Time flies when you are having fun!

Three years ago today I started blogging here.

It has been a great ride and I hope you have found it as interesting and fascinating as I have.

Thanks for coming along for the ride, lots more to come!

As always...

Keep your sightglass full your firebox trimmed and your water iced!
KJ

An Airship Technical Gold Mine

Previously I reviewed one of the only books ever published on real airship design.
The author Charles P. Burgess worked for the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, the NACA.

During the heyday of the great rigid airships, in the first third of the 20th century, the NACA commissioned and collected a series of technical studies, papers and technological reviews of airship design. These papers show just how seriously rigid airships were taken as the future of heavy lift and long distance aircraft.

Recently NASA (the direct descendant of the NACA) has made scans of these reports and analyses available through the Internet Archive.

If you are curious check out this simple search:

Airship Technical Gold Mine 

Here you will find yellowed type written reports, with hand drawn graphs, diagrams, plans, and old photographs, documenting in detailed analyses the state of the art in Airship design in 20's and 30's.

The files are available in many formats including plain text, colour PDFs, html, epub and other ebook formats.

The titles alone make this old Flight Engineer drool!

Here are some examples to "wet yer whistle":

THE PRESENT STATUS OF AIRSHIP CONSTRUCTION, ESPECIALLY OF AIRSHIP FRAMING CONSTRUCTION
By Hans Ebner
1938





FULL-SCALE TURNING CHARACTERISTICS OF THE U.S.S. LOS ANGELES
By F. L. THOMPSON

CONTRIBUTION TO THE TECHNIQUE OF LANDING LARGE AIRSHIPS
By 0. Krell
PART I
Part II is here
From Zei'tschrift f'.r FLigteohnik und. Motorluftschiffahrt
September 28, 1928

RECENT RESEARCHES IN AIRSHIP CONSTRUCTION I
Forces of Flow on a Moving Airship and the Effect of he Control Surfaces
By H. Naatz
1928

Many of these reports are translations of German reports. The Germans were the acknowledged world leaders in Airship design at the time. The first report listed includes a German paper written in 1933 while the Hindenburg was under construction and before the loss of the Akron, which is noted in a footnote. The full report was not translated and acquired by the NACA till 1938.

Since these reports were typewritten they often contain typos, to me these little errors bring these fairly dry technical reports alive. In a way they show them as being human made. Prepared to record important information not just display elegant formatting.

For anyone interested in the technical details of real airship designs these reports are truly a gold mine of information.

Keep your sightglass full, your firebox trimmed and your water iced.
KJ

Here are some sample pages of the kinds of details included in these reports:

 

 

Ankling, bloomers and fanning oh my!

Here is Part II of my compilation of the very first time Parasol Duelling appeared in our Role Playing group The Airship's Messdeck.

In Part I  Madame Saffron Taxus-Hemlock, her maid Maddie Hatter, and the Comms Officer of the HMAS Velvet Brush Lt Beulah Bueckert (Miss BB) meet  Lady Mary Formingham at a Parasol Duelling event at the Savoy Hotel in London. Lady Mary is the wife of the former head of the Royal Navy's Experimental Airship Division (the EAD) now posted to the bleak and isolated navy base at Scapa Flow due to a scandal involving the design and construction of the experimental airship the Velvet Brush.

I have been serializing a set of stories from our adventures as crew and passengers on that ship. You can follow Lt Cmdr(E) Maxwell MacDonald-Smythe, aka Max (me), Miss BB and other members of the crew, in our adventures starting here. 

The events portrayed below took place several months before the events in my serial story.

We join the Ladies as the Parasol Duelling continues.

Enjoy
Keep your sightglass full, your firebox trimmed and your water iced.
KJ

At the Parasol Duels

Part 2
An episode from the Airship's Messdeck
Compiled by Kevin Jepson

While appearing to watch the elegant sweep and motion of the expert parasol duelists competing in the middle of the Grand Ballroom of London's Savoy Hotel, Madame Saffron Taxus-Hemlock ponders all that Lady Mary Formingham has revealed of her interest and knowledge in the designs of the HMAS Velvet Brush.

"Lady Mary,” says Madame, “you must have been a great help to your husband through his career. Or did your social life keep you too busy for dry science and technological advances?"

