Writing Prompt Writting Prompt: Naval Battles

HURGMCGURG

That Guy
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Fleet composition and capability are important. How large is each fleet? What kinds of ships does either side have? How well organized are each of the fleets? Consider the naval technology and what each side has that the other doesn't. Since you mentioned that there is some magic, it seems logical that there may be some magical artillery, which wizards would do on their own, but you should also consider how you might use magic to strengthen a boat, such as adding enchantments to the hull, cannons, or the rudder to allow faster turns. Communication magic would increase the coordination between the boats. Motors could be attached to the boat that run on magic which allow for self propulsion. Depending on what magic could do, a naval battle could become chaotic. The more a boat weighs, the harder it is to turn, to speed up, and to slow down, so keep in mind that the small ships will usually have the speed advantage. Do they rely on sails, oars, or motors to move the boat? How fast do each of these move the ship and why?

Location and conditions are also important. Are we out in the middle of the ocean, towards the edge of a port, or are there some small landmasses interspersed in the battle area? Shallow water or deep? Temperature? Wind? How choppy is the water? Is there a storm-a-brewing that can throw a wrench into whatever plans have been laid?

Mentality and moral are important. How does each side act? Does where you are in the chain of command affect the mentality of the person? How do certain actions affect the moral of the soldiers? Who's more aggressive, who's more cautious, or who's willing to sacrifice what in order to gain an advantage? How competent are the sailors? How competent are the commanders?


You don't need to consider all of this, it's just my guidelines for being thorough, in case you miss something.
 
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Sabruness

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I suppose it also depends on what exactly in the specific "theme" of the story? Are the characters sailors in an actual navy and/or part of a naval crew?
Or is it just a maritime themed world where most people will have some sort of experience going to sea but not necessarily formal naval military training to high standards.
 

GigaBigaBear

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Practically repeating what everyone already said.
This kind of thing requires proper research, and presentation since the beginning of the story, specifying the world, logistics, technology, etc.
Also, about the "examples of inspiration.", it's relative. You must "look for battles" that matches the "age" of your work. Establish proper clipping can be useful, but any example is good. What must be studied is the context, not the results.
Let me use hygiene.
The disease Scurvy, for almost 300 years, took lives from sailors around the world. (1500-1800)
health was not something good if we talking about sea life.
With this, the immersion sounds more easy, and the characters can "match or not" with those things since the worldbuilding was done.
That being said, here it goes.

(Sorry if did not help.)
On the peaceful silence of the sea, a sound was heard.
{EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE}
Jack, who was sleeping calmly on the barracks, woke up in alert. Looking at his surroundings, he saw some of the companions from the travels in the last months. They were all in distress, but in silence. Only a loud siren was reaching his ears and was a sign from the ship.
In that cramped room, the bunks were messed, and on the floor, some pillows, personal items, bags, and some clothes. Everyone started to put their sailor suits as if preparing. A piece of implicit information was propagating, but no one dared to speak out:
-(Were being attacked).
Jack also joined in the preparations, and after put his suit, left the barracks to take his post, the same thing that everyone surrounding him was doing. The silence was subtle. The information, clear. Still, in Jack's mind, fear and anxiety dominated.
Running through many corridors and hallways, with Jack on the way to reach his post, what he saw was great chunks of heavy metal. His small frigate was being surrounded by 2 immense dreadnoughts. To him, the cannons on his vision were numberless. Even if he already knew the right number, the image at his front made him forget. That heavy plating seemed insurmountable.
{KABOOM, KABOOM}
The entire ship trembled. Jack lost his balance, and almost hit his head on the metal walls surrounding him, and if he weren't grabbing in a handrail, he surely would get a concussion.
With great effort, he reached his post. There were a few members of the crew, that were seated on some chairs. Typing keyboards, talking through communicators, while trying to get a hold of himself, those men were doing their duties.
Taking one communicator, Jack did a short question.
-"Permission to fire?"
-"Permission granted." Is what was answered, and almost at the same time, he pressed buttons on a keyboard, and another sound was heard.
{Kaboom, Kaboom}
This time, the sound was lower, but still intense.
Minutes have passed, and that entire exchange was unstoppable. At each shot from the cannons, Jack could start thinking that he was becoming deaf. The trembling almost made him vomit, even if he was trained to resist.
But deep inside of Jack's heart, wishes were being kept.
-"(I WANT TO LIVE.........!)"
-"(I WANT TO SEE HIM..........!)
-"(I WANT TO LIVE TOGETHER WITH HIM.........!)"
Suddenly, the siren made a different sound. That was a sound that no one never heard since the travel begin. A sound practically forgotten, but when it was heard, Everyone started to look at each other.
Jack was the first to leave that room. He ran at full speed, not caring at his surroundings. Each time the ship trembled, the gravity sounded different. He didn't notice, but something was happening. His conscience was only saying to him one thing:
-"(Take a life jacket)."
He heard explosions. He heard screams. But nothing reached him. Running, he only returned to his senses when saw the water; It was almost at his foot, only a few meters to start sinking him, and the entire ship.
So he did the only thing that left after taking the life jacket while saying those words to the void:
-"I love you, Michael."
He jumped.
 
