Brandenburg Gazette

[swamphen]

c. 16 December
Neue Kiel News

The newest vessels of the Kriegsmarine arrived here today. The battleships Kaiser Barbarossa and Kurfürst Friedrich Wilhelm, acquired from France, have replaced the large force that sortied last night...

[swamphen]

early January...say 10th January 1908
some flea-bitten Peruvian port

Fregattenkapitän Sally Schilling of the Legion Kondor assembled the crew of Almirante Grau for the "change of command" ceremony. A more wretched hive of scum and villians she couldn't imagine, although also, given their previous commanders, she wasn't at all surprised. She was slightly surprised that the piratical bunch had shown a bit more respect - and maybe even a touch of fear - torwards their new CO when they'd found out it was to be a women. Perhaps there were a few grains of truth in the rumours about the true head of the Mars family...

Clearing her throat, she began. "Gentlemen, today your ship and yourselves begin a new career. I know all about what you have done under your previous commander, and I will not stand for more of it. You have all signed contracts to serve in the Legion Kondor, and we expect a certain standard from our men, if you fail to meet it your contract will be nullified, and I expect that a large number of you would have a rather short life-expectanacy if put ashore, especially in certain countries...?  I don't expect you to cause any trouble in port - at least not more than you can expect from a bunch of drunken sailors, anyway - and we don't cause trouble for civilians who haven't caused trouble for us first. However I am not a martinet, nor am I a stickler for regulations. Hammer's Slammers is a mercenary company, when it comes to the enemy, we follow Rule One: pillage, then burn."

That actually raised a few chuckles from the crew. "Now you also need to remember that part of the Legion's mercenary license states that when Brandenburg is at war they have default first call on our services, and unless all of you have been growing barnacles for the last few months you know that Brandenburg is, indeed, at war. Now the higher-ups have gotten this idea that since I am the only major change in the crew of this ship, he can be used in operations PDQ without concern for acclimisation. I'm not sure we can do that. I expect all of you to prove me wrong. We have orders to sail. In forty-eight hours, this ship leaves this port for the last time. You will all be aboard then, this ship will have bunkers filled to the brim, the cook's pantry will be bursting - and the namplate will have been changed by that time. Any questions?"

After a pause, one old, grizzled Senior Chief spoke up. "Ma'am, you said the nameplate needed changing, but you haven't told us what her new name is."

Schilling smiled. "Quite so. I hereby re-christen this ship Sereniteit."

[swamphen]

10 January
Signal from Task Force Crimson Tigre to Neue Kiel

WHERE IS RPT WHERE IS SMS BLÜCHER? THE WORLD WONDERS.

[swamphen]

15 January
Note from the Naval Design & Construction Department to the Admiralstab
(you know absolutely nothing of this IC...)

Per your directive we have considered the 1909-1911 Programme and reccomend the following cuts.

Cancellations of new ships:
2nd unit of KPzS08 class.

Cancellations of refits to old ships:
ex-French and ex-Norman SS refits cancelled - to scrap

Future projects deferred:
KB09 class (3 units)
SK11 class (2 units)
PzB11 class (3 units)

Foreign build projects changed:
SS11 (2 units) changed to KK09 (4 units)

According to our calculations, the remaining domestic projects planned, adding six TB09 type großes torpedobooten and assuming {Factory #12} becomes available 1/1/1910, there should be {4.672 BP} remaining for refits and Army expenses, not including any returns from scrapped vessels.

[swamphen]

16 January
Neue Königsberg

Rudolf Hanford looked up from his newspaper as the whistle on the Brandenburg-Amerika Line ocean liner blasted the notification that boarding was now in progress. As a purchasing agent for Deutsche Vermögensberatung it was his job to ensure the smooth movement of commdities into (and, on occasion, out of) the Reich; the war was making this somewhat more difficult, however so far the Swiss were being beaten back at nearly every turn. It was true that, reading between the propaganda lines, things were still quite closely matched between Those Demons and the Alliance, however there could be only one result in the end. And anyway, trade went on.

One of the commodities the Reich found itself importing in large quantities was rubber. That was actually one of the reasons they'd intervened in Brazil; however the Anahuac raiders (perhaps the only people worse than the Swiss, although he'd heard some ugly rumours about the Khazaks) had torched the rubber production facilities in Rio Grande do Sul, and the planned "second wave" to land in the rubber-growing north of the country had never gotten under way. France and the Netherlands were using up all of their domestic production, Siam was out due to their ties to the Swiss, and the Nigerians were stubborn in negiotiation.

That left his current destination, where he hoped to investigate not only large contracts for rubber, but also perhaps for other investment opportunities for DVB: Gran Colombia.

[Borys]

OOC
I believe Rio Grande do Sul to be useless as natural rubber is concerned. WAAAY too cold and dry for that.
The DKB should be planting hevea trees in Niu Guini, that's their habitat - tropical rain forests.

