Attendence at the Kendal Ball (Part XIV)

Kendal Palace, Grosvenor Square, London, Great Britain: January 1886.

Sir Leo watched the expressions of the two Crossley brothers at this announcement, first momentarily blank, then when recognizition of the words my fiance hit. It was almost comical to watch really Sir Leo thought absently. Regis's eyebrows shot up towards his hair line, with astonishing rapidity and he took a half step back in surprise. Regis then warmly took Ursula's hands in his own and offered his congradulations and immediately asked a flurry of wedding and reception related questions. Well, Regis loved ceremonial occassions, especially happy, geniune ones. After pausing to take a breath, Regis offered his hand to Sir Thomas for a hardy handshake and best wishes. Sir Thomas with polished good manners accepted both, with equal warmth. The glow of happiness that surfused Ursula and Sir Thomas, would have lite up the room, had it not already been awash with lights of all sorts.

Roderick, however was a study in contrast to his brother Regis. Roderick looked like he had just been run through with a pike. Given that Sir Leo had survived having that happen to him back in East Africa in '72. He had some idea both what it both looked like and felt like! Regis glared at his brother's stricken silence and stunned expression for a fulminating minute, before Roderick reacted and managed to mumble words of congradulations to the pair. Roderick then excused himself from Ursula's presence and disappeared into the crowd of guests.

Regis just prevented himself from sighing aloud, as he watched Roderick's hasty, unseemingly departure. We are not here ten minutes, and already, Roderick is offering offense. Regis thought crossly. The expressions of the other guests immediately to hand, differed according to their temperments, Lady Penelope looked relieved that Ursula's bold announcement had not caused anything more unpleasant. Dame Daphne, looked tranquil and unconcerned, while Duncan Foster looked just as guarded, although an amused smile was trying to quirk the corners of his mouth. Sir Samuel Thistlewood, regarded Roderick's hurried and undignified retreat with undisquised contempt. While, Allistair Scattergood and Philipa Fieldhouse, both shared bemused glances. Regis noticed, that Sir Leo kept his gaze on Roderick for several long moments before saying a few words to a nearby postillion, to which the servant nodded and disappeared into the crowd, after Roderick.

Ursula's expression as she watched Roderick flee her presence, there was no other word for it, was to put it mildly, indecently triumphant. Then again, this was hardly unexpected, she hated Roderick, which surprised no one who knew either of the two principals. Regis stiffled the impulse to sigh again. Roderick had always exhibited a singular talent for making people dislike him, and many of his social peers absolutely despised him. What many of his social inferiors thought of him, was not even printable in mixed or polite company. Years ago, Roderick had thought it fun, along with a cortie of his usual vapid, sychophantic hangers on, to try and humilate Ursula at her first formal ball. Sir Leo, who was at that same ball, largely to please his mother had decided to intervene, and he had stepped on Roderick, brutally. There were distinct advantages to being someones social superior both in family lineage and in rank, and Sir Leo had ruthlessly used both to humilate Roderick. Regis had heard a lot about that evening from various sources over the years, and to a certain extent approved of the savage snubs, Sir Leo had administered to his younger brother. It did not happen nearly often enough, otherwise Roderick might actually have learned to moderate his behaviour by now.

Ursula was finally getting her own lethal broadside in at Roderick, Regis thought. Ursula had as time went on, acquired a definite and stylish, poise and grace, it did not hurt that her neat and attractive looks had improved as she matured. Ursula's refusal to bend or kowtow to him, had had a strange effect on Roderick, who was it had to be said used to getting his own way in most things, particularly women. Roderick had conceived a strange infatuation for Ursula, which Regis though both bad form, considering his previously insulting behaviour towards Ursula, and unhealthy as it was completely obvious to everyone but Roderick, that Ursula did not return his advances and frequently rebuffed them.

