The Rainbow. A World War One on Canada's West Coast Timeline
- Thread starter YYJ
- Start date
Okay, so there are rumours of a German Raider in the area, great! And then a bunch of ships suddenly fail to report in, including CPR ones which run on very specific routes with specific times of making port. Yet no one makes note of this. Not to mention that not a single ship gets off a warning of being stopped by a warship. Prince Rupert goes silent and they’re still arguing if there is any chance of it being a German Raider. A warship is literally making its way down the Inside Passage and yet no one is making a comment about it.
This is disregarding the fact that apparently the mere presence of the German officers transform people into sheep. One of the issues with the East Asian Squadron was that they had issues being manned enough. Yet the Germans here are able to man every ship that they’re using in a flotilla of captured ships? Or, rather, they take control of a ship and the Canadian crew simply obeys their every word?
Let’s take the Princess Sophia for instance. There was how many Germans on board her in command? A dozen at most? Far, far fewer than what would be needed to actually man her. Because otherwise, Nürnberg’s pretty much non-effective due to having had to spread so much of her crew around the other ships.
But back to the Princess Sophia once she was away from the threat of the Nürnberg, there was no more reason for the crew to cooperate with the Germans. Especially once they knew that they were in port. They could have turned off the boilers right then and there was basically nothing that the Germans could do. What? Were they going to start executing them? That’s putting aside that there was enough infantry there to easily overwhelm any of the Germans onboard. Heck, even something as simple as just sitting down when the Germans told them to disembark would have been something.
There’s reasons why when in other cases the Germans caught troopships and disembarked said troops, it was always under the guns of an actual warship.
Except, once again, as soon as he fired warning shots at the Germans, he had to back it up if they ignored it by actually firing at the ship. Anything else would destroy the idea of the US actually enforcing their neutrality. Because, now, everyone and their uncle would know that the US would do nothing. And once more, the Germans were ignoring orders to stop as well as warning shots, by rules of war, they could be fired upon and the German High Command would at the most grit their teeth while cursing the “Captain” of the captured ship as well as whomever put him in charge.
Granted, I fully expect that a certain German warship in San Fran is about to have a bad time because the Americans must do something to prove that they will enforce their neutrality. And the Customs Captain as well as a good chunk of his crew will likely get court martial over this.
But yeah... this is starting to lean towards German wank what with how they have continually rolled Nat 20s while Canada has been getting... Nat 1s at most. Besides the bungling going on politically for Canada, there has also been stuff on the American side. Like, way back you had an American ship following a Canadian warship for days, broadcasting its location for everyone to know. Because the Captain/owner was Pro-German. Which was a real head scratcher for me as the US military should have come up beside said ship partway through and arrest them for potentially violating neutrality.
It has basically gotten to the point where... well... no matter what, one can expect the Germans to get away with anything. I almost expect the Germans to sink the Rainbow or capture it with little issue, bombard Vancouver and Victoria, and get away with almost no damage while chuckling at the foolish Canadians and drinking schnapps.
marathag
Banned
During the Cuban Missile Crisis, I think it was a Norwegian Ship ignore requests to stop, and did not get fired upon
And that was when SAC was at DEFCON2
Here, the US is Neutral, and it's a Revenue Cutter, not a Warship with orders to Stop and Search everything heading _towards_ Blockaded Ports
Want a Wank?
Read the history of what Lettow-Vorbeck did in Africa, OTL
I literally cannot find mention of this. The closest is mention of a Soviet oil tanker that was let go because... it was an oil tanker and not likely to be carrying actual weapons to Cuba which was the point of the blockade. Something entirely different here since the US was willing to intern ships from both sides.
There quite literally has to be repercussions from this or else everyone will be willing to ignore US neutrality.
Aha, a skeptic! Very well. I could see that the fictional character of Von Schönberg may not believe he has gotten away with what he has for so long. The reader has to be their own judge about what is plausible.
Some of your specific objections are actually provided for with a close reading, but this thing is getting pretty long at this point, so I don't expect a reader to remember every detail.
