Steam Frgiate IAS Falchion By Imperator-Zor Watch

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Between 19 IA and 35 IA Allergonian steam engine technology has rapidly advanced. Thanks to the efforts of Malnov Yorigsov, his apprentices, other defecting engineers and a number of Dwarvish clans eager to refine their old atmospheric engine designs the Empire is now making use of a large number of steam engines in various fields from industrial applications to transportation. The latter manifested itself most distinctly in river and canal boats due to the fact that they made use of the existing waterways that had been prominent trade routes for thousands of years starting with modified barges and gradually going to larger purpose built craft. But while these did improve the Empire's economy on the whole the Imperial government was still primarily interested in the military applications of this new technology and one area where the Imperial Crown was particularly interested in using it was to power warships at sea.



The advantages that a steam powered warship would have were obvious in that they could allow a ship to sail against the wind without relying on weather mages. Never the less there was some resistance on the projects, which was championed by Lord Admiral Joharn von Frettchendorl. He and his supporters argued that while steam powered saws, drills, cranes and other such were a boon for shipbuilders employing a steam engine on a wooden warship was too risky to be worth it, especially under combat conditions. The fact that a few early river barges burned down gave his arguments credence even as Infrastructure was building both metal and wooden hulled steamships and Venoa had begun work on it's fleets of steam galleys. This limited the navy's steam engine projects to a few small unarmed testbeds until his retirement in 29 IA after a heart attack. The new leadership was more open to militarized steamships. In October of 31 IA the IAS Kestral was launched, a 18 meter long cutter outfitted with a rear mounted paddle wheel and the Empire's first armed steamship. Two more cutters were built before they moved onto work of a larger steamship capable of offensive action and from their efforts was born the frigate IAS Falchion.



In many respects the Falchion is a fairly conservative design. She is 42 meters long and weighs in at 680 tonnes. She has a crew of 220 personnel, including marines and has an armament of two 8-pounder forward long guns for it's forward chase armament and twenty six 40-pound carronades for it's main broadside armament. As his typical for Imperial sail frigates since 80 BIA she has as copper plated hull. Where she differs is that she is outfitted with a 420kw steam engine and a screw propeller. This allows her a top speed of 24km/h. As a general rule her sails are struck when under steam power to avoid them getting covered in soot and ash. Her steam engine has a crew of some twenty full time engineers and technicians. Stoking is handled by general sailors and is usually a disciplinary action.



After trials, shakedown and drills, the Falchion was deemed to be a success. As such, work has begun on five additional steam frigates with improved engines and additional mechanized systems. Plans for a steam powered ship of the line are still in the works and are being resisted by a few pockets of conservatives among the Imperial Admiralty's top staff, even though their resistance to the idea has fallen in light of the Escort War.

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