Chapter 4

One of the guys, Bundren by name, had a year of engineering school. He became Raey’s assistant in assembling the various mechanical parts for the ship. It was set up on the ground and test run that way first. After they were happy with it, it was disassembled and installed in the boat. This was at the 2-month, one-week point.

The deck was going to have a cradle built above it. This is to cradle the balloon when it is not inflated and in use. When in use, the balloon would be fully inflated with hot air. When landed, some of the air would be released. The balloon would then rest in the cradle. A very small heater-stove would be used to keep a fire going, to keep the balloon partially full. That way, the balloon would hold some of its shape.

This fire was always going to be ready for cooking. On clear nights with a crew, we could continue to sail in the darkness. This ship will be capable of flying much higher than a typical wood-frame airship.

The five qualified airmen continued work, finishing the hull and deck. The four female apprentices and I began working on the balloon’s framework. It’s a sausage-shaped skeleton using the split grass cane.

We would split the cane in half and remove the pithy parts. Then, sand the outsides smoothly so the frame would not rub on the balloon material.

When parked for a long time. The deflated balloon would rest in its cradle. It retains its basic shape because of the split grass framework. This is a big improvement over using two round balloons.

With two balloons, when they are deflated, it takes many strong men to roll and fold the balloons up. If you want to take off fast, that’s a pipe dream. You have to get the balloons in position, and it takes several people to get them inflated again.

This ship is an ideal messenger ship or corvette-size warship. We could make a larger one and add armaments (guns), and then you would have a great warship.

We worked our asses off each day. We screwed our brains out every night. Every sixth day, we rested and did not work. If you were hungry, Cookie had sandwich fixings.

Raey and I soon stopped eating with the crew every meal. We needed to distance ourselves from the crew.

It gave them breathing space, and Raey and I had some peace of mind. They realized they didn’t need to come to bother us every five minutes to answer a question. We were becoming comfortable enough with them, and with experience, they became relaxed. We became a well-oiled team.

We were futzing with one of the cannons one afternoon when I discovered a grave issue. Three-inch cannons are too powerful for the cane hulls. Actually, the grass cane was fine. The canons were too powerful for the lacing’s. You attach the gun to a wheeled mount and connect that to the cane bulwarks using rope. A bulwark is a short wall extending up from the hull sides above the deck. The act of firing the gun pulls the bulwark away from the deck.

There was a better time to dig into this issue; there were no canons for now. The Kozza had the not-so-brilliant idea to use these small field guns against other ships and land targets, too.

We needed to spend most of our time building the new messenger sloop, as we called it. We would get back to the cannon issue sometime later.

Two important points about the messenger/corvette sloop. One is that it has minimal manning. Two men to steer the ship, two to run the inflation heater, plus a deck officer. Rotating 8-hour shifts for each set of men. Five men total for each watch, 15 to sail the ship. It is a good-sized vessel but light, fast, and cheap to run. Rapid to get underway, fast to put to bed.

Why use a large, ponderous multi-balloon ship? It lumbers through the air using lots of fuel and water? Plus, it requires a large, expensive crew. This cane-hulled ship with a single cradled balloon was superior in every way.

The balloon did not have to be put away in port. It was just deflated enough to rest in its cradle. Messing with loose balloons took a lot of labor.

I saw this ship as having more potential than even Raey thinks it does.

One night, I figured out how to arm the ship.

I remembered the history I was taught as a youngster. When my people first reached out into the air, they had two weapons. A great war had happened. One weapon was a machine gun on a pedestal. The Dobrazi already use a four shot rifle here to hunt with. A few of those mounted around the deck would perform that function for now.

The other weapon was a simple bomb. Early bombs for our airships had been small things that were dropped by hand over the side.

Later, as things developed, bombs got bigger and had to be dropped from a device that held several bombs in a mechanical rack. Then bombs and airships got even bigger. Our people eventually stopped killing each other in war a long time ago.

We should remove the cannons when we get a chance. I could re-purpose the black powder. I am sure Raey and I could turn out a few bombs that can be hand-dropped.

A few more secrets for our company to keep. I know how to make bombs. It’s simple. It just takes a contact detonator. They already have large caliber rifle bullets with detonators in them. We will obtain detonators for rifle bullets and re-purpose them as detonators.

