WesWorld

October 5, 1925

Cruiser O'Higgins and the Destroyer Capitan Herlock set out today from Singapore to patrol shipping routes in the South China Sea. It is expected that they will patrol an area of sea between Singapore and Hong Kong, but the Chileans might have a different idea of where they should be patrolling.

October 6, 1925

Transport Rancagua set out yesterday for Talcahuano to meet with the Transport Maipo which will then set out for the Pitcairn Islands to resupply the Cruiser Negro and Destroyer Avatar.

October 9, 1925

Cruiser Esmeralda's crew suffers an outbreak of influenza and moves off of its regular patrol to the nearest friendly port that might be able to assist with isolation. They head for the Falkland Islands.

October 16, 1925

Transport Rancagua arrived early today in Talcahuano. Transport Maipo will leave on Saturday the 17th. More coal and food stuffs is said to be much of the cargo.

October 28, 1925

Transport Maipo arrived to a sight of relieved crews from the Destroyer Avatar on the afternoon of the 27th. The Destroyer's crew seems to have been nervous after having encountered a mysterious cruiser late in September.

October 30, 1925

Cruiser Blanco and Destroyer Almirante Riveros receive a weak distress signal in the Straits of Magellan in the early morning hours. After notifying the Cruiser Esmeralda the two set out two investigate. The Straits can be rough at night, but as day broke the pair found a sinking Chilean Freighter, and a pair of Argentinean Torpedo Boats. (Thornycroft Type: Comodoro Py and Murature). While the Blanco was only able to fire a few long ranged shots at the boats, the Riveros sped to run them down. The torpedo boats raced as best they could towards Argentinean waters, but the Riveros was faster. Having used most of their torpedoes, the two boats took a single run each at the destroyer in an attempt to cripple it, as they could not outrun it. They failed, but managed to get a few hits in with their 3 pounders.

Riveros was having difficulty hitting the small fast moving targets with the 4.7 inch guns and the 4 inch guns. The pair split up to keep the Riveros fire from scoring, and continued towards Argentina throughout the day.

Near the mouth of the Strait, the Cruiser Esmeralda had been returning from the Falkland Islands. At the mouth there was someone waiting for the Riveros, the Protected Cruiser Nueve de Julio. Not expecting the Chilean Armoured Cruiser, the Argentinean ship attempted to flee, however the Chilean ship was between it an its closest safe harbor. Cruiser Esmeralda was not able to keep up the chase for more than six hours in the failing light, but the two exchanged shells for two hours at long range.
Cruiser Esmeralda managed to land two Eight inch shells near the Nueve de Julio's stern mast. However the Nueve de Julio managed to land a single Six inch shell just in front of the bridge, killing or wounding the forward eight inch gun crew. Cruiser Esmeralda broke off the chase near dusk.

The two Argentinean Torpedo Boats, seeing their support run off attempted one final pass of the Riveros. Both ships were hit by several 4 and 4.7 inch guns on their approach and surrendered.

Both boats were scuttled by the Chilean Navy after the Cruiser Blanco arrived to take on prisoners.

Meanwhile in Chile:

The German Cruiser Karlsruhe arrived in Valparaiso today. The ship was meet by the Dreadnought Almirante Cochane, Battleship Prat, and the Light Cruiser Presidente Errazuriz. The German warship is expected to remain in harbor until Sunday.

November 1, 1925

The German Cruiser Karlsruhe left Valparaiso today with an honor escort of the Battleship Prat. The Prat fired a farewell salute to honor the Germans this day.

November 3, 1925

Cruiser O'Higgins and Destroyer Capitan Herlock encountered some pirates operating off French Indochina. They suspect the pirates of basing either near Ca Mau (southern tip of present day Vietnam), or between Qui Nhon and Da Nang. As the pirates were using a junk, the firepower of an Armoured Cruiser seemed to be overkill, but since they were 60 miles away from Indochina, the Chileans felt they should act instead of ignore the situation. The local fisherman seems pleased that someone took care of the pirates, though none on board the cruiser spoke Vietnamese, and only limited French. The Junk was attempting to take the valuable off another junk 60 miles off the coast near Phan Rang. The Chileans happened to be nearby (reports are they were night fishing). How the pirates managed to miss the large Chilean warships sitting 7 miles away is unknown....

