Durban Naval Competitions 1920

[Nobody]

   Information sent to all known governments and newspapers worldwide, end of October 1919
To celebrate the commissioning of the newest vessel in the Orange Navy and the end of the war in the Rift Sea, the Orange Republic decided to invite all known naval powers to a friendly competition of military might in January 1920.

The event was inspired by the second Caldera Cup, which was hold in Italy earlier this year. The organizers felt that the aeroplane and it's capabilities are overrated: Can they travel from one continent to another? Can they transport thousands of people, or thousands of tons on freight? Can they show a country flag far away from home? No, they can't. But the Navies of the world can and do. It is time for them to show their skills outside the battlefield. That's why they are the ones that should compete with and learn from each other.


Organizational details:
Participating ships will start in one of three classes. The winner in each class will be decided through a series of challenges, which will have individual awards as well. The tree classes are:

• Large or Heavy Cruisers and Battlecruisers
  
• Ships of the Line and Dreadnought Battleships
  
• Torpedoboats and Destroyers
  Each country may compete in every group. The final decision in which a contestant belongs, and how many ship per country may start in each class remains with the organizing committee.
  
  EDIT:
  Supplies for all contestants will be available for the duration of the festivities.

[maddox]

Admiral, we dispatched Luisant to refuel the Leopard 8 and 9 en route to the games in the Orange Republic.
But why ain't we sending one of the Demarce IV's before they get transfered? Or Montmedie?

Luietenant, I don't object people asking questions, but questioning orders ain't the best thing you can do.
1) The Demarce IV's are sold,
2) Montmedy will be the flagship for the fast reaction force together with Napoleon the Great. And those 2 are under way to escort Voltaire from the undisclosed Orange Republic port to her final destination. Aphrodite will join those ships as a Green Cross charter.

In other words, we have not 1 competitor for the large ship class, but 2. On paper Montmedie is the faster, but Napoleon is smaller and has a better tactical radius and she can get up to speed faster. Oh, 2 Demarce IIIb are with the big ladies.
The IIIb's are slower than most cruisers of the other countries, but our ships are worked up, blooded in combat and with superiour seakeeping and steadiness.

In other words, the fact it's not common knowledge won't mean Glorious France has forgotten her grandeur and commitments.

[TexanCowboy]

Would it be an inconvience to add a "light cruiser", for the smaller ships floating about with 5.5'' and 6'' guns, division? Also, a Misc. division, for moniters and carriers and blimp carriers and whatever else people are planning to send would be nice...

[Nobody]

Would it be an inconvience to add a "light cruiser", for the smaller ships floating about with 5.5'' and 6'' guns, division? Also, a Misc. division, for moniters and carriers and blimp carriers and whatever else people are planning to send would be nice...

Well I have to draw the line somewhere, and "cruisers" would have been a way too inconsistent category (I don't want to compare 6"-gunned 4000 t coast patrol ships to 20000 t 10"-gunned nearly battlecruisers).
I did think about the misc category though. But lets see how much work this proves to be. Maybe someone volunteers to "dice out" an unofficial race between the accompanying support ships? 

[TexanCowboy]

I was thinking about sending the Sucre. That wouldn't exactly be a support ship, would it?

[maddox]

OOC, without a washington treaty, what is the difference between small; light , protected, armored or heavy cruisers. Let be Fleet protection cruisers, convoying cruisers and so on.

IC

France hopes the trials and tests invented by the Orange Republic will reflect the capacities of the ships in classes as the Orange Republic sees fit.

[Sachmle]

OOC: Good point Mario. I get to use cool names like große and klein for my cruisers, but for the "English" speaking world, why should we use Light, Heavy, Protected, Armoured? Why not make our own names?

[ledeper]

The Esc will participate with the Training Cruiser :Gorch Fock

[Jefgte]

without a washington treaty, what is the difference between small; light , protected, armored or heavy cruisers. Let be Fleet protection cruisers, convoying cruisers and so on.

???  ???  ???

The # categories could be made also by tonnage

-inf to 3000t
3000 to 5000
5000 to 7000
7000 to 9000...