Siam, NOI, Filipinas, Niu Guini, Nigeria, Kamerun, Gabon, Ceylon, Burma, Indochina

If natural rubber was behind the acquistion of Rio Grande, then somebody got his messages crossed.


Borys

[swamphen]

I did cross things up a bit - looking at this map Pôrto Alegre is a location for rubber production but the actual victims of little ol' ants are further north in the country. So I'll tweak that just a bit.

[Borys]

http://eh.net/encyclopedia/article/frank.international.rubber.market

[swamphen]

...and von Bülow wept with joy, for there were plenty of new worlds to conquer.

;D

[Walter]

*remembers the exploding Filipino Warships*
Sounds like bad news to me when von Bülow decides to conquer the Philippines. :D

[swamphen]

Actually the Philippines need not worry (...unless, of course, the Iberians decide they would like to sell?...), but there are certain others on that list that...perhaps in the future...perhaps should not be so sanguine...

Mwa ha ha hahaha!!

[Borys]

Ahoj!
To clarify matters - for successful plantations one needs a hot and wet climate, AND cheap labor. This could disqualify Niu Guini/Solomons, and be a problem for African plantations. SE Asia, Ceylon, Kerala - these are the best areas.

Borys

[swamphen]

18 January
Brandenburg Gazette

The Zeppelin Z-2 returned alone from yesterday's raid on Sydney Harbour. Reportedly a navigational error gave the Swiss fore-warning of the attack and allowed for Z-3 to be damaged to the extent that it was forced to ditch off the coast of Brandenburg.


21 January
Neue-Kiel News-Press

SS Prinz Eitel Friedrich is absent from the port this morning, as is the recently captured Swiss submarine...


24 January
Neue-Kiel News-Press Extra Edition

Prinz Eitel Friedrich returned to port late this morning - with U-1 in tow. Apparantly the submersible was captured by Swiss forces in operations last December and, with the capture of the Swiss sub two weeks ago, an agreement was reached to exchange the ships and crews...

[swamphen]

25 January
Neue Brandenburg

Count von Bülow entered the palace. His usual monthly briefing with the Kaiser had been delayed a week for unspecified reasons. This annoyed him, as what could be more important to the All-Highest than the foreign policy of the Reich?

To his surprise, when he entered the briefing room it was not the Kaiser who met him, but the Kronprinz, Eitel Friedrich. Hiding his surprise, the Count smiled and bowed slightly. "Your Highness," he said. "I thought you were at Tolaga Bay?"

"I was." The Kronprinz's tone was anything but friendly."My father called me back here to handle this briefing. He is not pleased with you, Count."

"May I ask why, Your Highness?"

"Your recent endeavours in South America have been distressing to Us."

The use of the Royal pronoun put the Count even more on guard. "I'm afraid I don't understand. What have I done wrong?"

"We understand that the sale of the Cook Islands was bumbling on the part of your subordinates." The Kronprinz frowned still more. "This does, of course, still reflect badly on you. However the sale of Coquimbo was a grave error on your part. Why did you sell the territory without consulting Us?"

"Well, the Colombians made an offer, and I thought to accept it quickly, lest it be withdrawn."

"Which would allow us to dump the territory before the Swiss got it first?"

"I wouldn't put it that way - "

"But it's true all the same, isn't it? Never mind that there were 300,000 citizens of the Reich there?" The expression of the Kronprinz was now thunderous. "We had been considering directing you to offer Brandenburgian protection to some of the other ex-USA microstates in the region. Now that will be much more difficult if not impossible, since we sold out Coquimbo to the second-most despised people on the continent, without so much as telling them in advance, yet alone asking their opinion on the matter! And these were people who had deliberatly asked us to protect them instead of the Colombians! I would imagine that our stock in South American eyes - except for the Colombians, fo course - has fallen dramatically, and I suspect the Rohirrim are shaking their heads at us as well!"

This was not how the Count had imagined the meeting going at all...

"You are on thin ice with Us, Count von Bülow. In the future you are not to sell any of the Reich's holdings, no matter how small, without consulting with Us first to see what Our opinion on the matter is. Oh, and any further correspondence from France on the Viktorialand proposal - if there is any, of course - is to be sent directly to Us. Now, do you you have any good news for me?"

The Count swallowed hard. "Well," he began, "ther is this from the Confederacy." He handed an envelope over to the Kronprinz, who read its contents and actually smiled. "Very good. Anything else?"

"There is one small matter related to the war." The Count went into detail on his idea. When he was done, the Kronprinz nodded. "If you can pull this off, you may well find your prestige restored - to a degree. Bear in mind, Count, that you are on your 'third chance', as they say, after Oman back in '01 and now this fiasco. If you fail and the war drags on into the summer - well, there are plenty of diplomatic fish in the sea."

[The Rock Doctor]

since we sold out Coquimbo to the second-most despised people on the continent

Second?  Who's first?