Mary, taking advantage of a lull while the judges argue a ruling, says, "I don’t have a great deal of social life. At school, I was the odd one out, always. When Sylvia came to the school, she too was left out, though that was because of her family. Or rather its lack. Girls can be rather beastly to those who do not fit the correct mold of young womanhood.

The duelling continues and then is suddenly stopped. Madame exclaims, "Gracious! Did you see that? The one in blue tried the Hungarian sideways stab. She'll surely be disqualified now."

Miss BB watches the commotion around the duel closely. "That lady in the stripy outfit is very fast to have jumped out of the way." Then, referring back to their previous conversation about pants, "I have some pants." says BB, "I got them in Africa. They are really good for riding camels."

"Ew camels, don't they spit?" Maddie says, once again a bit too loudly. Heads turn.

Miss BB says, "Camels are very spitty, and stinky. More stinky than spitty. I got a blister on my bum when I rode one for a whole day."

Maddie laughs, "I think that's what happened to the young queen when learning to parasol duel. The blister that is."

As the next pair of Duelists take their places and begin Maddie says, "Hmmm, very clever tactic. It's really a mind game, the parasol duel."

"When she pretended to move one way and then went the other?" BB asks, staring hard at the duel.

Madame claps her hands. "Oh, well played. Maddie, did you note that very forceful snub? And just where one would have expected a reverse twirl!” She leans back to Mary. “Did Sylvia share your interest in aeronautics?"

"Snubs, snubs, I could do a snub I bet," says BB.

Mary claps as a bout comes to an end with the loser weeping gracefully into a lacy hankie. "Sylvia? No. She thinks of nothing but the houses and keeping the lower servants in line. When she used to come out with us – me and Max and William Macleod – it was in part because I needed a chaperon. Then she fancied the Macleod, who returned her regard for a time. But nothing came of it in the end. She was not at all interested in anything to do with the ships they were on, or their dreams of joining the airship navy. The EAD was very small in those days, you see, and not all sailors were suited for it."

Maddie says, "My parasoling coach said my twirls were inspired."

"Can you teach me the twirl? I would love to twirl," says BB.

Madame is watching the crowd. "I say, is that Lady Grantham’s oldest daughter? I had no idea she was a duelist.” She looks at Maddie. “You’ve gone white again dear. Are you not well today?"

Miss BB looks at Maddie with concern. "Oh, you are very white. Like a sheet. Would a drink of medicine help you? Like the Doctor's Medicine?"

Maddie, slinks further behind the greenery. "Am I? Perhaps it's all the excitement."

Madame watches Maddie for moment, then calls, "Waiter! A very small brandy for the young lady. The excitement is too much for her."

Looking for the lady Madame mentioned, BB asks, "Do you mean the really tall one? With the ugly dress? Should we wave at her?"

“No!” gasps Maddie, grabbing BB’s arm.

"No." Madame nods across the room. "Miss Grantham’s the dark-haired one with the haughty expression."

Miss BB spots the lady in question and hrumphs. “Her dress is ugly too.” She puts her hand to her mouth. "But I shouldn't say such things. Maybe I need some medicine as well. We should all have medicine."

"I would benefit from some brandy as well," says Mary.

BB shakes her head. "I can't drink brandy, only medicine."

Again half hidden by fern fronds, Maddie says to herself, "I cannot believe that girl made it as a duelist, her prancing was dreadful and her twirls were weak at best."

"So Sylvia is still with you, Lady Mary?" Madame inquires.

Mary waves to the waiter in a manner more suited to a tavern than the Savoy Ballroom. "Yes, as my housekeeper. She travels between all the small farms and estates that Sir Gordon and I both have inherited, terrifying the staff into obedience. Just now she is off on the Welsh border, I think, worried that the kitchens there would not have prepared properly for any early lambs that must be raised by the hearth on account of being born into the inclement weather they have on those mountains. I’m sure the staff would have done it, being bred up in those very mountains and coming to us from those very farms and crofts, but Sylvia has a will of her own in these matters, and I long ago gave her leave to attend to the estates as she chooses."

Madame says to BB, "It's the same medicine, Miss BB. Only here they keep it in nicer bottles."

Maddie chuckles. "And charge a nicer price!"

Madame explains, "Crystal ones, like the chandeliers up there. No, don't point with your parasol, dear. You could have taken out the Duchess of Devonshire's eye."

