Approved The Valdez

[Dugald Gaffon]

Imperial Navy Ship
Valdez

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Specifications:

Type:	5th rate ship of the line / heavy frigate
Weaponry:	28 cannon
Propulsion:	Sail only
Status:	Active (1765)
Affiliation:	Imperial Navy
Builder:	United Shipping and Repair Company (Bouillabaisse Harbour)

History:

The story of the Valdez goes back to the early 1730s, when it was first placed on an order sheet for a series of new vessels intended to patrol the Imperium's growing territory from both pirate threats and foreign raiders. Believed to have been named for a fallen Imperial naval officer of the Alkamarian Wars, the ship's construction was heavily delayed by first the Maelstrom conflict of 1732-1733, and then by the foreign occupation of Bully Harbor during the Winter War. Despite the chaos and uncertainty of the postwar rebuilding period, construction of the Valdez was restarted in the summer of 1734 by the United Shipping and Repair Company, taking two years to finish amidst increasing budgetary and political turmoil, including subtle threats of sabotage that eventually landed one young Willard R. Brudenell (who held a controlling stake in USRC) the position of Minister of War, in part to increase the efficiency and security of the naval yards.

Finally commissioned on the 16th of Humidor, 1736, the Valdez was for a time one of the newest vessels in the fleet. At sea during the Soggus Emergency of 1737, she was largely unaffected by the MinoWar coup, and her relative youth spared her deactivation during the Brudenell regime's naval drawdown and austerity measures. The next few years were mostly uneventful for the ship, patrolling Imperial waters and ferrying dignitaries to local trading partners.

Her luck would run out in 1748 when, scheduled for recaulking and repair, she was stuck in port, unseaworthy, for most of the Imperial civil war. Used as a prison ship by the Ministry of War, she became a place of death and disease for various military and civilian prisoners, including one of her future captains.

The end of the civil wars and the rise of a new Empress in Amarone also brought a new future for the Valdez. Refitted with a single gun deck of 28 cannons, she would finally set back out to sea after almost a decade of disuse. With little prestige or power attached to her name, and no longer considered modern in any sense, Valdez tends to be one of the last choices in assignment, receiving tasks considered too menial for more important vessels, and sent officers and crew who have made the wrong enemies back in Vulpinsula.

Crew:

Captain:	Captain Dugald T. Gaffon
First Mate:	Lieutenant Alga Moonspell
Bosun:	Gnaff Rifface
Other:	-
Total:	138 beasts

Characters:

Name:	Positions Held:	Start Date:	End Date:
Dugald T. Gaffon	Seabeast, Bosun (1755), Lieutenant (1759), Captain (1761)	1754	-
Vihmastaja Rhoodie	Seabeast	1762	1764

 

[Talinn Ryalor]

Approved