Richmond Times-Dispatch Jul-Dec 06

[Carthaginian]

12 July - via Milenio Diario de Monterrey

A terrifying derailment took place near Monterrey Nuevo Leon yesterday, killing 25 and injuring 86 others. The train was on the Cacto Expreso run, a coast to coast express line from Ciudad Madero to San Diego. The apparent cause of the derailment was a section of tracks along which the retaining spikes had been removed, allowing the rail to shift when the train began to cross. Investigations are searching the area for evidence.

The high number of dead is predominately attributed not to the crash itself, but to the unforgiving nature of the area's climate. Many of the dead were only injured by the crash itself, but died when lack of water and extreme temperatures overcame them in their weakened state. Of the 86 injured, 21 were cases of pure dehydration, owing nothing more serious than bumps and bruises to the incident itself.

Investigations are being conducted by the local Marshall's office and experts from the Texas Rangers.

Those with family or friends who were to have been traveling this route yesterday are advised to contact the local Marshall's office via telegraph or telegram with inquiries about the health of their loved ones. An attempt will be made to include a list of the dead and injured in a later edition.

[Carthaginian]

16 July - via Milenio Diario de Monterrey

An urgent update to our story of 12 July follows:

Today, a group of local marshals located cache of railroad spikes and tools in a dugout near the site of the horrible derailment earlier this week. Continued searching also lead to several abandoned campsites in the area, but no sign of the men who committed the crime.


In further news:

Many adds have been seen locally asking for laborers to work on the French Grand Canal. Workers are turning out in droves to the offices on Semmes Street to apply for these high-paying, but dangerous jobs. The first group of workers is scheduled to leave by the end of the month for a 1 year contracted work period.

[maddox]

France aknowledges the support the Confederate States of America is giving, and is sending the A class Liner Afrodite to ferry the new Canal employees to the Great Canal.

[Carthaginian]

The Confederate States of America appreciates the assistance of the mighty République Française and accepts the offer. The Afrodite should meet the workers at Pier 2, Newport News.

[Carthaginian]

01 Aug - Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The races for Senatorial seats are heating up all across the Confederacy. Here in Georgia, the once simple choice of Democrat versus Republican has now become a myriad of strange and occasionally frightening choices that one must make. This has lead to some very vicious campaigning. This is especially true of the Socialist candidate, Alvin K. Turner. His socialist platform of racial equality and assistance for the poor has reached many in the Atlanta area, but his strict Marxism and disdain of religion has won him as many enemies as friends, and made even his supporters wary of him. Still, our private polls indicate that he has at least 20% of the vote in Atlanta.

The traditional candidates are still the front-runners- the Democrats are leading, but only have 32% of the vote this time and the Republicans have 25%. The new Confederate party's candidate is reported to have 23%, and both Democrats and Republicans seem to be appealing to these voters, saying that every vote they give to an unestablished party is allowing the Socialists to get one vote ahead.

With the mid-term Senatorial elections due in November, and the campaign running this closely, the political makeup of the CSA may perhaps see it's first major change in almost 100 years.

[Carthaginian]

07 Aug - Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Today, in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Confederate and French officials met to finalize the contracted construction of a class of five cruisers for the Confederate Navy. The ships will be built in French yards, and the Confederacy will provide turbines and armament for them. The new ships are said to be 'remarkably fast and heavily armed' and are to be designed as cruiser group flagships.

At present, the exact terms of the deal are undisclosed, but the renowned and respected French arms mogul  Louis Michel was reportedly sent from Gran Colombia in order to handle the negotiations. Speculation is that payment involved transfer of some fervently desired technological breakthrough to the French, as no large sums of money were apparently present due to the light guard.

The Confederate Navy's most famous agent provocateur, James 'Little Jimmy' Bulloch Jr. was quoted as saying "This acquisition will boost the material strength of our fleet with as little effort as possible while at the same time strengthening our ties to our fellow Republic. Such cooperation is necessary between Republics to fight both our old enemy of Despotism and the new scourge of Marxism and preserve Liberty."

[Carthaginian]

*Democratic Party Headquarters - Atlanta, Georgia, C.S.A.*

"David, your a bloody damn genius! The stocks in this company just keep going up, and we've got a whole slew of imbeciles just lining up to get shipped down to those God-forsaken jungles!" Roger sat at his desk, smoking an imported Havana cigar and propping his stocking-feet on the expensive mahogany. "We've already shipped almost 1000 workers just from Georgia, and word is starting to leak out into other States. Hell, we ain't just gettin' the Darkies, but a lot of the Injuns and the white trash is signing up."

David tries to look modest, but fails entirely. "So, Roger... you still think I don't have the brains to run the Party?" David passes Roger a conspiratorial wink, and the two laugh.