November 8, 1925

Cruiser Negro encounters but could not intercept an unknown warship sighted south of the Iles Marquises. This ship matches the description of the cruiser rumored to the haunting the Pacific of late. However this ship did not match the one reported by the Destroyer Capitan Avatar in September. The ship, based on its dark paint job and large skull and crossbones on the hull, has been named "Deathshadow" by the Negro's crew, as it reminds them of a ship from their grandparent's generation that helped the Chilean Navy in the War of the Pacific.

November 11, 1925

The Cruisers Blanco and Esmeralda along with the destroyer Almirante Riveros returned today after a rough four months around Tierra del Fuego. Esmeralda will need to be repaired after some damaged sustained in combat with the Argentinean cruiser Nueve de Julio on the 30 of October. The destroyer Riveros managed to conduct repairs on the way home. Services for the four dead crewmen will be held Sunday the 15th.

November 16, 1925

Chilean Cruiser O'Higgins and company setout from Singapore today on their long journey home. First stop will be Port Moresby.

Meanwhile in Chile:

Formal protest of the Argentinean attacks on shipping around Tierra del Fuego have been issued by the Chilean government. Argentina denies having sank the freighter the Chileans witnessed sinking. They say the torpedo boats were also responding to a distress call. When the Chilean government asked why the Nuevo de Julio was at the mouth of the Straits, the Argentinean's asked why not, it is open water. The yelling back and forth over Tierra del Fuego still brings problems now and again. Chile still claims all of the island, while Argentina maintained a presence there. The recent Nordmark War had all the Argentinean presence removed, but the Chilean government was warned harshly by the South Africans to not get involved in Nordmark's affairs, so Chile has yet to move into the emptied land. What will come of this?

November 17, 1925

Chilean Dreadnought Almirante Latorre and the Light Cruisers Ministro Zenteno and Blanco Encalada set out today from Talcahuano to patrol around Tierra del Fuego. With the recent incident with the Argentinean, the Chilean Navy wants to be clear that they see the Straits as a Chilean Passage and will keep it open for all trade. This show of force against the Argentineans is a new approach, one that Chile would not have done five years ago, before the Nordmark War.

November 25, 1925

Cruiser O'Higgins and company arrive in Port Moresby. and are expected to leave in two days.

November 29, 1925

Cruiser O'Higgins encounters a vessel that looks like the Freighter Queen Emeraldas near the Santa Cruz Islands. When hailed, the Emeraldas responded. The ship's captain was not available but the ship's owner, a Seline Yukino, told the O'Higgins' captain that she had not idea of what he was talking about when he mentioned that her ship had been seen leaving Puerto Montt in September. She said she'd been out near Wake Island in September. The O'Higgins' captain apologies to the lady and let her continue on her course for New Zealand.

December 5, 1925

Rumors of a pirate ship matching the "Deathshadow's" description is reported to be in the Solomon Islands area. No reports of it attacking anyone though.

December 7, 1925

Today the Chilean Navy launched and commissioned the new Destroyer Capitan Simpson into the fleet. This is the first new ship built in Chile in quite sometime. The ships new crew will begin working her up on Tuesday. It has been decided that she will work up at the Pitcairn Islands due to a lack of long range destroyers in the fleet.

December 8, 1925

Brand new Destroyer Capitan Simpson and the Cruiser Blanco will head out to the Pitcairn Islands with the Transport Rancagua to relieve the Cruisers Negro and O'Higgins.

December 10, 1925

At Mejillones, two new light destroyers for the Chilean Navy were launched yesterday. Teniente Riquelme and Teniente Videla were launched in a double ceremony after the construction had been delayed by a week due to bad winter weather in August. These two ships will work in tandem as often as possible, according to navy sources.

December 14, 1925

Chilean Armoured Cruiser O'Higgins arrived with the Destroyer Capitan Herlock and the Collier Angamos at the Pitcairn Islands today. They will spend a day or two to resupply before heading finally to Chile with the Cruiser Negro, Destroyer Capitan Avatar and the Transport Maipo.

