Sueden Kreuz 1906-08

[Borys]

OOC
When the milk turns I mutter "Colombians/Swiss pissing into the milk again" ...

Borys

[Borys]

later March and April 1908
With the first snow the various Habsburg geological teams started converging on Punta Arenas. On May 1st the cruisers were to take them back to Parana for the winter. A caretaker team was left to attend to those teams which "missed the boat".

[Borys]

Early May 1908
Punta Arenas, under snowstorm 

The warm and cozy atmosphere at Pastelaria "Los Rapidos o Los Mortos"

- "Hey, Avaricio, look at this in the paper - the Swiss bagged a couple of Brandenburgian freighters at Chuvosa!"
Avarico de Lucro y Moeda peeked into the paper and nodded.
- "I say serv'em right, silly sods! Poo of Todos los Santos on them! They should had gone this way, not spending their money on those leeches at Bom Leite!"

[Tanthalas]

I blame New Zion...

[Borys]

June 1908
Punta Arenas

Avarico de Lucro y Moeda praying fervently:
"Holy Mother, Full of Grace, let it be the truth that the despicable dogs ... err ... our Brethen in Christ the Colombians buy coal from us. And from me, not from Usurio Dinero de Mau Peso.
Amen."

[Borys]

June 1908
Curitiba, Parana

The Trade Department of the Grand Duchy poured over the reports from the surveyor teams returned from the south. The overall image was deemed "promising".

[Borys]

July 1908
Curitiba, Grossherzogtum von Parana

The governour Schmytke signed the procurement orders for the final work needed on the Joinville - Mafra rail link. When opened for traffic - which should take place over the next few months - it would mean that there would be two routes between the coastal ports and the plateau. Thus some of the load would be taken off the Paranagua-Curitiba line. And he would finally get the army guys - muttering dark warnings about "single line of supply" - out of his hair.

By the end of this year he'll have to make a decision "where next?". Whether to etend the line to the interior, the 160km to Porto Uniao, or turn south to Lages - 240km along the mountains. And from Lages a 320km stretch to Criciuma - which would CERTAINLY get the army people off his back...

Or maybe switch railroad construction to that serving a faster opening of the plateau to settlement. Like a 400km line from Porto Uniao to Foz do Iguaco, on the Parana river. Those few who had been there said that the waterfalls there was an astonishing site ...

[Borys]

August 1908
Schmytke was happy. Negotiations with an American consotrium - Compania de Ferrocarilles y Exploracion de Arboleda de Banda Oriental de Parana - were almost at an end. Apparently the firm used as subcontrator on Austrian rail building found some backing in Buenos Aires, and desired to operate on a larger scale than previously.
Considering the nature of payments, he suspected that their backing was not limited to lumbering circles, but reached quite high in certain ministries. Ministries of the uniformed variety ... But Vienna had agreed to everything, and he was ready to sign.
Quite naturally - for a firm backed by lumbering interests - the Americans wished to built from the West, from Foz de Iguaco (hmm, Iguasumund?) towards Mafra. This way they could bring up the materials by barge from Rosario, and lay the 300 mile long line to Porto Uniao (Vereinhafen?).
This made the line useless for transporting settlers into the interior until the link was complete, but 2 or 3 years was not much, if one looked at it from a longer perspective.
He just prayed that they'd get the gauge right, not like that time in Baltikum ...
The Governor of the Herzogtum von Parana made a note to himself, to visit the railhead on the Parana river in early 1909, as to check out the rail spacing himself. And to take a look at that fabled waterfall. Heck, an inspection of the hinterland would be a Good Thing for the province!

[Borys]

Septmber 1908
The negotiations with USA were proceding smoothly. The RR deal was closed and signed. Not unsurprisingly, it grew into something else. The link of the "lumber company" with official circles was glaringly evident. The "railroad contractor", after showing to have a better grasp of miltary hardware than he had (or cared to have), was now talking about delimitation of spheres of infuence. And this did not concern timber, but at state level! He could decide about Parana, but the amiable Jose Maria Jimenez Garcia touched upon areas beyond HIS sphere of influence. Vienna had to send him papers granting him such power.
A good moment to take a break and tour the south.
At Desterro the waterfornt district was dusty and hectic. The KuKK was building up naval facilties. Curiously enough, this seemed chiefly to consist of digging elongated holes in the ground, at right angles to the water.
At Tubaron and elsewhere in the coal district evidence of hard work was also at hand. The mostly Italian - or was it Romanian? - speaking miners had reopened the mines abandoned over ten years ago on the grounds of economic invalibility. But the naval, military and railroad orders put the mines back to work, and the newly built coastal RR was full of trains carrying coal north. Of course, long term contracts at above market prices were very helpful in making the mines operational again.

[Borys]

August 1908
Vienna did respond, and gave him the necessary powers. And there was an unexpected bonus - the local Landwehr* corps, named Santissima Trinidade - Dreieingkeit - to make the locals happy, was to be rearmed. It was on the top of the list of non-Reichswehr** to be reformed with the new establishment and corresponding weapons developed after the Spanish Civil War and the El Dorado Siege. Experience from the Brasilian Crusade was being incorporated into light troops and cavalry organisation and equipment, but nothing new was to be expected in that department for the next two years or so.



* - in game terms this an "Active" corps 
** - in game terms this a "Wartime" corps 

[Borys]

early October 1908

The Schlachtgeschwader finally arrived. After a 2 day stay at Paranangua, allowing visits by Curitiba society, the formation sailed to their final destination - the base at Desterro.
However, after a day the whole squadron sailed even further south.

[Borys]

November

The Hags brought over the reorganised AFL Brigade which had fought at Tasmania. There was succes in recruiting Brasilians and Americans - either out of work pistoleiros or landless campesinos.

After releasing the Iberian soldiers who did not wish to renew their contracts, a full strenght Brigade was organised - the VIIIth. The newest batch of Maoris and other fresh recuits were assigned to the remaining formations.

In December the VIIIth Brigade was embarked and sailed south.

[Borys]

December, High Summer, Punta Arenas

Gefreiter Giovanni Lupi shuddered, to the friendly jeers of his comrades.
- Hey, your shuddering is shaking off the snow of this Christmass tree!