Red Star Line
 | |
| Industry | Shipping, transport |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1835 in Kunovec, Tuvaria |
| Fate | Active as of 2023 |
Area served | Central Arcturia and Almodarian Seas |
| Parent | Trgovina Trading Co. |
| Subsidiaries | Kunovec shipyards, Red Star-Araforsian Line |
Footnotes / references | |
The Red Star Line is an Almodarian (formally Tuvarian) shipping company. The Company was founded in the early days of steam technology to capitalize off of the Phoenixia and Trgovina Shipping Company trade route amongst other routes in Almodaria. Gradually over time, the Red Star Line became the premier shipping company in the country and have since begun focusing on passenger travel. The only time where ocean travel through their services was closed down was in the Almodarian Civil War where cruises ships were unable to be used.
Early History (1835-1860)
Prior to 1835, the Trgovina Trade Co. was the only trade company in operation under Tuvaria. The company was the sole service for every trade line leaving and entering Tuvaria, and the Phoenixia-Trgovina Trade Company (PTTC) which connected the Kingdom of Arafors (now phoenixia) with the Almodarian Region. Trgovina in limited numbers also conducted passenger transportation on their sail ships starting in 1783 to maximize profits during the post war depressions in the region. Skip forward to 1835, and the company were up to their neck in bills and notices as trade was stagnating and the PTTC route was weakening. The company's board of operations had an option of either laying off employees and scrapping ships or declaring bankruptcy which would be detrimental to the country. The choice was made in 1835 to instead form a subsidiary company which would take over operations while Trgovina would become simply a management company. This subsidiary was named Red Star Line in reference to the symbolic red star used commonly by the Tuvarian government for government logos and had their headquarters in the port city of Kunovec, Tuvaria.
By the 1830s, steam technology was in its early days with many steam liners still had sails to help with propulsion. The first ship in operation under the Red Star name was the SS Explorer (istraživač in Almodarian) in 1839 and was the first Almodarian ship to use steam power to assist the ship in speed. It was designed for cargo delivery and made its first voyage in 1840 to the Skavarian port city of Vukrovna in which it successfully transported 200 pounds of various cargo, including the house flag of Red Star Line. This success proved that the Red Star Line could be capable enough if given the opportunity and in 1843, their dockyards expanded and the Explorer Class as they were called, was expanded with the ships SS Ingenuity (1844) and SS Inspiration (1844). In 1846, the company experienced a PR hiccup when their SS Ingenuity collided with a smaller sailboat in neutral waters (Aranistani and Almodorian waters) where one member of the small ship's crew was killed in the collision while the Ingenuity only experienced a crack in its hull. The ship would exit service for a year for repairs and the company would pay compensation to the crew for the death and damages but in 1847, Ingenuity returned to original service.
The company had its first reputation scar, but this did not affect very much for their trade and in 1848, SS Inspiration made the first trip to Arafors as part of the PTTC trade. The ship unloaded 300 pounds of fish and construction materials and just like with the maiden voyage of Explorer, left the House Flag of Red Star Line amongst the cargo. The successes of SS Inspiration strengthened the PTTC trade relationship and trade would continue regularly.
Red Star Line wouldn't encounter another major hiccup until 1853 when the flagship of the Explorer Class, SS Explorer, sustained severe damage by an underwater boulder whilst on transit to Almodor. The damage led to gallons of seawater to flow into the ship and the captain was forced to abandon ship. SS Explorer sunk only 23 minutes later with no casualties accounted for. The ship would later be salvaged due to the shallow location it sunk in. Unlike the Ingenuity collision, this incident led to the loss of a whole vessel. The reason that the rock was not missed was due to a lack of marking on the maps used by the navigation crew who had maps that didn't mark the collection of jagged rocks in the area. After the 'Disaster" as some called it, the maps were updated for this rock system across all of the 5 states. Production of a replacement ship was ordered for SS Explorer in 1856 as part of a new class of cargo ship deemed the Mariner class of ships starting with SS Mariner in 1858. The ship featured a double hull made of iron, a single large smokestack, and for the first time, the ship had its sails folded for use only as a backup in case the boiler failed. The ship finished construction in 1860.