We were coming up on four months when we were almost finished with the messenger/corvette. She had some updated design features. She did not have a pointed bow like other airships. I had a long discussion with Raey about pointed ships’ bows. It took some convincing.

Airships, small ships, and large were just scaled-up copies of current ocean sailing ships. Sailing ships needed to push the water aside as they moved; airships did not. Airships in my home of Rukac had been round-nosed like a whale.

Our messenger or corvette airship will never move through the water. A rounded bow and slightly rounded stern were preferred when using grass cane. We could not make sharp corners with the grass. Sharp turns of the cane make it very hard to lash the grass stalks together. It makes for ugly, stubby protrusions that stick out.

The rounded bow and stern added a lot of strength to the ends. It made them much tougher if they hit or bumped something.

The stern and bow areas were then reinforced with an extra layer of cane, fore and aft. The stern particularly needed it because the rudder, and elevator are mounted there. The propeller shaft also comes through the stern.

Finally, the day had arrived, and we started the testing phase. We tied the ship so it would not move.

Raey and Bundren lit the steam boiler first. It’s lit first because boilers have to be heated up slowly to keep from causing stress to the metal. Then they lit the fire in the lift heater.

They filled the balloon enough to raise it off the deck. They engaged the steam engine and ran it in a forward gear for a while, and then they tested it in reverse.

The ship soon lifted slightly, but we had ropes holding it in place.

We ran tests overnight. The next day, we just continued testing. After a day and a half, we felt the ship was ready to go to the next step. They took off with a skeleton crew. Raey and Bundren were at the controls, and we had two of the airmen on the engine and balloon lift stations.

They slowly started moving away. Raey turned the ship away from the ledge we were living on. The rest of us cheered as they moved off. They began running maneuvering exercises to see how she handled it. They turned this way, and that, they changed speed. They used the elevators to aim the bow up and tested to see how much rise they would get that way. Bundren added more heat. They practiced ascending and descending on hot air control only. Then, they practiced using the elevators in conjunction with varying the lift gas.

They spent the day and knew enough for general purposes. We knew this ship was more complex to fly. The light hull made her much more maneuverable. She is capable of great speed and flying at much higher altitudes. If anything, she may be too touchy at the controls.

We were very overdue for a break. We had meant to have the ship finished in three months. We had a few changes we wanted to make, but we were all worn out. We decided to stand down for two weeks.

To give people the promised time off in the city, Raey and I decided to open a portal to Dovater. I would go through quickly, and close the portal. I would eat, rest for an hour, and get hotel rooms. I would return to collect half the crew. The Ahting wanted to stay in the cave.

I would open it, and Raey and the first half would go through with me. The couples would go hand in hand and move through as fast as possible. We practiced this before actually trying it.

The first trip would be on Firstday. On Seventhday, that group would return to the cliff.

The following day, a Firstday, the second half of the crew would get their weel in the city. That would give everyone a week in the city to run errands, eat out and whatever, mostly rest. A total rest of two weeks.

This way, we all had two weeks off. One week in Dovater, the other week in Cane City. Raey named our place Cane City. The crew staying at the cliff was needed in case anyone came by.

There was one big caution. The crew could leave with a small bag and come back with a small bag. In no way could they try to haul a bunch of big bulky packages through in the seconds the portal would be open. We would soon travel there by airship anyway.

Sometime later, when Raey was happy with the messenger/corvette sloop, we would all go to the city. We would take an extended time relaxing and buying things. We talked about taking two ships. The messenger/corvette to sell, and the small Kozza twin balloon airship to return on.

We had built this ship originally as a fast freighter. After a while we came to the realization that it might be absconded by the military. Our only hope to get paid by the military was to promise them more vessels. That required they pay for the ship or there would be no more ships. An alternate plan was to sell it to someone with enough money and power. They would be able to keep it. We took a wait-and-see attitude.

The Ahting did not want to take time off. They particularly did not want to go to the city. They explained that they are too different than the local people. They needed help getting about in the city. They were perfectly happy at Cane City.

One big change with our Ahting was they clipped my nails. They would bathe me in the pool and wash me there quite lovingly. They said my nails needed work. I was impressed with the results; my hands and feet looked great. They had small tools to clip, file, buff, and do all sorts of fun stuff to my hands and feet.