ATLANTIS
As a seperate Alternate Universe event, I created the mythical Atlantis and created a backstory of events then produced a lot of drawings to match what I thought a country like Atlantis may have built. The ships I produced (except one) all used hulls drawn originally by Heuhen Heuser of Shipbucket, with his kind permission. The armaments and fire control were mainly French while the superstructures were a mixture of countries types.
Oh Atlantis, where did you go....
According to me, Atlantis went nowhere. It is still perched atop the
mid-Atlantic ridge. Two major areas linked by a narrow neck of land. Four major
cities with several largish towns and villages scattered around the rest of the
land.
While not large, the land abounds in natural resources. Wood, Iron, Coal, Gold
and Gems, all add to the legend of Atlantis being a rich land.
So, how do I wipe out the original occupants and then have the land being fought
over and colonised by the major colonial powers till it can gain independence in
the early 1800's?
The original Atlanteans were supposed to be an advanced peoples compared to the
rest of the known world of the times. So smart people make mistakes when they
try things just a little too advanced. My thought is that the Atlantean
scientists are delving into all sorts of advanced 'technologies'. One of these
was to improve agriculture production. Which went wrong. What they produced was
a violent plague that wiped out all mamalian life on Atlantis. The plague was so
virulent that it remained dormant/active for thousands of years. All visitors to
Atlantis up to the early 1600's would catch the plague and die. The land had an
evil reputation and was shunned.
The Dutch explorer Dirk Hartog, knowing of the evil reputation, landed three
sheep (2 ewes and a ram) and a pair of goats on Atlantis, sailed to the Azores
where he watered ship, then returned to Atlantis to see what had happened to the
livestock landed. Sailing close inshore the sheep were spotted alive and
seemingly healthy. Hartog left Atlantis and went out to Australia. A year or so
later on his return trip to Holland, Hartog called in at Atlantis to see what
had transpired, it was found that the three sheep had increased to eight, and
the goats had also been populous. Armed with this knowledge, Hartog returned to
Holland where an expedition was organised to fully explore Atlantis and claim it
on behalf of the Dutch Crown. What the expedition found was a land lush in bird
and insect life, trees and other flora bloomed. Mounds of decayed and rubble
strewn towns and cities spoke of a once great nation. A few stone collumns
hinted at once great buildings and palaces that were no more. Sifting through
the rubble unearthed many fabulous items and the Dutch explorers went home very
wealthy. A find like this was kept secret for about 10 minutes, and every
brigand and freebooter headed for Atlantis hoping to make their fortune.
Thus starts the modern age of Atlantis. Glossing over the next 150 years,
colonists from Holland, France, Spain and England all land and claim pieces of
Atlantis. Wars are fought between colonists. One of the outcomes of the Battle
of Trafalgar was to rid Atlantis of the French and Spanish presence, leaving the
British in control. The British reigned over Atlantis for over a hundred years
from 1710 until 1823 when an Atlantean Government was formed by disaffected
colonists that take over with a popular revolt. The US was quick to recognise
the new Government and other European powers followed suit, being happy to see
Britain lose control of another piece of Empire.
As the industrial revolution kicks off , Atlantis is in a prime position to take
advantage of the new technologies and keep to the Atlantean tradition of being
leaders of technology. All of the requirements for being a rich land were in
place. The Atlanteans knew that the only way to keep their sovereignty was to
ensure that any attacker would take such losses as to make Atlantis not worth
the huge expenditure that would be required to take it over. Backed with defense
pacts with the US, France and eventually Britain, Atlantis was left alone to
grow strong and populous.
Military spending was kept high through the late 1800's and early 1900's.
Atlantis' involvement in WW1 was minimal, and was mainly in production support
of the Allies. Atlantis declined to send troops to Europe. A token force of
ships were sent to aid the Allies, these being split between the Channel, North
Sea and Mediterrannean theaters. Atlantean strength was in its Navy (and later
airforce) with the Army being enough to fight and defend the homeland.
Post-WW1, Atlantis was made a signatory to the Washington and future Naval
Treaties. Like France and Italy there was some wiggle room in the Atlanteans
tonnage allocations that would allow Atlantis to build new ships in the 1930's.
Unlike a lot of countries Atlantis was not badly affected by the Great
Depression. Atlantis had also remained relatively unscathed from the flu
epidemic of the early 1920's. Atlantis had enforced a strict policy of
quarantine which helped to stop the spread of the disease.
With the outbreak of War in 1939, Atlantis was in a prime position to guard the
central Atlantic. Its patrol bombers and cruisers made life miserable for the
Germans. Hunting groups were formed to search out and destroy the raiders.
Atlantean escort groups made a huge difference to the Convoy system.
Hyperion was the shipbuilding and industrial centre of Atlantis. It eclipsed the
Capital, Olympus, in size during the Industrial age. Olympus had always been the
capital and the names of the largest cities were kept as per the original
Atlantean names. The smaller towns and villages were named after original
Atlantean places where these names could be found. Most smaller population
centers had been put in place to guard the trade routes between cities and to
guard the gem and gold mines.
The largest portion of the population of modern Atlantis were British, with good
sized portions of Dutch, French and Spanish to make up a cosmopolitan society.
1898 and the Atlantean Government passes the Naval Acquisition Act. The Act was to have built, 4 Battleships, 2 Armoured cruisers, and 4 Scout Cruisers. Atlantis knew that they could not hope to keep up with the building power of the British, Germans and other Great powers. What they had to do was to build the best ships they could. The Atlanteans also had an edge in optical equipment. The crystal and glass that they produced was second to none. It was also during this time that their mechanical genius Alexander Vermuyden came to the fore.
Alexander Vermuyden 1868-1940
Joins Atlantean Navy as boy cadet at 12 years old. At age 15 Alex was put in
charge of a motor pinnace as part of his cadetship. Alex rebuilt the motor to
give it 25% more power and where he received a commendation in his service
record from the Captain and Chief Engineer, the Boatswain tore a strip off him,
telling Alex the next time he wanted to play with one of 'his' boats he better
ask first. A salutary lesson at both ends of the scale. At age 17 he was made
acting-Midshipman which was confirmed on his 18th birthday. Alex's bent for
things engineering sent him off to the R&D Engineering section where he spent
the next two years learning all he could and suggesting tweaks that improved
various mechanical items. Now a sub-Lieutenant, Alex was sent to England to
learn from the best. Seconded to Parsons, Alex learnt and then assisted Charles
Parsons with the design and building of the first turbines. Now 1895 and the 27
year old Enineering Commander Alexander Vermuyden is recalled to Atlantis to
design and build the Atlantean Navies first turbine engines to be mounted in the
new ships ordered under the Naval Acquisition Act.
A small digression. While it would be nice to be able to build and man lots and
lots of ships, that is not very realistic. A country the size of Atlantis has
only a certain amount of personnel for manning the warships. With WW2, Atlantis
needs to retire some of the oldest ships to provide the major core of a new crew
for the more modern, war completed ships. The amount of crew to man one
battleship is enough to crew ten of the new DDE's. At the 1942-43 stage of the
war, the U-boat war was in the balance. Ten more DDE's would be more useful than
one battleship.
If any of the backstory sounds too much like bullshit. Too bad. It is what it
is.
Yes the map comes from good old Civ 3. I still have fun playing that game.
Atlantis in the early 1900's.
Atlantic Ocean showing Atlantis in its position in the Mid-Atlantic ridge. As can be seen, Atlantis is about twice the size of Ireland.