"Nah... you got me. When it comes up time to nominate for President in '10, you got me behind you. Till then, I'll back off my Senate bid and support you... as long as the money keeps rollin' in. Try one of these Havanas, they're a lot better than the last batch. So, you think we ought to try and invite anyone else in on this scheme? The more people you get backing us, and the more capital we build up, the more money we can make. Shoot, there's got to be DOZENS of sites around the world that we can ship Darkies to as laborers! How about Oranje?  They're working on that..."

David silences him with a look.

"Yeah, you're right, Dave... they got enough Darkies of their own, and they might just get pissed if we start ferrying a bunch more over there to them."

"Yes, Rog, and the more pies we stick our thumbs into, the more likely people are to figure out WHY we're so all-fired eager to help them out. Remember, the main goal in this isn't JUST to get richer... it's to keep the damn Darkies form getting their own kind elected and into power- especially those Marxists that seem to be getting popular with 'em lately. If the Marxists start getting into Congress, they might just do away with the ability to get rich. We just need to keep things small and discreet, because if anyone finds out exactly what we're up to, there could be a pretty big bill to pay."

[Carthaginian]

Lucy looked again at the price for the flour.
"This just can't be right."

She looked again... the price hadn't changed, neither had the money in her hand- but she still had ENOUGH! The last thing she was planning to buy, and only then if she had enough money- she could always get by with corn meal at half the price- and she not only had enough money for the flour, but the corn meal, too.

Lucy did a bit of math in her head, and bit back tears.
"Oh, my God! They's gonna be some LEFT OVER?"

Had she not been in the middle of the general store with eggs in her basket, she'd have probably fainted. She'd NEVER had money left over after the groceries. EVER. Oh, maybe a penny or two to get the girl a ribbon for her hair, or to get the boys new bands for their slingshots- but FIVE DOLLARS? And this was just the first check... and it was just a half a month, and the one that Quinton had to work a week in the hole on. Next time, there would be FOUR TIMES AS MUCH! A whole TWENTY EXTRA DOLLARS every month.

Why, she could pay off the land in the year Que was gone! Forty acres of land, a house, and a mule... PAID FOR? Her daddy worked himself to death- there wasn't no respect for a freedman in Columbus, Georgia- to get in debt far enough to get this land and now her husband could pay it off in a less than a year?
"I don't know what he's doin' for those Frenchman... but Godbless and I hope that he gets to keep doin' it."

Up till last week, Lucy had been listening to tales of that Turner guy in Atlanta with his talk about business owners 'keeping the workers poor' and how workers needed to 'rise up and change things.' When Lucy got the first check, she'd been astounded at the numbers, but it never really clicked in her head what she held in her hand. She'd always been poor, and had never expected anything could change that. Now, though for the first time she saw that being poor wasn't something that was forced on someone.

There was a way out.

In five months could pay for the land. After that, she could get the boys in school. She could get her kids in school, and they could get jobs as something other than a small-time potato farmer in the middle of a rich man's cotton field. They could move to Auburn and be a teacher, or to Atlanta and be policemen, or to Savannah and get a job as a foreman at the shipyards! They'd be able to have money left over ALL THE TIME, and they wouldn't have to go halfway across the world form their families to do it.

They could not be poor.

Lucy had cried her eyes out the first night that Que was gone. Now she was crying again, but this time, it wasn't because she missed her husband. "We gonna be able to to right by 'em...and it's all because of you."

[P3D]

As a skeleton of a 500ft-long whale, the framework of the airship was standing in the hangar. One of the engineers was showing a group of visitors in Orange Army uniforms around.
"As you see, the aluminum and wood framework of the ship was assembled. It is ready to be taken apart and shipped."
"Why aren't the hydrogen cells installed?"
"Once they are installed, removing them would cause damage. Similar to the covers."
"Great. I'd rather the airship was loaded to the cargo ship as soon as possible, but...we are still ahead of the Navy by about two months, and that what counts right now."

[Earl822]

Metal clad ships in this era, now that isn't really sensible

[P3D]

Indeed, I can change that.

[Carthaginian]

"Damn, but it's hot!"
Ensign Theodore Gibson, skipper of TR-183 looked out over the waves, watching intently for something on the horizon. The pirate attacks in the area had been growing steadily more intense over the last few months- even a ship of the Mark had been in contact with a pirate. Lately, three cargo ships- not small fishing boats but honest-to-God SHIPS- had gone missing in the rather small expanse of the Gulf.

It wasn't making any sense. Where were the pirates hiding at, and why were they trying to hit...

The Missouri native was more worried, however, about the lack of an apparent winter in this part of the world. ("It's the MIDDLE OF OCTOBER, for God's sake... and it's EIGHTY DEGREES! Soon as I can, I'm transferring to NORFOLK! Real winters... SNOW!" ) One of his crewmen shouted at him, breaking him out of his daydream:

"Sir, smoke off the fore port quarter."