This is OTL.
The parts I find most unrealistic myself are the entire submarine caper, the lead-up, during and afterward, and then that the same guys went back to the US again after the war was declared to try and buy torpedoes on the sly. That, and the fact that the only reason that the Rainbow was even able to sail at all was that she had been activated to go on a sealing fleet protection cruise in July, otherwise she would have been still mothballed. That the 9.2" gun barrels sat rusting on the side of the road from 1905 until 1912, when they were mounted mostly with the intent to make them look good. And that after the two Royal Navy sloops arrived in Esquimalt, believing that a German cruiser was hot on their heels, and they shipped the crews off to Halifax the same day. Or that the general mood among the Anglo residents of the province was that the Japanese Navy showing up to save them from the East Asiatic Squadron was a bad thing because it might somehow encourage more Japanese immigration.
You might say ASB. I say OTL.
I get you are joking here however, Rainbow is extremely likely to end up on the bottom if she faces off with either German cruiser. Leipzig and Nurnberg are 13-15 years newer than Rainbow who was generally in poor material condition. She could barely make over 15 knots in her wartime condition and her crew was less than half of the normal expected number, a further third of that crew was local reservists/volunteers with very, very little amount of useful experience. Depending on how this story has gone (I can't remember completely), Rainbow may not have fuzes for her HE shells, meaning she's basically going to be firing solid duds or ancient gunpowder filled shells.
It doesn't take much to end either of the cruisers raiding career but Rainbow is not long for this world in an actual engagement.
From the chapter entitled Overdue Housekeeping:
So Aug 15th (OTL and ITTL) Rainbow did get fuses for her Lyddite HE shells, after Commander Hose spent an excruciating 12 days on war patrol without them.
This is as good a time as any to share what the other ships in Rainbow' class are doing concurently, OTL. Note that that "sold" means for scrap.
http://www.navypedia.org/ships/uk/brit_cr_apollo.htm
Driftless
Donor
Also, remember the timeline of events.
The German East Asian Squadron have been (and were historical) reported being damn near everywhere in the Pacific and Indian Oceans, so it would (and did) take Commonwealth war planners some time to sort out junk from solid data. The Japanese won't be in the fight for another week and their armored cruiser was closer to Mexico than Canada at last report. The British First-Class Cruiser is on its way from Japan, but almost two weeks out. Plus, they still need to find the Nurnberg in an area of ocean known for crappy weather.
Look at the incredible historic runs of the Emden, CSS Shenandoah, CSS Alabama, Atlantis, Admiral Scheer, etal. Their captains seized the initiative and ran with it, knowing eventually their opponent would find and destroy them.
To be sure, neither the Leipzig nor Nurnberg have any real length of service left before the ships are either shot to pieces, or they're in such bad mechanical shape that they need to seek internment. The next time they need to take on coal, their whereabouts become known, as re-coaling at sea in the North Pacific would be real difficult, I'd imagine. Their non-warship consorts might last longer - or not.
- Anyox - Aug 16
- Port Rupert - Aug 17
- We're still on Aug 18 at this point of the story.
The German East Asian Squadron have been (and were historical) reported being damn near everywhere in the Pacific and Indian Oceans, so it would (and did) take Commonwealth war planners some time to sort out junk from solid data. The Japanese won't be in the fight for another week and their armored cruiser was closer to Mexico than Canada at last report. The British First-Class Cruiser is on its way from Japan, but almost two weeks out. Plus, they still need to find the Nurnberg in an area of ocean known for crappy weather.
Look at the incredible historic runs of the Emden, CSS Shenandoah, CSS Alabama, Atlantis, Admiral Scheer, etal. Their captains seized the initiative and ran with it, knowing eventually their opponent would find and destroy them.
To be sure, neither the Leipzig nor Nurnberg have any real length of service left before the ships are either shot to pieces, or they're in such bad mechanical shape that they need to seek internment. The next time they need to take on coal, their whereabouts become known, as re-coaling at sea in the North Pacific would be real difficult, I'd imagine. Their non-warship consorts might last longer - or not.
