A Plethora of Princes (12) - The Sighing of The Wind

[Grey Wolf]

Part 10-ish

February 1887 also sees the appointment of a new and more dynamic Secretary of the Navy. Public opinion in the USA had been clamouring for some action, stating that surely it was the job of the navy to prevent the convoys of British troops to Uruguay, or in the ice-free period to Rupertsland. The first action of the new regime is the seizure of the Bahamas. This had been an oft-mooted plan in the past, and the British had initially posted a full regiment for the islands' defence, but as time passed and no US action occurred, the defenders had been reduced in number. Now, the US seizes the islands with very little loss, but provoking a strongly worded complaint from the Spanish government, for whom the Bahamas look like a stepping stone from East Florida to their island of Cuba.

- - -

I'm finding this more difficult than I thought I would. For example, a clash between the British and US fleets over the Rupertsland convoys - where ??? As far as I can see, the British will sail from the Western Approaches across the Atlantic to the Labrador Sea in a straight line. The best point theoretically would seem to be somewhere North-East of Newfoundland, but how the hell are the Americans to actually locate the British in this large swathe of ocean ? The alternative is to lie off the point of departure (logistically impossible without a European ally) or to lie in wait in the Labrador Sea
(which raises equally perplexing questions of supply and how long they can remain on station).

Anyone have any ideas ???

Grey Wolf

 

[eschaton]

I think it's fairly clear that supplies would go through the Hudson Strait, as sending them around Baffin would be too difficult most of the year, and that would be the natural choke point.

It would be doable *if* Labrador is part of Newfoundland, and Lower Canada decides to let U.S. resupply its ships through Nain or some other nearby port.

 

[Grey Wolf]

I think it's fairly clear that supplies would go through the Hudson Strait, as sending them around Baffin would be too difficult most of the year, and that would be the natural choke point.

It would be doable *if* Labrador is part of Newfoundland, and Lower Canada decides to let U.S. resupply its ships through Nain or some other nearby port.

Thank you for the reply

My sort of Canadian fudge has created an independent federal republic of Lower Canada including Quebec, Labrador, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia etc but this state has declared absolute neutrality and is refusing to let either Britain or the USA get any supplies from it.

The US could of course do what Rozhestvensky did on his grand world tour in 1904-5 and simply resupply from their own ships in a deserted coastal bay until asked to move on, whereupon they pop up to the next one.

Grey Wolf

 

[Othniel]

Surely there are sympathiers for both sides. Not everyone follows the rules.

 

[eschaton]

What about Denmark? By this time there will probably be a port of some sort in southern Greenland that the U.S. could use.

 

[Grey Wolf]

Surely there are sympathiers for both sides. Not everyone follows the rules.

Well yes, but I think that's called smuggling And not likely to be sufficient to supply a fleet. The FRC's going to have a coastguard of its own, heck its probably seeing a massive expansion of the coast guard (one word or two ?), and probably for just this reason. If its policy, then their own nationals are going to be expected to follow it. The reasoning behind the absolute neautrality is not a throw-away thing, it is a matter of life or death - to get too involved, to identify themselves with either side leaves them open to invasion in the short-term, or long-term emnity in the longer-term. Only by neutrality does the federal government at Montreal see any way of keeping their long-term independence. You could probably envisage very harsh penalties for breaking the law too, a military enforcement of it, with military-style punishments.

Grey Wolf

 

[Othniel]

Well sense you have just cut them off from their two biggest sources of trade.... Can anybody else see either riots, or annexation besides myself? (Or a few hundread people get vvery rich very fast.) There will be a high raise in crime, and the people will be pushed. I think we see a version of socialism needing to be applied in order to keep neutrality.

 

[Grey Wolf]

Well sense you have just cut them off from their two biggest sources of trade.... Can anybody else see either riots, or annexation besides myself? (Or a few hundread people get vvery rich very fast.) There will be a high raise in crime, and the people will be pushed. I think we see a version of socialism needing to be applied in order to keep neutrality.

Well, that's true. I'll stress they aren't barred from ALL trade with the belligerents. Its in the text somewhere exactly what they banned. Its going to be hard but should not be impossible. There is also increased trade with Upper Canada which is in an even worse position. You are probably also correct in that people are bending the rules, buying or selling to third parties etc. Its definitely going to make a section of the merchant comunity very rich!

Grey Wolf

 

[Othniel]

As I was saying, the enviroment you have is going to cause them to either choose sides, or will lead to a rebellion, big or small.

 

[Grey Wolf]

As I was saying, the enviroment you have is going to cause them to either choose sides, or will lead to a rebellion, big or small.

