Howdy all,
0106 Galliard A100505-E N NI Y
X-Boat Link
When I think about Class A starports, I have a little trouble
sometimes. I tend to envision large international airports:
Dulles, Atlanta, BWI, LAX, Chicago, Heathrow, Newark etc. Now
those to me say 'Class A'. However, not one of those has anything
to do with manufacturing capacity.
Where are the big ship builders/aircraft manufacturers? Well, most
of the US aircraft companies are out on the west coast. Boeing's
out there in Washington state, Lockheed's in California, the ship
builders aren't exactly in the large population ports either. GE
Boats are out in Conneticut. Norfolk is a large place, but it's
not the HUGE place one thinks of when one say's 'Class A' port.
Point being, that the ship building yards may not always mean there
is a large port or a large amount of traffic going in and out.
So, what do we need for a large ship building yard? Mainly
resources. Those resources are the material to physically make the
ship, and the technology to make it work.
The technicians needed can be brought in.
The parallel is steel plants. Now, most people would imagine that
steel mills would be ideally located near large deposits of iron
ore right? Wrong! Steel mills are ideally located near large COAL
deposits. The process of making steel requires more coal than it
does iron ore. (Pittsburgh?)
Ok, now with economics still working that way, Ship yards need to
be located near large mineral deposits and sufficient technlogy
back there to build it up. Technicians can be shipped in.
Galliard is one of the main ship builders of Gamba. The system has
a rich asteroid belt with several drydock asteroids. The Navy uses
the TL 14 ship yard (Galli-Yard) to maintain some of their older
escorts and as a storage facility for the sector's mothball fleet.
The university of Galliard has a highly accredited naval
architectural and engineering graduate program.
The ancient site there is of course highly classified, however,
rumors indicate that the Galli-Yards, were built over the grounds
of the site. This has prompted speculation that the ancient site
was originally a shipyard, and that the Navy supposedly took
advantage of the University's excavation/reconstruction of the
site. The truth of the matter is unknown, but the University
students are known to encourage the rumor. Indeed, they point to
the presence of the sector's only accredited post graduate naval
archeology program as evidence of the yard's quality. The Ancient
Society of Engineers is a group of naval architecture and
engineering students which claims to design and maintain ancient
starships. (Evidence is however that this is simply a group of
drunken students) :-)
There is also the unexplained date of the founding of the yard: It
is on the Imperial registry as the oldest operational shipyard, and
is dated as being founded -201,007 years Pre-Imperium.
Virtually all the population is employed at the Galli-Yards, and at
present the yard is capable of docking craft of up to 100,000 tons,
however, there is insufficient dockhands to handle such craft. The
Navy however, has been known to over-use this facility and (though
uncomfirmed) there are rumors that TL 14 craft as large as 500,000
tons are in mothball orbits around Galliard.
Galli-Yard has been petitioning the Navy for additional funds to
run the yard properly, but the maintainance of TL 14 craft is not
in the high priorties of the Imperial Navy. The yard has recently
been making overtures to the Scout service and the Marines for
additional funds. The Galliard University hopes to update their
equipment to rate a TL 15 and thereby regain the Navy's funding and
support. At present, the Galli-Yard has a very small TL 15
capability, and it is capable of handling small craft of up to 150
tons displacement. The Navy however has been discouraging the
updating of equipment as it would mean a realignment of forces in
the sector, and loss of contracts made with other yards.
Scott 2G Kellogg