The Action of 5 Jyaistha (Kaetjhasti).

[The Duchess of Zeon]

TO: ADMIRAL THE LADY LAKSHMI SRIDARNYA SRI PRAKRITI
IN CARE OF THE OFFICERS OF THE RATARA FORT TO THE ARMY DEPT.
FROM: COMMANDING LIEUTENANT TARITI EURAKATI,
OF THE RAUHIRANYA’S SCREW CORVETTE EU’MATAI.
ON THE EIGHTH DAY OF THE LUNAR CALENDS OF JYAISHTHA.

Your Ladyship,

I am sorrowed to report that on the fifth day of Jyaishtha an action took place by the squadron to which the Eu’matai was lately assigned, of which I am the ranking survivor. In this action the screw frigate Kalajhari under the command of the late Captain First Rate Tjandra Padi sri Olikant and the Gun Vessel Oluikai under Commanding Lieutenant Ma Li were lost to British hostile action, as well as two sailing barques charted to the Army Department.

At about one glass into the Forenoon Watch the Kalajhari raised signals indicating that she had sighted an approaching squadron of Ships of War. We were so signalled to clear for action but keep our gunports closed and our pivots amidships save for the saluting guns, and this order was executed with the expectation it was being done for drill. Within twelve minutes all ships in the squadron had signalled cleared for action and the Kalajhari acknowledged, maintaining course for Ratara harbour at a speed of six knots to cover the tack of the sailing barques.

Aboard the Eu’matai I, of my own initiative, spoke to Colonel Alankrita sri Jhaitriya and asked her to muster her companies on the Eu’matai, then transporting part of the relieving garrison for the Ratara Fort, on the prospect that we might face action. By one and a half glasses into the watch my fear was confirmed as the approaching squadron was clearly seen from my command to be led by an ironclad frigate flying the White Ensign, and with the reports of the late exchange about the town of Yulara it was passed to the crew to expect that the call to quarters might be no drill.

At this instant the Kalajhari signalled the squadron to get steam up and prepare to strike all sail. Another signal followed and was hauled down four minutes later ordering the rest of the squadron to keep with the tack of the barques to Ratara harbour. The Kalajhari was clearly already raising steam, and based on the account of Gunnery Lieutenant Ersimkya Bulai, ranking survivor of the crew of the Kalajhari, it was Captain sri Olikant’s intention to hail the British flag and inquire his intentions while the convoy made into Ratara. They began to wear ship under sail to make for the approaching British squadron while their boilers were brought to pressure.

As the noon watch was sounded we struck sail as I assumed command of the detached force and accordingly raised the Ray-on-Pinion and signalled for the Gun Vessels to follow under steam. As we struck sail and came about to starboard to run directly for Rakara Harbour we saw three screw corvettes or sloops making off under steam and sail at great speed for the mouth of the harbour. I elected to hold speed so that we might arrive at the same time as the barques rather than risk the British force getting between us and making our duty to protect them impossible to execute.

The Kalajhari by now had clearly also struck sail and was closely approaching the ironclad frigate, which Lieutenant Bulai identified as Her Majesty’s Ship Audacious, a central battery armoured frigate pierced for ten 9-inch rifles and four 6-inch rifles, with light guns besides, flying the flag of a Rear Admiral. Neither ship had by this point rendered salute, the British refusing, as they claimed it to be within their waters; the Kalajhari approached within range of speaking trumpet to the Audacious and demanded she render salute to the Rauhiranya’s flag within our waters.

The British Admiral’s response was to issue Captain Sri Olikant an ultimatum: Either the squadron should turn back from Ratara harbour without landing the troops, or he would open fire. The late Captain immediately raised and executed signals to me that I should direct the barques to beach in Rakara harbour that the troops aboard and the cannon in their holds might be salved and delivered to the fort. Lieutenant Bulai reports that at this time the order was given for the gun-ports to be opened and the guns run out and the pivots to be trained to starboard, by way of reply to the ultimatum.

As we were acknowledging the Captain’s order, the port side of HMS Audacious erupted in smoke and flame as she commenced to firing, and as the discharge of the first salvo cleared I could recognize the British signal flags for close action being hauled down as a directive to the approaching corvettes. The Kalajhari was obscured in the smoke of the broadside by which she had immediately replied, and taking my own initiative I signalled the rest of my force and my own command to run out their guns and form in line just insdie of Ratara harbour so that we could strike at the British corvettes as they crossed the bar, having made the harbour perhaps half a glass before our enemies.

I shall heretofore report on the details of the action within Ratara harbour, Your Ladyship, and proceed with what reconstruction as I may humbly make of the action of the Kalajhari and the Audacious in secundus.

The Eu’matai was by far the strongest of our three brave ships of war, and we were clearly badly outgunned by the British force. Nonetheless, it could be clearly seen that the largest and most powerful of the British corvettes, pierced for about twenty guns and with a large pivot on deck, was much slower than the others. I spoke with Colonel sri Jhaitriya and she agreed that our best chance was to carry the largest of the corvettes by boarding while the gun vessels held as best they could against the lessers.

As the British squadron, led by a corvette identified as HMS Thetis, crossed over the bar, I ordered revolutions for eleven knots and commenced firing to port as we leapt out ahead of the anchored gun vessels and raked her bow with the heaviest fire of our 68- and 32-pdrs on the broadside and the 8in rifled pivot-guns as we could manage. With the full broadsides and pivots of the gun vessels likewise firing heavily upon her, she was heavily damaged in minutes of close action. We toppled her foremast and tore her bowsprit, though her heavily built-up ram bow showed no signs of damage to the hull and her starboard broadside guns replied fiercely, targeting the Oluikai, even as she lost way to the fouling of her toppled foremast.

The next British corvette in line, probably of the Eclipse-class but not clearly identified, veered out to port and with a great column of virulent smoke pouring from her funnel, clearly putting her boilers above safe pressure, made to ram us. They had brought around chasers firing 68 pound shot (we found some examples embedded in the bow) and pounded us with them as we brought about our fore-pivot to reply and I ordered hard to port to bring our bow against their’s.

We scraped alongside with tremendous force, but our bows did not touch and we saw no water in the bilge from the collision; our rigging, however, tangled and we lost several yards and the mainmast was left unsteady. From the first instant the soldiers we were carrying aboard responded well, despite not being used to the conditions or the shock of such an impact, and opened a vigorous fire with their Werder rifles, some stationed in the tops and others on the main deck and gun deck, with those on the main deck in regular formation and firing in volleys across the deck of the British corvette. The old carronades kept on the foredeck and quarterdeck for use in close action proved their use here, the cannister doing good execution across the enemy’s deck.