Maddie, anxiously watching the crowd from behind her fern, thinks to herself, "Oh wouldn't that just be the thing, to be found out and found to be drinking as well."

BB looks shocked. "Oh no, it can't be the same stuff. I can't drink brandy, only medicine. They must be different. I would go to hell for sure if I drank brandy."

Maddie hoots from behind her plant. "Hey are you blind? That was intentional fanning!"

"Can you teach me fanning? That looked oh so clever." says BB.

Maddie explains, "Strictly against the rules, fanning is. It involves opening and closing your parasol quickly  to create a breeze. Also called bellowing. Dust could blow in your opponent’s eye, giving you an advantage."

All the room hushes as a particularly well orchestrated Free-Style duel begins between two past champions. After the Mayfair Duelist raps her opponent’s ankle and ladders her stocking, a move for which no penalty can be grave enough, the displeased crowd emphatically rattles their teacups in their saucers, and turns their backs until the disgraced duelist is removed from the ballroom.

The waiter, taking advantage of the rustle of shoulders turning, slips between tables with a crystal decanter and several elegant, though very small, glasses.

"I wonder where she got those stockings," says BB. "They sure are nice ones. Before they were laddered."

"There is a penalty for that laddering, Miss BB. The offender will lose her parasol AND her previous champion's glove," says Madame.

"Well! Bunch of wimps. They would never make it on the farm," says BB, shaking her head. "But I could learn fanning, and laddering. Just in case I mean. It could save my life one day. And maybe the life of baby sheeps."

"Have some medicine, Miss BB," says Mary. "They will start the next duel in a moment."

"Oooo. medicine. I don't mind if I do. These glasses are very small."

Lady Mary once more leans toward Madame Saffron, saying softly, "These documents. Please, can you advise me what to do with them?”

Madame leans in close. "I don’t know if the Commander passed along this suggestion, but I could readily arrange for the documents to be ‘found’ aboard the ship by an EAD worker, as if they had been shoved into a corner and forgotten, perhaps while the ship was being repaired after the Portsmouth explosion."

A city of ghosts.

Previously I mentioned the odd effect that colorized historical photos had on me.

This delightful film of Berlin in 1900 has been colourized and edited for Facebook by Paul Hardy.

It is a city of ghosts indeed, since every single person shown has passed now.
Seeing black and white photos and the grainy old movies sometimes brings on  a bit of "memento mori" but this film with its muted colours, showing street scenes from a bustling metropolis is moving indeed.

Keep your sightglass full, your firebox trimmed and your water iced.
KJ


https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10153303691386248&set=vb.769001247&type=1

SOMEWHERE IN TIME 1900.
A HUNDRED AND FIFTEEN YEAR OLD FILM MADE NEW. MAINLY BERLIN & MUNICH, GERMANY.

Over a Million FB viewers have been moved by my film, experiencing a surreal mixture of emotions that few have been able to fully describe.It was coloured about 10 years ago but I've now digitally sharpened it as well as removed dust and grain to give an even better experience.Truly magical, moving footage that I've cut and edited to my favourite piece of classical music. The original film which I took the footage from is very much darker and also depicts a large amount of military segments.I wanted to edit this however to show the positivity and pride of the everyday people in their day to day lives as they embrace all the splendour of that time period on a human level.Clearly, like today, some seem richer than others, yet all of them seem to display a sense of dignified purpous often missing in todays world.

All these forgotten souls are left rotting on old grainy dark films often with sombre depressing music thrown over. It's my belief that they deserve better. Beautiful music and beautiful images presented in the right way can be incredibly emotive and powerful and I felt that this was needed in order to properly transport the viewer back through time and really ''feel'' what it was like.I've worked hard to convey that sense of splendour and make people see and feel that a sunny day then looked just like a sunny day today. These people lived, loved, laughed and cried and had real lives. They did not live in darkness with grey skies and grainy mist as we are often used to seeing on decaying films.

The wonderfully emotive music I've used is the soundtrack from the movie 'Somewhere In Time' and was written by Film Composer John Barry, not to be confused with 'The Eighteenth Variation of Sergei Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini' which also runs throughout the film.Savour this as you watch it. All these people whose lives were just as important to them in their time era as we think ours our now. I noticed how happy they seem to be going about their business and I tried to study different characters.... who were they?... what was their story? Watch the woman adjusting her hat for example at the end of the film. She seems very concerned about her image as she proudly sports the latest fashion..and notice how happy the kids are playing in the street.The more you study these people the more it will fascinate you. Their lives are less complicated than ours in terms of technology but you can clearly see the overwhelming community spirit here without video games, TV or computers. Somewhere in time, all gone forever..all just ghosts....yet frozen here for you to glance upon as if through some magical time machine window.

