Red Star Line

The Red Star Line

Industry	Shipping, transport
Founded	1835 (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 House Flag of Red Star Line

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.

Richard Garonovic was the captain of SS Explorer when it struck a rock in 1853. He'd later be the captain of SS Mariner and SS Pioneer.

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

The SS Pioneer as painted by artist Leo Harvey in 1877.

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.