Eric Flint: Grantville Gazette.Volume 22

Experimentation

Even if some engineers or physicists have basic texts on aerodynamics and hydrodynamics, there are going to be a lot of gaps in their knowledge. Those gaps will need to be filled by experimentation, at first with models and then with full-scale ships.

Early hydrodynamic experiments included towing wooden blocks (Christian Huygens and collaborators, 1668), simple geometric solids (Samuel Fortrey, 1675; Fredrik Chapman, 1775, 1794), planks cut to the waterlines of actual ships (Henry Sheeres and Anthony Dean, 1685; Pieter van Zwijndregt, 1750s), models constructed by joining circular sections to facilitate changes in shape (Bird, 1750s), and finally three-dimensional ship models (William Shipley, 1758-63).

There were several pitfalls. The first was ensuring that the models were towed at a constant speed, and accurately timing their performance. Another problem was avoiding blockage. Finally, for ship model studies to bear any relevance to the real world, they must be scaled properly. Usually, the scaling is chosen so the model accurately duplicates real-world wavemaking resistance, and the frictional resistances for ship versus model are determined by calculation.

In the 1820s, the British went so far as to invite competitive designs and assemble the resulting full-scale ships into experimental squadrons which underwent sailing trials. However, the competition rules didn't prohibit "tuning-up," and that limited what could be learned. (ChapelleHASN 369).

The impact of the Ring of Fire will depend on what the down-timers and up-timers know, the advantages potentially conveyed by the up-time innovations they can reconstruct, and the ability (and willingness) of the down-timers to implement those concepts.

Classification of Up-Time Innovations

The possible up-time innovations fall into three categories. First, there are the ideas which can be implemented as soon as you convince the down-timers that they are worth putting into practice. These include (but won't all be implemented on the same ship!):

– increasing waterline length (to limits imposed by wood construction)

– reduced superstructures

– stability calculations

– steering wheels

– additional and stronger bulkheads

– diagonal and longitudinal stiffeners

– accelerated use of teak, mahogany, etc.

– steam bending of timber

– multihulls

– copper or zinc sheathing of hulls

– centerboards (drop or pivot)

– fin keels

– better ballasting (external lead; water tank)

– bulbous bows (with hybrid propulsion)

In the second category we have ideas which require a cheaper or more abundant supply of some raw material (e.g., steel) before you can carry them forward, but which are nonetheless consistent with nineteenth century practice:

– wrought iron or steel framing

– steam winches

– forced ventilation of wooden hulls

When the infrastructure catches up to the OTL twentieth century, we may additionally see

– fiberglass hulls (for small ships)

– hydrofoils (with hybrid propulsion)

Change is not going to come easily. In 1634: The Baltic War, Chap. 31, Admiral Simpson muses about how "it had taken his seventeenth-century officers a while to make [the] mental adjustment [to the increased maneuverability provided by the steering wheel], and then to make the necessary counter-adjustment and learn to respect the limitations that still existed." Significantly, he likened the "counter-adjustment" to riding with Hans Richter when he was first learning how to drive a car.

There are going to be a lot of Richter-style adjustments to the new sailing ship technology.

Conclusion

Our new ship is ready for its maiden voyage. Perhaps it has made subtle use of up-time ideas, which landlubbers might overlook-reefed topsails or internal bulwarks or copper sheathing. Or perhaps it is truly exotic, such as a catamaran with junk sails and gun turrets. Either way, the shipyard has decided to launch it in accordance with down-time tradition.

The ship's sponsor will toast the ship from a gilt cup, spill a little wine on the deck as he names it, and then heave the cup into the water. Some hardy swimmer will dive in after it and sell it back to the master shipwright. (BakerNM 126-8).

In the crowd, there will no doubt be some old salts muttering that the new ship is the work of madmen and will be lucky to make it out of the harbor.

The master shipwright will signal his men, and, chanting, the shipwrights will drive in wedges to push the ship off the keel blocks and onto the launching way. Once it is secure, the blocks will be knocked away, and the gate opened. The new vessel will slide down, and splash into the water.

Godspeed.