Their fire was nonetheless eager and rapid in reply as we passed by each other at perhaps twenty-five knots with barely any slowing, and the sand on the deck was soon stained with the blood of my bold girls and the Colonel’s alike. Her hull proved well able to take the sole starboard broadside we were able to put into her, and she thus made the harbour without significant damage. The opportunity presented by her ramming attempt, however, gave us the chance to rake the stern of the Thetis with the port broadside, which caused her considerable damage and checked the terrible fire against the gun vessels for a while.

We were coming up to our target, the HMS Rattlesnake, on her starboard rather than her port, and as we came nearly to her bows I ordered full starboard rudder and we collided hard with her amidships, driving her around to her port and tangling our ships together as thoroughly as I might have hoped, though we snapped the fore-part of our bowsprit against her rigging, but without bringing down our foremast. This at least left us close alongside as her very heavy armament of 68pdrs commenced firing into us and immediately caused considerable execution to my poor command.

Nonetheless, with the great number of soldiers aboard, we were now tangled well into her and perfectly positioned for a boarding action, and with fixed bayonets the army troops and my sailors with their pikes and shotguns were soon crossing in great numbers to the deck of the Rattlesnake where the British crew stood out with their own pikes on the order of ‘all hands stand by to repel boarders’. Her guns continued to fire into our hull at close range and we returned the favour with the level of damage that was swiftly inflicted seeming astonishing for how little our bold ship seemed to complain from it.

As the boarding action was waged it soon became clear that no order or cohesion could be held over the squadron; my duty as commander of the Eu’matai conflicted with the need to signal orders, and in kind example, Colonel sri Jhaitriya took to leading the boarding action, in which she lost her right leg, though otherwise survived without fever or injury. I did my best to direct the action and encourage the resistance of the gun vessels and the beached barques (from the few old light pieces they mounted for defence against pirates) until I received word that Colonel sri Jhaitriya had been wounded and then I organized a party of reinforcements to cross over to the Rattlesnake.

This proved sufficient to sweep the British from her decks, and we thought that we had certainly taken the ship, but her captain had fallen in the action and such of the officers as were below decks refused to acknowledge our control and fought back with rifle fire against every attempt to force them out. A fight in close quarters along the gun deck soon developed, but this at least silenced the devastating fire of the Rattlesnake into the hull of the Eu’matai.

Further within the harbour, however, the development of the action was clear and terrible. The Thetis had succeeded in cutting free the debris of her foremast and had gotten underway again. Making steam she smartly bore down on the gun vessels and began to manoeuvre between them, but the Tijhar succeeded in manoeuvring to support the Oluikai and prevent the enemy from using both her broadsides. With the third British corvette the gun vessels were however within the range of at least twenty British guns and the carnage aboard them was by the report of the Tijhar terrible.

We could not make headway in seizing the engines from the crew of the Rattlesnake, and my first lieutenant proposed lowering a charge against the screw to disable it so we could take her under sail even as resistance continued below-decks. Of my crew, however, there were not enough left after the great casualties we had sustained in the boarding fight to both fight the Eu’matai and the Rattlesnake, even with some soldiers sent to relieve the stokers, so I made preparation to cast off and engage the remaining two British corvettes with a strong detachment aboard the Rattlesnake to finish clearing out her crew.

Before this could be effected, however, the Thetis had brought a terrible fire down upon the Oluikai, setting her afire and dismasting her, while the third of the British corvettes had manoeuvred to position herself between the beached barques and the gunvessels and was engaging each in turn with a broadside, having shaken off the effects of our fire en passant as though we had not engaged. In this position they were placed to effect the destruction of the convoy with the Thetis’ unengaged broadside promising a hot fight should we wish to intervene, and it was clear both corvettes would soon be able to return to the succor of the Rattlesnake, their task of destruction, I fear, a success.

Not wishing to give up our prize, but knowing we did not have the crew for her and that time was precious, as the other British corvettes ought soon come against us, I called to the British sailors resisting below-decks with a speaking trumpet—being the only one of my crew and the army officers aboard and unwounded who spoke the English tongue--and directed them to surrender at once or I would fire the Rattlesnake while they were still aboard. One of her officers answered that in that case they would just fight with two enemies rather than one, and so I gave the order for all the powder aboard her that we had seized to be set with slow-matches and the rigging lit wherever we might and for the evacuation of the boarding parties to commence.

We succeeded in thus making our way off the Rattlesnake and backing clear of her, with her rigging alight and explosions taking place on the deck, before the other corvettes came back upon us. There was nothing we could do for the gun vessels, which had grounded under the heaviest of fire, or the barques which were burning fiercely, save to try and lure the two remaining British corvettes away. Therefore we made our way under steam out of the harbour with the British in fierce pursuit, our aft pivot replying to their chasers as we tended to our wounded and prepared for a resumption of close action after more than two glasses of hot fighting.

Our retreat succeeded in luring on the British for a while, but after what I expect were signals from the Rattlesnake, whose bold crew had somehow succeeded in containing the fires, as to her desperate state, they turned about and made for the harbour once more. We were still within range to see that the Tijhar had succeeded in getting her engine up again and escaping through a side channel and was heading for us at about seven knots, but the Oluikai and the barques were fiercely burning and clearly completely lost, and thus the British denied the guns to the fort, though the better part of the soldiers on the barques escaped with their lives and their rifles. Nonetheless, I accounted having saved the Tijhar as the best that might have been managed when such a great preponderence of force was in the hands of our enemy.

She had clearly sustained the worst of damage, and was very slow besides, so as to make her further participation in the action unwise and I ordered her to make for Sahmunapura along the coast. We, however, were still well able to fight and steam at full speed, and with the British corvettes distracted by saving their consort and effecting the destruction of the Oluikai and the convoy, we sought to locate the Kalajhari and help her in her fight with the ironclad frigate. This was for naught, however, and it was only by distant sight through the spyglass that we witnessed the sinking of the Kalajhari.

Yet her foe had mercifully been well and truly damaged, and made off to the west with no ability or intent to continue the fighting, and the Eu’matai recovered what survivors of the Kalajhari as we could over the evening and into the night. The next day the approach of the British corvettes, including the Rattlesnake which had somehow been salved (though completely dismasted and operating only under her engines), forced us to make our best speed for Sahmunapura as well, and we were not pursued as we escaped with our terrible burden of dead and wounded.

I shall now attempt to recount from what we distantly glimpsed, and from the stories of the Kalajhari’s survivors, the action which took place between that brave ship of war Kalajhari, and the ironclad frigate Audacious.

(to be continued in a second post).

[Stuart]

Very good your Grace, an excellent story and well-told. You've caught the atmosphere and style of 19th century action reports perfectly. I think this could be slipped into a genuine historical account of one of 19th century bush wars without raising too many eyebrows (at least until mention of "my brave girls" was reached). I look forward to reading part two.

