An Age of Steam, Steel and Iron

It is the year 1889 A.D., an age of enlightened discovery, of unrivaled and often fantastic scientific and technological progress: powered by coal, steam and electricity. It is also an age of empires and empire building, of fierce and often complex competition for wealth and material resources by both governments, corporations and private individuals. The Nations of Europe, the Americas, Africa and Asia vie for power, prestige and prosperity on the world stage and across the solar system.

Welcome Lords, Ladies and Gentlemen.

Welcome Lords, Ladies and Gentlefolk.

This blog will be devoted to my literary and cosplay interests and stories set in my own alternative historical steampunk background. I hope people enjoy the stories, as much as I enjoy devising and writing them and that it stimulates their own artistic interests, entertains them or if nothing else fires their own imaginations.

A special note to new readers of this blog, the entries "Nation States" are gazetteers of the nations as they exist in the An Age of Steam, Steel and Iron background, each with a few remarks/observations about each nation as they exist within. Any post headed by the title containing the words "Story Snippet" or "Fragments" is a stand alone, snapshot of the background, they will be developed into fuller stories in future, but at present they serve to give the viewer/reader a measure of what this world is like, what is going on in it and who some of the players are. Full stories, will be headed by their title and a roman number, as they will generally be in several parts.

Comments, suggestions or remarks by readers are welcomed.

I would like to thank the following people:

Yaya Han, for getting me seriously interested in cosplay at a time when things were looking very glum for me back in 2006 with several extended stays in hospital due to illness, and motivating me to get actively involved.

Ashley Du aka UndeadDu, for her unfailing friendship and cheerful support since we first met in 2014 at the Hamilton Comic Con, and for being my Cosplay mentor and advisor.

Sara Marly, for her interest in and support for my writings, since we first met in 2016 at the Hamilton Comic Con and incidently helping me make up my mind to finally do this.

Stephen Thomson, my friend, for his advise and assistance with creating and setting up this blog.

Daniel Cote, my friend and co-worker for his advise and friendship over the years.

The People of the The Aegy's Gathering (particularly Jonathan Cresswell-Jones, Scott Washburn and Jenny Dolfen, all of whom I have kept in contact with over the years), who were brought together in friendship by a certain randomness of chance and a common interest in the Honor Harrington books and stayed together despite distance and the strains of life.

The People of the Wesworld Alternative History website, who gave me the opportunity to sharpen my writing and story telling skills while directing the affairs of Lithuania and briefly France during their 1930s timelines.

My parents Mary Ellen (1946 - 2019) and Logan, my siblings Adam and Danika and various friends both online and at work and play for putting up with me, encouraging and supporting me both in the very good times and the very bad times.

I remain as always yours very sincerely, your obedient servant, Matthew Baird aka Sir Leopold Stanley Worthing-Topper

Tuesday, August 13, 2019

International Squadron, Hawaiian Islands, 1889

The ships of the International Squadron, at Pearl Harbour, Hawaii

HMS Shannon, armoured cruiser, Great Britain

MNV Triomphante, central-battery ironclad, France

HIJMS Chishima, unprotected cruiser, Japan

HIRMS General Admiral, armoured cruiser, Russia

USS Petrel, patrol gunboat, United States of America

SMS Deutschland, central-battery ironclad, Germany

SMS Kaiser, central-battery ironclad, Austria-Hungary

HMCMS Sagunto, central-battery ironclad, Spain

HPMS Vasco da Gama, coastal defense ironclad, Portugal

CSS Tallahassee, unprotected cruiser, Confederate States of America

These ships represent their respective nations as station and patrol ships in the Kingdom of Hawai'i and it's associated islands. As various trade and communications routes pass through Hawaiian territorial waters, periodic anti-piracy patrols are mounted by these ships in co-ordination with the Hawaiian Royal Navy.

The Austro-Hungarian central-battery ironclad, SMS Lissa and the Japanese protected cruiser, HIJMS Unebi and the German armoured corvette SMS Oldenburg are scheduled to reinforce the squadron later this year. The Spanish ironclad Sagunto is due to return to Cavite Naval Dockyard in the Spanish Philippines for a long delayed refit to repair recent damage suffered in numerous actions against Red Serpentine Pirates. The Spanish Admiralty has announced that it will be replaced by their newest battleship HMCMS Pelayo.

SMS Lissa, central-battery ironclad, Austria-Hungary

HIJMS Unebi, protected cruiser, Japan

HMCMS Pelayo, barbette ship, Spain

SMS Oldenburg, armoured corvette (central-battery ironclad), Germany

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Observations of the Past

"The Times has made many ministries." -- Walter Bagehot [The English Constitution, 1]

"The whole history of civilization is strewn with creeds and institutions which were invaluable at first and deadly afterwords." -- Walter Bagehot [Physics and Politics]

"All the troubles of men are caused by one single thing, which is their inability to stay quietly in a room." -- Blaise Pascal [Pensees, II, 139]

"The truth is rarely pure and never simple. Modern life would be very tedious if it were either, and modern literature a complete impossibility." -- Oscar Wilde [The Importance of Being Earnest, I]

"We have stood alone in that which is called isolation - our splendid isolation, as one of our colonial friends was good enough to call it." -- Lord George Goschen [Speech, 1896]

[Of the Schleswig-Holstein question] "There are only three men who have ever understood it: one was Prince Albert, who is dead; the second is a German professor, who became mad. I am the third -- and I have forgotten all about it." -- Henry John Temple, Viscount Palmerston [Attributed, Quoted in Palmer, Quotations in History]

"If you wish to get on with the people with whom you are living, you must not be looking for perpetual opportunities of getting a little advantage over them; you must view your own claims and theirs in a just and neighbourly spirit, --- on the one hand never sacrificing any important or genuine right in respect to which you think that oppression or encroachment is being attempted, ---and, on the other hand, abstaining from erecting small controversies into envenomed disputes and treating every difference as a matter of vital principle." -- Robert Arthur Talbot Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury, [Speech at Caernarvon, 1888]

Welcome Lords, Ladies and Gentlemen.

Tuesday, August 13, 2019

International Squadron, Hawaiian Islands, 1889

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