Still, with things heating up in China, wouldn't the royal navy assign competent officers there?
Ah, so for all we know we're looking at the future Admiral of the Fleet for the Royal Navy.LT. CMDR Courtney seems to me an officer who has been desk bound on shore duty for most of his career and may see having command of a river patrol boat his last best chance to get a promotion before being forced out of the Royal Navy.
While most of the speculation so far by various posters have him pegged as being incompetent we must remember what the title of this timeline is.
I hadn't thought about that but it fits as well, thanks.LT. CMDR Courtney seems to me an officer who has been desk bound on shore duty for most of his career and may see having command of a river patrol boat his last best chance to get a promotion before being forced out of the Royal Navy.
While most of the speculation so far by various posters have him pegged as being incompetent we must remember what the title of this timeline is.
Scenario 1: this entire thing is actually going to be a boring river patrol. Darner gets to fire a few rounds off of their Jerry guns and they go back to Hong Kong (or, to be more precise, the bars of Lockhart Road and the ladies of negotiable affections working nearby).Ah, so for all we know we're looking at the future Admiral of the Fleet for the Royal Navy.
I get that the crew of the Darner probably don't know this, but Chinese warlords avoid foreign military assets like the plague. Or they offer them their own concubines for military support against some other guy they are fighting. At the end of the day, foreign military assets are not to be fucked with, and Chinese warlords (and their troops) are not Taliban fighters intent on killingNo one knew if a local warlord might get a bug up his ass and start shooting at everything going up and down the river, a Commanding Officer from one of the major armies getting a bit too enterprising, or any one of the thousand other eventualities they had to consider.
Not happening. The International Settlement was handed back to ROC in OTL 1943, and even then it wasn't a good time for the ROC.That was why double lookouts had been posted once they left the relative safety of the International Concession in Shanghai.
So Courtenay wasn't a total tool. This'll get interesting.“You have been playing the bad cop” Greene said, “While Courtenay has gotten away with playing the good cop. Let’s just say that your delightful behavior has made him come out smelling like roses despite what he did last Friday. Entirely by contrast.”
Smythe was annoyed that he had needed Greene to point that out to him. It should have been obvious.
“So, you are saying he played me?” Smythe asked.
“To a degree, though I think you ended up playing yourself this time” Greene answered, “The rest is because there has not been a Captain in all of history who would have a problem with a hardass enforcing the regulations.”
Less than you would think. The old steamer riverboats were far larger and only had a draft of 6 to 10 feet. (2 to 3 meters)Darner sounds pretty big for a river patrol craft, how far upstream can it get? I'd be thinking not very far, considering the crew compliment means it would have a pretty deep draft for a riverboat.
I wonder if those dolphins are doing better ITTL.And for the boat, those chinese rivers are nothing to sneeze at. They even had their own species of dolphins.
4th I think, behind Fredrich and his two children.Umm, just where is Kiki in the royal succession?
Same I thought that during the jacobin terrorist, for sure that Fredrich and Louis was going to be assasinted and be this great push back against the communist recergance and the nobility that backed them. Leading to Kiki taking the throne as some broke queen who hates the bloodshed associated with it but takes it out of a sense of duty with Ben largely guiding her as prince consort, even going above what prince Phillip was to Queen Elizabeth II.Ahh, I wondered if there was going to be a series of accidents that pushed Kiki to the front of the line and then the Emperor would have a crash. Then the vote goes overwhelmingly for Kiki out of sympathy.
No, she must be Kats true successor! Somehow ending up CO of the KSK!Why would anyone need to die? The electors will decide who is the new Kaiser, given Kiki's record so far and the right PR campaign, I could see her getting elected easily. You have the most decorated of Louis's children, her medical record, her humanitarian record, eye candy in Ben ( Astronaut scientist), and her not wanting it. This is PM's timeline, what happens to Kiki when she doesn't want an honor or recognition, She will be the next Empress.