[Thanas]

Yes, that was a very good read.

EDIT: A question though - is the Audacious the real life Audacious (1869)? The different armament suggest no, but I wanted to make sure.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

Yes, that was a very good read.

EDIT: A question though - is the Audacious the real life Audacious (1869)? The different armament suggest no, but I wanted to make sure.

That is the Audacious. Her original armament was 10 x 9in MRL, 4 x 6in MRL, and 6 x 20pdr BLR. Gun designations are extremely confusing in the period, especially since some 68pdr smoothbores were relined into rifled muzzle loaders.

The Yulara Incident is taking place in 1876, for those curious, and is a spiral off of a land battle over a gold field. The British arguably provoked the Battle of Eucla or Battle of Ratara, depending on the national perspective, to deliver an ultimatum for substantial annexations of territory including said gold field to British West Australia, though with Eucla/Ratara being right on the de facto border and containing both about 50 white settlers and a Kaetjhasti fort, hostilities were inevitable. The ultimatum was however accepted, preventing a war which would have been disastrous for Kaetjhasti national fortunes but also promoting the reform movement which led to the end of absolute monarchy.

[Vastatosaurus Rex]

What culture does the main character and his team belong to? The names sound Indian to me.

[Simon_Jester]

This is a fictitious society of (essentially) parthenogenetic women, occupying a somewhat alternate-geographical version of Australia, Indonesia, and New Zealand. The culture is heavily Hindu-influenced; I'll leave Her Grace to explain in more depth when she next gets back here.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

Thanks Simon. I do have an update coming maybe over the weekend, but the amount of homework I have this semester leaves me feeling like I'm in a medical residency, so no promises of anything ever.

[Simon_Jester]

Could you link to the fictitious 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica article you wrote on the Kaeties? That's a pretty good source for background on roughly what they are and how they got there...

[The Duchess of Zeon]

Gladly done, good sir!

[The Duchess of Zeon]

Part Two

In accounting for the Kalajhari’s lonely fight, I shall rely principally upon the testimony of the ranking survivor of her crew that was recovered—though it appears that, most honourably, none of the officers were taken prisoner—the aforementioned Lieutenant Bulai. The Lieutenant, of a family of kshatriya of mixed Min and Lapita stock, is therefore worthy of the highest awards due those of her station for her gallantry, as well as for any officer of the service, on account of the corroborated reports of her great celerity and innovation in directing the battery of the Kalajhari in the action.

She is not the only one deserving to be so honoured, however, for the story I am to tell, though it led to the loss of the frigate and three of four from her crew, girdled the Crimson Swastika in such courage and sacrifice as that I think will inspire many generations of sailors hence to come, if I may be so bold. It shall be enough, therefore, to summarize the action by informing Your Ladyship that the Kalajhari sank with her colours flying having thrice refused to strike and with her guns being fought until her maindeck was awash. This much is incontrovertible fact which every officer and sailor rescued has attested to, and which I humbly repeat. The details of the engagement, then, were as follows:

Captain Padi sri Olikant brough her Kalajhari alongside the armoured frigate as I have recounted above, and thus at length brought the bold frigate to a distance of two cables from the Audacious. The Admiral of the British squadron hailed her by loud-speaking trumpet and declared that, as the detachment of the rest of the squadron surely indicated her intentions to fight, she would either signal a recall to the squadron and prevent the landing of the supplies to the Ratara Fort, or else our squadrons would necessarily come to blows.

Captain Padi sri Olikant answered that she had her duty before the Empress who is the Sun (hail to her), that the Ratara Fort be resupplied according to her instructions, and that as the British were in our waters, they ought render salute to the flag of the Kalajhari and immediately recall their corvettes. The British Admiral replied that he would neither salute the flag of the Empress nor stand down from his duty, and the Captain, for all that the Kalajhari was much outmatched, immediately issued the signals to my force I have aforementioned, and had the guns run out, as all of her reply.

It was all the British saw fit to need, and as they stood alongside at such close range the first broadside struck the Kalajhari with immense force, the shell exploding along the deck as the crew stood by their guns. Though there were wounded from the start, this first salvo and test of the great 9-inch rifles of the Audacious proved unable to knock out a single one of the Kalajhari’s broadside guns, and she returned the measure in full figure while her speed increased, initially opening the distance against the British, against whom the solid iron shot from our guns showed no sign of making the slightest impression.

The enemy frigate kept her broadside to the Kalajhari and poured fire on, and eight were soon dead upon the deck and others wounded as the stays were torn through by the detonations of the immense shells of the British guns, but the damage caused no real impression as the Kalajhari’s superiour handling let her at once turn back over and cross the armoured frigate’s bow, denying her broadside purchase against us and allowing Lieutenant Bulai’s gunners to lay several unopposed broadsides across her deck. The good lieutenant proved supple enough in her thought to have the guns loaded with shell at this juncture despite our usual custom of firing at hulls, and the result was tremendous in that the Audacious yawed to the port as though she had lost her steering; Lieutenant Bulai believes this was on account of a direct hit by one of the shells upon the conning-tower of the armoured frigate, spraying the viewing ports with shrapnel.

It was here that Captain Padi sri Olikant gave the order that they were to close to ram at once, and the Kalajhari came about smartly and bore down upon the Audacious as she again started to respond to her helm as a fighting ship of war. The advantage had been yielded, however, and the collision course between the two ships was now inexorable. Wood tested iron in a collision as gallant as the genius of desperation behind it, and the Audacious heeled from a wound which, had it been inflicted by an iron ship with an iron ram, would have surely been fatal. Instead, the ironclad merely shook off the blow of a wooden clipper bow and her starboard battery tore through the Kalajhari at point-blank, scattering the bodies of many marines as their comrades upon the masts fired down continuously with their Werder rifles into any figure that made the slightest movement on the deck of the Audacious, and tearing through the standing rigging.

With the Captain’s permission, Lieutenant Bulai had already ordered the guns loaded with double charge of powder, and though the Kalajhari reeled with damage and saw her decks damp with the blood of our sailors and nobles, she still proved able to exchange broadside to broadside with the shells of the British. The power of the 32pdrs on the battery proved completely unable to penetrate the British iron, and in the hard fight at close range that followed three of the guns burst from the immense pressures laid on them by the strong powder charges with which they were fired, and the crew was greeted to the sickening sight of their fire bouncing harmlessly off the Audacious’ hull. Of the two 6in rifles bearing on the starboard battery, and the two 68pdr pivot guns, however, a better story was told. Immense dents and craters were dug into the armour of the ironclad from their steady, rapid fire, and on several occasions the crew claimed to have seen the shots penetrate, though Lieutenant Bulai doubts this to have been the case. Nonetheless, the effect of the splintering from the bending and cratering of the plates must have caused good execution upon our enemy’s gun crews.

