Shipbucket

The USS Leviathan was the first of what are popularly referred to on the Endless Seas as a "Giga-Subs" (Although at the time, the term "Super-Sub was used instead). The Leviathan was the first of what was intended to be a class of submersible aircraft carriers. She was launched in 1970 after extensive delays.

Although one of the primary attractions of a submersible carrier is the ability to avoid detection to give the ability for aircraft to launch closer to a target, one of the primary driving factors in the Leviathan's construction was the ability for a submarine to avoid weather. The fierce storms found on the endless seas present a hazard to most surface vessels, by submerging the aircraft carrier, it's possible for a vessel to avoid the worst effects of such storms.

Levi was notable for her twin sails, one carried a gas turbine for auxiliary power while surfaced and the other housed a retractable SPS-39. Both sails had additional communications masts and periscopes. Structurally Leviathan was a double-Hull design, with her structural hull enclosing her pressure hulls. In total the sub had five primary pressure hulls, a small forwards pressure hull contained the sonar and torpedo rooms, the primary pressure hull contained the ships crew quarters, hangar deck, and machinery, smaller hulls at the base of each sail contained the ship's command and control stations, and a small aft hull contained auxiliary machinery.

While envisioned as carrying a diverse air wing of V/STOL aircraft and helicopters, in service she only ever carried UH-1Ns and AV-8A Harrier Jump Jets as most other aircraft were too tall for Levi's low hangar. Her typical air wing was 20 aircraft, a 12 aircraft Harrier Squadron and an 8 aircraft Helicopter Squadron. Although there was space for an additional squadron of Harriers, in practice this second squadron was rarely embarked as doing so meant there was no space for the movement of aircraft within the hangar while submerged.

The hangar was split across two decks, the upper main hangar carried the bulk of the air wing, with a smaller subhangar below. Aircraft movement between the hangar and subhangar was via a central lift. The lower hangar was primarily intended as a space to perform maintenance and only had space for two harriers. Aircraft access to the flight deck was via two elevators, one fore and one aft, each connected via an airlock to the main hangar. For armament Levi was fitted with six torpedo tubes at the bow, as well as four retractable Sea-Mauler turrets for point-defense while surfaced.

In service, "Levi" as she was affectionately referred to by her crew proved to be a disappointment. Her small air wing was of limited utility and her troublesome reactor plant kept her in drydock for extended periods during her early years. In 1984 she entered the yards and emerged three years later as an amphibious assault ship designed to carry and support two companies worth of USCS CRIT (Counter-Recon Interdiction & Tracking)Teams on extended exploration missions. Additional Pressure hulls were mounted on her deck as garages for amphibious vehicles, and her forwards elevator was replaced by a lockout chamber and 10 tubes for Poseidon-derived communications rockets. At this point her Sea-Mauler systems and air search radar were removed, with the Sea-Maulers being replaced by Tomahawk missiles. Much of her hangar was reconfigured into accommodations for troops, although she retained space for seven NH-60B Silent-Hawks to support the CRIT teams. Her service record after this is largely unknown. She is believed to have spent most of her time exploring The Band and it is known that she spent at least some time supporting survey teams along the coast of Avalon for what would eventually become Camelot Yankee.

She was retired in 2003. After several years in the West Fjord Reserve Fleet, she was scrapped in 2014 with her distinctive twin islands preserved as gate guards at Naval Support Facility Rocksite.

A destroyer commissioned before the Great War, sold off at a low price to Neodoros after the war, and in service until the 1970s when it was bought by a local oil tycoon and converted into a luxury yacht. The yacht has a pool, a bar, luxury suites and even a tiny, tiny golf course on the top deck.

USCGC Eagle (WIX-327), formerly Horst Wessel and also known as Barque Eagle and America's Tall Ship, is a 295-foot (90 m) barque used by the United States Coast Guard as a training ship. Originally built as the German sail training ship Horst Wessel in 1936, the vessel was taken by the U.S. as war reparations after the end of WW2. She is the only active tall ship still in service with the United States military. She is the seventh Coast Guard cutter to bear the name in a line dating back to the Revenue Cutter Eagle, built in 1792 as one of the service's first 10 ships.

