Shipbucket

Algarve.

During the 1500’s the Portugese were the premier explorers. They roamed all over the world discovering new continents and islands everywhere they went. Sailing round the coast of Africa, the first (recorded) person to ever set foot on Algarve was the Portuguese sea captain Diego Dias on August 10, 1500 after he is blown off course on the way to India. He named the island after his home province, Algarve. The island of Algarve sat there for another 8 years before an expedition party arrived in 1508 to explore the Indian Oceans Island groups. It took nearly two years to explore Algarve alone, being much bigger than what Dias had reported. Another three years to chart the other island groups. It was 1515 before the expedition returned to Portugal. (Note that I have moved what was Madagascar south and enlarged the island to around 1 million square kilometres, about the same size as Spain and France together). The Island Algarve, was two large islands joined at their northern tips by a substantial isthmus. The western side was hilly to mountainous and contained most of the Islands mineral resources. The eastern side was much flatter and contained the ‘grazing’ and arable land for growing food. What was most important is that there was no indigenous population. The very stormy seas between Algarve and Africa meant that no primitive ships were likely to arrive on Algarve in one piece. If any did they would die out as none had women with them. This made Algarve a paradise with nobody to dispute colonisation claims. Portugal was on to a winner.



The news of an island bigger than some European countries being discovered off the coast of Africa slowly percolated through the seafaring countries. Money was being raised to send expeditions to explore for minerals, gems and any other valuables that could be found. Others were being offered warrants by the Portugese Government to settle the land and claim it for Portugal. Over the next 50 years, expeditions and colonisation parties were sent from all of the major European countries. Substantial towns arose and within ten years became ghost towns as strikes of precious metals are found and quickly depleted.



Slowly permanent settlements were erected on both the western and eastern sides and finally the small city of New Porto was designated the capital. Situated on the isthmus between the western and eastern land masses, it was in a prime position to oversee both sides. Regional governors had to be employed as the area was too large for easy governance. Corruption was rife, and it was not until the first ‘Algarve Navy’ vessels were deployed in 1575 that corruption started to be brought under control. Anybody not toeing the government line ended up swinging at the end of a yardarm or the nearest tree. A Navy carrack entering harbour with its yardarms full of dead bodies certainly gave some people pause for thought before trying to outwit the Governors.

The 17th and 18th centuries were periods of revolution and change for Algarve as the European countries fought their wars. When Portugal was assimilated by Spain in 1580 and not restored till 1668, Algarve, among other Portugese possessions, were fought over by other European nations with the Dutch, French and English prevailing and taking over governance. For Algarve, it was first the French, then the Dutch, then the English that took over Algarve by force. Not many people realise that the Anglo-Portuguese Treaty of 1373 signed between King Edward III of England and King Ferdinand and Queen Eleanor of Portugal is the oldest active treaty in the world. It established a treaty of "perpetual friendships, unions [and] alliances" between the two seafaring nations. Which also meant that when Portugal regained its independence from Spain, that Portugal and England would run Algarve jointly. Some of the city/town names, during this period, had become Anglicised and remained that way. New Porto had become Newport and that remained the capital of Algarve, even till this day.

Population growth for Algarve had been steady during the 1600’s and 1700’s, but it was during the 1800’s and early 1900’s that the population really took off. With the American Revolution and the need to find somewhere else to transport the banished convicts to, led to a small rift between England and Portugal, when Portugal refused to have the transported dropped off at Algarve. This forced England to use Australia for its convicts which added an extra third to the transport time and that much extra cost. This period was the beginnings of the Industrial Revolution where the improvements in farming and machinery meant many people lost their jobs and moved to the towns seeking work. The United Kingdom and Portugal (extended to Spain later) offered cheap transport to Algarve, repaid by indentured labour for 2-3 years then options to purchase small holding lands off the government. Hundreds of thousands took these offers and the population swelled. Many skilled artisans were amongst those that took these offers and helped set up Algarves shipyards, Navy, Army and many other Government departments, all paid for by Government land. The American Civil War of 1863 triggered the unrest in Algarve that led to its independence in 1866. The English settlers wanted to be free of the chains of two countries while the Portugese settlers were happy with the status quo. A short civil unrest took place with only a few hundred killed compared to the tens of thousands killed in the American Civil war. The end result was the Republic of the Algarve came into being.

Algarve had been producing its own ships since the late 1500’s with small revenue cutters and larger carracks being built for the Governors anti-piracy patrols. The Algarve shipbuilding industry grew through the 17th and 18th centuries and some tidy sums were made selling export vessels to various other countries. The advent of iron and steel ships in the mid to late 1800’s enhanced Algarves position as both Iron and Coal were available in the area now known as West Algy (the other being East Algy). The major shipbuilding area was the inshore area of the isthmus near Newport. Until the railroad is completed (with spurs) up and down West Algy and East Algy joining at Newport, the ore required for the foundries at Newport are brought along the coast by oared and sail powered barges. The railroad increased the output tenfold and Algarves Industrial revolution took off.

We have now arrived at the beginning of the 20th century and the shipbuilding era that I am most interested in. The breakdown of the population decides where a lot of the Algarve’s warship basic designs will come from (40% UK, 25% Portugese, 10% Dutch, 10% Spanish, 15% Other). I will have to see what I can do to end up with different ships to those I have done before. Could be interesting.

Coast Defence Battleship Diego Dias.