This moment gave us the greatest happiness of the battle, for a lucky shot by a pivot gun tore into the base of the ironclad’s mainmast, and at that range the strike of a 68pdr cracked through the mast as though she’d been dismasted by lightning. The Kalajhari’s crew raised a cheer and redoubled their efforts, and within minutes of fire the standing rigging had been so damaged as to bring down the ironclad’s mainmast and the foretopmast was carried down with it. With the Audacious pinned to the great mass of wreckage of her sails, slamming against her side with the roll of the sea, Captain sri Olikant (as the late noble soul shall be henceforth referred to) ordered the Kalajhari to back water and make to ram once more. The frigate had small fires on the foredeck and amidships and five 32pdrs of the starboard gun deck were out of action, three from being overcharged and two from hits by enemy fire, but her masts still stood and with her crew’s spirits at their finest, she closed hard and rammed the Audacious a second time under the hail of her enemy’s continuous shellfire.

The Audacious was unable to evade and again the Kalajhari struck her; this time their hulls were locked together by the profusion of rigging in the water, and a boarding attempt was at once made. The British proved less cleared from their decks than we might have hoped, however, and with rifles and a nordenfelt gun swept the Imperial Marines as they made to board. Again no damage to the hull was observed, and soon with the wreckage of her rigging cleared away, the Audacious manoeuvred clear with her guns still firing, and now sought to turn the tables by at once closing to ram with the Kalajhari, her iron prow promising far more lethal results. Only by the favour of Ganesh and the quickest action of the helmswomen did the Kalajhari evade, firing upon the Audacious en passant with vigour.

(ed. note – though not known to Commanding Lieutenant Tariti Eurakati, Lieutenant Bulai’s excellent control of the Kalajhari’s gunnery had already seen the British Admiral wounded, the Audacious’ captain killed, and the first officer also wounded so that the ship was under the control of a rather junior lieutenant. The Audacious-class in general had the rather severe flaw that, though equipped with a conning tower, it did not have the proper equipment to actually effectively command the ship from, and for the better part of the engagement her command officers stood on the quarterdeck to issue their orders as in Nelson’s day, and died accordingly. This heavy loss amongst the commanding officers of the Audacious severely negated the experience and esprit d'corps of the Royal Navy crew and accounts for her relative sluggishness in the fight far more than any special celerity or élan on the part of the Kaetjhasti crew.)

The battle was left to a lull for a while, as the Kalajhari worked back around and poured fire on the Audacious, which replied steadily with shell throughout. Captain sri Olikant had been by this time wounded, and her executive officer killed by the broadsides of the enemy, and many casualties were seen in the crew, especially the marines, but in no sense had the frigate’s fighting ability been compromised. Neither did it seem possible to prevail against the Audacious despite every effort attempted, and yet the rest of the squadron was involved in a desperate action and the Captain certainly recognized that every effort to the death had to be made to defend the honour of the Empress’ flag and resupply the Ratara fort.

With the Audacious still seeming to respond sluggishly, and hoping that hull planking had been sprung and cumulative damage might be inflicted, Lieutenant Bulai reports that again the Kalajhari rammed, for a third time pitting her brave wood against the ironclad. Had she but been one of the new wooden frigates, even, under construction with their heavy cast-iron rams, she would have made herself the victrix of the engagement! But I fear to report to Your Ladyship that the British opposite of Lieutenant Bulai proved as cunning and better able to do us hurt. Though the Kalajhari indeed rammed home a third time, that time she was met with a point-blank fire of the British ‘palliser’ armour-piercing shot. The shells, designed to pierce the hulls of enemy ironclads, tore through the thick bow timbers of the Kalajhari as though they did not exist and tumbled the length of the gun deck. The foremast was collapsed as salvo after salvo from the ironclad’s broadside raked the poor ship and her crew, and the gundeck was turned into a charnel house.

The uptakes for the funnels were pierced by shrapnel and the gun deck soon filled with smoke from the engines, but they were run at full power until fires were reported from the sparks that the Kalajhari might draw clear, and Lieutenant Bulai reconstituted as much of her gun crews as she could and carried on the fight against the Audacious, ordering them to aim for her funnels and rigging. The Kalajhari was taking water by the bow, and now it was the enemy ironclad that had the advantage in speed and maneouvring, and circled for a half glass pouring fire into the Kalajhari until a third of the crew was dead or wounded and eight guns to starboard and three to port had been disabled, including one of the precious rifled guns.

Then, intent on finishing the fight, she abandoned the range she had held and closed on the Kalajhari with all possible speed from the port. Lieutenant Bulai shifted her gunners to port to meet them and managed good, steady broadsides as the pivot guns continued to do the greatest hurt to the black-hulled enemy. As they closed to within a half cable, the heavy fire served to bring down at least half the height of her funnel. The reduction in draught was not enough to slow the Audacious such that the bitterly crippled Kalajhari might be saved, and she was struck hard, port amidships, by the prow of the ironclad. With the standing rigging shot through and the foremast already gone, the blow served to completely dismast her besides.

At the force of this impact the frigate was bodily flung to starboard in the water and some of the wounded tossed into the water to drown at once. Captain sri Olikant stood up from the deck and despite her wounds made again the call for boarders. As the ship had been dismasted, the British first hesitated in their fire thinking she might have struck, so a young girl of the crew named Itarjhi Alouku volunteered to climb the still-standing No. 1 funnel and tie the Crimson Swastika to the top as the rest of the unwounded crew on the maindeck rushed to try and get to grips with their opposites upon the Audacious. Alouku was at once killed as the rifles and Nordenfelts of the enemy made themselves felt amongst our brave girls; and Captain sri Olikant received a mortal wound.

With the boarding attempt having been repulsed, the Audacious backed clear, and her commanding officer brought her alongside a while later, still under the desultory fire of the few guns which could be manned upon the gun-decks as the water rapidly rose. An offer to surrender was issued by the British officer then commanding. To this the poor Captain sri Olikant, so bravely and slowly dying of her wounds, refused even to answer save to issue an order to Lieutenant Bulai that she should fight with the pivot guns until they were submerged. Lieutentant Bulai, it is asserted by every survivor of the crew of the Kalajhari whom we have recovered, held to the order without comment and manned the firing lanyard of the sternmost pivot herself.

The British, having come alongside offering a surrender, and expecting it to be received, nonetheless could not say that the Kalajhari had struck. Our flag still flew so gallantly from where it had been tied to the heights of the No. 1 funnel, and the ship’s guns forced the British to engage with their full broadside once more. Even as the decks of the Kalajhari slipped beneath the waves, they were covered in the blood of the dead and the dying, of those injured who were killed by a second wound to be inflicted, until it seemed the better part of the crew was in the water or dead, and the crimson stained sand from the deck was washed clear in the ocean. The forward pivot was silenced only by slipping beneath the waves.