Enjoy, The Time Guru.
Posted by Paul Hardy on Thursday, 30 April 2015

Intrigue and Parasol Duelling at the Savoy!

This story is the very first time that Parasol Duelling ever appeared in our Roleplaying group,  the Airship’s Messdeck.

The official Parasol Duelling rules hadn't even been drafted yet, but these Ladies still had a good time playing out an episode during a Parasol Duelling event at the Savoy Hotel in London. I have distilled the role play text a bit to make it easier to read.

If you have been following my serialized story from the Messdeck you will recognize one of the characters. Lt Beulah Bueckert, Miss BB to the crew, is the communications officer on the HMAS Velvet Brush who, along with Lt Cmdr MacDonald-Smythe and other members of the crew, are currently on their way to Scapa Flow in the dead of Winter. This episode takes place several months before that story.

The two other crew members present are not Navy personnel but passengers. Madame Saffron Taxus-Hemlock (Yes, THAT Madame Saffron!) and her maid Miss Maddie Hatter. The fourth character is Lady Mary Formingham, the wife of the former head of the Royal Navy's Experimental Airship Division, the EAD, Sir Gordon Formingham. Sir Gordon has been posted to bleak and lonely Scapa Flow due to a scandal involving the design and construction of the Velvet Brush.

Miss BB is a brilliant communications officer. She comes from a rural background and is still very naive when it comes to the "big city" that is London in Queen Victoria's time. Fond of "medicine," she would never touch “alcohol”. Oddly capable of winning any game of chance, she would never “gamble”. She is a simple soul and much beloved by the crew for her forthright commentary on nearly everything. This is the first time she has been exposed to Parasol Duelling.

Madame Saffron Taxus-Hemlock, officially a professor of "applied botany", is in reality related to many of the crowned heads of Europe. She is not above indulging in espionage on behalf of her powerful family as well as her friends in the crew of the HMAS Velvet Brush. Madame is also a "Black Sash" Parasol Duelist and has recently judged the Flirtation trials at this very event.

Madame's Maid, Miss Maddie Hatter, has a secret past. She has obviously been trained in Parasol Duelling, as most well born Ladies of the time would be, however she is clearly nervous about being recognized by the grand Ladies in attendance. (Maddie has her own adventures in "Maddie Hatter and the Deadly Diamond" by Jayne Barnard, from Tyche Books.)

We join these Ladies as Madame Saffron arrives to meet with Lady Mary Formingham under the cover of attending the finals of the Parasol Duelling event at the Savoy.

At the Parasol Duels

Part 1
An episode from the Airship's Messdeck
Compiled by Kevin Jepson

The Grand Ballroom of the Savoy Hotel
London

Madame steps into the lobby of the Savoy and looks around. Will she recognize Lady Mary Formingham, only met once over tea many months ago? But that lady is easily spotted, pacing an 8-foot square while a maid watches peaceably, her back to a column.

Madame sails forward, hand outstretched. “Lady Mary, how lovely to see you again!”

The Grand Ballroom has been readied for the Freestyle Finals of the Greater London Ladies’ Parasol Duelling Society. Some argument has taken place between the waiters, who had orders to put in as many tables as possible, and the organizing committee, who were determined to leave a generous space in the middle to comply with the international standard and avoid accidental damage to spectators and judges.

Madame leads her guest into the ballroom and looks over the throng of excited young ladies and staid matrons, hoping to spot Miss BB already installed. She had sent Maddie on ahead to make sure the Comms Officer was served promptly. Waiters could be snobbish but Maddie’s handling of them is so adept she might have been born to a life of servants instead of servitude.

Miss BB’s brightly hued parasol waves wildly in a corner, threatening the hats of several nearby ladies. If she isn’t careful, she’ll inadvertently challenge someone to a duel. Since it is doubtful she has ever participated in formal training, she is more likely to smack someone over the head as she has done to rats, voles, cockroaches and possibly a few villainous humans over the past several months.