Regis, forced himself to not sigh aloud. Roderick was likely going to spend the rest of the evening sulking, and with Roderick a good long sulk, usually ment drinking himself into a stupor. If Regis was lucky, Roderick would drink himself scarlet, and pass out on some sofa somewhere and put himself out of harm's way. Sir Leo was obviously thinking much the same thing, as he watched Roderick disappear into the throng filling the hall.

Flight of the X-2 (Part I)

Royal Airship Works, Cardington, Bedfordshire, Great Britain.

The sun had yet to raise up over the sleepy countryside in Bedfordshire. The Royal Airship Works at Cardington were however another matter, the grounds and associated buildings, barracks and worksites of the airship works were a teeming hive of activity, as work crews, airship handlers and mechanics were up and moving purposefully inside and outside the massive double airship hangers housing the four R.N.A.S. rigid airships of the Special Airship Reconnaissence Division.

The Special Airship Reconnaissence Division was the brainchild of both the Admiralty and Her Majesty's Secret Service. The Airship Service of the Royal Navy was divided into several commands, each with their own specialization. Technically the S.A.R. Division did not exist at least on the offical books of organization of the Royal Navy any way, and was hidden behind a wall of governmental bureaucratic and naval administrative red tape. This was hardly surprising, as the S.A.R's primary job was prying into the military affairs of other nations, particularly things those nations wanted to keep secret.

The X-class airships were themselves a top secret development within the British Airship establishments. They were larger, faster and possessed greater carrying power then any other British airships in existence. The X-class used a different lifting agent in their gas cells, then other British airships either military or civil, which used hydrogen gas. Hydrogen while highly effective at producing lift and being both easy and cheap to produce, had the highly dangerous property of being highly combustible when mixed with any amount of oxygen. Thus hydrogen filled airships had to carry out special safety procedures and rigid operational protocols to minimize the chances of accidental fires and explosions.

The X-class used Helium gas, which while a great deal more expensive to produce or obtain, and being less effective at producing lift then Hydrogen, was a great deal safer to operate with. Offically the only source of Helium was found within the state of Texas, which was part of the Confederate States of America. The Confederacy had placed strict limits on how much Helium it exported at any time to any one power. Speculation within the S.A.R. was that British authorities had discovered another source of Helium to exploit, although it was felt it was not a large source otherwise the whole of the R.N.A.S. airship fleet would have been converted to it.

Of the four X-class airships, HMS X-1 had been by far the most active. X-1 had already made several lengthy and successful research cruises over North America, Central America and South America as well as well several shorter trips over the North and South Atlantic Oceans. The X-1 had also been busy training the crews for the soon to be operational X-3 and X-4. The HMS X-2 had been moderately active compared to her sister ship, having made several full power trials and endurance test flights, and been used to test new outfits of spying equipement. X-2 had made only three operational flights, the first had been over the Mediterrean Sea, which had been quiet and uneventful enough. The second cruise had been over Austria-Hungary, which had been something in the nature of a diaster. The X-2 had been spotted early in the start of it's cruise after it had left from a secret base in the Kingdom of Greece. How, was still not known, but Austro-Hungarian air and sky ships had dogged it's flight path the momement it entered Austrian territory and persistently refused to be shaken off no matter what evasive action the X-2 had taken.

The captain of the X-2, Dame Marianne Turner, had decided on her own authority to call off the flight. A sensible decision given events, but not one welcomed by her superiors in the Admiralty, the Airship Command or the Foreign Office. After a refit at Malta, the X-2 had been sent out on another long-range reconnaissance, over the length and breath of the Ottoman Empire. This mission proved largely successful and was completed without serious mishap. Following both X-1 and X-2's return to Cardington, both airships had been taken in hand for massive refits and partial rebuilding to test new equipements, new engines and for the addition of two extra gas cells within their superstructures to increase their height climbing and weight carrying abilities.