December 17, 1925

Cruiser Blanco and company arrive at the Pitcairn Islands early today. Within six hours of their arrival the Cruisers O'Higgins and Negro set forth to Chile with their escorting destroyers and supply ships.

December 28, 1925

Cruisers O'Higgins and Negro arrive safely back in Valparaiso today after a tour of the South Pacific. Based on this experience the Chilean Navy laid down a new hull today for a new support ship. This ship has been called the Araucano.

A very interesting read indeed, nice work!

Agreed, an interesting read. However, unless there's an underlying connection to the various plotlines, I'd caution you against getting into too many "hot" stories at once. Getting involved in two apparently different anti-piracy operations plus whatever's happening off Tierra del Fuego leaves Chile really strung out. Plus, you might exhaust possible plot lines and find yourself with nothing to do in 1927. Finally, there may a risk that one or more player nations is going to tire of Chile poking into its neighbourhood...

From the Government of India: "We caution both Argentina and Chile to be mindful of the dangers that could accompany a conflict around Tierra del Feugo. As was seen last year in the Andaman Sea, what starts as a skirmish can escalate into war, with the potential of additional nations being drawn into the conflict."

From Germany: "Germany frowns upon the notion that Chile might somehow be entitled to occupy a portion of Argentina because of a lack of Argentine military force in the area. This would be tantamount to aggresion, and would require a full and immediate response from the League of Nations."

You really put a lot of work into this and it turns out to be an interesting read.

However, I´not all that happy about the shoot-out between chilean and argentinian ships.

In fact, the Chileans were the ones to open fire without any reason to do so. That unprovoked aggression and I would expect to hear the Aargentinians to yell out to the world they were attacked out of the blue when trying to help a freighter of a neighbor country. It doesn´t matter if that´s true - Chile can´t proof the opposite anyway.

Chile is the aggressor in this story.

So... *in game mode on*

The South African Gouvernment is really concerned about recent hostilities between Chile and Argentina. Chiles unprovoked aggression cannot be accepted.

After correspondence with our allies in Nordmark the South African Gouvernment decided to send a neutral battleship force into that region to ensure savety of international shipping around the Nordmarkian mandate. Any hostilities either by pirates or national armed forces will be answered using force if necessary. Both parties have thus been warned to stay calm.

The ships to be deployed will be named within the next days.

Quoted

From Germany: "Germany frowns upon the notion that Chile might somehow be entitled to occupy a portion of Argentina because of a lack of Argentine military force in the area. This would be tantamount to aggresion, and would require a full and immediate response from the League of Nations".
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From the Government of India: "We caution both Argentina and Chile to be mindful of the dangers that could accompany a conflict around Tierra del Feugo. As was seen last year in the Andaman Sea, what starts as a skirmish can escalate into war, with the potential of additional nations being drawn into the conflict."
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From South Africa: "The South African Gouvernment is really concerned about recent hostilities between Chile and Argentina. Chiles unprovoked aggression cannot be accepted.

After correspondence with our allies in Nordmark the South African Gouvernment decided to send a neutral battleship force into that region to ensure savety of international shipping around the Nordmarkian mandate. Any hostilities either by pirates or national armed forces will be answered using force if necessary. Both parties have thus been warned to stay calm.

The ships to be deployed will be named within the next days."

From Chile: "Need I remind the delegate from Germany that Chile has not occupied any territory of Argentina since before the turn of the century. Furthermore, I would ask the League to mind its own affairs and not get involved with the matters of nations that should be beneath their attentention. We are not aggressing so please don't aggress towards us in an unwarrented fashion. Wars get started and sent out of control when those that are not involved involve themselves needlessly."

"I would also point out to the African and Indian delegates that the Strait of Magellan is quite clearly within Chilean Territorial waters and the navy has every right to defend any shipping within those waters. According to our destroyer captain, 'the only reason his ship was not also sunk in the Strait was because the Argentinean Torpedo Boats had fired the majority of their torpedoes'."

