Morthal Naval Treaty

A Week and Half Before the Start Conference

The preparations for the meeting had been underway for weeks now, with the city having been cleaned up and many of the coastal defences covering the Bay of Morthal and the city's harbour being given pure white paint jobs and bunting to make them as festive and gay as any clown. Several hotels in the city's citadel had been wholly rented and refurbished to act as housing for the foreign delegations and their staffs. Similarly, several other buildings closer to the port itself had been turned into barracks for the foreign crews, should they prefer to stay on land rather than their ships. Likewise, a large section of the civilian port had been taken over in preparation of the arrival of the foreign warships, as the military portions were deemed insufficient to house such a large flotilla of ships.

This had caused no small amount of complaints from local authorities though, as many ships that would otherwise be coming into the port had redirected to other cities along the coast in order to avoid the wait times and limited access. The costs for this whole endeavour had also started to mount, as the hotels and accommodation alone had already cost the government eighteen-thousand Thaler ($5.265.360) and the port fees were accruing many thousands more. All in all, these costs would be worth it if the negotiations were successful in limiting the rapid expansion of naval forces and securing the Raikh's naval dominance for the coming half a century.

Though the Hauhkunoleiksflutt was the most powerful fleet now, the cost of producing such a hyper-modern fleet had been staggering and had resulted in the Raikhsharjis being neglected. It had only been finished for three years now, but already naval designers had started coming up with new and terrifyingly wonderful designs to make more efficient and more powerful warships a reality. One paradoxically dangerous idea which had been floated, was that of the high-speed torpedo boat. It had been suggested by some that rather than building heavier ships, one could instead focus on making fast and disposable vessels capable of causing massive amounts of damage to capital ships and for a minimal investment.

With such threats as other nations leveraging their higher levels of industrialisation to produce larger and better warships and the possibility of torpedo boats on the horizon, this naval treaty had become a top priority. Pomp, ceremony, and prestige needed to be shown, in order to awe and cow the other nations and stop the possibility of an arms race of never before seen proportions. As such, all of the costs that had already been undertaken were acceptable. Hopefully, the arrival of the delegations in a few days will go smoothly.

After some further communication, we shall be bringing a single Corsa. This consists of 100 ships who will anchor off the coast so as not to strain the port. The Corsa will consist of both Tesc and Solda ships. Four prominent members of our society will be attending, one from each family that will be affected, a Gasca and a Suveran.

    Catherine rubbed her temples as the ministers in front of her squabbled over the recent telegram from her flotilla. The seven men, inherited from her fathers council, reached the point of shouting less than 10 minutes into the discussion.



“The flotilla can wait! We should have sent military observers to Moderal as soon as we heard of their plans!”, blustered Councilor Harnau, his face visibly reddening under his grey beard.



“And what then? Leave the gunboat we sent to capsize? If she takes on too much water it’ll be lost! Think of the investment!”, another shouted back over the din.



    The Empress finally stood, trying to make her presence known among the rowdy group. They continued. She eyed the guard in the back of the room desperately, who promptly slammed the butt of his rifle into the floorboards several times. Silence at last.



“We… have already made a promise that we will attend the Naval conference in Morthal. It would be unwise to snub them. And the flotilla is too close to turn about now. Councilor Harnau, you will send a wire to Coltain and tell him to leave the Egret, and we will have her pumped and towed to Morthal as soon as possible.”



She cut him off before he could interject-“ However, I do agree that it would be useful for us to observe the situation going on in Moderal. I can’t send Coltain, and my brother would be an unwise choice…”



    Reaching for the buzzer under her desk, the Empress waited to hear the click before continuing “Please inform my uncle, Duke Estraña, that I once again have need of his services.” With that, she rushed out of the room, cursing silently as she went.