A small black smudge over a tiny bump on the horizon, barely visible to the naked eye... but leave it to Agee to spot it. Teddy raised a spyglass to his eye and peered at the smudge. The shape of a small smudge and tiny bump resolved themselves into a ship and a plume of coal smoke. Teddy gave the order to alter course a few points towards port to investigate. Right now, their primary duty was simply to exercise the ship's engines and make sure the crew remembered how to handle their equipment... but perhaps, if the captain was willing, he could use the merchant as a practice target for a few torpedo runs. A little extra training never hurt.

For a good 25 minutes, they closed on the opposing ship, watching her as they came in. She was an old tub; looked more like a converted sailing ship than anything else. Yeah, that's it... she's a steam yacht. Three masts, no yards... schooner rig, probably. Lotsa boxes on her decks, though... hauling cargo, I guess. So, she was a small-time merchant.  She looked to be on a course from Ciudad Madero or there'bouts, meaning likely as not she was Confederate...

But she isn't flying any ensign or house colors?

Most of the ships around these parts were Likes Brothers, but the familiar white swallow-tail and blue diamond house flag was absent from this ship. In fact, she wasn't flying ANY colors... no house flag, no national flag.
NOTHING.

A few men milled around visibly on deck (a lot of men) around the boxes set up on the foredeck, apparently fooling with the ropes. A couple of guys stood on the bridge wings, right next to the pilothouse doors. There were a few more behind one of the lifeboats, apparently scraping it.

A ship like that would need, what, 50 men?
At most 50... maybe 40?
More than half of any given shift would be below working in the boiler room... so why could he see ten men with ease and shadows moving on the...
...
...
...

Suddenly, the men behind the lifeboat weren't behind it anymore... or more accurately, it wasn't in front of them anymore. Instead it had been hoisted above their heads, and the men were behind a small quick-fire gun. The men at the pilothouse door came bursting out with a Maxim gun, and the boxes on the foredeck fell down and way off of (Mary, Mother of GOD!) at least a 6" gun!


Captians are supposed to be cool.
Captians are supposed to be calm.
Captians are supposed to be absolutely unphased by anything.
Right now, Ensign Theodore Gibson, CSN, considered himself lucky... he wasn't a captain.
He was just a torpedo ram 'skipper.'
And he was piss-your-pants SCARED.

"ALL AHEAD FLANK! HARD ABOUT! MAN THE GUNS!"
A stream of orders flew out of his mouth in a head-splitting screech, like a ship's keel scraping along a rock bottom. Apparently, the men realized the difference between a 'skipper' and a 'captain' and understood as well- because none of them looked like he was acting inappropriately at all. In fact, they all seemed to be in much the same sstate of discombobulating fear as he, and this lead to a perverse sort of comfort. Most of them were remembering their jobs, racing towards the guns, diving for the ready ammo and trying to get the belted ammo for the half-pounders fed into the guns.

The enemy opened up on them, somewhere about 1000 yards distant.
Their gunlaying, Teddy noted, was abysmal. His ship was now moving away at a bit over 15 knots, and they were still not able to range them. Stray rounds from the machine guns were hitting them, but a .30 caliber wasn't going to hurt his ship.
*BOOM*
("That, however, WILL") Teddy mused, as shrapnel whizzed by the pilothouse and smoke began to belch latterly from the forward stack- indicating that they had his range with the small QF. It couldn't be more than a 47mm, and probably only a 37mm... anything bigger would have blown a good chunk of the stack off. The gun crew on the midships gun had dove for cover when the round hit, they now went back to their gun and began laying it on the enemy. The half-pound guns came to life now, walking rounds up to the enemy and trying to silence the QF gun, but the 183's rapid turn and attempt to open range meant they could only fire a few rounds effective enough to make the enemy gun crew duck before they were out of arc.

The 183 boat's main battery finally fired off it's first round of the engagement right about then, from the aft gun. the shell missed, but apparently it's passage was noted aboard the enemy, as the machine gun fire shifted to their position rather than attempting to rake the bridge. with no gun shield to hide behind, it was every man for himself, and the four remaining rounds of ready ammo was booted over the side by some enterprising soul that preferred the stern of the ship remain attached to the rest of her.

The enemy ship's forward gun STILL hadn't fired, and it had been almost two full minutes since this affair had began. "SHE'S MOUNTING A MUZZLELOADER, SIR!" shouted Agee from behind one of the half-pounders. As the ship was coming around, Agee had a full view of the men ramming the shell home into the antiquated weapon.
"HERE IT COM**BOOM*"
The report was deafening, the smoke astonishing, and the sound of the shell passing overhead enough to make even an empty bladder strain for just a little bit more. The round struck slightly aft of his ship (Apparently, they've never fired at something this fast) and kicked up enough spray that the aft gun crew was drenched.