From the Chilean Navy: "While we would normally not enjoy the company of foreign battleships sitting near our coastlines, we would welcome a patrol to help decrease the attacks on shipping around Tierra del Fuego. We would suggest that the battleship force not belong to the Nordmark or South African Governments, as neither could be considered "neutral" in this part of the world. While the Chilean Navy would not have a problem with the deployment...the other locals might get a little hostile."

What Nordmarkian mandate?

A Bakufu official agrees with the Chilean government that the presence of ships from Nordmark or South Africa might do more harm than good to the situation, when one looks back at what happened in the past.
The Bakufu offers the Chilean Navy the assistance of a small Battleship Force that shall patrol the area and help decrease the number of those attacks.

Italy views the current situation with concern. "Our friendship with Argentina gives Italy dire concerns about Chile trying to exploit a power in its reduced state. We may think about preventing Chile's recent arms deal with OTO"

I must again ask; why on earth are Chilean ships deployed thousands of miles from Chile? Its a good 7-8000nm across the Pacific, and we still have no reason for Chile being involved there.

I already calculated that the distance between Kagoshima and Valparaiso is about 9,800 nautical miles.

Most of the Chilean ships only have a range of 5000-6000nm at 10knts. So they need to refuel at least once. Maybe they should build that battleship design I showed you Walter? The one that can circumnavigate the globe, twice.

Having simmed that vessel at 10 knots, I think that it will just fall short of the finish line. In a straight line along the equator, it's 40,075 kilometers and that ship won't be travelling in a straight line. If you were to travel to the west, I think you'll run out of fuel near India (rough guess).

Having done a simple test, I came to a trip of about 42,500 kilometers. You'll run out of fuel in the middle of the Arabian Sea with that ship during its second lap.

"The Gouvernment of South Africa thinks there is no evidence the Argentinian ships were not there to help after they got a distress call. Having no torpedos in their tubes doesn´t proof anything as they could have sailed without or have used them for exercises before. The Argentinian ships were not seen firing at the merchantman according to chilean reports so we have to assume they did not."

[Oop: This is not a good time of the year to start any story invovling Argentina, Ithekro. Especially if you´re using ships by name which probably were involved and sunk in the Argentinian/Nordmark crisis. It is difficult enough to find a reasonable solution for the war of 1921 even without being forced to take care what somebody else used for his news several years later. I probably found a way to get us all the results of the Argentinia/Nordmark war but I´m not ready yet and honestly, I won´t take care of what ships you´re using in your news right now. It could thus happen that ships got sunk twice wich would look quite odd.

The reason why I haven´t posted anything on Nordmark yet is that I have absolutely NO access to my data. My former girlfriend kicked me out three weeks ago and I´m currently living in my little sisters room(who currently is near Concord/USA) at my parents place and all my stuff is packed away until I have an appartment with enough furniture to live in. So until then I can use my father´s pc to access the Inet and participate on daily business here on the board but there is no way I could work out anything for Nordmark right now. My own pc is still at my Ex place... :o(

So if you want instant action we can script something out between the SAE (of which I have all data available) and Chile but anything involving either Nordmark or Argentina is no good idea.]

Quoted

Originally posted by Ithekro
What Nordmarkian mandate?

That wasn´t the right term I guess...

What would you call it if Nordmark decided as result of the war to controll and patrol the waters around Argentina while the Argentinian navy has to be kept in their harbors?

Quoted

What would you call it if Nordmark decided as result of the war to controll and patrol the waters around Argentina while the Argentinian navy has to be kept in their harbors?

I'd call it curious, since the Italians are building ships for the Argentine Navy.

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As for the Chileans patrolling the Pacific: I'd think of it as something along the lines of, the South China Sea pirates have attacked a few Chilean merchies, so the Armada de Chile (or whatever) is demonstrating their ability to protect their merchant shipping, wherever it happens to be.

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The Philippines agrees that a SAE/Nordmark force may cause more harm than good in Tierra del Fuego. We would like to encourage that the offer of the Bakufu be accepted, and would like to attach a few Filipino ships to that force as well.