All that remained was the ship’s No. 1 funnel standing like an island out of the water bearing the colours and the crew of the aft pivot, led by Lieutenant Bulai, desperately wedging the gun for another shot. The British, on seeing this sight before them, were so moved to honour or pity as to check their fire, and Lieutenant Bulai and her gun crew thus remained to prove to the world that it was the British, Your Ladyship, who had checked their fire, and not us, as they managed to fire not one more time, but thrice, at the hull of the ironclad which had laid their frigate and the lives of the better part of their comrades low.

The Audacious swept through the survivors with lines out and lowered her boats, but the number of our sailors still in the water overwhelmed them and many were left behind to perish. It is from this number that I rescued all I could when I approached the scene of the battle, and observed the armoured frigate withdrawing to lick her wounds. But Lieutenant Bulai is sure that, though many of the crew may have been rescued by our enemy as prisoners, the officers above her all died at their stations, and she herself dived below the surface twice rather than be grasped and hauled aboard a British long-boat.

Thus concluded the battle of the Kalajhari against the Audacious and the loss of our frigate and her commander. In this engagement the sad loss of our squadron to its British counterpart was the result of their preponderence of firepower and the presence of an armoured ship, and even then we acquitted ourselves against the finest of the great world-navy with all the coolness, bravery and honour as I might dare to hope would cause the appellation of Amazon by which they call us to be remembered with the terror it meant for their ancestors.

The refusal to yield the Kalajhari deserves for her crew--in my most humble estimation--Your Ladyship, the highest commemorations for valour since the taking of the French flagship at the Battle of Pularumpi in the grand wars of Sita the Great. It should also be said that in considering the details of the battle, the Kalajhari proved handier than the ironclad British frigate in every respect. Had our frigate mounted an iron ram on her bow, even if not another part of her armament was changed, she would have inflicted upon the British such a loss as they have not known since Suffren or our the defeats inflicted by our Dutch patrons so long ago at the storied Medway.

Humbly submitted for your consideration,
by your humble servant,
Commanding Lieutenant Tariti Eurakati
of the Rauhiranya’s screw corvette Eu’matai.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

As a note--the tone is intentionally slightly different and less formal to reflect the fact that the writer did not directly see the events, but instead compiled the account from the accounts of the survivors.

[Stuart]

Excellent piece of work and a fitting continuation to the first part. It would be interesting to see this action from a British perspective and their reaction to the realization they were fighting ships crewed by women.

[Simon_Jester]

Your Grace, do you think you could post an order of battle? Something with armament and/or other vital statistics listed?

The writing is good, but... since I lack a copy of the alternate-historical setting's equivalent of Jane's (which, come to think of it, postdates this action by decades anyway), I'm a bit confused.

Excellent piece of work and a fitting continuation to the first part. It would be interesting to see this action from a British perspective and their reaction to the realization they were fighting ships crewed by women.

They would already have known; by this point British interaction with the Kaeties had been going on for centuries. See a Kaetjhasti-flagged warship, and you know the crew is female.

Of the two 6in rifles bearing on the starboard battery, and the two 68pdr pivot guns, however, a better story was told. Immense dents and craters were dug into the armour of the ironclad from their steady, rapid fire, and on several occasions the crew claimed to have seen the shots penetrate, though Lieutenant Bulai doubts this to have been the case. Nonetheless, the effect of the splintering from the bending and cratering of the plates must have caused good execution upon our enemy’s gun crews.

I'm wondering how much of this is whistling in the dark, and how much of it is true. I have no idea myself, but given the situation, overestimating the amount of damage done through the armor would be a very likely response in the after action report, I'd think.

**********

This story also gives me cause to reflect on the Victorian preoccupation with ramming. Under certain circumstances, yes, it worked, but in others it was worse than useless (Kalajhari's third attempt illustrating the problem). I'm still trying to figure out whether, all things considered, it would have been better not to bother with the idea, steam frigates being very different animals from oared galleys.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

Excellent piece of work and a fitting continuation to the first part. It would be interesting to see this action from a British perspective and their reaction to the realization they were fighting ships crewed by women.

Well that much, at least, was known, and has been known since Abel Tasman's anchors bit bottom at Kaenura harbour. The development of thought processes in the history gets to be really neat since that's before the enlightenment, and finding California (as the reference would certainly be made) on Australis was not actually that big of a deal. The Rauhiranya or Empress-who-is-the-Sun (the incarnation of the feminine aspect of the Sun God Surya) was the first of her line at that time, generally rendered Yasovati or Yashovati the Great in English sources. Pre-infection the Kaetjhasti lands had been in regular contact with China and the treasure fleets of the Ming, and so at the time they had technology at lease to match 15th century China. Yasovati was in the midst of unifying (conquering) all she could survey and traded a profusion of readily growing spices for arquebus (the great leveller against uninfected Maori bands) and cannon, and ship hulls. Like the Japanese they were soon building western style ships... And being a conquest dynasty rising out of the Kaetjhasti Dark Age which followed the M. wolbachia plague, they were much more able and willing to adapt to western technology, they didn't have the strictures of a restrained society. The personal Imperial force of Yasovati was the Black Guard of eight-thousand in number with black turbans, long skirts and long black coats, primarily women of Malay ethnicity and armed entirelty as Arquebusiers--light infantry. The Heavy Guard or Maori Guard was raised from infected Maori tribes and, well, if you've ever seen Maori and Polynesian women in general you know how picking the eight thousand toughest in an Empire would give you a credible close combat force even against trained Europeans. They were armed with arquebuses and axes and usually had scale mail. The horses brought by Zheng He had spread enough that a credible cavalry with Chinese-style lances and light armour could be raised, supported by the Imperial Squadrons of Dragoons, which later became the Imperial Federal Gendarmerie.

In the 1650s, that was quite enough for an Empire, but with the immensity of the Coral and Tasman seas separating Zealandia (Arjunasti, the land of Arjuna, to the Kaetjhasti) and Sahul/Australia (Nagasti, the land of the Naga), a navy was needed, and they built a very, very sizeable one consisting primarily of locally built imitations of mid-17th century Dutch designs, paying handsomely for the plans to the Brederode, Eendracht, and De Zeven Provincien. And indeed these ships were perfectly suited for them due to the continuous, treacherous coral reefs of the territory they found themselves in. The Dutch in exchange secured trade arrangements making them the sole masters of the Kaetjhasti trade with Europe, meaning that the Kaetjhasti could not and did not send their ships to Europe with spices, and in exchange the Dutch regularly traded with them without restriction. The Dutch got other use out of them, though, in their regular wars of the 17th century they frequently secured the participation of the Empress in raiding the pacific interests of their enemies, so that the Kaety custom of chewing coca leaf was brought from Peru by one of their numerous piratical raids on the Spanish coasts.