The Second Generation of Ships (1860-1870)
Mariner Class
The Red Star Line were very optimistic about their new vessel. It could do the work of SS Inspiration and Ingenuity in half the time and carry double the cargo and was twice their length at a length of 300 feet! This project also got special funding from the government who were getting more interest in the private company. When SS Mariner was completed in 1860, it was planned to have its first voyage later that year to Arafors as part of PTTC. This trip was treated as a journey into the future of Almodarian naval efforts and on November 1st, 1860, SS Mariner was on its way to its destination with hope in mind. SS Mariner arrived without a hitch, marking its place in the shipping world. The sail-propeller steamer had crushed her competition with concepts of expanding the route into other neighboring states being drawn up but never being accomplished due to a lack of good relations with the desired nations. SS Mariner however was extremely expensive to operate and costed nearly 45,000 Tuvanats every year to uphold (700,000 Almodats today). After only 6 years of service, SS Mariner was retired and scrapped after costs became too large for the company to uphold.
Pioneer Class
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Red Star needed something to get their cash rolling in again but was more cost effective. After successfully getting a help check from the Tuvarian government of around 1.6 million Tuvanats, the line got back to work on a new class of ships. Similar to the SS Mariner, they wanted to make a double hull, single smokestack, sail backed up, ship but with the idea of passengers being the priority. Up to this point, shipping was all the line did but, somewhat luxurious trips to Arafors and back was becoming more popular in the country. SS Pioneer as she was called was laid down in 1869 and finished construction in 1873. She could hold a solid 850 passengers which was good enough for the line and could carry 250 pounds of passenger cargo. Her Sister Ship, the SS Explorer 2 (named after the SS Explorer from 1839) was laid down in 1869 and finished construction alongside Pioneer. Pioneer entered operating service on June 1, 1876, and its first voyage was on June 6, 1876. The voyage had 763 passengers, and 26 officers. Rough seas had been forecasted in the east Arcturian sea for the past few days, but the line insisted the Pioneer would sail. Captain Leo Harvey (1822-1903) himself also insisted the new ship would be able to survive in harsh conditions. June 6th came and SS Pioneer set sail. The ship as expected came under the might of a large storm cycle moving through the strait. Seasickness became rampant on the ship as many passengers couldn't even stand upright. Many if not all passengers moved into the cramped spaces inside the ship while waves crashed over the railing of the ship. Captain Harvey however believed that the ship could make it through.
The Collision of the Pioneer and Onward
June 7th came, and the storm system was still lingering in the strait. Another Tuvarian ship from a different shipping line, the SS Onward, was enroute in the opposite direction of the oncoming SS Pioneer. Pioneer's crew, following standard naval procedure, turned right to miss the Onward and prevent a collision. However, the Onward oddly enough turned left which sent it on a head on collision course with the Pioneer. At 10:36 PM, SS Onward rams into the bow from Port and crunched up deep into the side of the ship. The passengers of Pioneer were rocked about on the ship with not many being on the top decks to see what happened. A survivor named Charles Williamson, recalled hearing an "Awful scraping noise." coming from the front of the ship. At 10:37 PM, the Onward came loose of the ship after scraping off the side for only a minute yet, the damage was still immense, and the Pioneer immediately came to a stop so the crew could inspect the damage. The SS Onward was horribly disfigured and the bow was crunched inwards. Seawater immediately came rushing into the front of the Onward through the damaged Bow and the ship would be seen by passengers on Pioneer being rocked up and down violently by the awful waves of the storm. At 10:43 PM, the damage to the hull on Pioneer was discovered. The Onward had cut a nasty gash through 3 of the 5 watertight compartments on the Port Bow. The ship could sustain flooding of the 3 of 5 compartments on either side in perfect conditions however, the Pioneer was in the middle of an awful storm system and buoyancy would be troubled by the hard-hitting waves. Captain Harvey was weary of declaring an emergency since the lifeboats wouldn't survive the waves and so hesitated to begin evacuation. Still, he told passengers to don their Lifebelts and prepare for further instructions. The stricken SS Onward, continued to dip deeper and deeper into the sea as the rocky waves and ferocious winds weakened the integrity of the crunched-up bow. The crew onboard their ship was unable to communicate with Pioneer and were forced to watch as Pioneer slowly went down. At 10:57 PM, a second inspection of the damaged portion of the Port Bow showed that the 3 of 5 filled compartments became 4 of 5 compartments. This news troubled Harvey even more and finally at 11:00 PM, he commanded for lifeboats to be prepared for boarding but to not allow women and children aboard yet.
