Infrastructure: Part Two Hundred and Forty Five

There was a decent amount of political turmoil two months after the defeat of Daagsgrad, but despite that Admiral ti'Kalvonin clout and influence had managed to bolster it. Even if the battle had been lost she'd managed to not only get most of her ships and the warriors on board to safety but had taken out one of their Ironclads in the process. Those in search of a scapegoat as to who was responsible for the debacle had mostly gone for other more promising targets, among them being those who had previously leveled blame against her after the defeat in the Straights of Nalmros. Her criticisms of the plans had also been circulating and the response to them on the whole had been positive from what her more politically minded brother could tell her. This was a boon to her household and herself. It came as a surprise as she spent her share of the political currency on a new initiate for the navy.

It was generally accepted that the weak link in all Drow naval forces were slave sections of the crews. Mostly they were viewed as a necessary evil to get sufficient manpower to mobilize a fleet which could fend off the never sufficiently damned High Elves. In centuries past they had mostly been rowers before evolving bit by bit into sailors and gunners. Either way the standards were low. There was some preference for broken slaves who'd previously worked on (in descending order) cargo ships, fishing boats or river barges as well as those with useful trades such as carpentry but  those were expensive and at most might make up a quarter of a warship's crew. Former field hands, miners, stevedores, general laborers and boys as young as seven were much more common and were often supplemented by various dregs (either maimed or problematic) and fresh captures from raids or prizes. Their (for what of a better word) "training" was done in a sink or swim fashion, new slave sailors were simply thrown into the crews of warships among more experienced slaves and were expected to pull their weight or be brutally punished with grog and the prospects of extra grog to keep them in line. Those that survived the system usually became capable seamen that could be auctioned off during long lulls. They could perform shipboard functions satisfactorily, run out the guns reasonably quickly and reload them in drills, though even they also had a greater tendency to panic and break down under fire that other crews lacked even when bloody examples were made. They tended to drink more than their counterparts elsewhere. But what concerned her more than that was the fact that the process that made said sailors was inefficient and wasteful best and only got worse when a large section of that experienced crew base was gutted.

These methods might have been adequate a couple centuries ago but times had clearly changed. The Infrastructural Navy simply showed an acceleration in trends while the losses at Daagsgrad and the needs of a steam powered fleet made the need for change more pressing. As such she'd managed to push for the creation of a new breed of sailors starting with an experimental batch of four hundred. They were be trained on land at first where they would be introduced to the new steam machinery before getting their sea legs on rowboats and then a old cargo galleon before finally being integrated into crews. Punishments were still brutal but it would be applied to get them into shape. They were held to more strict codes of conduct reinforced by a reinvigorated sailor's sect of the slave faith. Where other slave sailors would wear whatever rags and scraps of clothing came their way or they could cobble together with maybe a crude insignia added on she'd managed to procure some proper uniforms for this new breed of sailors, even if she was not fully satisfied with the hats. All in all she'd hoped to create a new breed of slave sailors more akin to Janissaries, loyal fanatics driven to excel rather than a cowed rabble kept in line only by the lash and a haze of alcohol.

So far things had been going well even if the process was only half done. They could do things just fine on the test courses and had managed to get the hand of manning guns at the test ranges. One troublemaker had been removed and two more recovering after a serious injuries inured during in a gunnery training accident, but so far things had been working well. Engine training had some complications as it meant showing them about the shipyards and a couple manufactories, but they had been getting the hang of things by all reports. As she inspected them she was mostly satisfied with how things were going. She did not fear the project would not raise standards as it was self evidently was doing just that. She did have some concerns from attack traditionalists who'd argue that the new methods, while productive, were not worth the increased expense or that while they were useful when the navy needed to be quickly rebuilt they would not be worth the cost for general operations. Regardless she had high hopes that investing in training would give Hansoliath the edge it would need for eventually overcoming both the Infrastructuals and The Eternal Foe.

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