The position of Quebec is an interesting question. Quite a few of the Radical exiles have settled there, which would certainly lessen the Regent of France's affection for it. At the same time, the Francophone population of the Federal Republic of Lower Canada are still considered cousins, if not brothers. France is probably willing to provide loans to Montreal to see it through the immediate difficulties of the war.

That could have interesting repurcussions, tying at least the Francophone part of the FR of Lower Canada to France again.

I'm also going somewhere with the Maritime Provinces in their differences with Quebec, and the tensions exacerbated by the war, but this won't become obvious until after the peace

Best Regards
Grey Wolf

 

[Othniel]

Something will happen there, just as something will happen to all the Americas. Too bad tanks aren't around yet...

 

[Grey Wolf]

Something will happen there, just as something will happen to all the Americas. Too bad tanks aren't around yet...

I'm not sure what tanks would make of the Saint Lawrence

But something will happen.

I'm just putting the finishing touches to the final part of part 12, doing it as a sort of retrospective from December 1887

Best Regards
Grey Wolf

 

[Grey Wolf]

Part 11 - The Peace of December 1887

The Treaty of peace was signed in December 1887. Brokered by France, it was signed in Montreal, with the Federal Republic of Lower Canada playing host to what was probably its first diplomatic meeting of international importance, ever.

With the Duke of York's counter-attacks in the River Plate having won a series of victories mid-year against the initially resurgent US Navy, the Americans had been forced to base their ships upon Bahia Blanca, too difficult had it become to continue the station at Buenos Aires. The British bombardment, using massive 100 ton Armstrong guns in the new bombardment craft, supplemented by a development of the incdendiary rocket, had reduced much of the city to rubble by the time that the British offensive of the Autumn carried the frontier province and invested the city itself. With Argentine forces falling back to defend their capital, the US expeditionary force had been able to hold the line against the Paraguayans, but the fall of Buenos Aires in early November, followed a week later by a smashing defeat of the Argentine army in the field, had cut the ground from under the Americans' feet. A new interim president, from his base at Mar del Plata (midway down the coast between Buenos Aires and Bahia Blanca) had requested an armistice.

The defeat of the US Navy's second attempt to interdict the British Rupertsland convoys had already weakened the USA's resolve to carry on the war. The first attempt had been a fiasco, with the US fleet sailing vainly, and vaguely in the Atlantic off Newfoundland, and failing to locate the enemy. The second attempt was more daring, and more difficult, the US basing their fleet in the entrance to the Labrador Sea. A great naval battle had thus been fought in the Arctic seas of early Summer, the losses in terms of warships on both sides being severe. But British cruisers had shepherded the convoy away from the battle, and safely into the Hudson Bay. Whilst tactically the battle was a draw, strategically it had been a victory for the British.

American privateers, basing themselves on Grand Bahama and operating against British trade in the mid Atlantic increasingly became a concern and a source of fury during 1887. British warships escorted not only the Rupertsland convoys, but also the River Plate convoys, and from Gibraltar onwards the Russian grain convoys to the British Isles. Left undefended were the huge number of British-flagged merchant ships plying their traditional routes, largely unaffected by war. Within the Caribbean Sea itself much of the trade was now carried in Texan, and even Mexican flagged, vessels. Some of these were ex-British or ex-US flagged ships who had changed their registration to Galveston, or to Vera Cruz, a lot of it was new construction as the native mercantile industries boomed. But in the Atlantic, individual British merchant ships sailed as they had sailed before the war, rich-pickings for US privateers, and for US Navy commerce raiding cruisers.

But it was the action of the privateers that upset international feelings the most. Operating under the US equivalent of Letters of Marque, these vessels attacked and either took, or sank, British merchant ships as they came across them. But they were less strict in their application of any understanding of contraband of war. Several ships carrying much-anticipated industrial wares to Spanish-owned Cuba were intercepted and sunk. So angry did the small industrialist community at Havana and Santiago become that Spain began to institute patrols of their own deep into the Atlantic to receive and shepherd in such vessels. After a privateer was intercepted atempting to sink a merchant ship, just as it entered the zone of protection, the danger of war between Spain and the Unites States became real.

Within Rupertsland, British resistance in the Rocky Mountains continued fiercely, with Calgary several times coming under threat of US artillery bombardment but never falling to the Americans. The major US thrust towards the Hudson Bay was still bogged down around Lake Winnipeg, and although the expanse of the plains between the two fronts was open to both sides, the US Army did not have the manpower to occupy it, not without a huge effort that would have brought little gain. Instead they occupied individual strongpoints, excercised influence in the territory around it, and from time to time faced British counter-offensives that would sometimes retake the position, and sometimes be beaten off.