Jef  ;)

[Guinness]

The Ottomans will attempt to expedite the construction of the Torpedo Boat MK-10, under construction since June 1919 at Jeddah. This race will serve as a shakedown for that boat and her crew, but it's likely that armament may not yet have been delivered and installed. Hopes are high, but most of the engineers aren't all that optimistic...

[Nobody]

Country	player	BB/L	BC/AC	DD/TB	free class
Orange Republic		Kaap Delgado	Arktur	Z-1	Indic
		Benguela Bay	Betelgeuze	K68	Aurora
		Kaap Agulhas	Alecto	K66?
Republic of France	maddox		Montmedie	2 Leopard Class DD	Tiho and Fako
			Napoleon the Great
NUS	Jefgte	Mayta Capac		Robore and Putre
DKB	Sachmle	SMS Kaiser Barbarossa	SMS Moltke	T-155, T-156, and T-157
New Swiss	Desertfox
KoN	damocles		De Ruyter
ESC	ledeper		Gorch Fock		Gorch Fock
Ottoman Empire	Guinness			MK-10
Italia				DDL-02. DDL-03, and DDL-04	IMS Taranto
Republic of Gran Colombia	TexanCowboy	Antonio Jose de Sucre		TB-147, Tello
				TB-70, Jatibonico and TB-75, Johi
Orange Yards				3 light Torpedo boats (China exports)
total:	8	6	8	20

This list is incomplete and will be updated whenever necessary. Please check that all ships are present and send me links to the ships specs if you haven't done so already.
Thanks.

[maddox]

Nobody, it seems you overlooked the participants for the BB/BC/AC class, Montmedie and Napoleon the Great, as well 2 Demarce IIIb Volcano's.

(See Paris Temps message as well the PM)

[Nobody]

   Festivity organization bureau, Durban
Papers in all sizes, shapes and colors are spread over every surface of the spacious room. Those are calculations, drafts, recommendations, advisor expertises, entry formulas and complains from local citizen.

"And, what did the postman bring today, Charles?" "Not much Will. The Admiralty just wants to know how the preparations are going." "I see, how many entries did we get so far anyway?" "10 counties showed interest in the competitions so far, but only 7 confirmed their participation so far. The Netherlands and New Switzerland did not answer our request to send in the correct papers, and China - the middle Kingdom that is -  informed us that they were to busy to come." "Maybe they lost interest? I'm not sure this is official but the Netherlands are actively involved in the war in China, and the Swiss... well they just lost theirs." "True, true. But how do we answer?" "Well, why not send them our currently planned schedule?" "Good idea, guess that will have to do."

Date	Event
Sunday January 11th	Official opening ceremony, including the commissioning of the battleship "Cabora Bassa" and parade of all participants
Monday January 12th	Battleship race
Tuesday January 13th	Battlecruiser race
Wednesday January 14th	Destroyer and torpedoboat race
Thursday January 15th	Destroyer and torpedoboat firing exercise
Friday January 16th	Battlecruiser firing exercise
Saturday January 17th	Battleship firing exercise
Sunday January 18th	Destroyer and torpedoboat maneuvering challenge
Monday January 19th	Battlecruiser maneuvering challenge
Tuesday January 20th	Battleship maneuvering challenge
Wednesday January 21th	Award presentation ceremony

[maddox]

January 13th.  The sun high in the sky is blistering Admiral Geon's unprotected head on the port bridge wing of the Large Battleship Montmedie, what was classed as a battlecruiser by the Orange Republics referies. 
Diplomacy overcame pride, and the ruling was accepted, albeit with reluctance.

The echo of the start signal dies out and the smokestacks of the massed large ships start belching black smoke, an impressive sight, especialy the coal and mixed fired ships give a good shot to create a smogbank without any peer.

Napoleon the Great, after her rebuild shows het mettle. Almost taking the lead, but then the older hullshape starts robbing the power for speed to make higher waves. In the end Montmedies raw power makes the point moot. Only the training Light Cruiser Gorch Fock ended with a lower top speed than the after all,  reclassed to Battlecruiser Napoleon the Great.

