Koch ships (Ko-tch)

"We've sailed through worse waters before, and came out fine! Now hold on tight! This's gonna be a bumpy ride"

- A captain abord a koch ship about to slice through thick ice.

In the cold seas surrounding the lands of the Confederation of Ru'mensh, large, armoured ships sail in the ice-chocked water, carving paths between the isolated ports along the rugged coastlines of northern Arros.

Descriptions

Exterior

Koch, as they are called localy, are huge ships, at least twice as large as a standard rumalian ship and powered by both wind and steam power. It has a long and narrow prow, which like the rest of the haul's exterior, is covered in thick steel sheets, riveted and molded onto the wooden structure by Metalmages. It allows the thin prow to break and slice through the ice, as well as reenforces the haul, which allows it to absorb the impact of broken ice blocks. as it sails in the waters. The tip of the prow very often features the bust or head of a water or ice Dragons. They have two mast, one in the front, and a larger one in the center. The back of the bridge is occupied by the upper decks and a large chimney.

Interior

The haul of the ships are reenforced to accomodate the ship's larger than standard size, but also because of the large and heavy steam engine, located in the back half of the ship and which powers a single propeler, giving the boat the speed and energy to break the ice and slice through it. Sails are also used to provide additional propultion power, especialy on long voyages, where coal may need to be rationed. Cabins and storage rooms occupy most of the lower decks, with a large storage dedicated to coal for the steam engines.

Usage

Only about 20 or so of these ships are in service, as they are expensive to construct and have limited uses. They mainly travel betwen the cities located on the coast along the white and Leviathan seas, along northern Rumalia, as well as to Hos, on the Island of Haiska. Because of their unique design, they are only build in one shipyard located in the city of Harval. This small port city is just north of the ressource rich region of the iron hills in northern rumalia. It is also almost half-way between the cities of Oltaren and Skagos, which are destination for these ships as their ports are clogged by ice for half the year. They ship products to and from these cities and others along the coast, and are the only link to the rest of the country during winter as the Dragon mountain passes become dangerous or even impassible because of the abundant snow, and the air is too cold for Winged ships to float and fly proprely.

Dangers

Koch are built to be very strong and sturdy, and with a prow able to cut through the thick ice sheets and carve a path in the waters, they can still become stuck in the ice, sometimes for months if no other boat reaches them to liberate them. This poses a grave danger to the crew who would be left exposed to the cold, winds and snowstorms. Sail propultion is also not enough in many case for breaking through the ice, which means that the boat can easely become stuck if the engines stops working. This can happen for many reasons as the engines are prone to malfuctions, and there's been cases when they have explosed due to a fault in their construction, stranding the ships in frozen waters. They can also run out of fuel. Sails can be deployed to provide propulsion, but aren't as reliable and powerful as the steam engine.