X-1 was found to have suffered a major deterioration of several large sections of it's envelope covering, particularly just foreward of the tail fin assembly and just back of the airship's nose, wrapping around much of the hull. Both called for immediate and extensive refurbishing before the X-1 could fly again, particularly as the bow section which took the most stress when flying with dynamic lift and borne the brunt of rain or hail while in flight.

For Vice-Admiral Sir Alfred Wedgewood, who paced back and forth impatiantly outside the cavernous hanger door, which slowly rolled open to allow the airship entombed within to exit. This necessary delay was not a welcome development. The replacement of the affected envelope cover would take several weeks, including trials to see if the new cover was up to standard. Wedgewood had ordered all of the other X-class ships checked to see if they had suffered the same deterioration. So far, only X-1 and X-2 showed it this problem. The X-3 and X-4 were still in their respective double hanger under construction and while they were largely finished as far as their framework and internal structures and fittings were conscerned, their Gas cells had been fitted and test filled, neither had as of yet been sheathed in fabric.

In X-1 and X-2, the outer cover was linen fabric, silver doped on a red oxide base. Square section sample taken from both airships had revealed that much of the cover had been repaired or strengthened on it's inner surface with two-inch tapes that had then been stuck on with adhesive or doping. Wedgewood had wound up putting his hand through one of the samples, it was nearly as friable as scotched brown paper and broke up easily into flakes if even light pressure was applied to it. The Airship Technical Lab had anaylized the samples and discovered that several sections of outer cover had reinforcing patches applied to them with a rubber adhesive solution. The solution was found to have reacted with the doping agent and the linen cover to cause the fabric to deteriorate.

Vice-Admiral Wedgewood, now found himself in a difficult position, the X-1, the most experienced spy ship in the S.A.R. had been requested by the government to undertake a special intelligence mission in the Central Asian territories of the Russian Empire. There was no way, that the X-1 could be made ready in time to depart for British India to undertake the operation. Actually the engineers had informed the admiral, that the airship could be made ready but it would involve cutting corners on the repairs and cutting the needed speed, power and endurance trials necessary to confirm the X-1 was air worthy to the absolute minimum. Wedgewood, his airship works engineers and Captains Turner and Varley were all agreed, that was both dangerous and stupid.

That left him with only one other option, given the circumstances. The X-2 had to be assigned the job, and prepped to undertake the mission to India and beyond. Wedgewood was assured that the X-2 was ready for the mission, her refit and rebuilding had gone smoothly, all the previous trials and tests had also gone extremely well. True, X-2's captain and crew was less experienced then X-1 and it's captain, Sir Markus Varley. However, both he and Varley felt confident in Captain Turner's competence and discretion.

Some Thoughts on the Development of Airpower in A.A.S.S.I.

Heavier-then-air aircraft i.e. aircraft or airplanes are a fairly recent innovation in the A.A.S.S.I. background although the principles of flight have been well understood since Antiquity. Innovation in aircraft design lead to the development of lighter-then-air travel becoming widespread before the 19th century, via the medium of hot air balloons and those using later lifting gas of superior performance such as hydrogen and helium gas.

Further experimentation lead to the development of blimps, semi-rigid and rigid dirigibles or airships. Attempts to develop steam powered aircraft however were something of a dead end as the particularities of steam engines fire boxes and boilers do not lend themselves to air travel, although air plane designs powered by steam ball/accumulators did enjoy some success as they dispensed with furnaces and boilers altogether, but often these designs lacked extended endurance in flight and were subject to varied power plant performances at different altitudes and atmospheric pressures. Both early observation balloons, early airships and aircraft played a innovative although often mixed part in land and sea warfare through several wars including the Napoleonic Era and later wars such as the Crimean War and the American Civil War, as did the fast emerging sky ship technologies.

As if the 1880s, air power of all three types: airplanes, dirigibles/airships and sky ships, are integrated into the various countries militaries, although no one as yet has all three weapons systems in an separate national air force, most aircraft or airships are part of either a given army or navy's branches, while sky ships still tend to be the preserve of most navies, except in one of two rare cased of land locked countries, which have no regular naval forces save perhaps riverine forces.

