The Reformation of the Tokugawa Navy
By Saigo Takahari, Admiral of the Blue Fleet
In the recent months, the Blue Fleet has smashed the inadequate forces of the Edo, this string of victories can only be attributed to one thing, the new naval techniques pioneered by our captains and sailors, adopted from various outside influences, notably the Sinhalese. Adaptations of Sihalese vessels have helped us greatly, and our fleets are strong, but new needs of the fleet and Lord Tokugawa Ieyasu require more of our ships, and thus, I Introduce the following reforms into our fleet:
Artillery Reforms
Naval artillery used to consist of poor quality metal strips tied together by a hop and used as a cannon, but these days are no more, and naval artillery has advanced quite far. Now, bronze or brass cannons are the norm. Iron cannons have not been used yet because the Sinhalese and other nations of the world do not have extremely high quality iron, and certain types of gunpowder are corrosive to Iron, therefore, our fleets mainly use bronze guns.
It is time for this to change. Bronze and brass cannons are highly expensive, and there is no reason we should use them anymore, for our Iron is of a much higher quality than elsewhere in the world. There is no need to waste such huge amounts of money making bronze cannon when our blacksmiths and artisans have been crafting high quality steel for ages.
Another thing has been brought to my attention, Cannons on our ships are usually hard to reload, as they are just placed on wooden stands with no means to pull them back other than ropes. This costs too much effort in the midst of battle, and therefore, we must improve these wooden stands and add wheels onto them, to allow quick reloading while in battle. I am confident this will improve our ability in battle, and increase the effectiveness of our fleets.
Structure Reform
Our ships, even though they are powerful, are still too narrow for large numbers of cannon, and are still too topheavy to fare well out on the seas, due to their large castle structure on their stern. I have designed a way for this to be fixed:
- First, the Ship will be widend, to allow for a larger number of cannon and crew space
- Second, the Ship will be made longer, to allow for ADDITIONAL numbers of cannon.
- thirdly, the ship will be made taller, transforming our warships into multi leveled gunboats.
- Fourthly, more masts and more sails will be added to the ship, and masts will be made taller, to capture the wind more effeciently. Sails will follow Sinhalese/Western designs
- And last but not least, the castle like superstructure shall be removed from the stern of the vessel, and the ships structure will be evened out, so that the ship is not prone to capsizing in rough winds.
This new ship will be dubbed as a Takahari Frigate (NEW UU), and shall serve as the mainstay of our fleet, the most powerful warships ever known. These ships shall carry upwards of 50 - 60 cannon, and shall dominate the seas.
Old, CHINESE (not juang!) influenced ship designs
The new Frigate