Fog of war
- North Pacific Ocean-
Within the stormy sea a 46,000 ton gaint bravely broke through the crushing waves as it sailed north east, since the Admiral-class battlecruiser was on tour the British High School Fleet decided to send it out to represent them and rendezvous with Yokosuka Girls' Marine High School to join in this years exercise.
The storm was too dangerous that the bridge personnel had to leave the compass platform and retreat into the interior bridge below.
"What time is it?" The Captian spoke as she pulled away from her binocliars.
"It's twelve minutes past five pm." Her Commander replied as she checked her watch.
"I just hope this storm doesn't slow us down too much, helmsman what's our speed?"
"27 knots Captian." She replied.
"Take us ahead full." The Captain looks through her binocliars.
"Aye aye, ma'am, ahead full!." The Commander ordered through the voice tube down to the engine room.
"aye aye ahead full!" The ships Chief Engineer replied as the engines started to speed up. "I'm not sure sailing in this storm at full speed is such a good idea." she muttered to herself.
"Amelia?" The Commander asked as the Captian looked towards her.
"Yes Florence?"
"Persmisson to speak freely."
"Permisson granted." The Captain nodded.
"Why did the board send us all the way out here?"
"Hmm perhaps because we're one of the fastests ships in the fleet, and besides I think it makes sense for them to send out a training ship to join the Yokosuka's ships in this years excise."
"I know but, I just think we're outclassed."
"Are you criticizing my ship Florence?"
"No, no of course not its just...well, I'm nervous we'll mess this up."
Ameila placed her hand on her shoulder. "I'm nervous too, but I have faith in my ship, and my crew." She smiled. "You'll do just fine."
"Thank you."
"Well then, if anyone needs me i'll be in my quarters, oh and send word to Captain Saunders that the Anson may be a day behind schedule due to heavy storms."
"Understood." Florence acknowledged her as she left the bridge. The ship plowed through the sea at 32 knots as the helmsman fought the steering wheel as she tried to keep the ship on course, the waves rocked the battlecruiser from side to side as the sound of creeking metal echoed throughout the ship.
The ships systems like most ships was automated, it alowed the crew of 42 students to man the vessal with ease, the Anson was the second ship of her class to be build. She was faster than her mighty sister ship but only by 1 knot, her belt armour was 300 mm thick and her upper deck armour was 60 mm, her main battery remained the same armed to the teeth with 4x2 – BL 15-inch Mk I guns, the ship had some major changes to it, instead of the helms wheel being in the lower steering position it was moved to the bridge, this was so the helmsman could work better with her fellow students, one teacher made a comment about it saying "The helmsman should be able to enjoy the sea, not have someone shout down on her from the ships bridge".
The British High School Fleet were painted in light tan with a light sea green stripe that ran from the pilothouse to aft, the Anson however didn't share the same colour scheme much to Saunders annoyance, the ship was painted in dark grey with two diagonal white lines on her beam just between her two smockstacks, the ships badge was a rope in the shape of an eight with a gun battery spearing skywards.
-Captians Quarters-
Amelia was looking through some files on the Yokosuka ships, she wanted to be prepared ahead of time so she knew what they would be working with. "Sarushima, Musashi, Harekaze..." She was inturepted by a knock on the door. "come in."
Florence opens and closes the door behind her. "Telagram from Saunders." she walked over to Amelia who was sitting on the sofa next to the coffee table with tea and slices bread and butter layout on top next to the files. Florence hands the message over.
"You'll miss the rendezvous point time scedule, group up with the Admiral Graf Spee at these coordinates." Amelia finished reading the telagram. "How fast can the Graf Spee go?"
"About 28.5 Knots sometimes over 29."
"From what Saunders hmmkrmm excuse me." Clears her throat, "Just from Saunders telagram alone i'm guessing the Graf Spee is a lot closer to the rendezvous point than we are, which shouldn't surprise anyone by this point." She gestured towards the window refering to the storm.
Florence sits down on the opposite side of the table and then Amelia spoke. "When we left Elswick High School, my heart was filled with joy that decades later I would be commanding the second Admiral-class battlecruiser."
"We all were." Florence smiled and then looked at the slices of bread. "Oh is this the nice bread." She reaches forward.
"Hey hands off." The Captian giggled.
"Oh come on share some."
"Ok, you can have some." Amelia takes a sip from her tea cup as Florence scraped some butter onto the slice of bread.
"Have you ever met the Captian of the Admiral Graf Spee?"
"No, well I don't think so, I mean I did meet one German Captian once, It was rather amusing."
"Oh?, what happened?" The Commander asked.
"Well she was looking for Captian Amelia, and she did, just not the right one." She smirked.
"Oh dear." Florence laughed.
