Line of Battle Ship

Without exception the most awe-inspiring and unsurpassed war ships in the world, the Line of Battle ships are the pride of the Albish navy and its most devastating weapon. Line of Battle ships range from the Regular rate, up to the incredible 1st rate. Whilst even the lowest rating ship of the line surpasses any other vessel afloat, the first rate is the ultimate in naval warfare. Its 120 guns fire 76lb cannonballs in a blistering broadside capable of sinking a Flag Galleon in one volley.

Used only against the enemy fleets of the Albish navy, Line of Battle ships are hardly ever deployed singly or used for anything other than fleet actions and large-scale sea battles. As such they are almost never seen outside of engagements.

Due to their importance to the Albish navy the capture or design copy of a Line of Battle ship is considered a very serious matter.

The acclaimed Artian shipwright Palnor Jax was killed when his workshop mysteriously exploded in a freak accident just a few months after telling a number of people that he was close to perfecting a copy of the Line of Battle Ship design. There is no evidence to suggest that Jax's death was carried out by agents of Albany or that it was anything more than an accident, however nobody has since attempted to repeat his work.

When the Decisive, a fifth rate Line of Battle Ship was captured by the State of Malvania during The Insurrection Albany brokered a peace with the Namorian Empire simply so that it could send more ships to retake the vessel. In doing so the Albish cutting out party not only retook the Decisive but put every Malvanian crew member aboard her to the sword in an infamous act that sent a very clear message to any nation considering the capture of one of their line ships.

To date only three Line of Battle ships have ever been lost. The Regular rate Noble was destroyed when a Balian fire-ship set it aflame off the coast of Daconda during the battle of The Gauntlet. The Fifth rate Precision was wrecked by a hurricane in the south Poseidic that damaged several other vessels, and the second rate Radiant was lost when, in a desperate bid to avoid concentrated hot-shot being fired by hundreds of Valanese long nines mounted in the bows of war-galleys her Captain sailed her into The Obscura Drift, never to be seen again.