A New Beginning on the Gulf of Tadjoura

January 6, 1889, Sagallo, the Gulf of Tadjoura, French Somilialand.

Flag of New Moscow (Sagallo).

The Fort and Colony of Sagallo

Nikolay Ivanovitch Achinov, Governor of the Free Cossack Colony of New Moscow (Sagallo) and Hetman of the Tadjoura Cossack Host.

The trio of steam ships anchored without fuss or fanfare in the placid waters of the Gulf of Tadjoura, off shore of the coastal village of Sagallo. Two of the ships were Russian registered, SS Kornilov and SS Lazarev, while the third SS Amfitrida ((Austrian Lloyd, built 1884, 3,839 grt) was of Austro-Hungarian registry. The captain of the Amfitrida, which was acting as the convoy's flagship watched as the first boats and launches moved towards the shore to land and take possession of Sagallo, little more then a miserable collection of hovels as one of his officers had remarked when they had first arrived.

Sagallo had in the centuries past been an important meeting point for the trade caravans travelling throughout the Horn of Africa region and beyond. Local dhows, trading thoughout the Gulf of Tadjoura and Red Sea, had and still did use the village as a transfer, watering and vitualing port. The Gulf itself offered much in the way of trade and resourse possibilies: timber from the coastal mangroves, Pearls and fish from the local fisheries and fishing grounds, as well as coral from the numerous reefs and salt from the coastal salt pans and marshes. All that was required was investment capital, organization and people.

The Ottoman Empire had come to rule much of the area around the 16th century and had built a fort, barracks and outposts to secure and patrol the area around Sagallo. However the Ottomans had slowly begun a steady withdrawal of their interest and their administration and troops even before Italy, Great Britain, Abyassinia and France had begun to stake claims in the Eritea and the Somilialands. The outcomes of the 2nd Anglo-Ottoman War had put paid to any further interest that the Ottoman Empire had in the region, and their withdrawal had accelerated with indecent hast. In the end, the last of their outposts, camps, forts and barracks in the region had been left to rot or be taken over by the native Somali or Afar tribesmen.

The Russian Empire while greatly interested in affairs nearer to home in Central Asia, East Asia and the Balkans, had been encouraged to take an interest in colonizing efforts outside Europe and Eurasia. From what the captain understood from talking to the officers of the Russian expedition. So out to these scortched lands by the sea, had come some one hundred and sixty-five Terek Cossacks and thirty-four civilian colonists. Their leader was a colourful, robust fellow, the captain thought. Nikolay Ivanovitch Achinov, had gone out with the first boats to claim the fort and raise the flag of his free cossack colony, over Sagallo.

Evidently Achinov had an agreement with the Sultan of Tadjoura, Mohammed Loitah, for the lease of the lands in and around Sagallo. The Austrian captain had expressed concern to Achinov at the small size of the expedition. In colonies, particularly starting ones, manpower and skills were always at a premium. Achinov had agreed and pointed out that this group was merely the first wave of colonists, more would arrive in the next few days and following weeks. In the meantime, mindful of the needs of a developing colony, the three ships had been stuffed nearly to bursting with tools, machinery, construction and building materials, camp equipment and utentials, trade goods for business with the locals and munitions.

Which thought the captain, at least put the Cossacks off to a reasonable start. Although Achinov had been confident of his relations with the natives in the area. Some of his cossack officers and his colonists had expressed reservations about how the French were likely to response, once they realized the colony had been established in territory they claimed. The captain had warned them at a council meeting just before the first boats had been sent away, that the French had invested the majority of their attention on the south coast of the Gulf, they were not likely to take notice of anything going on with regards to the Northern side of the Gulf unless it was loud and dramatic or too close for comfort to their naval station at the Port of Obock. The French had a Naval Squadron at Obock, consisting of a cruiser and three gunboats. If the French were in the mood to be belligerant then they were in the position to do something about it.