"She came up to me and asked, are you Captain Ameila?, and I said yes, then she told me I was late for a meeting with the Captians, which I wasn't aware of, I was so embarrassed, so we went to this meeting and as we walked in everyone stops..and..they point to me and ask who is this haha..and the good Captian I mean bless her heart thought I was Captain Ameila Dawson of the HMAS Vampire." Ameila couldn't hold it any longer as she laughed out loud.
"Oh no hahah..ha..hahaha." Florence held her stomach.
The two friends calmed themselves down after a few good chuckles. "Where was this?" The Commander asked.
"Singapore."
Suddenly a voice buzzed over the ships comms. "All Bridge Personal report to the bridge, repeat all Bridge Personnel report to the bridge."
"Well back to work." Ameila said as she finished her tea.
-Compass Platform-
Once Ameila and Florence got up top the storm had disappeared entirely with the sea now calm. "Report." The Captain asked.
"Ship sighted Captian, bearing '0'40'." The Captian looked through her binnoclairs and could clearly see the ships silhoute.
"Is it the Graf Spee?" One of the other girls asked.
"I don't know, It's hard to tell, Florence your eyes are better what do you make of it?" Hands over her binnoclairs as her friend takes a look.
"Might be, and I'd say their 15 miles away."
"Hmm maybe you should of joined the crow's nest." Amelia joked, Florence was about to respond until she saw six flashes from the ship on the horizon, she was stunned that before she could say anything pillars of water rose from the sea nearly towering over the smokestacks.
"What the?!" Amelia looked through binnoclairs to see the ship firing again. "Hard to port!"
"Aye aye, hard to port!" The Helmsman acknowledged as she turned the wheel.
The Anson was trying to perform a 180 turn when three shells came screaming towards it, the sound was haunting, the battlecruiser was only half way through the turn when one of the shells hit the starboard beam just behind the second smokestack, the impact shook the vessel as it nearly threw the crew off their feet.
Florence looked over the side to assess the damage as smoked covered the starboard deck. "I think we're taking on water!"
"Captian this is the Engine room we're taking on water, what do we do!" Chief Engineer panicked.
"Amy get everyone out of there right now!" The Captain ordered with fear in her voice.
"Captian the boiler rooms are also taking on water!" The Lieutenant Commander cried out.
"Tell them to vent the boilers and evacuate, tell them to head for the athwartship."
"Aye aye Captain!"
Amelia then turned to her Commander, "As soon as their all evacuated I want all watertight bulkheads sealed in those respective areas."
"But the flooding, shouldn't we send damage control teams to repair the damage?"
"Captain the boilers are vented but they were waist-deep in water when they finished." The Lieutenant Commander reported.
"I'm sorry Florence but I think we run out of time for that, are they all out?" She asked.
"Yes the engine and boiler rooms have been evacuated." Her third in command nodded.
"Seal the bulkheads." Ameila said.
"Yes ma'am."
The Students were evacuated to athwartship even the gunners from the two rear turrets aswell as the students in charge of manning the torpedos. The Ships speed was decreasing rapidly reducing the Anson to 18 knots as it headed south west, only then ten minutes later, the amidship of the battlecruiser blew up.
That was fun, again something different but don't worry chapter 5 for A Huntresses Nightmare is still being written at the moment, I just wanted write this short story after the idea came to my head from reading Haifuri: Gone Asiatic by Thorthemighty321.
Characters from Haifuri: Gone Asiatic by Thorthemighty321, Amelia Dawson and Sophie Saunders.
(And yes my knowledge on ships is thin so apologys for any errors.)
Trivia
-{HMS Anson}-
Name: Anson
Namesake: Admiral George Anson
Class: Admiral-class battlecruiser
Ordered: 4 April 2010
Builder: James Brown
Laid down: 1 September 2013
Launched: 12 October 2015
Commissioned: 15 May 1920
In service: 2016-Present
Homeport: Elswick, England
Motto: Octo guns simul esse quam unum (Latin: "Eight guns are better than one")
Nickname: Lawful Anson
Fate: Unknown
Badge: A rope in the shape of an eight with its gun battery peicing through it
Displacement: 46.000 tons standered
47.000 tons full load
Lenth: 262.1 meters (860 ft)
Beam: 31.7 meters (104 ft)
Draught: 9.6 meters (31 ft 6 in)
Propulsion: four shafts, Brown-Curtis geared steam turbines, 24 Yarrow boilers
Speed: 32 knots (36.825mph, 59.264km/h)
Complement: 42
Armament: (4 x 2 - BL 15-inch Mk I guns), (16 x 1 - BL 5.5-inch MK I guns), (4 x 1 - QF 4-inch Mk I anti-aircrafts guns), (10 x 1 - 21-inch torpedo tubes)