Miss BB shouts out "Oooo ooooo oooo They are here, they are here. ooo ooo ooo." Then she wonders to herself, "I wonder if I have to get up when they get here? There is hardly any room for our skirts with the tables all pushed together the way they are. We should move them out."

Miss Maddie sits with her back to the wall pretending to be interested in a very dull potted fern.

BB says, "Miss Maddie, Miss Maddie, did you get a new parasol in honour of this occasion? I did. Do you want to see it?" BB swings the bright parasol across the table, narrowly missing the chimney of the little table lamp in the middle of the flowers forcing Maddie to duck. "Ooops. Sorry, but it is quite beautiful."

Maddie smiles at Miss BB's exuberance, "Oh no, I am afraid no new one for me. I couldn't frequent the old shops, and one can never trust a black market parasol. Often they are weighted incorrectly. One could get hurt."

Miss BB looks closely at her parasol "Weighted? I thought they were just for keeping the sun off?"


Maddie says, "Oh yes, but not a fighting parasol. Strict rules."

"Oooo, fighting, can you teach me about the fighting?"

With everyone seated, served, and the preliminary speeches beginning before the judges’ table, Lady Mary leans close and puts a hand on Madame Saffron’s arm. “Max er... Commander MacDonald-Smythe, tells me you are to be trusted, and already know about the documents I sent him from my husband’s study. May I confide in you? I’m very troubled.”

Madame is surprised by Mary touching her arm. Winning the younger woman’s confidence is not going to be a problem, apparently.

"Of course you may say anything to me. I will not wantonly repeat your confidences, and the others, as crew members on the Velvet Brush with me, would not, even if they felt inclined, discuss anything touching our ship with anyone outside it. I think they are not paying much attention in any case. Such a great crowd. I think they will not pay us much mind at all."

Mary leaning close to Madame says softly, "Thank you, Madame. I only took the designs because I feared for Max, up there with no proper warning that the ship’s technologies are largely untested. There have been prior ships destroyed in this program, that I do know from Gordon. My husband, that is. Sir Gordon Formingham. He was head of the EAD until very recently." She looks down, clearly troubled, "And Max is a dear, very old friend... of both myself and Sir Gordon."

Maddie, talking to Miss BB says, "Apparently the strict rules are due to an unfortunate mishap the queen had in her younger days. A splinter of bamboo, if I am not mistaken."

Miss BB shakes her head "That sounds most uncomfortable. To have a splinter of bambooooo. Where did she have it?"

Miss Maddie, watching the crowd, says, "In the courtyard I believe..."

Miss BB ponders Maddie's comment for a second then says, "In her courtyard? How can that be?”

Maddie looks back at Miss BB and says, "I beg your pardon? Oh you mean ... Oh dear..."

But Miss BB has already turned to Madame. "Is the Doctor coming tonight to the parasolling? I do so like her."

Madame says, "I fear Her Grace is remaining at Davaar. There is much to settle in a newly rebuilt home."

"Oh yes, I hope she had lecticity put in during the rebuild."

"I believe that was her intent." If the rumours of testing up north are true, Madame thinks, the crew  may see the electric lights of Davaar blazing up in the night sky on their way past.

Miss BB turns back to watching the throng of Ladies filling the room and mutters quietly to herself, "eelectric, eelectric..."

Madame claps for the speech of which she has not attended a single word. "Oh, look, the duelists! Did you ever see so many ruffles and flounces, Miss BB? They aren’t allowed to have lace on their cuffs, or puffs to their sleeves, so they make up for it everywhere else on the gown."

Miss BB opens her eyes wide at the sight. "Oh my, I would dearly love to have a gown like that."

Madame smiles at Miss BB. "But surely not in these pale colours, Miss BB? She would look entirely unlike herself, would she not, Maddie?"

Miss BB watches the contestants parade before the judges.  "Do they have to be pale colours? Really?"

Miss Maddie says, "It's considered bad form to wear distracting colours."

"Bah, pale is distracting," says Miss BB with a hrmph. "Oh... they are tall ones and short ones. Which ones will do the best?"

Miss Maddie, watching the Ladies, says, "I've heard they even go to the trouble of weighting their practice gowns so that they will feel lighter on game day."

Madame gives Maddie another keen glance, and then pats Mary’s arm. "You may tell me anything, Lady Mary." And I very much hope you will, she adds to herself.

History to me was always Black and White.