The Treaty of Montreal, signed for the British by the new Governor General of Rupertsland, Prince Frederick, Duke of Clarenace, and by the commander of all British forces in Rupertsland, General Charles Gordon, as well as by the Ambassador to the Federal Republic of Lower Canada, had the following stipulations :-

1. The British Guyana/Venezuela border was fixed at the Orinoco, and Venezuela would evacuate any settlements remaining over that line, Britain not being bound to pay any form of compensation.

2. Paraguay was confirmed in its territorial extent from before the war. In lieu of territorial concessions, the Argentine Republic would furnish an indemnity, of an amount to be determined by a neutral commission under the auspices of the Emperor of Austria.

3. The Rocky Mountain crest would form the future Western border of Rupertsland, signifying an advance in US territory in the North.

4. The cession of the Yukon to Russia, bounded on the East by the Mackenzie Mountains (or an ATL name for them !) is recognised by the USA

5. Lake Winnipegosis, Lake Manitoba and the Assinboine River is to be the new border of the USA in Eastern Rupertsland. (This gives the USA the city of Winnipeg, makes Rupertsland have a Southern-fork East of Lake Winnipeg, and recognises US penetration in the East)

6. Material compensation will be made to Spanish industrialists in Havana and Santiago-de-Cuba whose livelihoods have been affected by the rampages of US privateers.

Grey Wolf

 

[fhaessig]

Uk merchant navy melting away?

With the depredation of US privateers on Uk ships, I expect that a lot of british ships are going to change flags. Maybe for the Irish one? Once done, they will tend to stay under that flag, unless London tries to discriminate against foreign shipping, which sill not be well received. This may have some impact on the development of Ireland.

 

[Grey Wolf]

With the depredation of US privateers on Uk ships, I expect that a lot of british ships are going to change flags. Maybe for the Irish one? Once done, they will tend to stay under that flag, unless London tries to discriminate against foreign shipping, which will not be well received. This may have some impact on the development of Ireland.

A good point about Ireland. I had it happen in the Caribbean with a rush to reflag mainly to Texan, but also Mexican.

Ireland is one of those strange countries in the timeline that's difficult to see it doing much most of the time. It has long-term dynastic stability (its first king will have ruled 64 years by the time he dies in 1900), and is generally homogeneous. The expulsion and massacre of the Protestants didn't have the long-term negative effects it might have done had not all of Britain been in the middle of civil war, and had not Irish contingents helped the Radical-Reformist rebels win against Ernest Augustus.

So, finding a boost for Ireland would certainly be welcome. How do you see them benefitting from a second European great war (developing in thread 13 and to be explorted in detail in thread 14) ? France will be a combatant, but Britain aim to remain neutral. I can't imagine Ireland wanting to be dragged in either.

Best Regards
Grey Wolf

 

[DuQuense]

the Question is what kind of development has taken place in Ireland.
?Has it been industrializing? ?Could it sell supplies to either side?

 

[fhaessig]

So, finding a boost for Ireland would certainly be welcome. How do you see them benefitting from a second European great war (developing in thread 13 and to be explorted in detail in thread 14) ? France will be a combatant, but Britain aim to remain neutral. I can't imagine Ireland wanting to be dragged in either.

Best Regards
Grey Wolf

Ireland will want to stay neutral, but I think it would lean toward France/Belgium for dynastic reasons if no other. I think it will pick up the french/belgian shipping and trade. It also can use it's position to transship supplies from other neutrals to France ( If UK is neutral, then I don't see the Dutch or Prussian Navy threatening Brest ), or even buying from the USA, if they don't want to sell to France directly.

Ireland can certainly turn this war in an economic windfall.

Whether this will last depends on the other participants ( if they attack Irish shipping, it will have consequences ) or whether Ireland will jump on the bandwagon at the last time to get something out of Victory.

 

[Grey Wolf]

the Question is what kind of development has taken place in Ireland.
?Has it been industrializing? ?Could it sell supplies to either side?

I don't think you could say that Ireland has industrialised to that extent. I've mentioned a few times that they have developed their own industry, but that a great divide still remains between the cities and the largely agrarian nature of the rest of the country. I don't see it as an exporter of manufactured goods in any quantity

However, as fhaessig has pointed out the Anglo-American War was probably a boon for Irish shipping, initially from British vessel reflagging. This continuing after the war could make Ireland's merchant marine something akin to Norway's of OTL, a neutral state with a surprising carriage at sea. This in turn would lead to further development of ther great ports - Cork, Belfast and others (i.e. Queenstown which will have a different name !).

The coming war could certainly provide a boom for the Irish merchant marine

At the same time I'd expect Ireland to have upgraded their navy somewhat since the Anglo-American War, and to be able to defend itself, and to a degree it shipping, thus Irish cruisers on a sort of neutrality patrol might be evident in the Western Approaches or even the length of the Channel. Of course, this runs the risk of Ireland being seen as a stooge for France

Grey Wolf