WesWorld

... seriously behind schedule...
[edit: so much that I forgot one thing ;;]
... so here's Q4, 1921 news. Still have to think up some Q1, 1922 news but it is quite busy with Valentine coming up.

Monday, October 3
AWNR: Japan intercepted a report which showed that at the request of Japan’s Neighbor China, a very important Japanese government official (who shall remain anonymous) signed a death warrant for Xun Yi Chung on Saturday, September 10. The identity of Xun’s Assassin was not mentioned. However since Jeehuubaa-san mentioned that the Yellow Rose Petals Strike was used to disarm Xun in his official report on the Xun-case, AWNR: Japan believes that the assassin is probably from the Yagyu clan Ninja since only the Yagyu clan Ninja are utilized for assassination jobs.
Yagyu Minoru, Daimyo of the Yagyu clan, neither confirmed nor denied the involvement of one of his Ninja in this case. “Ninja normally do not do such messy jobs, except the Yagyu Ninja and those assigned to the Emperor and the Shogun. Whether we are involved or not, this Xun Yi Chung got what he deserved.”

Also today, the Bakufu announced that on Saturday, the keel of the Empress Yoshiko was laid down in Kobe. The ship is the first of the Dowager Eisho class Ocean Liners to be constructed. It is expected that it will be launched somewhere in the second Quarter of 1923 and finished somewhere at the end of 1925.

Friday, October 7
Today the Battleship Nagato and Fuso, and the Armored Cruisers Jakumo and Iwaki returned to Japan. The Emperor, the Empress, the Shogun and his wife left the ships in Osaka. The strange thing was that there has been no tour of Europe, as reported earlier. No reason was given for this sudden change of plans.

Tuesday, October 25
The Japanese Bureau of Tourism (JBT) has informed AWNR: Japan of a drastic drop in price for some of Japan’s famous sites. This was done after the great many complaints about the ridiculous high prices from foreign visitors.
- Yagishiri-To Firing Range.
Prizes for a one and a half hour trip now range from 50 yen to 200 yen (about 0.45-1.75 US dollars), depending on the season and the type of ships present.
- Chiyoda-jo (also known as Edo-jo), Edo Castle.
Prizes are now 500 yen for children to 1000 yen for adults. (about 4.35 and 8.70 US dollars). An additional 150 yen higher (1.35 US dollars) on the Birthday of the Shogun or his wife.
- Kyoto-jo, The Imperial Palace.
Prizes are now from 500 yen for children to 1000 yen for adults. (about 4.35 and 8.70 US dollars). An additional 250 yen higher (2.20 US dollars) on the birthday of the Emperor or the Empress.
- Kujuu-jo, Kujuu Castle.
Prizes are now 300 yen for children to 800 yen for adults (about 2.65 and 7 US dollars).

(OOC: after Red Admiral’s remark on the high entry fees of the ships, I decided to take a look at prices I had given in previous news articles again and decided to change that. It is still not cheap, but not as expensive as before. Also I thought I could use that in a news article. Shows you that I am getting desperate when it comes to news ;

Tuesday, November 1
Lady Maeko’s birthday today. In Chiyoda-jo for once.
(OOC: I always seem to forget to mention the important birthdays in the news articles ;

Monday, November 7
[SIZE=4]Good news!![/SIZE]

... I mean bad news!!

[SIZE=4]Bad news for aviation worldwide!![/SIZE]

Oonishi Manzo fell down the stairs and broke his right leg!
Doctors informed AWNR: Japan that it is believed that he would be out for many months and it would be a while before he would step into his aircraft.

Monday, November 14
[SIZE=4]Bad news!![/SIZE]

... I mean good news!!

[SIZE=4]Good news for aviation worldwide!! [/SIZE]

Oonishi Manzo showed his stupidity... I mean determination... showed his determination by stepping into his plane this morning and take it up for a spin despite his broken leg.
Doctors called it a miracle...
And so do I...
...
...
... since Manzo just missed the farmhouse at the end of the field as he took off...
...
...
... and missed the barn at the other end of the field on his way in.
It should be noted that he took off and landed in the wrong field (and in two different fields).
Manzo told AWNR: Japan that it felt good to be in the air again, although he did experience two weird bumps during take off and again when rolling down the field after landing.

Tuesday, November 15
Two well-known brigands turned themselves over to Shinsengumi officials. No reason was given why the two did so, but both men were injured and seemed to have some muddy stipe markings on their clothes, which seem to baffle the Shinsengumi investigators. Both men were taken to a hospital first for the treatment of their injuries.

Monday, December 19
The Ministers of Defense from Formosa and Chosen are currently in Japan meeting their Japanese colleague, Ogara Ryouichi, and his Advisor of the Navy. It is believed that both nations plan to acquire new ships to replace their mostly ‘ancient’ ships in their aging fleets. Before the Great War, Formosa and Chosen bought a number of Japan’s older ships rather than new ones due to financial restrictions. Now both nations have a reasonable budget to acquire some quality ships.
Neither nation has revealed what kind of ships they are planning to buy*, but rumors that Japan will buy back the Okinoshima (ex-Russian General Admiral Graf Apraxin) from Chosen and the Mishima (ex-Russian Admiral Senyavin) from Formosa appear to be true. Once back in Japan, these two ships (currently still listed as Coastal Defense Battleships) will be demilitarized and turned into museum ships. It is also rumored that China might buy some ships as well.
(OOC: I no longer have the Mikasa, so I thought I could use this approach and use Formosa and Chosen to get two aging ships which I can turn into museum ships. Hope nobody minds I’m doing this.)