The preparations for evacuation were extremely dangerous with high waves crashing into the sides of the ship, throwing crewmembers on boat deck around like ragdolls. The ship's flooding increased at 11:03 PM when floodwaters went over the compartment walls and began flooding the cargo bay. The waves at one point were so violent that the front of the ship was thrown down into the sea before bouncing back up with passengers being thrown around and some sustaining minor injuries. Over the next two hours, the Pioneer would slowly dip deeper and deeper into the rough, black seas. Flooding entered the lower cabin decks of the ship around 11:26 PM and at 11:37 PM, the SOS signals were finally received by the Tuvarian naval vessel, the TNN Relentless. The SS Onward was in a bad spot meanwhile as it drifted away from the Pioneer and the Bow of the ship went completely under, sending the stern up into the air. The final plunge was quick and by 11:50, SS Onward went under. The situation on Pioneer only got worse and worse and the bow went under at 12:06 AM. Only 4 of the 12 lifeboats onboard were released at less than half capacity due to concerns of the lifeboats becoming lost in the seas. Lifeboat crews used ropes to tie all of the released boats together to make a large raft almost. Like with the Onward, once the bow went under the sinking sped up immensely as passengers and officers scrambled to get off the ship or get to the stern and by 12:10 AM, SS Pioneer was lost...
Reparations
Of the 763 aboard Pioneer at the time of the sinking, only 150 made it out alive while the SS Onward had no survivors. The loss was tremendous, and the company suffered immensely. The company owed the Tuvarian government 1.6 million Tuvanats for various reasons but mainly because of the loss of Pioneer and so the Line used remaining funds to pay off the government and the survivors with each survivor getting around 20,000 Tuvanats. The blame had to be put on someone during the investigation so principal blame was put on the crew of SS Onward who failed to adhere to naval policies and incited in the incident though no one could be prosecuted because there were no survivors to prosecute.
New Owners and Redesigning (1877-1895)
In 1877, the Tuvarian government barred Red Star Line from receiving anymore checks and money from the government to fund shipbuilding and operation. Following this news, the former shareholders of the company resigned and put the entire Line up for sale for a nice price of 666,000 Tuvanats. After a year of being on the market, a young businessman and former shareholder, Adem Delic (1845-1913) purchased the company and relocated 2,000 of his employees from his other owned businesses to the Red Star Line. Delic was a contractor for Naval Military Endeavours in the Tuvarian Navy and so had a lot of experience under his belt with naval business.
His first motion as CEO of the Line was the pause of passenger travel under the company in 1879 in order to work on optimizing safety measures. Explorer 2, Pioneers sister ship, was modified into a cargo ship starting in 1880 and reentered service in 1882. Immediately, Delic got to work on collecting investors and external payment to keep the Line on the edge of life until he could get it all off the ground. By 1886, the company was back on her feet. New naval policies passed in Tuvarian Parliament ordered that all naval vessels made for passenger line purposes had enough lifeboats for their capacity of passengers and that all Naval officers and sailors who were part of the company prior to 1876 were retrained and given proper training. Passenger service was still on hold as a new class of ships were under construction.
Third Generation Liners and the 20th Century (1885-1903)
Ivan Class
The class of ships in question were the new King Ivan (or Ivan for short) class of ocean liner. The ships were envisioned to be quick and capable while also being luxurious and comfortable. The flagship of the class was the SS King Ivan named after the King Ivan of old and her sister would be King Miklos as following ancient Almodarian history. These ships were large and held close to no resemblance to the previous Pioneer Class.
Soon after their introduction, the SS King Ivan and Miklos ships gained growing popularity. Their luxuries and travel comforts exceeded those of the Pioneer class and became well known in the country. During this time, the line experienced an economic shift as more and more people began traveling on the much safer and modernized class of ships. Older ships from the 1870s and 60s were being phased out of passenger service and into limited roles as cargo ships carrying anything from livestock to materials for construction. The Ivan class of ships introduced new luxuries such as restricted floors for the upper class to enjoy smoking and chatting with friends and families along with expanded cabins that allowed for more living space thus making the ship feel like a true house on the sea.
King Ivan and King Miklos would stay in service until both 1902 and 1903 respectively as they began to show their age after many years of travel. Their absence was not noticeable as by the 1890s and the beginning of the new century, new ships were already being made including designs for possibly the largest ship in the world. Both Ivan and Miklos were sold for scrap to be used in other ships.
The Nomad Class and the beginning of the 1900s
By 1895, the King Ivan and King Miklos's sister ships were gaining more years on their record and more and more people were waiting to get rides on these flagship carriers. Red Star Line needed more carry space inside their ships to accommodate for the influx of passengers and cargo after their small economic boom in 1890. So, work began immediately on an intermediate class of steam liners that were much larger than ships of old. This intermediate class of ships was designated the Nomad Class and had the goal of keeping passenger quotas up whole also being both cheap for the line to make but luxurious for the people. It would also work to appeal the Tuvarian government so another loan could be gained for the use of a more massive ship in the future.