Chapter Thirteen: About to Collapse
August 5th, Salina Cruz Harbour, Oaxaca State, Mexico
Since two hours, maybe three, Loyce Schulte was looking at the window. She knew that the new battleships of her country were inbound for here because of the messages she had transcribed on her typewriter. She and the other girls of the communications room were all anxious about the events of the past week and the confidential coded messages they were typing were anything but optimistic. The threat of a war didn’t scared her, but it did not rejoiced her neither. She was typist since only a year, she and her husband have moved here when the ship on which he works, the light cruiser ARM Merida, was redeployed on the Pacific coast.
- Look Loyce, here they are!
- Yes, I see them, how great they are!
- Indeed.
The ARM General Guerrero, one of the two scout cruiser transfered from the RN to Mexico after the Great War, in drydock at Salina Cruz.
While doing her job she was still looking at the window while the three giant ships slowly approached the harbour. From her point of view she could see all the harbour and so she watched the ships until they anchored inside the breakwater at midday.
Then, everything collapsed.
Suddenly, the room was flooded by noise from the radios, the telegraphs and the typewriters. Men began to run in every direction to pick up information and read the incoming messages. She quickly learned that Norman Thomas has declined the counter offer from the Mexican government and that he just ordered the aircraft carrier USS America full steam down to Mexico. The war now seemed unavoidable. Then, in her headphones she began to hear a voice… she started typing.
ARM Juarez to base, ARM Juarez to base, emergency, boiler room number two flooded, explosion in boiler room number three. I repeat, explosion in boiler room number three, likely caused by overpressure. Need backup immediately, many wounded men and a lot of water entering the vessel.
- Here Lieutenant you need to read that immediately!
- What’s going on here?
- A boiler exploded in the Juarez, look.
- Wait what?
The damaged boiler room in the Juarez.
Lieutenant Salvidar read the note and, without answering, ran to his superior’s office. Loyce was shocked, how could the Navy fight if one of the most important of her ships was damaged? She looked again at the window, now she could see that one of the ships was beginning to bow on port side.
- Well, they are not so new these ships…
When she ended her shift at 6, she walked back to the tram stop and was at home around 7. She immediately opened the television. The host was talking about the crisis. She listened for a couple of minutes, until she realized he was talking of the crisis in the past tense. Was it already over? It was impossible, an hour ago the war seemed ready to be declared on the morning and now it would be over? Impossible!
===
On August 5th 1939, the Confederate States of America and the Socialist States signed in Texas the Houston Agreement. According to it, the USSA and the CSA agreed to not using Mexico, or any of the other Latin American countries, as casus belli against each other. At the same time, the Socialist States committed themselves to not intervene in Mexican domestic policy and withdraw their demands about the scuttling of the ARM Juarez, ARM Montezuma and ARM Ciudad de México.
The ARM Ciudad de México followed by the Juarez and the Montezuma after their 10 months modernization. The three ships were a big deal to handle for the Mexican Navy, but after the boilers accident, the Mexicans really learned how to use them.
On August 7th, the boiler room number four of the Montezuma was also flooded, just like what happened on the Juarez. It was determined that it was the stress exerted on the ship’s engines that was the cause of the failures on both ships. Even if the boilers where new, the Mexican crew had overestimated the pressure limit of the boilers, resulting in the failure of two of them. Reparations were made on the three ships and the lattice masts, damaged by the explosion, were replaced by tripods. While the ships were in drydocks, engineers used this opportunity to remove the underwater torpedoes launchers and to add anti-torpedoes bulges instead. This last modification required the help of Confederate engineers from New Port New and lasted until June-July 1940 with a lot of cost overrun but gave a new life to the ships and allowed them to be ready for the events that were now shaking Europe…
August 5th, Salina Cruz Harbour, Oaxaca State, Mexico
Since two hours, maybe three, Loyce Schulte was looking at the window. She knew that the new battleships of her country were inbound for here because of the messages she had transcribed on her typewriter. She and the other girls of the communications room were all anxious about the events of the past week and the confidential coded messages they were typing were anything but optimistic. The threat of a war didn’t scared her, but it did not rejoiced her neither. She was typist since only a year, she and her husband have moved here when the ship on which he works, the light cruiser ARM Merida, was redeployed on the Pacific coast.
- Look Loyce, here they are!
- Yes, I see them, how great they are!
- Indeed.
The ARM General Guerrero, one of the two scout cruiser transfered from the RN to Mexico after the Great War, in drydock at Salina Cruz.
While doing her job she was still looking at the window while the three giant ships slowly approached the harbour. From her point of view she could see all the harbour and so she watched the ships until they anchored inside the breakwater at midday.
Then, everything collapsed.
Suddenly, the room was flooded by noise from the radios, the telegraphs and the typewriters. Men began to run in every direction to pick up information and read the incoming messages. She quickly learned that Norman Thomas has declined the counter offer from the Mexican government and that he just ordered the aircraft carrier USS America full steam down to Mexico. The war now seemed unavoidable. Then, in her headphones she began to hear a voice… she started typing.
ARM Juarez to base, ARM Juarez to base, emergency, boiler room number two flooded, explosion in boiler room number three. I repeat, explosion in boiler room number three, likely caused by overpressure. Need backup immediately, many wounded men and a lot of water entering the vessel.
- Here Lieutenant you need to read that immediately!
- What’s going on here?
- A boiler exploded in the Juarez, look.
- Wait what?
The damaged boiler room in the Juarez.
Lieutenant Salvidar read the note and, without answering, ran to his superior’s office. Loyce was shocked, how could the Navy fight if one of the most important of her ships was damaged? She looked again at the window, now she could see that one of the ships was beginning to bow on port side.
- Well, they are not so new these ships…
When she ended her shift at 6, she walked back to the tram stop and was at home around 7. She immediately opened the television. The host was talking about the crisis. She listened for a couple of minutes, until she realized he was talking of the crisis in the past tense. Was it already over? It was impossible, an hour ago the war seemed ready to be declared on the morning and now it would be over? Impossible!
===
On August 5th 1939, the Confederate States of America and the Socialist States signed in Texas the Houston Agreement. According to it, the USSA and the CSA agreed to not using Mexico, or any of the other Latin American countries, as casus belli against each other. At the same time, the Socialist States committed themselves to not intervene in Mexican domestic policy and withdraw their demands about the scuttling of the ARM Juarez, ARM Montezuma and ARM Ciudad de México.
The ARM Ciudad de México followed by the Juarez and the Montezuma after their 10 months modernization. The three ships were a big deal to handle for the Mexican Navy, but after the boilers accident, the Mexicans really learned how to use them.
On August 7th, the boiler room number four of the Montezuma was also flooded, just like what happened on the Juarez. It was determined that it was the stress exerted on the ship’s engines that was the cause of the failures on both ships. Even if the boilers where new, the Mexican crew had overestimated the pressure limit of the boilers, resulting in the failure of two of them. Reparations were made on the three ships and the lattice masts, damaged by the explosion, were replaced by tripods. While the ships were in drydocks, engineers used this opportunity to remove the underwater torpedoes launchers and to add anti-torpedoes bulges instead. This last modification required the help of Confederate engineers from New Port New and lasted until June-July 1940 with a lot of cost overrun but gave a new life to the ships and allowed them to be ready for the events that were now shaking Europe…
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