Even in the reign of Yasovati the Great the Spanish tried a landing on the coast, but some 575 men was... Not remotely enough, and by the time they might have sent more, Spain had her own troubles in spades. It wasn't until the 1730s in the reign of Sita the First that a combined Franco-Spanish or Bourbonist expedition was sent to crush the Amazons of the southlands, when the power of the Netherlands in Europe was a rapidly fading memory, and the nimble and shallow-draft 2-deckers of the Kaetjhasti would be sorely outmatched in weight of shot by the much larger 70's of the French and 64's of the Armada Espana. That story I am still writing--and intend to update again sometime over the weekend--And is called "A Colonial Anabasis", so I won't explain it more.

Nonetheless, during the Napoleonic Wars, British squadrons operating out of Trincomalee twice met and defeated, one in a very long range action which never got to close quarters, and once in an action which more or less completely annihilated the Lajhama Fleet of the Empire, the nascent RKB. In this period West Australia was colonized and annexed (with colonies at Perth/Fremantle and a city of Blackport on the south coast and penal colonies further north) and the border disputes in 1876 which came close to war led to this fight and hence to a British ultimatum about the border through central Australia. The Kaetjhasti at the time had a quite sizeable navy (then again, so did the Ottoman Empire in 1876--which actually had a smaller population than Kaetjhasti), but one which had not seen action since the Kermadec War of 1827 - 1830 ish against France.

The sacrifice of the Kalajhari and the refusal of the Rauhiranya to fight in the Yulara Incident motivated lower ranked officers to form a political agitation group which is usually named in english sources the National Union Party, intending to make a nationalistic philosophy for the heterogenous lands of the Rauhiranya based around Hinduism and their shared bane of the Curse of Kali. This led to the Bayonet Coup of 1889, which deposed the absolute power of the Rauhiranya.... Sort of. Later and snarkier historians wonder why exactly the Princess Imperial was extensively involved in the plotting, the complete lack of bloodshed except in select groups of hated Imperial advisors, and the fact that a general housecleaning of the court was in the interests of the Imperial Dynasty as well. The National Unionsts had determined to imitate the rising star of Prussia and the, albeit heavily amended, a constitution written and promulgated in the early 1890s is still in force in Kaetjhasti to this day. A year later, the Dutch, whose friendship had melted away with their power, picked a fight over West Papua Minor, and with a motley force of ships ranging from modern turret ships to elderly broadside ironclads, but well trained and with many freshly purchased quick-firing guns in freshly added deck mounts, put paid to the East Indies squadrons of the Royal Netherlands Navy and Krupp artillery and Werder Rifle stood up to white man and his colonial sepoys ashore. After that, Kaetjhasti was treated like a nation in the west in a way which it hadn't since the Princess Sridarnya's visit to Louis XIV's court in the 1670s (well, even then, more an obscure curiousity).

[The Duchess of Zeon]

After that long explanation though, I might very well go ahead and write the British-side perspective of the action. I'd want to read the report of the Admiral commanding on the action against the Huascar first, though.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

Alexia found me a link to the report I was looking for, so you will get the British side of things, Stuart.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

Australia Squadron:



HMS Audacious, laid down 26/6/1867 by Napier, Glasgow and completed 10/9/1870. Displacement of 6,010 tons. She developed 4,020 horsepower for 13.2 knots as designed, and had an armoured belt of 8 - 6 in with 10 - 8in wood backing, battery armour of 6in and bulkheads of 5in. A two-storey battery amidships mounted the 10 x 9in MLRs and the 4 x 6in MLR were mounted fore and aft with several gunports each, on pivots. The maximal broadside was half--5 x 9in, and 2 x 6in, as well as three of the six 20pdr BLR mounted on the main deck. Regular complement was 450 souls.


HMS Thetis, laid down at Devonport Dockyard in 1870 and completed in January 1873. Displacement of 1,854 tons. She developed 2,270 horsepower for 13.4kts; an unarmoured wooden screw corvette, she was armed with 14 x 64pdr MLR (aka 6in MLR, relined 68pdr SBs). Two of the guns were slide-mounted on cross skids.


HMS Tenedos, laid down at Devonport Dockyard in 1870 and completed in July of 1872. Displacement of 1,755 tons. She developed 3,028 horsepower for 13 knots, and was an unarmoured wooden screw corvette. She was armed with 12 x 64pdr MLR per the rearmament policy (having originally fitted 2 x 7in and 4 then 6 x 64pdr MLR), with two on pivots and some of the truck-mounted guns able to be run to ports beneath the poop or topgallant forecastle to allow for end-on fire. This was the "Eclipse class" ship not definitely identified in the action.



(her sister ship the HMS Wolverine.)
HMS Rattlesnake, laid down at Chatham Dockyard in September 1859 and completed in August of 1862. Displacement of 2,431 tons. She developed 1,628 horsepower for 11.66 knots, and was an unarmoured wooden screw corvette. She was armed with 20 x 8in ML SB (also called a 68pdr) on the battery and a single 7in MLR pivot-gun mounted to replace the original 110pdr Armstrong BLR that was dismounted as unsafe.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

This story also gives me cause to reflect on the Victorian preoccupation with ramming. Under certain circumstances, yes, it worked, but in others it was worse than useless (Kalajhari's third attempt illustrating the problem). I'm still trying to figure out whether, all things considered, it would have been better not to bother with the idea, steam frigates being very different animals from oared galleys.

The Kalajhari's guns could not pierce 8in of armour even when dangerously overcharged with powder. She had very little choice but to turn and ram. The problem was that the class was not built for it. The Kaeties solved this in their last class of steam screw frigates, the five wooden ships of the Lahara-class and one iron hulled (sheathed in wood and coppered from a meter above the waterline) but otherwise identical frigate for a total of six. They were under construction at the time of the incident, save one which was finished....

5 x 3,950-ton "Lahara" type wooden screw frigates, Laid down from 1873 - 1876. Last steam frigates of the RKB. Horsepower ranging from 3,200 to 3,800 with speeds of 13 - 13.5 kts reported. Standard armament was 10 x 8in RML, 2 x 6in RML, 6 x 20pdr BLR, and 8 x 1pdr revolving cannon. As completed they were fitted with huge cast iron rams and featuring partially iron reinforced and sheathed bows so they can carry home their rams against ironclads. Ship rigged. Four guns on the battery were pivoted, those fore and aft to each side, with two gun ports each, one for ahead/astern fire and one for broadside fire; two more were mounted to each broadside and two were mounted on deck pivots. The two 6in RML were right amidships in the battery, and the 6 x 20pdr BLRs were distributed on the deck. First Kaety ships designed with revolving cannon instead of carronades.

