by Peabody Press. p. 1201 S.E.

For centuries man has been fascinated by the ocean. It is plainly represented in cave paintings from ten thousand years ago. Murals in the ancient temple of Asfar depict the struggle between Jemahl and Saripha over and under the ocean. The earliest philosophers of Cambur speak of it's mystery in their texts. The great poet from the South, Naruda, speaks of his lover's eyes as "blue and deep as the sea." And from the beginning of civilization, man has sought to travel the ocean via the construction of ships.

Today, most of Eo's commercial activity occurs or is connected to maritime activity. The business of the world cannot be conducted without massive freighters moving goods between the ports of the world. Billons of units of currency change hands across the ocean every year. The empires of the world exert their influence on each other with large, heavily armed navies. Hundreds of thousands of people depend on the harvest of food from the sea, either to eat or to make a living. And for everyone, the sea can be a source of relaxation, fun, and beauty.

To achieve these different tasks, humanity has constructed ships. Freighters, barges, warships, fishing ships, passenger ships, yachts, ferries, dredges, and a multitude of other types of watercraft ply the oceans of Eos. The technology of seafaring has changed quickly through the last century with the widespread adoption of cambric-powered watercraft. Where once graceful wooden sailing vessels dominated the seas, now ships of iron and steel are pushing their way through the waves. Sailing vessels can still be found, but their usefulness as a tool of commercial and military action has ceased.

Steam-powered vessels have changed the very notion of commercial shipping. Freed from a dependency on wind direction, new trade routes have formed where before there was little traffic. New shipbuilding techniques allow ships to carry unheard-of amounts of cargo at speeds exceeding ten knots. The surge in freight traffic at the beginning of the last century due to these developments has finally stabilized, with several large shipping conglomerations controlling most of the cargo today. Ship designs are beginning to standardize, but there are still many examples of first, second, and third generation engineering in use today on smaller, less important routes.

The past hundred years has also seen the widespread adoption of two new types of vessel, the submersible and the submarine. Powered by cambric rods, these ships can alter their relative buoyancies to sink below the waves and rise to the surface at will. The distinguishing factor is that while a submarine is designed to function mostly below water, the submersible is designed to function mostly on the surface.

The submarine has become mainly useful in military applications. The importance of being able to remain unseen beneath the surface of the ocean in all kinds of weather was immediately apparent to the military establishments of most of the major powers. Today, modern military fleets all have a powerful complement of submarines capable of appearing anywhere at any time. Their sleek, black hulls are instantly recognizable, along with their jutting prows and thick flank armor. Most of these vessels are equipped with a large ram for destroying other submarines, as well as other smaller weapons, but certain Cimbrian designs have been seen to use underwater projectiles equipped with an explosive warheads.

The military also employs submersibles, but not usually in a direct combat position. Rather, submersibles are more useful for providing offshore artillery bombardment, as their larger hulls are more stable and are suitable for fitting large caliber weaponry. Submersibles are also often seen as supply ships, restocking the food, water, and cambric of faster, lighter military submarines.

All of these ships depend on other advances in fields such as echo-location, metallurgy, and air purification. Delicate arrays of pressure sensitive plates attached to hydraulic lines are used to "hear" underwater, utilizing the properties of sound beneath the surface to locate rocks, obstacles, and other submerged vessels. Stronger and more elastic metals are gradually allowing ships to travel deeper and faster in the ocean. Complex chemical reactions produce the oxygen needed for humans to survive underneath the surface.

This updated edition of the guide has added all of the most modern military and civilian vessels of the last decade, while retaining the great majority of ships from earlier guides. Some types of ship have been removed as they are no longer in service, while others have been moved to the extremely rare section at the end of the guide. The reader will quickly notice the new organization . . .

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