by Ed Ostermeyer (Master Engineer – Grade 2)

Oh, there you are, my young Inventor friend.

 What brings you to this tavern, at this hour of the evening?

You are wondering if your fishboat idea will ultimately be successful.

You are also wondering if what you are building will perhaps “change the rules” of naval warfare, be the start of a new era in warship design and usher in a new era of “terrible-ness?”

You are also concerned about what the future will hold for you personally; correct?

Good questions.

Let’s start with how your fishboat will be viewed in the judgment of the history of (and here’s a new concept for you) submarine technology?

First, know that all outcomes relating to your Infernal Machine project can be termed “Good,” just as those same outcomes can be termed “Bad;” and sometimes those outcomes can be both Good and Bad.

How the Outcomes you and your crew experience this Civil War can be sensed through three different “lenses.”

The first Lens is your Legacy: what your contribution to the field of nautical engineering in general and submarine technology in particular, will be? How will the work you do and what you come up with, be viewed in the cold, objective light of, say, the 20^th Century?

The second Lens is Effectiveness. Here you delve into more immediate considerations. Will 19^th Century engineers and designers use your work as a precedent for their own work? Or, will they try to avoid the mistakes you made and build from there? Worse, will they have even heard of you?

The third Lens is Prospects. This is even more immediate and personal of the three outcomes as it involves you directly: what options and opportunities will be available to you after the Civil War?

Let’s look through the lens of Legacy first.

If you take a look at the Legacy table, you’ll notice that, the higher up the table your ranking is, the better your result will be.

(The narrative section of the table provides a brief word, a sentiment about your performance.)

While your campaign is underway, be sure to keep track of the result of each mission you attempt. If you are successful at sinking a ship, spying out the enemy, doing a delivery or destroying enemy infrastructure, be sure to take a result chit for your efforts and place it on the Funds line of your Gauges sheet as a way to keep track. This use will keep track of your successes, failures and “Lost” results.

Your Legacy Outcome

Note the number of successful missions you have completed.

“Success” equals having achieved your goal for the mission, whether your fishboat has returned from the mission, (no matter what condition your fishboat or its crew is in,) or if the fishboat has been “Lost.”

Once the game is completed in April 1865, open your CSA Almanac to the Successful Missions Table under CSA Outcomes. Each row on the Successful Missions Table represents a Mission type: Delivery, Dock, Obstruction, Ship or Spy. Each column represents one, two, three or more Successful Missions.

The intersection of rows with columns denotes the Success Rating, in the form of “Laurel” or “Victory” wreaths given for each mission type.

Totaling the number of wreaths per type gives you your Legacy total.

You then check your Legacy total number of victory wreaths.

The more wreaths you have won, the better your Legacy results narrative, shown in the Outcome brief/sentiment section.

So, if your CSA Mission Outcome shows you have conducted only a single successful Delivery (one wreath), your total Legacy is one wreath for your rating. (The associated written sentiment is from a typical handbill of impresario P.T. Barnum, inviting the reader to “Come See The FEARSOME DEVICE … Step Right This Way – IF YOU DARE!”)

For example, you have no doubt heard that the Confederate fishboat “H.L. Hunley” was successful in sinking the Union USS “Housatonic,” but never returned home. The “Hunley’s” mission is still considered a success because its objective, “…to sink a Union warship blockading the port of Charleston, SC,” was achieved. If the “Hunley” was your fishboat, you would put one “Ship Sunk” success mission marker on the number “1” space on his Gauges’ Funds Track. You would then add three “Lost” markers to the “3” space: one each for the two “Lost” results the “Hunley” historically suffered during each of its two Training missions, and an additional “Lost” result for its failure to return home after sinking the “Housatonic.”

Note its successful sinking of the “Housatonic” entitles the “Hunley” to three “Victory” wreaths on the Outcomes table…

and your sentiment has you transported to 1958 Leningrad in the Soviet Union where Rear Admiral Nikolai Lunin is addressing a gathering of Russian submarine captains.

As you can see, though your “Hunley” had suffered not one, but three “Lost” results, it still scored a creditable Outcome of three “Victory” wreaths for its career.

The “Hunley” not only “Lost”; it also “Won.”

Let’s stop there and let you ponder the information I’ve just given you.

We will discuss your fishboat project’s Effectiveness and the Prospects you mightderive from it at another time.

Thank you, young Inventor.

Remember these words of another famous Inventor, Dr. St. Julien Ravenel of Charleston, South Carolina, the man who built the “David” torpedo boat:

“Think Big Thoughts!”  

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