The Dias was the first large scale ‘battleship’ built for the Algarvian Navy. While classed as a battleship by the proud Algarvians, in other navies the ship would be classed as a coast defence battleship. With two single 12” and four single 6” it was armed well enough to see off any pirate/raider type vessel. The maximum speed at 18 knots was fast enough for its time. Armour was quite extensive with an 8” belt of the new Krupp cemented armour. A 2” armoured deck, 8” conning tower, and the turrets were also armoured with 8” faces, 6” side and 4” rear and roof.

The Dias’ job was to sail round Algarve investigating shipping that should not be where it was. Algarves tough stance on lawbreakers had borne fruit over the past hundred years with many would be pirates hung like washing on the end of the yardarms. But fewer and fewer transgressors were being found. Either the ‘pirates’ had become better organised or had all but given up.

By 1914 the Dias was hopelessly obsolete but was kept in service doing its rounds, which helped release some of the newer scout cruisers from this onerous guard duty. While a modern Armoured Cruiser would have put paid to the Dias, the closest the Dias came to action in 5 years of war was the sight of smoke on the horizon as the Konigsberg passed by in 1914. Discarded in 1919, the Dias was sold for scrap in 1920.



Displacement: 9,200 tons standard, 11,600 tons full load.
Dimensions: 400 x 68 x 22 feet
Machinery: 2 shaft, triple expansion, 10,000ihp
Speed: 18 knots
Endurance: 4,500 miles @ 8 knots.
Armour: 8" belt, 2" deck, 8/6/4" turrets
Armament:
2 x 12" (2x1)
4 x 6" (4x1)
10 x 4" (10x1)
2 x 47mm bow chasers (2x1)

Crew: 585

Very interesthing idea for this AU Krakatoa and a nice start too!

Keep up the good work

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Verusea Alternative Universe is starting to build up.

Time for me to design a proper AU.

Thanks for the comments everybody, next is:

Alentejo Class Battleships.


The Alentejo class were very superior to Algarves first try at a battleship. News out of England had leaked the details of the King Edward class with its mixed armament. Algarves planners and designers thought they could improve on that, and to a point did. Where the KE-VII had 12" and 9.2", these were all in turrets. The designers for the Alentejo made the mistake of fitting the single 12" in casemates. To have fitted the 12" into turrets would have required a much bigger ship and at that stage the Algarvian Naval shipyards at Harbourton could not handle much bigger ships. Work was underway to build graving docks of much larger size (over 800 feet) but for now the Alentejo's were as big as could be built. While an advance on the KE-VII type the ships the Alentejo's were not the quantum leap of the Dreadnought just a few years in the future.




These four ships made up the fourth Battle Squadron in 1914, and acting in pairs, patrolled the Dias Strait between Algarve and South Africa. They were there to intercept Admiral Spee's squadron if they were to come that way. Von Spee met his match at the Falkands, but the Alentejo and Douro caught the Prinz Heinrich (9,000 tons, 4x8.2") and in a short yet brisk battle, sunk the German ship with only slight damage to the Douro, from two 8.2" hits. The salvos of six 12" shells at a time proving too much for the German cruiser.

With the German overseas ships being accounted for, two of the four Alentejo class were sent to the Mediterranean through the Suez Canal. The two ships remaining in Algarvian waters assisted the CDB Dias with patrols around Algarve and across to South Africa. The two Ships were rotated in and out of the Med with the two ships assisting with the Gallipoli campaign. During the campaign the Ribatejo was mined and then torpedoed while being towed back to port. The other three ships made it through the rest of the war unscathed only to be discarded in 1919 and sold for scrap.


Displacement: 12,500 tons standard, 15,400 tons full load
Dimensions: 434 x 81 x 27 feet
Machinery: 4 shaft, triple expansion, 18,000ihp,
Speed: 19 knots
Endurance: 8,000 miles at 10 knots
Armour: 12" belt, 2" deck, 10/6/4" turrets
Armament:
8 x 12" (2x2 4x1)
6 x 4.7" (6x1)
8 x 47mm (8x1)

Crew:780

ARS Alentejo (1903)
ARS Estremadura (1903)
ARS Douro (1903)
ARS Ribatejo (1904)

The next thing to write about is Heuhen Heuser's faith in me to add his AU country, Caledonia, to my world map, which I have done. Heuhen and I had a discussion as to where Caledonia could go, what its overall size is and how it would be able to interact with the countries around it. Being of a size with Great Britain, Caledonia would have need of raw materials to fuel its industrial potential, which Australia and New Zealand should be able to provide.

Where Caledonia has been placed is going to bring it into heavy contact with Japanese forces (and maybe Koko as well). Caledonia's upper islands may be fought over like Guadalcanal and other of the Solomon's.

Thanks very much Heuhen.



Which brings me to the other established AU members. If you wish to add your AU countries to a copy of the map (which could be held in a thread of its own) and then PM the map to me to update the main map. Up to each of you what you want to do.

The newest members need to get a lot more work done on their AU's before their AU countries would be accepted on the main map. Think of it this way, the day your AU country is placed on the main map is the day you have graduated. I know all of the members of Shipbucket look forward to that day.

My AU nation is east of Papua New Guinea. Should I move it like you suggested?

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What you do with your AU nation is entirely up to you TristanAlting, I made the suggestion to you to move it a couple of weeks ago and you blew off my suggestion.

Oh right...sorry

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I like it, I'm working late today... But have already started to think about what type of politics do I go after, what type of military and Navy can I have etc. Specially when considering location etc.