Remember also this is at the start of the war. This story is not after this has been going on for 6 months or more in this timeline. Think at the start of WW2 and how much people were running around like chickens with their heads cut off doing things that were not only stupid but actually extremely counter productive.
That, and what do you propose to do if you are in charge in Canada? You have one warship, and it has to be resupplied before it's sent out, and even so they didn't have a huge amount of information on where to send it. They've a good idea where to look now, but Nurnberg has been jamming as well. It's quite easy on those old spark gap transmitters.
This is an ideal situation for Nurnberg. You force the enemy to react, and they have only one warship. If civilians started resisting, a lot of people will get killed.
If I'm Captain of Nurnberg, I'm going to run up the coast wasting all of the industries I can, then I'm going to go to America and get interned since my engines are going to be in rough shape.
A note on the condition of Nürnberg's engines OTL. She managed 23 knots at the Falklands on December 8th, after rounding the Horn and taking a side trip to Fanning Island along the way. But then she suffered two boiler explosions trying to keep up that pace.
Right, she's in better shape than OTL. I suppose she could prowl for a couple of months near the American coast sinking British shipping, but going anywhere significant is really not in the cards from here.
A legitimate question was asked a few posts ago. How the hell are the Germans able to keep crewing prizes? Where do the sailors come from? Here is a tally from my notes:
Nürnberg Crew Distribution:
Aug 18, 1914. 1600 hours
Nürnberg 170
Galiano 16
Princess Charlotte 50
Bengrove 30
Desalba 24
Princess Sophia 12
Dead (+ evacuated badly wounded left at Prince Rupert)
At Prince Rupert 7(+3)=10
At Swanson Bay 1
Seriously wounded (in Nürnberg Infirmary)
At Prince Rupert 8
At Swanson Bay 1
Total 322
All of these are drawn from Nürnberg's crew at the start of the story. Although it would have showed foresight to take on extra crew for prizes before leaving Honolulu, Nürnberg did not. She did add one crew member on the coast of BC, Lieutenant Radl.
For crewing the ships, note that Galiano, Princess Charlotte, and Princess Sophia are oil fired, so require much less in the way of boiler room crew. These are in some cases extreme skeleton crews. Galiano could operate with fewer crew, but it was decided to have enough to operate her 6 pounder.
Nürnberg is clearly operating with barely half of her regular crew. She has de-manned her secondary battery, but half of that has been transferred to the Princess Charlotte anyway. The shortage of crew will effect her endurance in battle. Nürnberg will be challenged in how to perform damage control, and how to keep stations manned once she starts taking casualties.
Nürnberg Crew Distribution:
Aug 18, 1914. 1600 hours
Nürnberg 170
Galiano 16
Princess Charlotte 50
Bengrove 30
Desalba 24
Princess Sophia 12
Dead (+ evacuated badly wounded left at Prince Rupert)
At Prince Rupert 7(+3)=10
At Swanson Bay 1
Seriously wounded (in Nürnberg Infirmary)
At Prince Rupert 8
At Swanson Bay 1
Total 322
All of these are drawn from Nürnberg's crew at the start of the story. Although it would have showed foresight to take on extra crew for prizes before leaving Honolulu, Nürnberg did not. She did add one crew member on the coast of BC, Lieutenant Radl.
For crewing the ships, note that Galiano, Princess Charlotte, and Princess Sophia are oil fired, so require much less in the way of boiler room crew. These are in some cases extreme skeleton crews. Galiano could operate with fewer crew, but it was decided to have enough to operate her 6 pounder.
Nürnberg is clearly operating with barely half of her regular crew. She has de-manned her secondary battery, but half of that has been transferred to the Princess Charlotte anyway. The shortage of crew will effect her endurance in battle. Nürnberg will be challenged in how to perform damage control, and how to keep stations manned once she starts taking casualties.
