HOME | DD
JanBoruta — The Tsar's Piranha
#airship #battleship #czar #destroyer #gunboat #gunship #naval #navy #russia #russianempire #ship #steam #tsar #tzar #warship #steampunk
Published: 2015-12-03 11:02:26 +0000 UTC; Views: 10639; Favourites: 311; Downloads: 0
Redirect to original
Description
Petropavlovsk was the only ship of her class. An experimental light destroyer modelled after existing French models, it was commissioned in 1895 and launched three years later after a laborious design and construction process. Its creation stirred a considerable amount of discussion in both Russia and other European powers, but the in the end, it was much ado about nothing. The destroyer turned out to be bog-standard, with only three redeemable qualities: remarkable speed, an assortment of heavy rapid-fire guns (heavier than ones usually found on such small ships), and the near-constant presence of the mastermind behind the ship itself, the Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich Romanov. Alexei, being the general-admiral of the Russian Navy, used the Petropavlovsk as his personal yacht to cruise around Saint Petersburg and over Russia's Baltic possessions, often unannounced and - at least he believed so - incognito.The obsolete ship was shot down in 1915 by German ground batteries during the defense of the fort city of Kovno.
- - -
Mechanical pencil (HB, 2B), on B5 format. 2015.
Related content
Comments: 11
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
This is an interesting piece. The pencils give it an '1890s illustration' vibe, which certainly fits for the time period you're going for. And the overall design for the vessel has a great visual impact. I'm going to have to check out more of your work, when I get the time!
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
The mechanical details and little touches are fascinating, the image merits long close inspection... Wonderful contours and shading, tremendous sense of action and intricate movement.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Was Duke Alexei onboard or was he conveniently occupied elsewhere during the defense of Kovno?
Another question, do your airships have any procedures for the crew to try and evacuate in the event of a disaster, or is it generally accepted that they will all perish? I've been thinking about single-man craft which could be launched from such airships, specifically steam powered designs, but I can't think of anything which could really work. Maybe some sort of glider/parachute design, but I can only picture that ending with a lot of snipered bodies falling gently to the ground.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Duke Alexei died in 1908, both in reailty and in my version of it - I do not change the timeline of the world. I have plans for a point of divergence some time around the Russian Civil War, but I did not flesh it out yet; I tend to focus on things before the end of the year 1918.
As for the evacuation equipment, I don't really bother with that. It's a limitation that is perhaps fun to design, but - at this point in time - it restricts my imagination a bit too much for my tastes. I merely take the idea of flying ships and bend it to my preference and universe, so to speak. In my older ships you could perhaps see aerial motorboats and dinghies, but I did that to keep the designs in line with real world warships. I dropped them somewhere on the way, so I could focus on the looks of my designs themselves, rather than such appendages. It might be a bit shallow, to only focus on looks - but I do it for fun and light-hearted storytelling, and not so much to meet any technical requirements.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
"Piranha" ahahahahaha. In my country, "piranha" is like a "bitch". But, that job is very very fuckIncredible
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
In world with physics able to work such airship there must be many creatures flying.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0