--- Onno Meyer <[email protected]> schrieb am So, 24.1.2010:
> 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. Post TL 1, I wouldn't see this as a 'hard' technology challenge as much as a knowledge one. The equipment and skills to build oceangoing ships ois around from the great Bronze Age civilisations onwards. IN terms of seaworthiness, a Polynesian outrigger canow would already answer your purpose, though of course it wouldn't carry the crew or payload you'd need. A large metchant hull as was used in the Mediterranean or in China from the early iron age onwards should be good enough for an ocean crossing, provided it is managed correctly. The main problem will be outfitting it and developing the skill set needed for repairs en route. Square sails aren't too much of a problem - they allow you to tack to a degree, and if you can do trade wind sailing, you can go with the prevailing winds almost all the time.. That is really going to be your biggest problem IMO. People have understood monspoon sailing soince the iron age at least (last confident dating I've read was fourth century BC, but I am not confident in the confidence of these historians). Before that time, nobody built big, deep-hulled oceangoing ships because people did not see the need. The basioc technology to make them was there, but nobody would have quite understood the challenges involved or the requirements of a vessel to meet them. Building this would be something like a diadochoi or pharaonic Apollo project. Nobody had experience with maintaining a vessel under way because people used to go ashore for any repair. Nobody understood high seas navigation because you used leadlines and landmarks. Nobody had any understanding of the weather or prevailing winds and currents, so as far as they knew, you could get stuck in eternal calm or ripped to pieces by monster storms. You can't build a shiop to be prepared for all of this, so chances are the resuzlting design wpould be a poor compromise and probably doomed to kill its crew by starvation or thirst somewhere in a nice, blue stretch of sea under a friendly trade wind taking them in the wrong direction. If you have a good way of disseminating an understanding of trade wind sailing and the skills to run a ship away from shore (management of spares and supplies, improvised repairs, discipline and navigation), you could get it going in a year or two, though you'd probably want to start with easier projects like going around Africa, to India, to China, or across the Atlantic first (trying to go around Africa west-to-east has a better than even chance of ending up in the Americas, actually). All the tools you need can be made by moderately capable Bronze-age craftsmen. Neolithic if you're a high-risk kind of person. But the knowledge gap is tremendous. > 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. That's not that hard to ensure, especially i you can get some simple but extremely useful technologies such as coopered casks, salt-glazed pottery, bean sprout making and/or distilled liquors disseminated. I'd make the masts smaller to reduce crew requirements and danger of damage to rigging. If this is an Uplift project, you might want to introduce things like simple pulleys, integral reefs, flat sail profiles, and the extensive use of winches. You can reduce crew requirements quite a bit that way, and it can all be built with Bronze Age tools if you know how. Volker __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Sie sind Spam leid? Yahoo! Mail verfügt über einen herausragenden Schutz gegen Massenmails. http://mail.yahoo.com _______________________________________________ GurpsNet-L mailing list <[email protected]> http://mail.sjgames.com/mailman/listinfo/gurpsnet-l