Burned salmon
Aug 18, 1330 hours. SMS Princess Charlotte, Ocean Falls
Von Spee waved, and Princess Charlotte’s crew uncovered her guns. Nürnberg rounded the promontory and sat, ominously blocking the entrance to the bay. Von Spee had taken the opportunity, when stopping the Penang Maru, to temporarily take on an extra 40 men from Nürnberg and make a more powerful landing party. Now these men poured out of the Charlotte’s side cargo door, and jumped from her lower promenade deck at the stern. Twenty armed men headed for the SS Kintuck. Fifty men headed the short distance to the sawmill, many with bayonets fixed on their rifles. They advanced swiftly, but tactically, leaving rifle teams at points that commanded the wharf-top. Teams in both parties carried their wooden crates.
As the landing party entered the sawmill, McNulty shepherded a half dozen men out the far side of the building, and led them across the bridge to the townsite. The armed sailors swept the expansive building and then passed through, leaving the demolition teams to rig their charges. The incessant clanging of the fire alarm was, although appropriate, irritating and distracting.
The bewildered crew of the SS Kintuck appeared on the dock. They made their way to the harbour bridge, and over to the town.
The main force of the landing party needed to cross an empty expanse of nearly 300 meters before they arrived at the pulp mill. Apparently the Crown Williamette company had big plans to fill the intervening space with more industry. The landing party moved in two groups, one providing overwatch behind what cover they could find while the other advanced. These groups leapfrogged several times before arriving at the pulp mill building. No workers were inside, only machinery, vats and pressure vessels, and storage rooms stacked with rolls of rough cellulose sheets. The bigger pieces of equipment were rigged with Dynamite charges, but the cellulose storage seemed to offer the best potential. The sailors poured lubricating oil from maintenance stores onto the rolls, and rigged fuses to bundles of distress flares.
The parties retraced their steps to Princess Charlotte, lighting fuses as they went, and crossing the wide open spaces with the same discipline. Von Spee held his breath as he watched from the bridge wing, his mind reliving the scene of his men being pinned by rifle fire just a few hours before. But the rifle shots he anticipated never came, and his men returned to the Charlotte intact.
Von Spee was unclear about what wood pulp actually was. But he figured since it was some intermediate stage between trees and paper, both of which burned quite well, that it would exhibit the same properties. Smoke appeared from the hatches of the SS Kintuck, even before the boarding party returned to the wharf. The commander of the party had to hurry his men off, as the flames quickly reached to the mastheads.
The pulp mill suffered a series of internal explosions, as the fuses burned down to the demolition charges. Black smoke appeared in the storage wing of the mill. Then an unexpected white hissing, roaring cloud obscured the building, as the SO3 tanks ruptured and the undiluted contents reacted violently with anything made of wood. The tiny figures of the evacuated workers on the forested shore fled from the path of the chemical cloud, as it drifted east over the lake. When the cloud dissipated, the pulp mill was fully engulfed in flames.
Having recovered all of her landing party, the Princess Charlotte pulled away from the wharf. The windows of the sawmill blew out in a rapid series of explosions, and flames immediately appeared inside. The fire on the Kintuck reached from stem to stern.
“No casualties among our men,” marveled Von Spee to Radl, as he looked back at the mill town shrinking astern. “I can’t see any among the Canadians either, unless someone was very unlucky. Did we do a better job this time? Or was it just a roll of the dice?”
“Only God knows these things,” answered Radl.
When the Princess Charlotte was halfway across the bay, the flames reached two tons of miner’s blasting powder in the Kintuck’s after hold. A tremendous explosion rent the ship behind the mid-castle superstructure, and debris flew high in the air. Burning pieces of cellulose sheet trailed smoke as they drifted through the air above the east end of the bay. Then a moment later myriad splashes appeared in the water all across the inlet as countless shiny projectiles plunged from the sky. The Charlotte’s crew ducked for cover. Objects struck the deck, with a stucatto of thunk sounds. When the sounds stopped, Von Spee stuck his head back out the bridge door. On the deck by the bridge steps was a ruptured tin can. He smelled burned salmon. Half a dozen more dented steaming tins lay on the deck within his field of vision. The sound of the explosion returned in echoes off distant mountains.
