Here's my proposed add on for Corvette Command to determine what happens when a merchant ship sinks and if some or all of the crew abandon ship and get picked up. It's a bit less complicated than my original idea, on the basis that basic is better.
When a ship is hit roll a 1d6 on this table:
1 = Sinks on an even keel
2 = Goes down by the bow
3 = Goes down by the stern
4 = Breaks in half
5 = Capsizes
6 = Raging Fire / Tanker or Ammo Ship Explodes
Next, roll for a successful abandon ship and pick up for some of the crew (it is assumed that some will go down with the ship but most will get to the boats / rafts or into the water)
ACTIVE = CREW (Ship Tonnage / 1000) e.g. 6000 /1000 = 6
PASSIVE = THE SEA (use weather as base: Good = 1 / Poor = 3 / Fog or Snow = 5)
Apply Difficulty Modifiers
Sinks on Even Keel = +2 to CREW
Sinks Bow / Stern first = +1 to SEA
Breaks in Half = +2 to SEA
Capsizes = +3 to SEA
Raging Fire = +4 to SEA
Explodes = +5 to SEA
Night Time = +1 to SEA
Oct-March = +2 to SEA
June-August = +2 to CREW
In Air Gap = +1 to SEA
Canadian Sector / Western Approaches = +1 to CREW
Note: maximum modified value is 10, minimum is 1.
Roll on the RESOLUTION TABLE.
A successful roll means the crew abandon ship and are picked up by a rescue ship, a merchant, a convoy escort or by ASR amphibian if in home waters.
A failed roll means that they either go down with the ship, or do not get picked up and are adrift at sea, missing presumed dead.
I did consider adding an extra 1d6 roll to determine if the ship goes under slowly or fast, but that seemed a bit too detailed. I also thought of an additional 1D10 roll to see how many crew managed to survive (as a percentage of the whole crew) but again that seemed like a bit too much to add on.
I'll try this system out next convoy to see how it works.
I think your crew calculation is a bit out. As a retired Merchant Navy Officer with 32 years service with Cunard Line, my former ship QE2 at 70,000 tons would have only 70 crew when we actually had 1,000.
ReplyDeleteThanks Terry. It's not supposed to represent the number of crew, just the chances of crew being able to abandon ship, on the premise that the greater the tonnage the lesser the damage from one torpedo strike and the greater the chance that the ship will remain afloat longer.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the clarificatgion Jim.
ReplyDeleteGood stuff. What if it's the corvette being abandoned?
ReplyDelete