After the race, the Admirals Quarters on Montmedie. Admiral Geon has called a conference with the captains and chief engineers of his small fleet.

Messieurs, We got handed our asses here.  Napoleon the Great shouldn't have ended second to last.  And Montmedie shouldn't have been in this race.

Admiral. The race was set up so we couldn't win. A short distance race. Nappie is an old 20 kts battleship rebuild to achieve 27 kts, not a purpose build racehorse. The ships larger and heavier than her have more modern hullshapes specific to the high speeds, and with worse shiphandling capabilities. In heavier weather or in a longer run nappie would have demonstated her capacity. Montmedie ain't even a question why she ended so low in the ranking. 40 000 tons of battleship does need some time to get up to speed. With a more realistic run, we could have achieved an enduring 28 kts+. Something most of our fellow racers can dream about. 

Thank you , it sums up the issues in 1 short explanation. But how will we show the world that the Marine Nationale ain't a push over?

In 15 hours the DD's are to race. We all know the Leopards are, on paper, the fastest ships afloat. With years of tweaking. Those ain't brand new engines, but known, and reliable turbines. We could try the idea of overpressurising. Recalibrating the overpressure relief valves, preheating the fuel and some other small , but significant tricks.

It isn't a realistic test, in what case does a captain and his crew of a DD have time to prepare his ship for a high speed dash?

True Admiral. But it's an option to try, ain't it? One of our Leopards makes the run on 100% capacity. The other Leopard does the run with every trick the crew can imagine.

Isn't a bad idea. But limit the overpressure to 10%, we don't want any blown turbines or worse, boilers.

[Nobody]

   Durban Harbor, Sunday January 11^th
The opening ceremony was a spectacular event. It began with the crew of the Cabora Bassa marching in their finest uniforms from their quarters through the city and the harbor onto their new ship, to be mustered on deck.
   After that, ships from all over the world, which had made it in time for the festival were greeted. Some of which had even prepared own performances to impress the crowds. In the afternoon the Orange Army and Air Force showed a "little" parade as well. They showed their near prize-winning Junkers ground-attack-plane, light armored cars and the new motorized support units.
   Throughout the day many navy ships and buildings were open to visitors and the final decisions from the racing committee were announced: To allow all visitors to watch the race without missing the critical moments, a specially prepared two mile long beach had been selected. The event would also be observed from a Zeppelin and reports been relayed via "electronic megaphones" to all spectators. It was also announced that French battleship Montmedie was moved to the battlecruiser category due to her 4.5 to 6 knot speed advantage over the other participants, and the cadet cruiser Gorch Fock was given special permission this race as well.


   Monday January 12^th
Even before the first official race between the battleships, the captains of a few accompanying ships decided to held their own race and were joined by the liner Indic and the scientific research vessel Aurora. The resulting race turned out to be not as boring as one might think:

The cadet cruiser Gorch Fock managed the best start and her diesel electric drive allowed her to make full use of the installed power. The ocean liner Indic, however proved to be to big for such a race and was quickly falling behind. Meanwhile the five other ships were head to head, their bows separated by less than a 100 meters. 30 seconds into the race the slow starting IMS Taranto managed to get by the French cruiser Fako and was now in third place. Gaining speed at an admirable the Italian ship overtook the Aurora after 44 and the so far leading Gorch Fock after 65 seconds. The small Aurora already near her top speed was then quickly overtaken by all the other cruisers as well and the only question was whether she could keep her lead over the much bigger Ocean Liner which was picking up speed at a slow but steady pace.
   After three and a half minute a "battle" between the French Fako and the German Gorch Fock which had lasted nearly half a kilometer ended and settled the final ranking.

Placing	Ship	Time [sec]			Speed Ranking	Ship	Speed [kn]
1	IMS Taranto	270.5			1	IMS Taranto	33.26
2	Fako	308.1			2	Fako	29.36
3	Gorch Fock	311.8			3	Tiho	28.59
4	Tiho	318.7			4	Gorch Fock	27.66
5	Aurora	442.1			5	Indic	21.82
6	Indic	505.8			6	Aurora	17.56