A Question of Territorial Exchange (Part III)

Imperial and Royal Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ballhausplatz, Vienna, Austria-Hungary, January 1889.

"In addition to the former Ifni consul-general, I am also expecting an offical from the Spanish Embassy, to explore the details of this offer." Haymerle remaked absently returning his attention to the papers on his desk.

"The Spanish are being damned secretative about the whole affair but at the same time energetic about pushing the matter with us. Probably worries about how the matter will be viewed by the parties in the Spanish Cortes." Haymerle said after some moments of quiet refection. Archduke Friedrich nodded in response before commenting himself.

"I suppose, the Spanish Embassy is anxious because of all the diplomatic thunder and lightning that was occassioned by our ongoing negotiations into obtaining a lease on Walfisch Bay from the Germans in their Southwest Africa colony. They likely expect a similar uproar from the other Great Powers with an interest in the West African situation as it currently stands. Then there is the Moroccan side of it. How will the Sultan Hassan react?"

"Hm. True, very true." Haymerle nodded and turned as his aide knocked at the door, then entered.

"Yes, Franz?"

"The former Ifni Protectorate consul-general and senior military officer has just arrived, Your Excellency do you want to see him immediately?"

"Yes, Franz, send him in immediately."

Haymerle, gave his side whiskers another absentminded but thoughtful tug, as he turned the matter over again in his mind. Compared to most of the Great Powers, Austria-Hungary's colonial possessions were fairly minor. They amounted to a handful of colonies, protectorates and trade concessions scattered around the world; just enough to give the Empire a certain amount of prestige amoungst it's peers. They were also quietly prosperous and internally peaceful enough on their own merits that they did not cost the k.u.k. government too much to protect, police or administer to. The flip side of that agreeable equilibrium was that said colonies, protectorates and concessions were sufficiently profitable and so placed that they inevitablely irked someone else in the region or found themselves being entertained in some other powers's expansionistic designs.

Haymerle, snorted to himself quietly, in thoughtful exasperation and sarcasm.

The bulk of the colonial trade concessions that the Austro-hungarian Empire possessed rested in Asia. In particular, the two trade concessions in the Chinese cities of Shanghai and Tientsin respectively. The other two Asian concessions were in India, Cabelon on the Coromandel Coast and Banquibazar on the Hooghli River, upstream from Calcutta in Bengal. These concessions were almost exclusively concerned with trade and travel and thus were largely run by the k.u.k. Consular Service, although the Ministry of the Marine and Colonies was in charge of their security and overall management. The last of the Austro-Hungarian trade concessions was located in Delagoa Bay, in Portuguese East Africa. It had been established by the Austrian East India Company in the 1776-81 period and had sufficiently annoyed the Portuguese into attempting by force to evict the trade concession from an area they considered theirs.

Their response had been to send a battalion of 500 men and a 40-gun frigate from Portuguese Goa in India to drive the Austrians enscounced at the trade fortresses of St Joseph and St Maria. The Austrian East India Company had been warned that the attempt was coming and had taken precautions including assembling a small fleet of a half dozen warships or heavily armed east indianman merchantile vessels and reinforced the fortresses with several hundred men and a hundred artillery pieces of various sizes. To the Portuguese commander's credit he did make a serious effort to carry out his orders but after being defeated by William Bolts, the Portugese authorities thought better of the effort and concentrated on other more profitable projects.

The Austro-Hungarian colonies proper could be considered to start with North Borneo in the East Indies, this area had been acquired semi-privately in the 1866, 1876 and 1879 by the Torrey-Dent-Overbeck Colonial Trade Company before becoming a formal Austrian possession in 1881. Moving westward towards Europe came the Nicobar islands, in eastern part of the India Ocean. These islands had been originally claimed by the Austrian East India Company as far back as 1778. The Austrians had stubbornly held onto them despite various attempts by both the Danish and the English to dislodge them at various times, sometimes by force. Next came the Austro-Hungarian Diu Enclave in western India, which actually included Diu island and a sizeable portion of the adjacent shore.

