My Shipyard

- Dentō Maru Class -

# Ship Version

With its formation after the defeat of the Dynasty Empire and the end of the Hundred Years of Pain, the Sun Empire passed through a period of reforms and great development, increasing the education of the citizens and discovering many new and advanced technologies, mainly in their growing metropolis of the Mizu city, capital of the Sun Empire. With the migration and resource demand quickly increasing in this region, there was a huge need for new and efficient transport means, especially via shipping, and many classes were projected for fulfilling that role but only the Dentō Maru class was approved to be mass-produced because of its rather large resource storage, passenger capacity, and the low difficulty and cost of building ships of this class. Despite being a rather old design, the class continued to still be useful even after many years since its development, thanks to how easy was to replace the engines and the quite versatile design that created many different subclasses. The subclasses are designed for the roles of passenger line ships, merchant ships, armed merchantman ships, light aircraft carriers, landing craft carriers, and, lastly, resupply and repair ships.

The non-armed subclasses, the first developed and used, were the Ijū-type (passenger line) and Hissu-type (merchant), moved by two triple-bladed propellers that, with the installed engines, allowed a maximum speed of 18 knots, increased to 20.5 knots with the replacement of the engines by modern ones on later days. The passenger line had a capacity for a total of 1250 passengers and provided for them, at least, a minimum of comfort, while the merchant ship subclass had an approximate tonnage of 8300 GRT, 5200 NT and 12150 DWT. They were important during the internal migration times and before the crisis of the Eagle Empire when all nations seemed to be getting along together and the borders restrictions were getting lower bit by bit.

The Goei-type was the armed merchantman subclass of the Dentō Maru, which had an extra propeller compared to the non-armed types allowing it a total speed of 18.6 knots, being developed after war broke out with the neighbor nations. Despite the fact it could carry considerably less than the Hissu-type merchant ships, this subclass was at least armed with two single mounts of 10 cm guns replaced later by dual-purpose models, ten single mounts of 7.5 cm guns, four triple mounts of the 25 mm Kaze AA guns aboard. Modernized versions of the Goei-type required two twin mounts of 12.7 cm dual-purpose guns, six single mounts of 7.5 cm guns, the same amount of triple mounts of 25 mm Kaze AA guns and modernized better engines that allowed speeds of 21 knots at the cost of even more reduced cargo capacity. Due to the wars that late came to the Sun Empire, almost all Hissu-type ships were converted to the Goei-type.

The Naosu-type was the name given to the subclass of resupply and repair ships as a way to avoid having to repair ships at the harbors and allowing warships to sail further beyond their fuel allows. They featured three propellers that moved the ship with a maximum speed of 18.6 knots and relied on two twin mounts of 10 cm guns and only four triple mounts of 25 mm Kaze AA guns. It was kind of a hybrid of the Goei-type and the Ijū-type since it can and does carry both a repair crew and materials to repair the ships. The materials are usually moved around by four cranes placed two on each side of the ship. Modernized versions of the subclass required two single mounts of 12.7 cm dual-purpose guns and only two triple 25 mm Kaze AA guns to reduce the speed penalty of installing two extra cranes to help in the other ships' repairs, although the new engines only increased the speed, to 20.7 knots more specifically.

The Nitsuko-type is the most famous subclasses since it was the landing craft carrier subclass, very largely used during the Sun Empire expansion to the neutral islands nearby, made right before the war broke out. It could carry a maximum of 30 landing crafts aboard, depending on the size of the craft, supporting their invasion by bombarding the enemy with two twin mounts of 7.8 cm guns and protect itself from aircraft with four twin mounts of 25 mm Kaze AA guns while the three propellers and the engines allowed speeds of 18.2 knots. For better efficiency, the Nitsuko-type was later required to have two twin mounts of 12.7 cm guns and eight triple 25 mm Kaze AA guns at the cost of having only 24 landing craft aboard and the engines only allowing a maximum speed of 20.7 knots.