Sueden Kreuz 1906-08

[Borys]

Sankt Franz, Grossherzegtum von Parana, April 1906

Trains hooted, bands played. With a deft SHNIT-SCHNIT Hans Schmytke, the Imperial Governor, cut the ribbon. The Dona Thereza Christina Railroad, previously leading it's 150 kilometer long life in arrogant denial of existence of other railroads, was finaly connected with the Paranian and - through it - Brazilian network. The 300 km stretch from Imbituba to Parana - built from both ends at the same time - came together at Joinville.  The mostly German speaking population raised a great "Hurra!"
Now coal from the mines of southern Santa Catarina will go non-stop to stoves in the  frozen wastes (according to the Brazilans) of the Paranese plateau.

[Borys]

January 1906
Desterro, Parana

- "Zhivo! Schnell!" - Obermaat Mustafa Hajibeyovic yelled at Matrosen carrying supplies onto the ship. It was hot and damp, so their cargo - sheepskin jackets - looked strangely out of space in the damp subtropical heat. But the Officers had said that where they were going, on the SMS Maros, these will be very much in need.
- "They were going to someplace called "Antarctica" - what a tongue twister!"

[Borys]

Late July 1906

Sao Luis de Maranhao

The news had come through, and confirmed the rumours. The Habsburgers were leaving! And the locals let out a sigh of relief - they were to be handed over to the Iberian Emprie, and thus reunited with the neighbouring towns. Some of the gossip held that the Austrians will hand them over to Grande Colombia, the Brandenburgers, Oranje or - Salva nos o Deus! - Glorious France!
Some local boys took the last opportunity to enlist with the AFL.

The IXth Brigade of the AFL was to be redeployed to Parana, with one battalion seconded to Ilha de Maio in the Cabo Verde archipelago. They were to be taken to that newest Austrian station by the troopships ferying iigrants to Parana.

[Borys]

February 1906
Deception Island
Midnight

Obermaat Mustafa Hajibeyovic shuddered in his sheepskin jacket and fur fez. And it was not from the cold.
- "Allah the Merciful! What slaughter!" - passed his mind.
He, the veteran of Aden and Brazilan Crusade, had never seen anything like this. To bring the Schwarz-Gelb banner to this spot he litteraly waded in blood. In places it sloshed over his boot-clad ankles. The stench of death was everywhere. Gulls circled overhead, crying when bits of offal slipped from their gore splattered beaks. The bodies obscuring the ground, eye level high. The glares of those working the carcasses, with their razor knives on long handles ... the stench of burning flesh ... the bubbling vats ... like the realm of Sheitan, where the wicked  pay for their Sins.
He shuddered again, and tried to focus on the proceedings.

Fregattenkapitan Schlachtiger's voice boomed in the wind.
- "I therefore claim this land in the name of Stefan, Emperor of Austria, second of this name ...
- "and King of of Hungary" - suflered Korvettenkaptan Horthy Miklos
- " ...  and King of Hungary  ...
- "sixth of this name" - suflered Korvettenkaptan Horthy Miklos again
- ".... of this name. God be witness to this Act!"

The whalers did not show interest in the ceremony.

[Borys]

In August 1906 Habsburg troops evacuate Sao Luis de Maranhao and leave for Parana. One batalion is sent to Ilha do Maio (pop. c.500) in the Cabo Verde group, to assist in in the construction of a coaling station. And to protect it afterwards.

Borys

[Borys]

November 1st 1907

The SMS Maros, the Italian merchant s/s Cacofonia and Norman coalier s/s Dainty sailed for Deception Island.

A sister ship - SMS Drava - carrying geological prospectors - was to accompany them until the southern edge of Argentina. It was to drop off several prospecting teams (each with escort of a squad from the AFL) in "stateless Patagonia" - the lands of Indios Bravos - up to the Tierra del Fuego, and on the Pacific coast as well. Soundings and cartographic measurements were to made as well, in that poorly explored region. It was to spend the summer charting the local waters, coaling either at the nearest Argentinian coal station or at "Freistadt Punta Arenas". A visit to the Falklands was also on the books.

[Borys]

20th November
Nyfed Dâr Goch (Sacred Red Oak Grove), mouth of Chubut River (name used in Argentina)

BOOM - spash!
There was smoke over the man made stone mound protecting the gun - a field 3 incher by the looks of it - for a moment hiding the quartered white-green flag with some dificult to identify fauna and flora on it.
- Looks like those pagans REALLY do not want us here - grunted Krovettenkapitaen Mario Giuseppe Totti Santi.
- Turn the ship around - he ordered the helm.

- So the rumours told in Bueons Aires were true - he thought to himself. - The fact that there was some sort of colony of settlers from the Norman Kingdom did not surprise him, as these were fairly commonplace. But he disbelieved that they were not Christian and worshiped trees - Europeans, in the XXth century?
Now, being blinked "go away. anchorage at tlerwyn denied. crusader murdurer. go away" and with the warning shot as punctuation, he did believe that there was a bunch of crazies there. And even more importantly - that Austria was NOT wellcome."

[swamphen]

Hmmm...

[Ithekro]

They didn't look Druish.

[Desertfox]

Protestant Welsh? Heck any non-Catholic will probably distrust the Austrians after their Brazil rampage.

[Ithekro]

Could be a lot worse than anyone thinks.

Could be Norman, could be Gondorian, Could be Scotsmen.  Could be a new player....

[Desertfox]

There was smoke over the stones protecting the gun - a field 3 incher by the looks of it - for a moment hiding the quartered white-green flag with some dificult to identify fauna and flora on it.

Well the flag description is similar to that of Wales.

http://www.fotw.net/flags/gb-wales.html

[Borys]

They didn't look Druish.

You think so? But look at that nose ...


They are Druish Welsh, but seems I failed to convey that idea ...
The fauna and flora are white leek on green, red dragon on white.

Borys

[Borys]

January 1908
Freistadt Punta Arenas

Maybe the town was not dieing, not yet, but it was visibly going downhil. On their vists they encountered few ships sharing the roads with them, and sometimes none at all - until of late an unheard off event at the height of the shipping season. The lessened maritime traffic was glaringly evident to those members of the SMS Drava crew who had been here two years ago with the SMS Maros. The mounds of steaming coal had a veneer of months over them, with few scars of use lately.

The locomotive running coal from the Loreta mine, down the main streets - the Avenida Colon and Calle O'Higgins - now incommodated pedestrains and mules only once a day, not three or four like it used to.

Some houses were boarded up. Nobody had a good thing to say about the Colombians, who built that God insulting Canal. Had the Good Lord intended maritime traffic to pass through Darien, He would had put a strait there. The local feeling was that robbing the Magalhaeas Strait of its previous importance was in some way sacrilegous.

The Habsburg cruiser spent the summer sailing around the fiords of Patagonia, charting and sounding the least known parts. And keeping half an eye on possible appeals for assistance from the geological and carthographc teams. Occasionally  ferrying them across the bays of this region with "impossible shorelines". As well as duely noting the locations of various workings and mines - mostly of coal, as until the Darien Canal had opened, the coal wharfs at nearby Punta Areanas had provided steady demand.

[The Rock Doctor]

Frickin' Colombians...