That's the design the Commanding Lieutenant was referring to, in her opinion, might have conquered the Audacious. A similar historical vessel was the USS Trenton. One real problem of the era was that the exploding shells were completely worthless--take a look at the SMS Kaiser at Lissa. She took dozens and dozens of them and though she was completely dismasted she rammed enemy ironclads repeatedly and was intact enough afterwards to end up rebuilt (though most of the old ship was removed) into a centre battery ship. They were just not remotely as effective as is sometimes claimed and sustained firing of explosive shell against the Kalajhari did very little. The palliser on the other hand tore straight through her bows and then tumbled along the open gun deck.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

Ratara Fort relief force convoy:

The Rauhiranya's Kaetjhasti War-Ship (Rauhiranya Kaetjhasti Navasti, or RKN) Kalajhari, a wooden screw frigate of 3,519 tons laid down in 1860 at the Kaenura Imperial Dockyards and completed in 1864. She developed 2,450 horsepower for 12.75 knots and had been fitted with superheaters in 1874 giving her 13.3kts. Her armament consisted of 2 x 68pdr SB on pivots on the spar deck fore and aft the mainmast, 4 x 32pdr on slides fore and aft to fire either as chasers or to broadside, 10 x 8in shell guns, 4 x 6in MLR and 22 x 32pdr SB mounted on the gun deck in battery with the 6in MLRs concentrated right amidships and the smoothbores and shell guns arranged to either side of them, with a secondary armament of 6 x 68pdr carronades, four mounted on the quarterdeck and two on the foredeck, for a total of 48 guns. She was ship rigged and with a fine clipper bow.

RKN Eu'matai, a wooden screw corvette laid down in 1866 at the Sahmunapura Dockyards and completed in 1869, with a displacement of 2,360 tons. She had a 1,900 horsepower plant installation of HSE for 13.5 kts, and was armed with 2 x 8in MLR on pivots, 8 x 68pdr SBs, 8 x 32pdr SBs, and 4 x 68pdr carronades, designed with large provision for carrying soldiers, and was fitted with a hoisting screw and telescoping funnels and was ship rigged and ram-bowed.

RKN Tijhar and Oluikai, Tijhar-class wooden gunvessels laid down in 1871 - 1872, completed 1873 and 1874. They displaced 877 tons with a 1-shaft reciprocating engine for about 10.8kts. Their armament consisted of 1 x 7in MLR pivot gun, 2 x 68pdr SB, 2 x 20pdr BLR, and 4 x 68pdr carronades. They were barkentine rigged and fitted with a hoisting screw and telescoping funnel, with straight bows.

They were escorting two large sailing barques which were armed with 2 - 4 18 and 24pdrs and 4 x 32pdr carronades (typical for defence against piracy in Kaetjhasti merchants of the period) and carrying artillery, supplies, and soldiers for the Ratara fort on contract for the Army Department.

[Simon_Jester]

A preface: Victorian naval warfare is something of a blank spot in my historical knowledge. When I ask questions here, I really mean them, because I know quite well that I don't know the answers.

The Kalajhari's guns could not pierce 8in of armour even when dangerously overcharged with powder. She had very little choice but to turn and ram.

The reason I brought it up is that in this situation, I'm not sure that ramming actually did enough good to justify the downside of having to sail straight into Audacious's broadside. They couldn't crack the armor belt, agreed, but it seems as though the only real harm they did came from dismasting Audacious, and that hit on the conning tower. And that was all done with gunfire.

Maybe the problem is that I understand the implications of shooting the masts off, or of riddling the conning tower vision slits with shrapnel, but I don't have a clear picture of just how much ramming would have accomplished here. Hull damage, yes, but enough to make it pay?

I can see it working when there is a ram worth writing home about, as with the Lahara-class you describe. But for Kalajhari in particular, I got the sense that the decision to ram was about on par with:

"I could plink this concrete wall with my pistol all day! It's not working! Time to try headbutting!"

Of course, the difference in effect isn't that extreme, but I hope that at least gets the issue I have across. For a ship that is not designed for ramming, attempting to ram a more heavily armored opponent is liable to hurt you a lot more than it hurts them. Of course, a gun duel will hurt you more than it hurts them too, but will it hurt you as much more?

To qualify this, attempting a ram certainly wouldn't be atypical for the era, as the example of Lissa shows very clearly. I'm not criticizing the story for featuring the ramming attempts. I'm trying to figure out whether ramming as a tactic in mid-Victorian naval warfare was something that would make sense if only I knew more.

First Kaety ships designed with revolving cannon instead of carronades.

...1pdr revolving cannon... OK, it's being used as a replacement for close range antiboarder armament; clearly a quick-firer. Should I be visualizing something more like a large Gatling, or more like a modernized Puckle gun? I'm guessing 'Gatling.'

One real problem of the era was that the exploding shells were completely worthless--take a look at the SMS Kaiser at Lissa. She took dozens and dozens of them and though she was completely dismasted she rammed enemy ironclads repeatedly and was intact enough afterwards to end up rebuilt (though most of the old ship was removed) into a centre battery ship.

What was the problem with them? Fuzing?

Ratara Fort relief force convoy:

The Rauhiranya's Kaetjhasti War-Ship (Rauhiranya Kaetjhasti Navasti, or RKN) Kalajhari, a wooden screw frigate of 3,519 tons laid down in 1860 at the Kaenura Imperial Dockyards and completed in 1864. She developed 2,450 horsepower for 12.75 knots and had been fitted with superheaters in 1874 giving her 13.3kts.

Hmm. Comparing Kalajhari to Rattlesnake... let me get my slide rule...

Should I be surprised that the Kaeties are getting power-to-weight ratios comparable to what a Royal Navy ship laid down at nearly the same time has?

[The Duchess of Zeon]

Of course, the difference in effect isn't that extreme, but I hope that at least gets the issue I have across. For a ship that is not designed for ramming, attempting to ram a more heavily armored opponent is liable to hurt you a lot more than it hurts them. Of course, a gun duel will hurt you more than it hurts them too, but will it hurt you as much more?

To qualify this, attempting a ram certainly wouldn't be atypical for the era, as the example of Lissa shows very clearly. I'm not criticizing the story for featuring the ramming attempts. I'm trying to figure out whether ramming as a tactic in mid-Victorian naval warfare was something that would make sense if only I knew more.

