Yellow Jacket-class Mars aerial patrol boat, TL (5+1)
The Yellow Jackets are small, steam powered aerial ships used for patrolling thinly populated American regions of Mars. While they only carry enough fuel for ten days of operations, the inclusion of sails allows them to operate indefinitely (generally no more than two or three weeks). Food and water must be carried in the cargo hold or, for long patrols, acquired from the surface of Mars (the boat's weapon locker normally contains 6 rifles, 4 pistols and 2 shotguns, all of which are more often used hunting than in combat). Twenty-three have been built, with 16 still in action on Mars (of the other seven, five were destroyed in combat or in accidents; the two others, the prototypes, remained on Earth and are currently used to patrol America's Pacific possessions).
The bridge is roughly triangular shaped, with one corner facing directly rear. The helmsman and commander sit side-by-side in the front, the helmsman to the left. The commander has the 50x telescope mounted in front of him and a handcrank overhead to turn the main searchlight. The wireless operator sits in the rear with the telegraph equipment and a rear-facing 10x telescope. There are hatches overhead, in the floor (leading to the crew quarters) and one on each of the rear-sloping wals.
Armament is fairly light, consisting of three deck guns, although for a ship this small it would be difficult to fit anything larger. The 1.5" gun is located on the fore deck, ahead of the bridge. It has its own telescope and searchlight, though the gunner really can't sight with the scope when firing. Five 50-round drums (140 lbs each) are kept on the mount. Three are loaded with solid ammo, two with LE. The two .45-70-cal Gatlings are each at the rear corner of the bridge. Each has five 100-round magazines on the mount. Additional ammo, if carried, is kept in the cargo hold (located under the forward gun position). For safety purposes, a tether is provided at each mount to keep the gunner from falling overboard during combat. Trials have been conducted with a 12-pdr forward and two 1.5" Nordenfelts in the side positions but this version has not been accepted for service yet. Other countries (especially Britain and France) use very similar ships with slightly different armaments (most also have larger coal bunkers).
The cargo hold (including the winch, which is mounted inside) takes up the front of the hull, followed by the crew's quarters, and finally the coal bunker and boiler room. Each section has a hatch on the underside of the hull, while there are hatches to the cargo hold and boiler room on the main deck and a hatch to the crew's quarters in the bridge. The primary way into the hold is it's underside hatch.
The mast and aerial sails are fairly small; they were originally intended as a backup in case there were problems with the steam engines (at the time of construction, the quadruple expansion engines were new technology). As it has turned out, they are very useful in extending the patrol range of a Yellow Jacket.
While most crew positions are self-explanatory, a note needs to the made about the assistant gunners. Aside from helping to load the guns in combat (especially the Hotchkiss), they generally fill in around the boat helping other crewmembers. It is not uncommon (in US service) for both to be Naval cadets. Additional crew may be carried, though they must sleep on the open deck or in the cargo hold.
(This design can be used easily for nautical boats -- drop cost by $12,000 (swapping the anti-gravity coating for waterproofing), change fair streamlining to mediocre hydrodynamic lines and reduce sail area by 1/3.)
Subassemblies: Body +4, Bridge +3, Mast +1, three full rotation
Open Mounts +1, one full rotation Open Mount +0
P&P: 40 kW quadruple expansion steam engine w/aerial propeller
(100 lbs thrust), 120 square foot aerial sails
Fuel: Coal bunker, 240 hours
Occ: 3 BCS (helmsman, commander, wireless operator), 2 NCS (engineer,
stoker), 6 open deck crew (three gunners, two assistant gunners, sailor)
Cargo: 150 cf body, 50 cf bridge
| Armor | All | ||||
| Body | 2/6 | ||||
| Bridge | 2/6 |
Weaponry
Hotchkiss 1.5" (37mm) rotary cannon [OM1] (150 solid, 100 LE)
.45-70 Gatling [OM2] (500 solid)
.45-70 Gatling [OM3] (500 solid)
Equipment
Bridge: Navigation instruments, wireless telegraph receiver/transmitter
(very long range), 30x telescope (+4/+9), 10x telescope (+3/+6)
Body: 8 hammocks, 2 bunks (helmsman, engineer), double bunk
(commander), galley, ST 50 winch
Open Mount 1: searchlight (1 mile), 5x telescope (+2/+4)
Open Mount 2/3: universal mount
Open Mount 4: searchlight (5 miles)
Statistics
| Size: 35'x12'x46' | Payload: 17,000 lbs | Lwt: 31,900 lbs (15.9 tons) |
| Volume: 2373.6 cf (Size Mod: +5) | Maint.: 37 hours | Price: $32,678 |
HT: 9
HP: 714 [body], 335 [bridge]
Aerial Propeller
| aSpeed: 30 | aAccel: 0.05 | aDecel: 0.4 | aMR: 0.1 | aSR: 2 | aDrag: 845 |
Aerial Sails
| aSpeed: 24 | aAccel: 0.05 | aDecel: 0.4 | aMR: 0.1 | aSR: 2 | aDrag: 845 |
Design Notes
Frame is expensive light for 2000 cf fair streamlined body, 350 cf
bridge, 0.1 cf (10' high) mast, 15.5 cf open mount #1, 4 cf each open mounts
#2-3 and 4.8 cf open mount #4. Armor is standard wood. The outer hull paneled
with liftwood (treated as anti-gravity coating, p.VE41).
Weaponry
The Hotchkiss 37mm uses the 37mm rotary stats on p.VE43. The
.58 Gatling is on p.SP88. Alternately, GMs may use the stats for
these weapons on pp.OW87,89.