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Sonneillor

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Now that I have more time and well reviewed I leave you with these more modern references (End of the 18th century - Until WWII)

The Battle of the Nile

The Battle of the Nile, also known as the Battle of the Bay of Aboukir or the Battle of Aboukir, was one of the most important crusades that would confront the Royal English Navy with the French fleet of Vice Admiral François-Paul Brueys D'Aigalliers within the so-called Wars French Revolutionaries.

By the end of the 18th century, the British had achieved great prestige over the sea; They had a huge fleet and were very feared by all their enemies. Bonaparte, on the French side, had launched into the conquest of a vast empire for France and had just conquered Egypt.
Between 1 and 2 August 1798 the Battle of the Nile was fought where the French were dejected. The English squad imprisoned them when the spaceships were off guard and with practically all their endowments on land. The French admirals did not even have time to agree to defend themselves in coordination and the result was appalling.
The French losses were very high (around 1700 deaths and 3000 prisoners). English losses were, by comparison, much lower (218 dead).

You need to see this (Look for more tactical maps and their details to better understand the battles)

Battle of Tsushima

An armed encounter between the Japanese fleet and the Russian Baltic fleet took place in May 1905 in the straits located between Korea and Japan near the Tsushima island group.

The Japanese had finished with the powerful Russian army and immediately after the victory, Admiral Togo ordered the ceasefire and dispatched a detailed report on how to capture and transfer ships and prisoners. The only Russian ship that could escape from that was the Izumrud, the one who precisely requested to be dispensed from the service. Taking advantage of the moment of uncertainty between the XGH and the Japanese reaction, he set off at full speed towards Vladivostok. The dense fog that suddenly appeared, allowed him to escape the Japanese security cordon. And so the Russo-Japanese War ended.

The forces in combat were the following:

- On the side of the Imperial Japanese Navy: 4 battleships, 27 cruise ships, 21 destroyers and 37 torpedo boats, gunboats and auxiliary ships.
- On the side of the Russian Imperial Navy: 11 battleships, 8 cruisers, 9 destroyers and different auxiliary ships.

The casualties were as follows:
- On the side of the Imperial Japanese Navy: 117 dead and 583 injured. 3 torpedo boats were lost.
- On the side of the Russian Imperial Navy: 4380 dead and 5917 injured. 21 ships were sunk, 7 captured and 6 were rendered useless.

For me the most fun and sad for the Russians at the same time :blob_catflip: *Russian sailors after making this trip and losing the battle*

The Battle of Jutland

One of the naval battles that I like the most:blob_popcorn:

The Battle of Jutland was the greatest naval combat of the First World War and faced the High Seas Fleet of the Kaiser Navy and the British Royal Navy in June 1916 off the coast of Denmark.