* OOC: 133,000 ton battleship/carriers. :-)

Walter

(dimensions are guesswork and freeboard of 10 feet doesn't seem to be much; the design has been posted a while ago in the 'Old BB' thread on the ship design board)

Okinoshima originally had 3 main guns and Mishima 4. I kept it simple and used 4 guns for both ships. Dates

Mishima (ex-Russian Admiral Senyavin), Formosa Coast Defense BB laid down 1894
Okinoshima (ex-Russian General Admiral Graf Apraxin), Chosen Coast Defense BB laid down 1896

Displacement:
4,282 t light; 4,572 t standard; 5,143 t normal; 5,579 t full load
Loading submergence 304 tons/feet

Dimensions:
300.00 ft x 50.00 ft x 20.00 ft (normal load)
91.44 m x 15.24 m x 6.10 m

Armament:
4 - 10.00" / 254 mm guns (2 Main turrets x 2 guns)
4 - 4.70" / 119 mm guns
10 - 3 pdrs. QF guns
2 - 2 ½ pdr. guns
Weight of broadside 2,242 lbs / 1,017 kg

Armour:
Belt 10.00" / 254 mm, ends unarmoured
Belts cover 100 % of normal area
Main turrets 8.00" / 203 mm, 2nd gun shields 2.00" / 51 mm
Armour deck 1.00" / 25 mm, Conning tower 5.00" / 127 mm

Machinery:
Coal fired boilers, complex reciprocating steam engines,
Direct drive, 2 shafts, 5,096 ihp / 3,801 Kw = 16.00 kts
Range 5,500nm at 10.00 kts

Complement:
303 - 394

Cost:
£0.508 million / $2.033 million

Distribution of weights at normal displacement:
Armament: 280 tons, 5.4 %
Armour: 1,378 tons, 26.8 %
Belts: 722 tons, 14.0 %, Armament: 427 tons, 8.3 %, Armour Deck: 197 tons, 3.8 %
Conning Tower: 32 tons, 0.6 %, Torpedo bulkhead: 0 tons, 0.0 %
Machinery: 879 tons, 17.1 %
Hull, fittings & equipment: 1,745 tons, 33.9 %
Fuel, ammunition & stores: 861 tons, 16.7 %
Miscellaneous weights: 0 tons, 0.0 %

Metacentric height 1.9

Remarks:
Hull space for machinery, storage & compartmentation is adequate
Room for accommodation & workspaces is cramped
Ship has slow, easy roll, a good, steady gun platform
Good seaboat, rides out heavy weather easily

Estimated overall survivability and seakeeping ability:
Relative margin of stability: 1.05
Shellfire needed to sink: 4,294 lbs / 1,948 Kg = 8.6 x 10.0 " / 254 mm shells
(Approx weight of penetrating shell hits needed to sink ship excluding critical hits)
Torpedoes needed to sink: 1.1
(Approx number of typical torpedo hits needed to sink ship)
Relative steadiness as gun platform: 70 %
(Average = 50 %)
Relative rocking effect from firing to beam: 0.73
Relative quality as seaboat: 1.22

Hull form characteristics:
Block coefficient: 0.600
Sharpness coefficient: 0.43
Hull speed coefficient 'M': 5.31
'Natural speed' for length: 17.32 kts
Power going to wave formation at top speed: 48 %
Trim: 57
(Maximise stabilty/flotation = 0, Maximise steadiness/seakeeping = 100)

Estimated hull characteristics & strength:
Underwater volume absorbed by magazines and engineering spaces: 97.6 %
Relative accommodation and working space: 67.0 %
(Average = 100%)
Displacement factor: 96 %
(Displacement relative to loading factors)
Relative cross-sectional hull strength: 0.94
(Structure weight / hull surface area: 109 lbs / square foot or 532 Kg / square metre)
Relative longitudinal hull strength: 2.14
(for 10.00 ft / 3.05 m average freeboard, freeboard adjustment -3.26 ft)
Relative composite hull strength: 1.02


Walter

Nice news articles!

Keep ´em coming...

HoOmAn

Quoted

Nice news articles!

Keep ´em coming...

I'm trying but it seems to become more and more difficult to do so. I have no good ideas at the moment so it seems that I'll have to take it easy with the news articles until I get some new inspiration.

Walter

Personally, I think you're producing some good news.

Good storylines don't grow on trees, that's for certain. I'm having some difficulty in that regard with Germany - I've been preoccupied with the extreme right, inflation, and rebuilding the Reichsmarine, but don't have anything else to work with yet. I'm going to try adding at least one "human interest" story per quarter, so I have something to build on later if the mood strikes me.

Maybe the Shogun should appoint a blue ribbon panel to investigate the fate of the Kongos...

Just out of curiousity rocky whats Germany's status in reguards to relations with Poland, Austria and Czechoslovakia? I assume it is as historical, in which case I'm blind as a bat! Given the fact that we are 4 years after WW1 I assume they want nothing to do with germany?

I haven't really looked into that much, so my assumption is it's essentially historical. The info I've collected so far don't discuss these countries much - I'll have to dig some more.

Ditto for Denmark and the Netherlands, now that they're involved.

Any particular interest, or just curiousity?

J

Just curious...my knowledge on Germany's post war relations is very poor and I was wondering how Germany fares in the SIM.

Quoted

Good storylines don't grow on trees, that's for certain.

Yes... At least Valentine is over.

Quoted

Maybe the Shogun should appoint a blue ribbon panel to investigate the fate of the Kongos...

Maybe Dr. R.D. Ballard (Wesworld version of course) will find them somewhere in the 80's or 90's. Would be a nice article for that time. Maybe then the fate of the Kongos will be revealed.

Walter