Back across the bay, the blazing Kintuck settled by the stern, and the adjacent wharf had caught fire, while the two mills burned fiercely. The pipeline from the dam burst where it entered the pulp mill, and a cascade of water poured into the conflagration, creating a cloud of steam, and extinguishing some of the flames. At the waterfront on the town side of the bay, crowds stood and silently watched the Germans’ departure.
Nürnberg led the way back down Cousins Inlet at 18 knots. A British White Ensign flew from Nürnberg’s mainmast. “Rule Brittania,” said Radl dryly.
Astern, black smoke rose above the forested hillsides before being blown away to the east. Eagles circled on thermals overhead. The breezy sunny afternoon was beautiful, thought Von Spee, and for a moment it was possible to forget the death and destruction that lay in their wake the last few days. A half hour’s steaming brought the convoy back to the detained Penang Maru, anchored behind Stokes Island. No one was happier to see the German ships than the Japanese captain. The Nürnberg and Princess Charlotte held station in the current as the German boarding party rowed across from the Japanese freighter in their yawls. Von Schönberg took this opportunity to reclaim from the Princess Charlotte the Nürnberg’s crewmen who had topped up the landing party.
As the Germans pulled away, the Penang Maru’s apprentice wireless operator was already methodically re-assembling the equipment, as his master quietly watched.
“Very good,” said the master, rubbing his chin. “You chose precision over speed. Precision is its own kind of speed.”
The apprentice completed his task, but found he was one part short. “They stole the tuning coil,” sulked the apprentice, indignant at the German’s perfidy.
“We have spare,” said the master brightly.
http://www.clydeships.co.uk/view.php?ref=16613
https://web.archive.org/web/20080401012309/http://www.theshipslist.com/ships/lines/bluefunnel.html
https://www.bevs.org/diving/wkkintuck.htm
Von Spee waved, and Princess Charlotte’s crew uncovered her guns. Nürnberg rounded the promontory and sat, ominously blocking the entrance to the bay. Von Spee had taken the opportunity, when stopping the Penang Maru, to temporarily take on an extra 40 men from Nürnberg and make a more powerful landing party. Now these men poured out of the Charlotte’s side cargo door, and jumped from her lower promenade deck at the stern. Twenty armed men headed for the SS Kintuck. Fifty men headed the short distance to the sawmill, many with bayonets fixed on their rifles. They advanced swiftly, but tactically, leaving rifle teams at points that commanded the wharf-top. Teams in both parties carried their wooden crates.
As the landing party entered the sawmill, McNulty shepherded a half dozen men out the far side of the building, and led them across the bridge to the townsite. The armed sailors swept the expansive building and then passed through, leaving the demolition teams to rig their charges. The incessant clanging of the fire alarm was, although appropriate, irritating and distracting.
The bewildered crew of the SS Kintuck appeared on the dock. They made their way to the harbour bridge, and over to the town.
The main force of the landing party needed to cross an empty expanse of nearly 300 meters before they arrived at the pulp mill. Apparently the Crown Williamette company had big plans to fill the intervening space with more industry. The landing party moved in two groups, one providing overwatch behind what cover they could find while the other advanced. These groups leapfrogged several times before arriving at the pulp mill building. No workers were inside, only machinery, vats and pressure vessels, and storage rooms stacked with rolls of rough cellulose sheets. The bigger pieces of equipment were rigged with Dynamite charges, but the cellulose storage seemed to offer the best potential. The sailors poured lubricating oil from maintenance stores onto the rolls, and rigged fuses to bundles of distress flares.
The parties retraced their steps to Princess Charlotte, lighting fuses as they went, and crossing the wide open spaces with the same discipline. Von Spee held his breath as he watched from the bridge wing, his mind reliving the scene of his men being pinned by rifle fire just a few hours before. But the rifle shots he anticipated never came, and his men returned to the Charlotte intact.