The German fleet, commanded by Vice Admiral Reinhard Scheer, was composed of 16 dreadnought and 5 pre-dreadnought, 5 battle cruisers, 11 light ships and 61 torpedo boats, while the English fleet, commanded by Admiral John Jellicoe, was composed of 28 battleships, 9 battlecruisers, 8 cruisers, 28 light ships and 78 destroyers.

The tactical victory went to the German side because they lost fewer ships, their artillery was much more effective and their commanders acted effectively in the nightly actions. However, the strategic victory was undoubtedly British. At the end of the battle and despite the losses they were still in combat conditions, while the German fleet decided to withdraw

It is the biggest battle based on the tonnage of the ships that were involved in it.

Battle of the Gulf of Leyte

In October 1944, the greatest naval battle in contemporary times took place, that of the Gulf of Leyte, in which the Americans destroyed Japanese power at sea, beginning the beginning of the end of the war in the Pacific during World War II.

In figures, the battle of Leyte meant for Japan the loss of 3 battleships, 4 aircraft carriers, 10 cruise ships, 9 destroyers and 1 submarine; against 3 aircraft carriers, 3 destroyers and 1 submarine that the Americans lost.

In total, Japan lost 45% of its tonnage, that is, 305710 tons, in the course of the battle. The United States for its part lost 3%, that is, 37300 tons.

Curious and funny anecdotes:

- Only
38 minutes. :blob_facepalm:

In 1896, England and the Sultanate of Zanzibar engaged in the shortest warlike conflict remembered. After the death of the Sultan, his cousin, Khalid Bin Bargash, came to power, who, instead of following trade relations with the English, preferred to establish them with the Germans. The British, furious, sent a fleet of five ships. The Zanzibar Army, consisting of 3,000 men and a single ship, had nothing to do against them. The English bombed the island and in 38 minutes the contest ended.

- Three centuries of hostilities without firing a single shot. :blob_popcorn_two:

In 1639, England experienced a civil strife that confronted the King's supporters with those of Parliament. Finally, the monarchists were forced to take refuge in the Sorlingas Islands, near the Cornish coast. There they survived practicing piracy, especially against Dutch ships. When the authorities of the Netherlands sent a delegation to the islands to request that the attacks against their ships cease, the royalists gave a refusal in response. The Dutch then officially declared war on the Sorlingas Islands. A fleet was even organized to invade them, but the attack never occurred. Moreover, the British monarchists did not assault another Dutch ship. In this way, and although never a single shot was fired between the two sides, no one repealed the declaration of war and 355 years had to pass! before peace was officially re-signed.

- How to make a port disappear. :blob_sir:

During World War II, the British hired the illusionist Jasper Maskelyne to make the port of Alexandria (main allied base in the Middle East) invisible at night to German aviation. He did it by building an exact replica with stone cardboard decorations, such as those used in the cinema, in a nearby bay. Then, at night, he ordered that all the lights of the real location be turned off and that of the false lights be turned on. The trick worked, and the Germans bombed the wrong target. He also devised a system of plates and folding canopies to attach it to the Montgomery tanks. Thus, when an enemy reconnaissance aircraft appeared, the device was deployed and the battle car was camouflaged as a harmless truck.

- The pathetic invasion of Guam. :blob_salute:

On June 20, 1898, after the war between Spain and the US was declared, the USS Charleston cruiser arrived on the island of Guam, a Spanish possession. The captain ordered the village to be bombed, but its gunners had so little dexterity that the projectiles passed over it without making a target. The Americans awaited the response of their defenders, but after a while a boat approached with the governor, who went up to the destroyer to welcome the Americans. The sailors burst out laughing at the astonished visitor. No one had informed him that both nations were at war, and that is why the Spaniards believed that the gunshots were saluted.
 
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