PipBoy2999
Banned
By Vilhelm Bergsoe.
Originally published in Dutch, translated for Steampunk II. This was a remarkably funny story set in an alternate 1969, with the protagonist a Dutch engineer invited to attended the opening cermonies of the Panama Canal, recently completed by the American Empire (this was written in the 19th C, shortly after the opening of the Suez Canal). This drips of alternate histories and futures never travelled.
One of the backdrops of the story is the aftermath of the Anglo-American war. The amazing flying machine the protagonist ride on (modeled after the flying fish and able to cross the Atlantic in an unheard of time of only 37 hours!) takes its passengers over the ruins of London. Destroyed by American Air Torpedos and Dynamite Catapults, the destruction of London ended the Anglo-American war and reduced the British Empire to a scattering of holdings in the South Pacific and other remote isles. Ireland is a Territory of the US, slowly being repopulated after the near total destruction of it's inhabitants.
This story was written in the style of a letter/telegram from the protagonist to another engineer in Europe, written from the comforts of a warm beach in the Pacific. The protagonist marvels at the wonderful modern age when men are building rail tunnels beneath the ocean waves, can send mail around the world in a day, and Air Castles and Flying Fish aeroboats cross the sky.
Originally published in Dutch, translated for Steampunk II. This was a remarkably funny story set in an alternate 1969, with the protagonist a Dutch engineer invited to attended the opening cermonies of the Panama Canal, recently completed by the American Empire (this was written in the 19th C, shortly after the opening of the Suez Canal). This drips of alternate histories and futures never travelled.
One of the backdrops of the story is the aftermath of the Anglo-American war. The amazing flying machine the protagonist ride on (modeled after the flying fish and able to cross the Atlantic in an unheard of time of only 37 hours!) takes its passengers over the ruins of London. Destroyed by American Air Torpedos and Dynamite Catapults, the destruction of London ended the Anglo-American war and reduced the British Empire to a scattering of holdings in the South Pacific and other remote isles. Ireland is a Territory of the US, slowly being repopulated after the near total destruction of it's inhabitants.
This story was written in the style of a letter/telegram from the protagonist to another engineer in Europe, written from the comforts of a warm beach in the Pacific. The protagonist marvels at the wonderful modern age when men are building rail tunnels beneath the ocean waves, can send mail around the world in a day, and Air Castles and Flying Fish aeroboats cross the sky.