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An excellent continuation
I look forward to more
Semaphore
It seems the installation of semaphore towers continues along the river. In addition to using these as an aid to navigation (perhaps they could be fitted with marker lamps in the future for use in poor light/fog?) Will Eriana realise that if she has a trained semaphore operator on board her ships, she can use them to send vital information quickly without landing? Reception of messages may be difficult unless they are sent to pre-arranged stations.
Signal Flags
The navies of Earth have used signal (semaphore) flags for hundreds of years, to communicate between ships or for ship-to-shore communications for years. The land-based semaphore towers have more paddles than seamen have arms, so there are some constraints in sending messages from ship to shore. Navies developed certain - abbreviations you might say for common signals, from which the naval signal flags were developed. You could send an entire message using just a few of these signal flags. No doubt some bright person will develop signal flags that are uniquely Palarandian (or Anmaran). Even today signal flags and pennants are kept at ready, and signals officer is still an official position.
As far as sending messages to the river fleet, it would be easy to stage messages along the towers a boat is expected to pass by. If a boat is expected to be at tower A, then not only would you send a message to A, you would also send a message to the previous tower and the next tower as well. The first tower to see the boat would send a 'message delivered' up and down the line so the other towers would not try to keep delivering the same message. As well, the originator would also receive confirmation the message was delivered. No doubt the system developed would be uniquely Anmaran, this is just a rough outline of what can be done. The development of signal lamps would expand the possibilities greatly. I believe Palarand is about at the arc light stage.
“When a clown moves into a palace, he doesn’t become a king. The palace becomes a circus.” - Turkish Proverb
As do all fans
That is all fans of this fine series look forward eagerly to more no matter what is posted. Thank you for sharing, Penny.
Interesting and Entertaining
Generally I'm interested in what happens in this world (to the characters) while Garia is absent, what technological gains they make on their own, and Eriana's discovery of her place in the world going forward. The river lore and technical aspects of moving a sail and oar powered boat upstream are interesting within this story.
Penny, thank you for sharing this new story.
Wonder how long it will ne before
someone puts a steam engine on the ship?
Not on the Visund
There probably will be river vessels retro-fitted with steam engines, but I doubt that the Visund will be one of them.
The structure of a Viking longship is such that the hull is very thin and flexible. This is why Eriana was concerned at the modifications done in #1.
However, I would think that many of the cargo-carrying ships and barges that normally ply the Sirrel would be built sturdy enough to take the weight of a steam engine - and the fuel! Don't forget that coal is relatively dense and also takes up valuable cargo space.
On the other hand, wind is free whereas coal is not. It may simply be easier to pay a few hands to help your ship get upstream than to spend coin making expensive and potentially dangerous modifications to existing vessels. Later on, of course, when ships become much larger, they will be designed to accommodate engines and all that goes with them.
Penny
Dogs have owners; cats have staff. Grand-daughters have minions.
I was thinking much the same
I was kinda surprised in Snep's day out that the captured galleys would be getting steam engines, early attempts on Earth to do similar were less than successful, for the ocean fleet despite being reliant on fuel steam engines from the start make sense, it will be hard to move even ironsides with wind, and then there's condensers to provide the ships with fresh water,