Each summer, Eagle conducts a roughly three-month training cruise with cadets from the United States Coast Guard Academy. These voyages double as public relations tours for the Coast Guard and the United States, with Eagle visiting foreign ports as a goodwill ambassador. During her time in American service Eagle has ventured as far as Russia and Australia, into the Arctic and the Baltic.


Following the Event that transported the United States Coast Guard Academy back to the 16th century, Barque Eagle would become one of the most famous and recognizable ships in human history. She was only at the Academy during the Event by happenstance, having shifted from her usual berth in downtown New London for the 10th annual Cutterman's Call football game. This proved to be extremely fortuitous, as to make it through that first winter the Academy needed provisions from Europe - and only Eagle could make it across the Atlantic safely.

For her new role as a vessel of trade and exploration, Eagle received several modifications to increase her autonomy. Wind turbines and solar panels, taken from a senior project and EV charging stations respectively, generated electricity without consuming diesel fuel; an alternator was also connected to the propeller shaft to generate power when freewheeling. Saltwater showers reduced potable water consumption, satcom antennas were removed, and two 20' cargo containers were lashed to the deck on the waist for additional storage. Additional small boats were carried, including two 26-foot Colgate sailboats taken from the Academy's sailing team. Finally, two Mk38 Bushmaster autocannons and several machine guns, taken from the patrol boats stationed at the Academy, gave Eagle a basic self-defense capability - though since she was the only vessel on the high seas with an engine, her best defense was her ability to outrun any opponent.

These modifications allowed Eagle to sail to Europe without the support of modern infrastructure, visiting Britain, France, The Netherlands, Spain, and Portugal before returning to the Academy for the winter. Later voyages would see her venture up to Scandanavia and into the Mediterranean, down to the Caribbean, and even across the Pacific. Sailing across the seas of time Eagle weathered surf, storm, and howling gale for many years to connect the small, anachronistic enclave at the mouth of the Pequot river with the rest of the world.

MV Amelia Rose was a pleasure cruiser built by Cook & Stevenson of Blackett Point. Completed in 1938, it spent the first year of its life puttering about Admiralty Bay. The vessel was requestioned by the Royal New Holland Navy in September 1939 and commissioned as HMNHS Amelia Rose two months later. It worked as a danlayer, supporting minesweeping operations off Smytheland until 1946. For self defence, the ship was fitted with pair of Lewis guns and later received an Oerlikon cannon. Amelia Rose was returned to its owners following the end of the year, only to be destroyed by a fire during reconstruction in 1947. Dozens of civilian ships were taken over by New Holland's government to meet the needs of World War II, and Amelia Rose is representative of this oft-forgotten part of the country's naval history.

Janghŭng-class cruiser Myŏnwŏn



The Janghŭng-class cruisers were a group of four light cruisers built for the Imperial Menghean Navy in the late 1910s. They were ordered as a crash response to the War of the Sienese Succession, which revealed the vulnerability of Menghe's trade routes to submarine attacks. They were also the first light cruisers Menghe built in its own yards, as most Casaterran shipyards were occupied with the WSS.

Myŏnwŏn was the third ship in the Janghŭng class. She was laid down at the Wihae National Defense Yard on 14 April 1919 and commissioned on 15 February 1921. Over the course of her service life, she underwent two major rebuilds: conversion to a fast minelayer in 1933, and conversion to a midget sub carrier in 1943. The image below depicts the final rebuild. Note that her single turrets were replaced by two twin mounts (one removed in the final rebuild), though these carried the same 125mm Type 10 guns taken off the ship, and despite their moderately increased elevation were only capable of engaging surface targets.



In this new configuration, Myŏnwŏn could carry four Type 41 midget submarines under large gantry cranes amidships. Her intended mission was to use her still-reasonable speed to quickly approach hostile ports under the cover of darkness, deploy her submarines, and then leave the area. The submarine crews would beach and escape onto land after completing their mission, with rescue or recovery arranged separately. By this point in the war, the Imperial Menghean Army was on the retreat in both Maverica and Meridia, so the Imperial Menghean Navy anticipated that raids like these could be deployed effectively against harbors recently captured by enemy forces, or even against transport ships anchored off of beachheads.

