I've been thinking about yet another scenario. What exactly
does it take to circumnavigate the globe in a ship?
* I want to write a GURPS Vehicles ship, tech level as low
as possible, which can go some 20,000 miles before total
rebuilding at a homeport, and brave Cape Horn and Cape
of Good Hope. There can be stops to take on food and
water, if necessary.
* In a sense, going around the globe is a stunt, but then
going halfway around the world and back again is almost
the same challenge ...
* To make the question meaningful, it must be known that
the world is a globe. Add a good idea of the diameter
and a rough idea of the continents (including the need
to go around the Cape Horn and the Cape of Good Hope),
perhaps from earlier partial expeditions.
* Experiments like the Kon-Tiki prove what could have been
done with a lot of luck, but they benefit from hindsight
knowledge of maps and currents. On the other hand, age
of exploration crews accepted awesome risks and losses,
Magellan had about 90% casualties.
In addition, those rafts were on their last legs when
they arrived. You couldn't turn them around and sail
back.
* At the early TLs, it seems relatively easy to uplift a
society in one specific area -- people who could build
the Antikythera mechanism should be able to build a
sextant, while taking navigation from TL6 to TL7 would
take the invention of microelectronics ...
I will use the tech levels as specified, which means a
compass is TL3. That could exclude TL2 ships from the
race, or at least provide a serious handicap. Maybe
they can simply go west (or east) till they hit a
continent, then follow the coast to a known port.
* Stops for food and water are probably necessary, but
TL2 or TL3 navigation make it iffy to bet on landfall
in places like Hawaii. A continent like America is a
lot harder to miss.
* There should be a significant payload.
TL1 has just simple square sails, so going against the
winds means oars, which means rowers, which means food,
etc. No nav instruments, either. So should I forget it?
TL2 brings the lugsail and lateen. They are probably not
suitable for large ships, especially since there can be
only two masts (VE9). Still no nav instruments.
Rough numbers could be 20,000 cf and 100 tons with a pair
of masts under 100'. Call it 10 mph with good winds, more
likely 5 mph on the long haul. Ten tons of food are 1,667
man-days, so the endurance could be 100 days if the food
(and water!) does not spoil.
PS - If you are wondering about the game spawning all those
questions, there is none. I want to get ahead with the
weekly vehicles before real life gets a bit busy, so I
try to fill some odd nooks and crannies of the rules.
_______________________________________________
GurpsNet-L mailing list <[email protected]>
http://mail.sjgames.com/mailman/listinfo/gurpsnet-l