The port half-pounders were now unmasked, and they took up firing at the midships QF gun to put it out of commission... though not before Agee went down in a spray of blood, with his loader following immediately after... falling to the deck missing a large chunk of his head. The enemy Maxims had claimed first blood. Finally, the midships gun crew had their chance, and they took their time and aimed carefully now that the enemy had fire their round. The shot struck at the base of the superstructure, and the platform from which the Maxims were firing suddenly  was wrenched out of shape in three dimensions, and repainted a mix of carbon black and blood red. The other half-pounder, maintaining it's fire, raked the position of the QF gun, and several of the men crewing it went down- either dead or desperate for cover.

Now the forward gun was unmasked, and both it and the midships gun fired again. One round missed, throwing up a spray of water beyond the enemy, and the other struck the hull below the forward gun. Neither one caused enemy any harm, though, and the main gun crew only dove for cover before returning to their stations. Several more rounds were fired, and the ship's hull and superstructure took several more hits, but none hit anything vital. The 183 finally came out of her turn with her bows pointed directly at her enemy, about 1500 yards off.
"READY THE TORPEDOES" Teddy yelled...
and heard from one of the half-pound gunners "HERE COMES ANOTHER ONE"- his last word lost in the report of the old rifled cannon. Another shell flew through the air... and damn near took the bow off, dousing the fore gun crew with spray as the shell hit less than 10 yards ahead of and slightly to one side of the ship.

STARBORD TORPEDOES READY!"
Teddy needed no more encouragement: "FIRE!"

The small charge shot the fish out of the tube, and it started it's run towards the pirate. The trail looked straight and true... it was definitely going to hit if nothing happened.

Teddy threw the wheel hard over, trying to get away as fast as possible. Gunfire continued on both sides- 183 had sustained several hits from that enemy revolving cannon, though none had appeared telling.; the enemy had also taken several more hits from the 183's guns, and a some scorch marks along the waterline marked hits that would (hopefully) slowly sink the pirate if they didn't get away soon. He also noticed that the old merchant was beginning to react to the torpedo.
Fingers had begun to point.
Crew had begun to run about, trying to get boats into the water.
The ship had begun to turn... too slowly.

Ten seconds later
*BOOM*

A huge gout of water lept into the air, stained black by coal and dust. Men were thrown from the decks, lifeboats flung like childs' toys and the ship's funnel collapsed over the side. The old steamer seemed to bow up in the middle, settle and then sag, her back broken. The few men still clinging to her deck realized this, and began diving for the water.

Teddy ordered the ship to prepare to fish the survivors out.
"Pull 'em aboard if they cooperate" he said, and then looked over at Agee and his loader "or gun 'em gown if they resist."

[Carthaginian]

14 November - Mobile Press Regester

Senate Seat Results:
Democrat:      14
Republican:    12
Confederate: 10
Socialist:          4

House Seat Results:
Democrat:      30%
Republican:    35%
Confederate:  25%
Socialist:        10%

For the first time in Confederate history, there is no clear-cut majority party. Though the Republicans and Democrats maintain their traditional proportional leads, the Confederate party has drawn enough support for it's candidates to result in a large share of seats in both the House and Senate itself. The Socialists have also broken out, with 2 more of their number being elected in the Senate, and several more being added to the House. From now on, it seems that a coalition will be needed to allow the government to run in it's accustomed manner... something that many Confederate citizens are greeting with trepidation.

Also, as the first result of a coalition vote, for the first time the Senate's President pro tempore comes form a minor party- a break with tradition- and is a Negro. Thadeous Devereaux (C, Louisiana), a former Republican, was voted in as the pro tempore by a Republican/Confederate block cooperating to block the Democrat's pick. The Democrats first attempted to have the vote nullified, but with no Constitutional restrictions stating that the pro tempore must come from the majority party, they were forced to accept the outcome. Apparently, the Republicans decided allowing the popular Devereaux to hold the post would place someone who would favor them in the position, while also securing the aid of the Confederates in blocking further Democratic initiatives.

[Borys]

OOC
The Sky is Falling! The Sky is Falling!

[Carthaginian]

25 December - Richmond Times-Dispatch

Today, President Clark took his family to Christmas services at the First United Methodist Church here in Richmond and, afterwards, took gifts around to underprivileged families in the Richmond area. These gifts of food and clothing will help to make the holiday brighter for those who are not as fortunate as many of our readers, and the Times-Dispatch is proud to have donated to the effort.

Merry Christmas to all,
The Staff of the Times-Dispatch