This rebuild substantially increased topweight, and although the aft turret was removed and the aft superstructure eliminated, Myŏnwŏn remained unstable and rocked heavily in this configuration, especially when loaded with all four submarines. Adding to these problems, her boilers and turbines had been refurbished but never modernized or replaced, and she struggled to maintain even 26 knots in post-refit trials. Already short on oil, the Navy opted to run Myŏnwŏn and other mixed-fuel ships on coal alone, further reducing her performance. Due to these constraints, and the IMN's growing inability to conduct offensive operations freely, Myŏnwŏn spent her final year on training missions, repainted in a more visible blue-gray scheme and typically carrying two submarines at most. She was never sent on an actual harbor raid operation.

Myŏnwŏn's career came to an end on 8 August 1944, when she was torpedoed by the Anglian submarine HMS Trenchant while returning from a training mission off the east coast of Innominada. The torpedo struck directly amidships, and Myŏnwŏn immediately split in half, with both halves sinking quickly. Only 22 survivors were recovered, taken aboard by a patrol ship which came across them two days later. This image depicts Myŏnwŏn as she would have appeared on her final voyage.

Lumaruk-class Destroyer KKY-513 Engal
Note: 4704 -> 1944

Lumaruk-class Destroyer (4704)


The Lumaruk-class destroyers was a series of 60 destroyers built for the Kirsaian navy during the Third Great War. The Lumaruk-class were designed to complement its smaller predecessors as a powerful light unit which could screen carrier task forces. They served throughout various theaters of the war and proved to be capable multipurpose units. Powerful, reliable, and capable of surviving damage which could sink many other destroyers, they were popular with their crews and were well regarded by the naval staff.

The Lumaruk-class was created using experience gained from three years of naval combat using the various destroyer classes built before and during the Third Great War. In designing what would eventually become this class of ships, priority was given to making the ships excellent surface combatants against other destroyers (gaining an extra gun mount) and being able to perform well as a fleet screening unit. In order to properly fulfill the latter task, the Lumaruk-class were designed with a new mount which featured significantly faster traverse and elevation mechanisms. They were also designed with a combat information center geared towards use with radar fire control. While initial designs called for a second main battery director on the aft superstructure, this was later eliminated in favor of additional 4cm cannon as the airborne threat towards Kirsaian ships increased. The torpedo armament was held over from previous destroyer classes.

In order to implement these improvements without any sacrifice, the Lumaruk-class were significantly larger than the preceding class destroyers, being 20 meters longer and over 600 tons larger. Propulsion was by two geared turbines each driving a single shaft, rated for a total of 65,000 shaft horsepower. Steam was provided by three Velmis high pressure water-tube boilers. The machinery was arranged in a unit fashion, ensuring that no single hit to the machinery spaces could immobilize the ship. Speed as designed was 36 knots, though some ships reportedly made 37 knots during trials. Their radar suit was standard to every mid-late war Kirsaian destroyer, with an air search and surface search radar, with fire control directors having their own radars as well. As the war progressed, surviving units often lost their aft torpedo armament in order to mount an additional quadruple 4cm/60 gun mount.

Operational History
Being built during the height of the Third Great War, the Lumaruk-class saw heavy combat from almost the moment the first ship commissioned. Assigned as fleet screens to the Kirsaian carrier fleets, they first saw action in the great carrier battles of 4704 and 4705. It was during these battles where the class proved their worth as fleet screens, with their heavy dual purpose battery in combination with top-secret (at the time) proximity-fuzed shells proving to be extremely effective against aircraft of the Veyyanar Republic. Their ability to take significant damage also shined brightly, with several members of the class having taken bomb, torpedo, or rocket hits and surviving long enough to limp into port for repairs. The ships also saw combat in the savage night actions of 4705 and 4706 as fighting began to devolve into a stalemate. During these battles, the heavy firepower of the class proved valuable against opposing light forces, whose ships often sported as few as half the guns as each Lumaruk-class destroyer. However, three years of constant warfare took their toll, with multiple ships being sunk throughout these engagements. Following the White Peace of 4707, the surviving ships were retained in service and were modernized as the years went on, eventually becoming anti-submarine warfare escorts (with the sole exception of Engal, which was converted into an experimental guided missile destroyer). All ships were retired by 4744, with most being scrapped or sunk as targets. A dozen were sold to various minor navies in the early 4730s, with the last of these foreign-operated ships being retired in 4774. Two ships survive as museums, one in Kirsaia and one in Ilarr.

