NationStates Jolt Archive


Get a knife between your teeth: a storm-broken treaty

Abargrapt
01-05-2004, 07:51
Broken under now Chancellor Ernest Swann’s direction by Abargrapt’s storm of passion, (http://www.nationstates.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=2989675#2989675) the Eastgate-imposed treaties that limited the nation’s economic, industrial, and military potential seemed all the more abstract. Hundreds of slums had been flattened- in recent months mechanical tools had been primarily responsible. Factories were turning out construction tools and materials, agricultural machines, and every day items such as good pots and pans- luxury items under Fool Prince Willard of Eastgate. National moral was as high as anyone could ever remember it being, higher, even! With their new machines and renewed willingness to work for a cause, and with the new Republican government refusing to honour New Eastgate’s crippling demands on their output, farms were finally providing enough for all to be well fed. Now trains ran on time and in safe condition- previously only the Royal Train and its dedicated lines had been close to civilised. The economy was already much more than twice what it had been, and the days when Swann had played chess with his Mauatu friend for up to half a million kindsleymarks a go were gone with the hyperinflation that caused such bets to be made on street corners.

No one cared that Abatov was the only party, so the press insisted. Who could oppose a party born of the Movement For Abargrapt? Only an Eastgate-sympathiser, or perhaps one of the Mauatu natives who’d cost Abargrapt the first war by their uncivilised aversion to progress and hard work. No one cared that the biggest drain on their nation’s rebuilding was no longer Eastgater tariffs but Swann’s treaty-breaking armed forces.

The Chancellor had just announced in a speech given at Acranus-Uver-Desavi that Abargrapt would build an army of two hundred thousand men. The Republic only had about fifteen million residents, and wasn’t officially allowed 10% of that military strength. He also said that the navy would soon launch ships over ten thousand tons, again far far greater than was legal according to treaty.

The point of the day was an address given by Abatov Party Chairman Hercule Shoemake, ex-Bluesock Sgt and arguably Swann’s right hand man. This behemoth of a person now wore a more elaborate manifestation of his old Movement uniform- the stockings were still blue, but the epaulettes were bigger and the buttons shinier. The Chairman’s prepared speech made official many of Swann’s boastful promises, and announced plans to have the new Abargraptian Republican Navy’s first flagship, AS Abargrapt afloat within seven months. Her sister, to be named Kindsley was due to be laid down six months prior to that date- any day now.

Little was said of the vessels, or of the composition of Abargrapt’s new army, but Shoemake did go into some elaborate length on the matter of Abargrapt’s economic and industrial growth- for the first time faster than that of its neighbour, he said.

(...He added, without much ceremony, that Mauatu resident in Abargrapt would report to their local town hall or police station for career reassignment in roles more suited to their temperament. )
New Eastgate
01-05-2004, 09:32
Recent months in Eastgate had seen rather less impressive progress... if any at all. There'd been demonstrations against Swann, against the Movement, against Abargrapt in general, it was quite sad, really. A lot of people were angry over the killing of Prince Willard, but precisely why and who at... well these were matters of further contention.

Telegraphs detailing the Abatov Party Chairman's latest speech set a new undercurrent, one of greater trepidation than anger. In certain circles it was already (quietly) recognised that Abargrapt had the technical know-how to outstrip current Eastgater opposites in many areas. Though it was true that Eastgate had long enjoyed better funding in education generally, the system was geared to making money in a fairly stable and predictable market. Abargrapt's fewer universities appeared to have focused on something useful, something that would survive change. Abargraptian industrialisation threw Eastgate's whole world off centre.

The Federation outnumbered its northern neighbour almost two to one by population, but the idea of an army two hundred thousand strong, built from scratch with new tools and fresh, inspired thinking put Eastgate's fifty thousand almost Napoleonic-era soldiers in new and unflattering context. Warships over ten thousand tons? They'd blow the rusting (perhaps rotting was a more apt term) Federal fleet out of the water.

...what of it was not in dry dock, at least.
Abargrapt
15-05-2004, 11:02
EFFERMER SHIPYARDS, ABARGRAPT

Barely six months had passed since Shoemake's announcements. The exciting pace of the project and the recent erection of two vast smokestacks on the skyline had done much to help people forget the details of Chancellor Swann’s promise of ten-thousand-ton monster ships. The press –now tightly controlled by Abatov- was out in force to witness whatever was the end result of all this work and speculation. It had been said that the new ships were smaller than promised, but now that was just nit picking, why would you want to rain on the Republic’s parade like that?

Minister of the Navy, Rolland Agaboon, took to his podium with hands raised in a plea for quiet and attentiveness to his words. He was smiling too much- the flag-waving mass of local humanity just wouldn’t calm down. In the end, Agaboon grinned, shook his head, and swung his arms towards the great frame of the ABARGRAPT.

Moments later she took to sea for the first time, and soon launches crowded about her as she crept out of the harbour. Admiral Tarnart joined pressmen as they scrambled aboard the nation’s first battleship, many more excited than the envious children ashore. There were of course questions to put, and the end result of them would in time yield a good deal of technical data, as well as confirmation that work on the ship’s sister, KINDSLEY, was, “going well”. Several other classes of smaller warships were also in various stages of design, with some examples set to join the Abargrapt before very long.

Abargrapt Class
Dimensions: 347’5” x 61’3” x 21’7”
Displacement: 7,904ts standard; 8,764ts full
Crew: 42 officers, 417 enlisted
Power and Performance-
Boilers: 8xEndo-of-Eam Model I coal-fired
Shafts: 2
Horsepower: 9,800
Range: 4,850 nautical miles at 9 knots; 2,000 nautical miles at 16 knots
Speed: 16.2 knots design; 17.1 trials (Abargrapt)
Armour-
Steel;
Belt: 3.7” to 8”
Deck: 2” to 2.9”
Conning Tower: 4.2” to 10”
Barbettes: 8.5” (primary battery), 6.9” (secondary batteries)
Primary Turret: 2.9” roof, 7” sides, 10.5” face
Heavy Secondary Turrets: 2” roof, 4.4” sides, 6.2” face
Armament-
Primary: 2x11”/32 calibre Odsen Steelworks guns in single battery fore
Heavy Secondary: 4x8.1”/36 calibre Caligo Foundry guns in two batteries aft
Light Secondary: 8x3.2”/43 Caligo guns along broadsides;
6x.42” Rumm ‘Bar-Bar’ Hand-Cranked Six-Barrel Anti-Boarding Repeater Guns on superstructure.
Hulls: 2; AS Abargrapt, AS Kindsley (under construction)