This is a story post based off events from the SPMRP and NWRP roleplays, presenting the canon for the Saltwater battlecruiser SWS Chieftain.
SWS Chieftain (BC-1) unlisted version
History
The SWS Chieftain is a Type C battlecruiser that was originally built in Fuzavir in 1951 and was commissioned into the Fuzavir Navy in 1954. The vessel, called Saviour, was the second ship in its class and served with distinction, taking part in the Fuzavir Civil War. She fought in the famous 1966 Battle of Alacrity Glacier against the break-away CCSI Navy, in which she sunk the rebel cruiser CCS Endurance. Between 1967 and 1975 she served as the flagship of the Fuzavir Navy.
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However in 1975, with escalating operating costs and increasing obsoletance, the battlecruiser was retired from active duty and striken from the naval register one month later.
After being retired from Fuzavir service, the Saviour was taken to Maywar Docks for scrapping. However she was bought at the last minute by an entrepreneuring businessman who wished to turn her into a luxury hotel. However in 1981, before work began, the business collapsed and the Saviour, which had been renamed Horizon, was towed to Brightneau and laid up indefinitely.
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In 2007 the Horizon was rediscovered by CENSOREDNAME in a terribly dilapidated state after twenty-six years of neglect. Looking for ships for his fledgling Saltwater Nation, he purchased the ship from the daughter of the businessman who had saved her from the breaker's yard. He paid just 750,000 dollars.
The old battle-wagon received yet another name change, this time to SWS Brimstone, and the vessel was moored up at a pier in the Conegsreich Republic and became largely abandoned once more after the SCN became independent and set sail. Still in urgent need of extensive repairs, the Brimstone sank at her moorings due to severe corrosion blighting her hull.
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Forgotten and sunken for well over a decade the ship was finally given some much needed attention after the reformation of the Saltwater Carrier Nation. She was painstakingly restored to her original condition and commissioned as the ceremonial flagship of the fleet. After six months of service her name was changed to the more fitting SWS Chieftain.
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For the next ten years the ship served as the ceremonial fleet flagship and was deployed on over two dozen occasions on diplomatic missions to foreign powers, with a number of international treaties signed on her decks. However, this peaceful career came to an end when a terrorist alliance, with a motley collection over fifty ex-naval vessels, raided the Saltwater homeisland of NovrdLisch. The Saltwater Navy deployed every asset it had available, and the SWS Chieftain was rapidly deployed as the flagship of a small squadron of frigates.
After some initial success against the obsoletant enemy warships, the equally obsolete Chieftain took a number of hits from Exocet anti-ship missiles, forcing the crew to beach her on a sandbank to prevent her sinking. Facing heavy gunfire from the swarming terrorist warships, Chieftain endured almost five hours of punishment on the sandbank before the threat was beaten off by the combined Saltwater-Atlas defenders. Emergency repairs could then be carried out before she was towed off the sandbank by the Atlas ship Reese.
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Repairs cost in excess of $100 million and took nine months in dry-dock, but eventually the SWS Chieftain was returned to duty in her diplomatic and ceremonial role. She would perform these duties for another seven years, but was eventually retired and moored up as a museum ship in NovrdLisch. Her tenure at this site was to be short-lived, however. Just two months afterwards the Saltwater Carrier Nation collapsed due to a violent economic recession and she was moved to SimpleLandia for service as a headquarters ship for the United Nations' Saltee-run defence force, SWUGC.
Within weeks, however, the archipelago faced a new threat as the news came in that an earthquake in the Antarctic region had caused an entire glacial valley to collapse into the sea. A colossal tsunami swept across the Pacific and the low-lying archipelago caught the full force of the surge. Over 90% of the islands were flooded, and virtually all the inhabitants, some 87 million people, were killed or became refugees. The rising sea levels resulted in the complete collapse of human civilisation in the archipelago.
Some forty years afterwards the third iteration of the Saltwater Carrier Nation sent a search party to relocate the submerged flagship. Quickly rediscovered and subsequently refloated, Chieftain was taken by sea-lifter to Alaska for repairs on her 130-year-old hull. After a month of work, she was towed by the cruiser SWS Saracen to Morocco for more permanent restoration. Six months of intensive work costing $150 million installed carefully reproduced propulsion systems, armament and other equipment and succeeded in returning her to her pre-sinking configuration.
The SWS Chieftain has now entered Portsmouth harbour under her own steam after a 130-year history spanning two centuries, countless conflicts, five separate owners and three sinkings and is expected to serve as a museum ship and the fleet flagship for the next 130 years.
Specifications
Dimensions:
244.39m x 32.5m x 10m
Approx 44,000 tons normal load.
Armament:
10x 420mm guns mounted in twin turrets.
12x 100mm dual purpose guns mounted in twin turrets.
18x 100mm guns mounted in casemates.
24x 12.7mm machine guns.
Machinery:
Diesel generators and electric motors.
Three propeller shafts.
Maximum speed: 31 knots.
Range: 15,000nm at 15 knots.
Bunker capacity: 8000 tons.
Crew: 1700-2300.