Previously I posted how colour changed how I viewed history. How the modern wars of the 20th C were mostly in black and white whereas the wars of history were in colour, but the colour of romanticized paintings.

The same goes for the early days of photography, which of course was black and white.

Now through the use of computers and careful analysis, artists can recreate classic photos from the past in colour.

Posted on Powerful Primates are a selection of  53 Colourized Photos from the Past

These pictures produce an odd effect for me.  My mind does not know how to treat obviously historic images when they are so realistically coloured. It's as if I can't figure out if they are real or not. If they were in their original black and white form that wouldn't be a problem.

Here are some examples for you:

Madison Square Park New York City around 1900.

Mark Twain in 1900

Union Soldiers taking a break in 1863

See what I mean?


I recommend checking out the linked article for more fascinating photographs.

Keep your sightglass full, your firebox trimmed and your water iced.
KJ

A visit to Davaar Manor

Here is the next part of the serialized tale from our role play group "The Messdeck".

You can start from the beginning here.

Previously Lt Cmdr Maxwell MacDonald-Smythe and the crew of the aged cargo airship HMAS Doris are on their way to the Royal Navy base at Scapa Flow in the dead of winter. During a very cold night tied up to a docking tower at York, Max is visited by an old acquaintance, a Lt Barbesly, who tells Max about the events surrounding the precipitous departure of the HMAS Velvet Brush from Esquimalt two years before. Lt Barbesly now works for the formidable head of the Royal Navy's Intelligence service Fleet Admiral Avis Chicheley. Continuing on their journey North Max takes the Doris on an un-authorised side trip to visit the home of the Velvet Brush's  medical officer Christine Pearse the Duchess of Argylle.

Frozen Sky

A serial story from The Messdeck.

Part V

Collected and edited by Kevin Jepson

*It is late in a bright but frigid winter afternoon and The HMAS Doris is approaching Davaar Manor, the home of Dr Christine Pearse, and her husband the missing scientist and inventor the Duke of Argylle.*

Max at the wheel keeps his eyes fixed on the looming Manor. "Hold her elevation steady at 200' I'll get a feel for the surface winds as we pass"

"Aye Sir." Sgt Fraser is at the elevator controls beside him watches the angle and the elevation closely.

"Hmmm, no sign of any winds, none of the chimney smoke is moving, should be good to go. We will do a pass then line up on the courtyard. It will be a tight fit."

"Aye aye Sir!"

*As the old airship slowly passes over Davaar, Max eyes the courtyard looking for anything that might cause problems with landing.*

"Looks a lot different than the last time we was here eh Sgt?"[1]

"Aye Sir it do indeed."

*The Navigator and Miss BB come out of their cabin and watch the manor passing below.*

"My compliments Lt Belava, your navigation was superb."

"Thank you Sir!"

"Any messages from the manor Lt?" Max asks Miss BB as she stretches out over the window sill to look down into the courtyard.

"Oooh looks nice, much better without all that smoke! Um, yes Sir, The Doctor says 'Welcome back exclamation point' Sir."

"Thank you Lt. Right, let us go down and see how the good Doctor is faring shall we?"

"Aye aye Sir!"

*Max sets the telegraph to engine stop and begins to vent hydrogen slowly to let the airships settle. As the Doris lowly begins to drop towards the courtyard of the Manor Max can see the Duchess and her mechanical butler Mr Gears waiting by the doorway.*

I hope we don't scratch up all that nice new paint!

Fraser calls out the elevation "40 feet, 30 feet, 20 feet, 10 feet". The old Doris inches lower, the roof of the Manor rising beneath them until it is even with the airship's envelope. "Contact Sir!"

*Max sets the telegraph to finished with engine and the Doris settles down with a slight creaking nestled neatly in the courtyard.*

"And that is that! Secure from flight stations and let us go ashore."

"Secure from flight stations aye Sir!"

Any landing you can walk away from Max me lad, any landing...

(Continued below the break)

======
[1] After a sabotage attempt on the HMAS Velvet Brush while in the airdock at Portsmouth, Doctor Pearse returned to her Manor at Davaar. The manor was attacked by a band of mechanically enhanced mercenaries attempting to acquire the secret research of the Doctor's husband the Duke. Max took the ship's Marines and other members of the crew North on a "private" rescue mission. The ensuing battle, while successful in repelling the mercenaries, left the manor severely damaged.