Von Spee was unclear about what wood pulp actually was. But he figured since it was some intermediate stage between trees and paper, both of which burned quite well, that it would exhibit the same properties. Smoke appeared from the hatches of the SS Kintuck, even before the boarding party returned to the wharf. The commander of the party had to hurry his men off, as the flames quickly reached to the mastheads.
The pulp mill suffered a series of internal explosions, as the fuses burned down to the demolition charges. Black smoke appeared in the storage wing of the mill. Then an unexpected white hissing, roaring cloud obscured the building, as the SO3 tanks ruptured and the undiluted contents reacted violently with anything made of wood. The tiny figures of the evacuated workers on the forested shore fled from the path of the chemical cloud, as it drifted east over the lake. When the cloud dissipated, the pulp mill was fully engulfed in flames.
Having recovered all of her landing party, the Princess Charlotte pulled away from the wharf. The windows of the sawmill blew out in a rapid series of explosions, and flames immediately appeared inside. The fire on the Kintuck reached from stem to stern.
“No casualties among our men,” marveled Von Spee to Radl, as he looked back at the mill town shrinking astern. “I can’t see any among the Canadians either, unless someone was very unlucky. Did we do a better job this time? Or was it just a roll of the dice?”
“Only God knows these things,” answered Radl.
When the Princess Charlotte was halfway across the bay, the flames reached two tons of miner’s blasting powder in the Kintuck’s after hold. A tremendous explosion rent the ship behind the mid-castle superstructure, and debris flew high in the air. Burning pieces of cellulose sheet trailed smoke as they drifted through the air above the east end of the bay. Then a moment later myriad splashes appeared in the water all across the inlet as countless shiny projectiles plunged from the sky. The Charlotte’s crew ducked for cover. Objects struck the deck, with a stucatto of thunk sounds. When the sounds stopped, Von Spee stuck his head back out the bridge door. On the deck by the bridge steps was a ruptured tin can. He smelled burned salmon. Half a dozen more dented steaming tins lay on the deck within his field of vision. The sound of the explosion returned in echoes off distant mountains.
Back across the bay, the blazing Kintuck settled by the stern, and the adjacent wharf had caught fire, while the two mills burned fiercely. The pipeline from the dam burst where it entered the pulp mill, and a cascade of water poured into the conflagration, creating a cloud of steam, and extinguishing some of the flames. At the waterfront on the town side of the bay, crowds stood and silently watched the Germans’ departure.
Nürnberg led the way back down Cousins Inlet at 18 knots. A British White Ensign flew from Nürnberg’s mainmast. “Rule Brittania,” said Radl dryly.
Astern, black smoke rose above the forested hillsides before being blown away to the east. Eagles circled on thermals overhead. The breezy sunny afternoon was beautiful, thought Von Spee, and for a moment it was possible to forget the death and destruction that lay in their wake the last few days. A half hour’s steaming brought the convoy back to the detained Penang Maru, anchored behind Stokes Island. No one was happier to see the German ships than the Japanese captain. The Nürnberg and Princess Charlotte held station in the current as the German boarding party rowed across from the Japanese freighter in their yawls. Von Schönberg took this opportunity to reclaim from the Princess Charlotte the Nürnberg’s crewmen who had topped up the landing party.
As the Germans pulled away, the Penang Maru’s apprentice wireless operator was already methodically re-assembling the equipment, as his master quietly watched.
“Very good,” said the master, rubbing his chin. “You chose precision over speed. Precision is its own kind of speed.”
The apprentice completed his task, but found he was one part short. “They stole the tuning coil,” sulked the apprentice, indignant at the German’s perfidy.
“We have spare,” said the master brightly.
http://www.clydeships.co.uk/view.php?ref=16613
https://web.archive.org/web/20080401012309/http://www.theshipslist.com/ships/lines/bluefunnel.html
https://www.bevs.org/diving/wkkintuck.htm
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