Puffing Dragon

The Puffing Dragon is a hybrid steam and sail powered wooden battleship akin to the CSS Alabama and is a conversion ship, having started its life as a fighting frigate.

Overview

The Puffing Dragon is a sail powered battleship that was converted with the help of engineers from the east who brought their steam technology with them. It began life as the pirate friggate Hotham, and was chosen specifically by Manwan Despon to become the first and only (much to his chagrin) steam powered hybrid sailing ship. The ship sports twelve 12lb (177mm) on the gun deck and sixteen 6lb (57mm) cannons on the main deck. It's main job isn't to fight in regular ship to ship duels with other equally sized ships, but rather to catch faster ships and cripple them so that the larger, slower vessels of the pirate king's fleet can catch up to and capture them. There is no other ship in the Great Sea that can match it for sheer speed. The Puffing Dragon's top speed under sail or steam alone is 14 knots. But when the two are combined, under ideal conditions, the ship can reach a blistering 22 knots. Her closest rival in speed is The Flying Coachman which maxes out at 16 knots in ideal winds. The Puffing Dragon is captained by Edgardo Davenport, a seasoned captain and one of great tactical prowess, but also great pride, which sometimes gets in the way of his good leadership.

Powerplant

The ship is powered by a pair of high pressure steam boilers that are housed in a specially designed, reinforced wooden hut at the back of the ship that supplies its two Triple Expansion Engines with steam. Being that the ship is a conversion from pure sail to a hybrid sail and steam, the ship's original design did not allow for the boilers to be placed below decks where they would be safe. This is why the twin boilers are placed on the main deck in a specially designed hut. While this made the conversion faster and easier, it also created a weakness in the ship that, if properly exploited, can be used to destroy it by rupturing the boilers. It takes a solid four hours to get the Dragon's steam boilers up to full operating pressure. But once there, she has enough fuel to operate for at least two weeks without a resupply of fuel.

The ship's boilers can operate on a variety of solid fuels, including coal and wood, and stores its fuel in a series of metal lined bins scattered throughout the ship. Resupply of the main fuel bin can be done through automated, steam powered conveyor belts that span the length of the ship. This is especially useful when resupplying fuel from the forward fuel bins to the rear primary bin. Fuel is then lifted by conveyor to the steam hut where it is deposited in the primary supply bins in preparation for being fed into the fireboxes of both boilers. If the ship is not in need of its boilers, or steam engines, for their speed, the fireboxes are banked and the vents closed to allow the boilers to remain at or near working pressure, making it faster and easier to bring them up to working pressure whenever needed. The boilers can be brought into full working operation within fifteen minutes or less in this state, allowing the Dragon to achieve flank speed very quickly if needed again later on in her voyage.