Kirsaian Experimental Guided Missile Destroyer Engal (4716)

Engal is a retired Lumaruk-class destroyer of the Kirsaian navy operated between 4704 and 4729. The ship was named for Captain Heram Engal, a destroyer captain who was killed in action earlier in Third Great War. She remained a fleet escort through the end of the war and saw no surface action, though she suffered several near misses during the great carrier battles of 4704 and 4705. In 4715, she was converted into the world's first guided missile destroyer in order to test the practicability of using guided missiles on destroyers. Her experience guided the designs of future classes of Kirsaian guided missile destroyers, as well as missile systems for those destroyers. In 4722, she was converted into a radar trials ship, having served out her role as a testbed for guided missile systems. By 4729 she was thoroughly obsolete and was subsequently decommissioned and preserved as a museum ship.

Post-war Operational History
Since the beginning of the Third Great War, destroyers have functioned as a screen to protect capital ships from aircraft. With the introduction of jet aircraft to various air forces, gunfire now struggled to track and shoot down modern aircraft. To counter the jet threat, various cruisers of the Kirsaian navy were rebuilt to varying degrees in order to equip surface-to-air missiles. While the first of these was due to enter service in 4715, the concept of using missiles on board ships was still unproven on destroyer-sized ships. With contemporary surface-to-air missile systems being unable to target multiple targets, it was hoped that this flaw could be remedied through the installation of such systems on smaller, cheaper to build ships such as destroyers. In order to test this concept out, the destroyer Engal was selected for conversion into an experimental guided missile destroyer.

Work on this rebuild was started in 4715, and took one year and three months to complete. The largest task was removing the aft 13cm gun battery (and part of the upper deck) and placing a missile battery in its place. The experimental Model 16 GMLS (Guided Missile Launch System) was designed specifically for use on board the Lumaruk-class and similar sized destroyers and could hold fourteen JTM-2 "Terriya" missiles. The missile magazine itself was split down the middle by a bulkhead (designed to maximize survivability), with seven missiles in each compartment. The missiles were stored in a rotary magazine, with the magazine rotating after each missile was fired to feed the next one. The missiles would be fed onto a twin armed launcher through a port in the aft of the magazine. This was done through a mechanical rammer which pushed the missile along a rail until it reached the launcher. In order to prevent catastrophic effects in the event of an accidental detonation (the missiles of the day being extremely sensitive), the magazine featured numerous blowout ducts and vents, as well as air conditioning. Altogether, the system functioned fast enough to reload one missile per minute for each arm, for a rate of fire of two missiles per minute, though in practice it proved to be somewhat slower. The aft deck and magazine structure were treated to withstand the high heats of a missile launch. Target acquisition was done through a Model 15K radar, the first to be fitted to any ship. A modified Model 01 fire control director was used to guide the missiles to the target. In order to keep the ship stable during a missile launch, stabilizer fins were considered but the Lumaruk-class were considered stable enough to omit this feature. The majority of her intermediate and light anti-aircraft armament was removed and replaced with two twin 8cm/50 automatic dual-purpose guns. Upon recommissioning in December 4716, she was redesignated as a guided missile destroyer and given the hull number KKY-513. She would then spend the next four years participating in various weapons trials and exercises, proving the feasibility of guided missile destroyers. She also proved that current missile systems were simply too bulky for the Lumaruk-class (which were beginning to be dwarfed by still larger postwar destroyers) and other ships of the class were converted into anti-submarine warfare escorts instead.

With her role as a testbed completed by 4721, she was decommissioned for conversion into a radar trials ship. Her missile battery was removed and a mast fitted atop the former missile magazine. No longer a guided missile destroyer, her hull number was reverted to KK-513. Throughout the 4720s, her aft mast was fitted with various radar systems and tested at sea. During these missions, she would also occasionally be detached to recover the crews of various space missions, including on her last mission, where she guarded the recovery of the first astronauts to land on the closer of the two moons. With her age beginning to show, she was decommissioned in 4730 and was donated to the Kirsaian National Science Museum, where she is permanently in dry dock. Restored to her appearance as a guided missile destroyer, her many systems and rooms are now used to educate visitors about early Kirsaian space exploration.