(If this goes ahead, that'll be Palawan and Destroyer Squadron Two, Águila, Rabijunco, and Zampullin).

Quoted

Oop: This is not a good time of the year to start any story invovling Argentina, Ithekro. Especially if you´re using ships by name which probably were involved and sunk in the Argentinian/Nordmark crisis.

Sorry if I jumped ahead a little, but I've been building a threat in that area for four quarters and wanted a potential resolution to the problem (if temporary only). The cruiser was a risk, but I didn't sink it. I figured it was the oldest cruiser in the Argentinean Navy, and would have had second line duty at best in 1921. So it might have survived and been placed as a "first line" vessel after the war. Those two torpedo boats would likely have been useless in sea combat with Nordmark as they were slow, old, and I think not all that seaworthy, so would likely have stayed as harbor defense.

I figure this story would be a one of/potental build up story depending on what happened with Nordmark. If the threat of Argentina is reduced, then Chile will focus in the Pacific (as it has not hostile neighbors that require the fleet to be present in mass). Of not them the hostility could build again, but not have to go to war. This incident will stop the sinking of Chilean shipping in the Strait for a year or two at least. After that time the patrols might become less, and those that sank those ships might become bold again.

Would there be an investigation in 1926? Did they have such things in 1926? If so the survivors of the freighter and the captured torpedo boat crews would hold the answers. Oh, and the night of October 31st was a full moon in 1925, so the freighter crew would have been able to see their attackers at night, which is likely the only reason there was a distress signal at all.

I've not decided fully yet, but I believe it was these torpedo boats that sank the freighter, and had been sinking freighters for the last four years. Just they had become over-confident and made a mistake...they atttacked on a moonlite night. They made another mistake. Their cover ship (emergency backup) was intercepted by an unexpected Chilean warship coming from the East instead of the West. If it was someone else, either the Argentineans or Chileans should have spotted another ship leaving the area. And that section of the Strait would not be viable for land based torpedo batteries. The ship was torpedoed. There are few other thinks it could be to sink like it did.

From Chile: Our Navy atests that the introduction of more South African or Nordmark ship into the region would not be wise. As the Japanese and Fillipino Governments are on the far side of the Pacific, their ships might be better severed patrolling the Straits without as great a fear of hostile reaction from the other local powers. The Fillipino Navy would be idea if only because they speak roughly the same language at the Chileans and Argentineans.

Got your point on building up story lines. Shouldn´t be a problem, though.

Regarding the sinking of ships: The world wonders why the Argentinians would do so, especially in their situation of having just lost a war in which they already were the attackers?

So far the world has just the word of the Chileans that the Argentinians were responsible. In a situation like the one we´re facing this isn´t exactly that much.

Also note that if you´re building up such stories make sure the other (non-player) side acts reasonable and more important reacts at all! Argentina wouldn´t stay calm, knowing the weak position of the Chileans who claimed things they can´t proof. The Argentinians would also ask for satisfaction because of the ships sunk, the crews killed and of course the crew members captured alive have to be handed over to the Argentinians.

If I were the Argentinian leader I´d know how to make use of the current situation to blame Chile. But Argentina is a non-player nation. Nevertheless, that alone should not be suffice to make everything you want with them....

Gives me something to play with for First Quarter of 1926.

Quoted

I must again ask; why on earth are Chilean ships deployed thousands of miles from Chile? Its a good 7-8000nm across the Pacific, and we still have no reason for Chile being involved there.

Given the size of the Chilean Merchant Fleet and the recent troubles with piracy in the Southwest Pacific (two Iberian "pirate" predreadnoughts) the Chilean Navy decided to make a deal with the British Navy. In this deal the Chileans will patrol around British Ports in the South and Southwestern Pacific in exchange for coaling rights in British territory. With the reduction of the local threat of Argentina to Chile, the Chilean Navy has decided to operate deeper in the Pacific then they use to operate. As this allows the navy to actually protect shipping that they once had to rely on others for, the Goverment has viewed this as a positive step in becoming a minor naval power on the order of the United States Navy of the early 1800s. The one that took the fight to the pirates of the Mediterranean Sea when none of the major powers would do anything.