The bow is usually the strongest part of the wooden sailing ship, as all of the structural strengthen members concentrate there and are at their thickest. The Audacious was wooden hulled despite her armour, and so they had a reasonable chance of concentrating the strength of their bow against her weaker side frames and staving in and buckling the hull planking. And an armoured frigate of the period, even if completely dismasted, would still be an effective fighting ship, so that wasn't that viable of a strategy. Ultimately the funnel hit did the most reduction to her fighting power because it reduced the draught to the boilers and thus her power, but that came too late to matter.

...1pdr revolving cannon... OK, it's being used as a replacement for close range antiboarder armament; clearly a quick-firer. Should I be visualizing something more like a large Gatling, or more like a modernized Puckle gun? I'm guessing 'Gatling.'

37mm Hotchkiss revolving cannon with five barrels capable of firing 43 rounds a minute from 10-round magazines with accurate fire to 2,000 yards.

What was the problem with them? Fuzing?

Not enough charge, fair number of duds, poor design didn't concentrate the blast very effectively. A lot of difference reasons, more or less. And wood is surprisingly good protection and, when, like these ships are, some very fine teak, all the harder to ignite.

Should I be surprised that the Kaeties are getting power-to-weight ratios comparable to what a Royal Navy ship laid down at nearly the same time has?

No, because the machinery was purchased in the UK.

[Simon_Jester]

The bow is usually the strongest part of the wooden sailing ship, as all of the structural strengthen members concentrate there and are at their thickest. The Audacious was wooden hulled despite her armour, and so they had a reasonable chance of concentrating the strength of their bow against her weaker side frames and staving in and buckling the hull planking.

Thinking about what the structure would have looked like... OK, I can see it working. This was a "it would make sense if I knew more" thing, then.

...1pdr revolving cannon... OK, it's being used as a replacement for close range antiboarder armament; clearly a quick-firer. Should I be visualizing something more like a large Gatling, or more like a modernized Puckle gun? I'm guessing 'Gatling.'

37mm Hotchkiss revolving cannon with five barrels capable of firing 43 rounds a minute from 10-round magazines with accurate fire to 2,000 yards.

Thank you. So "large Gatling," speaking imprecisely; a revolving-barrel design, not a revolver design.

No, because the machinery was purchased in the UK.

That would tend to explain it, yes. Thank you again.

Were they up to building steam engines at all at this point? The impression I always got from your descriptions was that they were sort of like Japan industrially, realizing that they needed to start playing catchup sometime in the mid-1800s and pushing at it until they were within a few years of 'First World' standards by the 1910-1920 period.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

Were they up to building steam engines at all at this point? The impression I always got from your descriptions was that they were sort of like Japan industrially, realizing that they needed to start playing catchup sometime in the mid-1800s and pushing at it until they were within a few years of 'First World' standards by the 1910-1920 period.

They had water wheels powering cotton looms by the 1770s, and had imported some Newcomen engines in the 1760s. Production was very limited into the 1820s when improvements in relations with Britain and much more investment resulted in the development of a... fair, if splotchy, industrial economy. Less Japan and more Russia, in short. Systematic, aggressive industrialization did not occur until the 1890s, before then it was more like the Russians or less charitably the Ottoman Empire. So they had some artisans able to build limited numbers of simple steam engines from the 1790s or so forward, with the production capability improving in fits and starts. Nonetheless the highest quality engines, cheaper to build, were from the UK, and only the long sea voyage meant that the local examples remained competitive in industry, otherwise they might have ended up completely dependent on imports. The looms were never many in number and were only of the earliest type because soon after the British closed down all exports of them... The history of the Indian cotton industry is illustrative there, as India was extensively industrializing before the British took measures to prevent it from happening to preserve the trade between the two countries with India as the producer of raw materials. In the Kaety course that meant their cotton industry never took off, but not being under British rule there was only so much the British could do against their industrial development, and little motivation to do so.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

As a note, the British East Indies Fleet in the Kaetyverse consisted of the China Station, the Sunda Station, the Fremantle squadron, the Australia Squadron, and the Timor Squadron.

Also I made a small error--Audacious was iron hulled but wooden sheathed and coppered for tropics service. However iron hulls of the time were fairly brittle and that wouldn't have caused much change to her resistance in ramming, arguably the plates might have been more likely to splinter. Conversely I'm not sure if the Kaeties would have even realized she was iron hulled. Naval intelligence was not exactly a precise science in the 1870s, and they were not that well connected to the outside world intellectually, and most of the ironclads the British had in the Pacific to defend against Kaetjhasti threats to their interests were wooden ones because they were superiour for service in the tropics.

Two Audacious class centre battery ironclads, the wooden hulled Royal Oak and Royal Alfred, HMS Zealous the same (all full fleet sized ironclads), as well as the small ironclads Favourite, Enterprise, Wivern, and Scorpion, the ironclad ram Hotspur and two Cerberus-class breastwork monitors (owned and operated by West Australia and South Australia colonies respectively--the later consisting of the southern portion of OTL West Australia of course, the area about OTL Albany) comprised the armoured ships of the East Indies Fleet in 1876, but they were spread from stations ranging from Blackport in south Australia to Hong Kong when in peacetime.

The Kaetjhasti had 7 seagoing ironclads suitable for fighting in the line, including two which had just arrived from AG Vulkan where they had been built and were not yet ready for regular sea service, one tiny and elderly seagoing ironclad of 2,903 tons defended by railroad irons that would have not presented a serious sort of armour against modern shot, one monitor purchased from the US, and four armoured batteries suitable only for the defence of the estuary Kaenura is sited upon and the smallest of them little different from the CSS Virginia in capability, the larger three being two of 56 guns and one of 64 guns, consisting of cut-down liners-- 74's and a 110 respectively. There were also 9 screw liners in reserve or training roles, armed as follows: 1 x 121 guns, 1 x 118 guns, 2 x 110 guns, 2 x 92 guns, 1 x 90 guns, 2 x 88 guns which were activated for the crisis.

The Kaeties stubbornly kept building screw liners long after other powers had halted their construction for various reasons (mostly that wood was cheap and their yards could already do the work, whereas foreign orders were necessary for all but the most primitive ironclads) so the last of those were completed in 1863. In the same year by comparison the Ottoman Navy had 5 large ironclads (possibly six, I'm not sure of the delivery date of Messudieh), and nine small ironclads, though only four screw ships of the line and two old sailing ships of the line that were retained for training. The Kaeties had a bigger tax base with a healthier population demographic and more reason to invest in a navy, so in numbers their fleet was one of the largest, but as a practical matter was largely oriented toward transporting army detachments across the vast and very water-surrounded territorial expanse of the Empire, suppressing piracy, and other less-than-full-conflict measures.

[JBG]

Very enjoyable so far Marina. Excellent stuff.