Captain Rijsk's Unfortunate Day, Part 1 - Fishy Business

[Garmadon]

The still waters were broken by the sharp bow of a ship, and row upon row of its bristling cannons flew past.  

Captain Rijsk glanced down with a smile.  He liked his job immensely.  And he loved his flagship.

Captain Rijisk worked for the Bumbel Tuna Trading Company - or pretended he did - and was the most successful fisherman in the business.  Or maybe, more like the most successful Admiral in the business...

Well, as I was saying, it was a fine, bright morning as the HMS Scrumble ploughed loftily through the waters, and the crew pulled out their fishing poles and prepared for another day.

The fact was, though, that Captain Rijsk didn't work for the Bumbel Tuna Trading Company, and his ship wasn't out for fish.  In fact, he didn't even know if such a company existed, and no one really like Bumbel Tuna anyways.  But this mission, he had totally agreed with the Mardierian Secretary of War, was a stroke of genius.  It was a brilliant way to get up close to the Eslandolan settlements without attracting much attention - then, when it was the least expected, his fleet of fishermen would turn the tide of the war, for good.

Suddenly the lookout cried aloud, "Sail to starboard!  Can't make out it's flag, though!"

"Purple and white?!" exclaimed one of the make-believe fishermen.   "What kind of nation would pick purple and white for their flag?"

"I'm fairly sure that's Pontilla," remarked another, staring over at the tiny the ship dancing across on the waves.

"No - it's Carno for sure," countered another.

But in all the commotion over the tiny boat, the unfortunate crew failed to notice the more important details of the case...

For, you see, some little time ago the Garveyans had developed an ingenious contraption - or rather, they had bought it from Captain Whiffo who had come up with it, and trained a whole brigade of their soldiers until they were quite expert in its use.  It was know as the Eslandolan Wooden Diving Contraption:

It really was spectacular.  The tendency of the wood to float kept it barely underwater with the weight of a soldier attached, but the tube extending to the top let in plenty of air, while the glass window let the attackers see exactly what was going on.  But to return.

One second, all was peace and quite, and everyone was taken up with the tiny boat floating past.

The next, all was confusion.

Up out of the water they came, dripping as bad as the tuna the ship was supposedly after.

Up the fishing lines and up the stern,

Up the portholes and over the side, long before anyone had time or the presence of mind to fire a single one of the cannon.

But the Mardierians hadn't went make-believe fishermen for nothing.  

They instantly grabbed up the weapons that were never far away, and did their best to stop the attackers.  

But all their efforts were futile, and not even the lookout escaped...

Off went the victorious Garveyans with the "fishing smack,"

Leaving the Mardierians behind, as they commented,

With a ship of much more decent size!

But Captain Rijsk was not one to give up easily, not he!  "It's not the end of the day yet!" he exclaimed.

"Oh dear!" returned one of the crew with a gasp.  "Now you've really jinxed us!"

 

Interior:

Not much of an interior to this one, just the cabin in the stern had enough space to really do much!

 

And a few pics of the ship by itself:

The Stern:

Closeup:

And one final shot:

 

And I'll leave you (yes, a great deal of pics, I know!), with a shot of the attacking Garveyans.

 

Phew!  Definitely my quickest ship to date - and yes, it definitely got kind of out of hand!   It was totally supposed to be about a 2A fishing smack, but something happened somewhere... Loosely based off the HMS Interceptor, but somehow my quarterdeck ended up a fair deal higher, which forced me to change up the sail plan a tad as well.

I was originally hoping to build a whole underwater section with the Garveyans cutting through the ship's hull, but time was against me, so this is it for now!  Enjoy!

Thanks for viewing, C&C are welcome!

[KotZ]

Great work! I definitely chuckled a few times. Those diving suits are magnificent.

[Bodi]

I like the ship, it's like a pocket batteship twodecker..

The scene of seascape with a small island on the corner is very exquisite. Underwater attack is an ingenious tactic, although I wonder why the divers are wearing Oleander uniform?

[blackdeathgr]

Very nice patrol ship with nice part use as always. And the "diving" invention was genius, especially at the pic where only the round bricks were above sea level  Also lovable was the ship boat ALL those sailors ended up in 

[Captain Braunsfeld]

Clever build and plot - and what a beautiful ship!

[Garmadon]

On 4/16/2017 at 12:17 AM, KotZ said:

Great work! I definitely chuckled a few times. Those diving suits are magnificent.

 Thank you, glad you enjoyed it! 

On 4/16/2017 at 12:55 AM, Bodi said:

I like the ship, it's like a pocket batteship twodecker..

The scene of seascape with a small island on the corner is very exquisite. Underwater attack is an ingenious tactic, although I wonder why the divers are wearing Oleander uniform?

Thanks!   Kai came up with the original design for the little ship, but it's undergone some variation over time.  Here's another shot of it I missed while posting the topic above:

Glad you like it!  Mostly because I have no purple uniforms - and I wanted to get some good use out of all the blue ones I had sitting around! 

On 4/16/2017 at 11:31 AM, blackdeathgr said:

Very nice patrol ship with nice part use as always. And the "diving" invention was genious, especially at the pic wehre only the round bricks were above sea level  Also lovable was the ship boat ALL those sailors ended up 

Thanks blackdeathgr!  I actually had come up with the diving contraption idea quite some time ago (before BoBS even started, if I'm not mistaken), and I decided it would work well here translated into the brick!  And yes, I was really happy with that picture! 

On 4/16/2017 at 12:31 PM, Captain Braunsfeld said:

Clever build and plot - and what a beautiful ship!

Thanks Captain B!   I had some fun with this ship, trying to use my usual style (the bottom of the hull is still slope-based) but combining some of the other techniques used in BoBS in with it.  It was my first ship with gunports as well (credit to Bregir for the fractional gunports idea!), and I'd been wanting to try one of those out for some time!  I'm perfectly confirmed in my belief that it seems to be impossible for me to build a Class 2 vessel, though!  

[Kai NRG]

Great job Garmadon, that ship is really splendid, fantastic shape.  The water is lovely too, and the diver concept is hilarious!  Including a bit of an island gave this build some great context and you've got some neat action shots too!  

[Garmadon]

On 4/17/2017 at 10:34 AM, Kai NRG said:

Great job Garmadon, that ship is really splendid, fantastic shape.  The water is lovely too, and the diver concept is hilarious!  Including a bit of an island gave this build some great context and you've got some neat action shots too!  

Thanks Kai, glad you like it!  Posing those Garveyians with those huge things on their heads was not easy work!   Glad you enjoyed the ship as well, I was quite happy with how it turned out (even if I didn't have time to do ratlines - probably a blessing, though! )

 

A few more shots of the ship itself for you all! 

Broadside:

Stern:

[Jacob Nion]

Neat ship! I'm always impressed how you put an interior in all of your vessels. Even on such a small one. And I want to commend your presentation. For me such a wavy water diorama is the best and only way to present a ship in a way that fleshes out all its beauty.

Sadly I don't own enough trans coloured parts right now to do it myself, but I will keep in mind your pics for the time I'lll afford enough.