General Characteristics
Type: Destroyer
Displacement (Lumaruk, 4704): 2920 tons standard, 3680 tons full load
Displacement (Engal, 4716): 3250 tons standard, 3840 tons full load
Length: 133.35 m (wl), 136.86 m (o/a)
Beam: 11.8 m
Draught: 4.57 m
Installed Power: 3 x water-tube boilers, 65,000 shp
Propulsion: 2 shafts, 2 x geared steam turbines
Speed: 36 knots
Range: 8,000 nautical miles at 18 knots (as designed)
Complement: 370 (Lumaruk, 4704), 345 (Engal, 4716)
Armament:
As Built (4704):
- 8 x 13cm/50 Model 94 dual purpose guns (4 x II)
- 12 x 4cm/60 Model 02 anti-aircraft gun (2 x IV, 2 x II)
- 24 x 2cm/70 Model 00 anti-aircraft gun (12 x II)
- 2 x 61cm Model 99 quintuple torpedo tubes (10 x 61cm Model 94 Torpedoes, 10 x reloads)
- 1 x Multiple Anti-Submarine Projector (24 x 18cm Projectiles, 144 reloads)
- 4 x depth charge projectors, 2 x depth charge racks
As KKY-513 (4716):
- 4 x 13cm/50 Model 94 dual purpose guns (2 x II)
- 4 x 8cm/50 AL Model 08 dual purpose guns (2 x II)
- 4 x 2cm/70 Model 00 anti-aircraft gun (2 x II)
- 1 x 61cm Model 99 quintuple torpedo tubes (5 x 61cm Model 06 Torpedoes)
- 1 x Model 16 GMLS twin-arm SAM launcher
- 1 x Multiple Anti-Submarine Projector (24 x 18cm Projectiles, 144 reloads)

Polls Now Open
The submission period for the Before and After Challenge has ended.
You can rate each entry here.
Voting for the next challenge topic is also open.
Both polls will remain open until 23:59 (UTC-12) on Thursday, 6 February 2025. (Countdown Timer)

Options for the Next Challenge
Ekranoplan Challenge (FD Scale)
1. Your submission must depict a fictional Ground Effect Vehicle (GEV), also known as a Wing-In Ground Effect (WIGE) craft or an Ekranoplan.
2. The GEV should not be capable of regular flight many metres or feet above the ground.

Sixth Generation Air Dominance Platform Challenge (FD Scale)
1. Your submission must depict a fictional sixth generation air dominance platform.
2. It should enter active military service for the first time at some point between 2030 and 2050.
3. For the purposes of this challenge, a sixth generation air dominance platform is defined as an aircraft with substantial advantages over existing types in fields such as systems architecture, cooperation with other (manned or unmanned) assets, armaments, propulsion, and low observability, engineered for the sole purpose of denying the sky to the enemy. It need not be a traditional fighter.

Kangaroo Challenge (FD or Soldierbucket Scale)
1. Your submission must depict a fictional Kangaroo style personnel carrier.
2. The vehicle should have seating available for infantry/dismounts.
3. The vehicle should not have a gun of a calibre larger than 14.5 millimetres (0.57 inches)
4. The vehicle should enter service between 1940 and 1945.

Evolution Challenge (Soldierbucket Scale)
1. You must depict six figures originating from distinct periods of history.
2. Each period should have its own figure, and no period should have more than one.
3. The six figures should represent an evolution (of country's typical infantryman, or of fashion, for example).

Precision Rifle (Any Scale)
1. Your submission must depict a fictional military-issue rifle.
2. The rifle should be optimised for engagements beyond 300 metres (328 yards).
3. A telescopic sight must be mounted to the rifle.

The poll for the Before and After Challenge is now closed to responses. Thanks to everyone who submitted scores, as well as the artists who made this challenge possible. In first place is TenienteMaurice who received 501 points for the Carrión class cruiser in light and anti-aircraft configurations, a submission which also attained the highest design quality score. Following in second with 493 points and the highest drawing quality score is Minepagan with the Coast Guard cutter Eagle in its modern and sixteenth century visages. Baron von. Teapot comes in third, earning 489 points with HM Pansarskepp Fädernslandet and the Catania. Great work!





The Sixth Generation Air Dominance Platform Challenge is now open to anyone interested. The other options, as ranked, were: Evolution Challenge, Kangaroo Challenge, Ekranoplan Challenge, Precision Rifle Challenge.