Pictures of my Sir Leo Stanley Worthing-Topper Cosplay 2019-2020

The First and Second Pictures were taken in 2019.

The next pictures were taken in 2020.

I've made a small number of changes over time, the extensive sideburns I now have is the latest, and helps with giving the cosplay a more period feel, as do the spectacules.

A Question of Territorial Exchange (Part II)

Imperial and Royal Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ballhausplatz, Vienna, Austria-Hungary, January 1889.

 "Quite honestly, I am still surprised the Spanish government is even willing to bring the matter up. They have had to surrender or sell off so much of their colonial empire over the last two centuries, that they have shown a very stubborn resistence to parting with anything they have left." Haymerle commented once again tugging on his side whiskers thoughtfully.

"Well, consider it from their point of view, the Ifni Protectorate is surrounded on three sides by the Sultanate of Morocco. They have considerablely more valuable and extensive territories in northern Morocco, on the south side of the Straits of Gibraltar and the Spanish Sahara: the Rio de Oro as they sometimes call it, to the south of Morocco, adjacent to the Spanish Canary islands. If they feel they have to sacrifice one of their three remaining African holding to concentrate on the other two, then Ifni is the one they can afford with the least investment in it both from a national and emotional point of view." Archduke Friedrich remarked as he considered the matter carefully.

"And it would not kick up too much of a fuss for us domestically to accept the offer, although offically, the cabinet-council is not interested in further colonial adventures of any kind, we have all the trouble we need here at home or in the colonial holdings we already have." Haymerle, picked up a map of northern Africa from the clutter of papers upon his desk. "That said, I really do not know much about the place so I am not at all sure I could get the cabinet and His Majesty to accept the idea. The Spanish still have not told me exactly what they want for it, yet."

Haymerle, passed the map to the Archduke, who nodded in agreement with the foreign minister's skeptical mood. Archduke Friedrich looked at the Ifni Protectorate map critically for some minutes before commenting.

 "Well it is a north African port, which would give us a station and stop off point on the Atlantic for our Navy and our Merchant Marine for other more important ports of call. I have briefly visited the place several times over the years. As I recall it is not an terribly exciting place, it's basically an enclave centered on the fishing port of Sidi Ifni with a few hundred square kilometers of sparsely populated hinterland surrounding it. That said, it is at least a quietly prosperous and largely contented place. I have never heard the Spanish having much problem administering the place. Though the Sultans of Morocco have had their eye on the protectorate though since the Spanish first put down roots there in the 1400s if I recall correctly."

"I imagine the Sultan will not enjoy the news that someone else might take over the place."

"I imagine not, but I think we can make such a deal acceptable to the Sultan's government, if we offer them some worthwhile economic or political incentives."

Haymerle frowned thoughtfully as he considered the matter once again, then sighed and tugged on his side whiskers.

"Well, I have sent for one of the former consul-generals we had assigned to the place, to give me some first hand information about the place and how it might be valuable to us. More importantly he can tell us, just how much trouble it will cause us locally if we do accept the Spanish offer. Assuming of course, we can actually convince His Majesty and the Cabinet-Council to accept the offer."

"When do you expect him?" Archduke Friedrich asked.

"Momentarily, actually. He is a naval officer, since Sidi Ifni did not require a full diplomatic offical, just someone to look after trade and the odd visiting Austro-Hungarian citizen or business group that might have cause to be in the enclave. He also looked after such military affairs as we had and as might be necessary in the region. He came back to Vienna last year and has been attached to the foreign ministry archives. He has been helping with the ongoing updates of the information dossiers, the ministry maintains on Morocco in particular and the West African affairs in general."