    As the Divinian Flotilla docked in Morthal, they could hear the clamor of the city: the roar of the people mixed with the notes of a military band, creating a cacophony of noise the men were struggling to adjust to after their time at sea. In the distance they could see their gunboat being towed through the breaking waves by a freighter from some merchant company. She looked far less impressive than Coltain would have preferred, bobbing along behind the ugly grey vessel. Still, the Egret was a well designed ship - and the man couldn’t resist having her there to show off the prowess of Her Majesties fleet.



    He turned to his men, feigning to listen as they briefed him on protocol. The Councilor wasn’t here to kowtow to some foreign diplomat. This was business. Brushing down his maroon dress uniform one last time, Samuel took to the gangplank, where the rest of the Empresses diplomats were already waiting. He could practically see the eagerness in the eyes of the Papal Nuncio: the poor old man, unaccustomed to the sea, had been sick the whole voyage.



    As they stepped onto the docks, he heard the band switch its tune. It resembled something, vaguely similar to a march one might hear in his homeland. “God, they need to tune up” he muttered, maintaining the stoic expression. This needed to go well. As the youngest member of the Empresses council, he was acutely aware of the precarious nature of his position. Finally, they stood in front of a wild looking man whom he presumed to be his host, and waited.

The Troncas sails into the port of Morthal, Black and silver ship in the middle surrounded by two cruisers, a single battleship and a small torpedo. The cruisers, torpedo boat and battleship moor just outside the port entrance. The black and silver decorated vessel docks and the gangway is lowered.



Five soldiers disembarked, each wearing black uniforms. However the detailing on the uniforms differed. Each solider wore a chord across his chest flowing from left to right. On each soldier the colour was different. Red, Yellow, Dark Blue, Purple, and Black for Gasca, Salupa, Solda, Tesc, and Suveran respectively. After the soldiers came five individuals also in formal military wear, except they were more decorated. Between three and five medals rested upon their breasts. They too were colour coded. They disembarked, the woman wearing red taking the lead. Behind them the five soldiers fell into formation, following them.

The Conference Begins

With the various foreign parties now all arrive, a series of diplomatic pleasantries was now engage in. 'We are certain that we will all be able to come out of this satisfied.', 'Your ships' are rather splendidly painted, I especially like the weather proofing on the wooden hall.', and other such remarks could be heard being exchanged between the arriving delegations and their hosts. After being greeted, they were all taken deeper into the city and to where the conference was being held, a grand old hall which was normally used by the local government and officers for various functions and meals.

As the parties arrived, their support staff that were not needed to the initial opening events were shown to their lodgings. In the hall itself, the tables had been rearranged to form a horse shoe shape, with a some very nice linen and green cloth being brought in to decorate them as well as some flowers. At the centre of the horse shoe was a desk and chair. After all the parties had been situated and given time to bring out their papers, the main representative of the Raikh, an admiral of the Hauhkunoleiksflutt began by presenting everyone with the initial proposal for the treaty.

'In the interest of preventing a devastating arms race and fostering cooperation and fraternity between our nations, we believe it is only right that we take steps now to limit ourselves learn a measure of self-control in our dealings. As such, we wish for a total displacement limit to be placed for capital ships, so that no fleet might build a ship larger than forty-five thousand tons, with a total limit on capital ship tonnage being placed at a hundred and sixty thousand tons for all ironclad ships of the line. To add to this, a total fleet displacement of no more than two-hundred and fifty thousand tons and a limit on gun calibre of no more than sixteen inches needs to be considered to avoid nations from building swarms of smaller vessels as well, though this would not be counting small patrol boats, such as corvettes.'

Papers with all the terms in precise details were handed to all of the parties and with that initial proposal put forth, the counter proposals and arguments could begin.

Having seen the ships in question, but not knowing too much of their constuction, the Fluttfads decided to err on the side of caution. 'Unless the vessels are in fact two, with two different commanders, two different bridges, and two different registries, I can not see any reasonable way for them to be counted as anything but one. Are your vessels at all capable of being split and sent to sail as two different vehicles?'