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(Translated from French)

A serious question about shipgirls being girls.

If they are girls then what is the relevance to the ship?

I am working on a shipgirl of my own since my grand father was a dock worker in Brest during the war. However I do not know how to design her because it seems to me that all she did was to leave France behind during the war. She sank no ships that I know of and I do not know any cool stories like what you do with “the Big E” or other American ships.

The only thing that is important is that she has the name of a very famous French heroine. You may not have heard of her, but in France we consider “La Pucelle,” or Jeanne d’Arc, a national hero. She is best known for driving out the English and restoring sovereignty to the French people. You should look her up sometimes.

However the Jeanne d’Arc ship did nothing like the sort. How should I becoming inspired?

(Response also translated into English; original French can be found in my inbox)

First of all, thank you. I do know who Joan of Arc is.  Mère de la nation française and all 😉

Secondly, that’s an interesting thought. I think it honestly depends on which direction you want to take your girl’s design to. Pacific has a much larger storyline and an overall plot “direction,” so it’s only natural that we focus on the individual aspect of each character.

We have a lot of characters whose historical counterparts might not have been exceptionally “heroic” like Enterprise. However, I think you should get into the spirit of things first.

You say it’s connected to your grandfather, right? Well, is he still here? You should talk to him as much as you can to get an idea for what he felt at the time. Use those emotions as a starting point. If you want and you think it fits the character, ask him about the ship itself. It turns out that ships have temperaments, too. Ask the old buccaneer in my house and he’ll tell you that his girl was FEISTY as hell. She would only play nice if you play nice with her. You try to get too rough with her and she’ll flip you right off – and she was an aircraft carrier.

For that particular character (which you’ll all meet very soon) the personality just shone through. Everything from her CO to her crew to her battle record screams a fiercely independent spirit. She doesn’t walk; she strut and preen. She doesn’t just stand out; she captivates and enchants. This was a warship who is, in every sense of the word, larger-than-life. Impetuous. Invincible. A class unto her own.

“Hell yeah she’s gonna show off that bod. You know it! HOOYAH!”

…I guess what I’m trying to say is that you have to find something you love about that ship. Jeanne herself offers plenty of inspirations. Maybe you can take a chapter out of her life. Someone who answered God’s call to save her country. Maybe you can take a bit out of her experience. After all, you wouldn’t expect an old cruiser to singlehandedly turn the tide, but you didn’t expect a young illerate peasant girl to rally the French either. OF course, if you’re gonna look for parallels, you should first and foremost think about why you want to make that shipgirl to begin with.

Is it just because of waifu reasons? If so, how much work do you need to put in, really? Why not pick something that you find aesthetically pleasing?

Is it for historical reasons? Well, see above. It’s your call to communicate to us readers what you want us to learn. Maybe take a chapter out of KC’s dev’s book. “I want you to meet this glorious warship of our past but as a cute girl instead.”*

Is it out of something personal? Like, perhaps fulfilling a request from family, or out of the desire to create something to immortalize a moment?

You decide, really.

*I should note (I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again) that this is basically the exact OPPOSITE of what we do here. We incorporate a ship’s history in a more subtle fashion. It frees the character, and she is able to communicate to us information without being “tied down” or “shoehorned” into the same traits or designs. There’s plenty of chances to learn about the actual history, after all.

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A-am I back at work yet?

Guuuh. I feel antsy if I’m taking time off… I know like, nobody actually pays attention to me or anything but I still like to think people read my sub corners…

Oh. Of course. I mean, technically you’re the site admin. I’m just the creator that pop in once in a while. We can get back to the regularly maintained subcorners whenever you’d like.

Yay.

 

Hi! Mary here. Since everyone’s out sick I thought I’d do a little update today.

What’s that? Shipgirls don’t get sick? Of course they don’t. I’m talking about the creators of the series, silly! We’re still pressing along even if it is flu season. In any case, now that our printers are back up, you will be able to find me in the latest U.S. Navy Food book. Hint hint. You should totally think about checking it out!

…Yes, those are my eyebrows. Next question.

Why am I not in a … bikini? You pervert it’s NOVEMBER! I’ll wear one if we ever get to that bit in Silent Service or if it’s summer, okay!

Anyways. Since today is a food-themed update, I thought it would be a good idea to pick my favorite food: the crab!

First things first. Why does Maryland have the best crabs in the entire country?

There’s a lot of answers to that question. Some say it’s because we lost the Oyster War against the Virginians. Some say it was the unique culture of the time. Some say it was the abundance of blue crabs in the region right around the First and Second World War that resulted in the explosion of crab consumption.

The simplest answer is that they’re delicious.

But, since we are talking about history and all, there are a few things I think we should think about. The first is this idea that crabs are somehow a by-product of more valuable catches. This is factually inaccurate (though not incorrect). While it is true that fishermen tended to have targets that aren’t crabs (oysters and scallops in particular was a very lucrative trade!) small-scale fisheries of crab definitely existed and people were definitely eating crab well before it got popular around the 1930s and 1940s.

The second idea is that somehow crabs were “poor people food.” I think it is tremendously dismissive of culinary traditions and create offensive stereotypes to suggest that certain common foods were consumed largely by members of specific classes. After all, almost everyone in America ate potatoes regularly and in some fashion throughout history. Are potatoes “poor people food” as well? Because what that sounds like to me is that you’re calling everyone who eat potatoes poor!

Crabs did not command the extraordinarily high prices we see on the market today. However, few food items at the time did. Even good cuts of steak were not out of reach (unlike today) for the average American family. What is true is that you can trace our current “tradition” of the crab boil to a specific culinary tradition belonging to a specific people. The “watermen,” which are the crab catchers of the time, routinely boiled their crabs and seasoned them with things like salt and pepper for taste.

Sure, the watermen were one of the poorest professions at the time, but they made an honest living, and even the rich who dined on Crab Imperial sought out crabs – be it in the form of stews, crunch, shell, cube, salad, cake, or the good old boil.

The third misconception is that crabs are novel food items. Again, as I mentioned up there, it isn’t. Plenty of old cookbooks popular on the coasts will tell housewives how to prepare crabs. This is strictly a matter of practicality because transportation was primitive and you were unlikely to have crab as a regular part of your access to seafood. What is novel, however, are a few inventions right around the time of World War II that made the crab tremendously popular. I’m going to count three.

The first is the ready to eat spice packet. The most famous one in Maryland is India Girl Shrimp and Crab Seasoning. You know this thing better as Old Bay.

The second is the almighty crab hammer. It made eating crabs a lot easier with a convenient way to crack open their shell.

The third is the refrigerator, which made it possible for Marylanders to eat crab and for Maryland watermen to sell more of their crabs. refrigeration not only allowed for foods to be preserved for longer, but in the crab’s case, it allowed much greater options for fresh seafood.

With that being said, let’s take a look at how the U.S. Navy ate their crabs. From the U.S. Navy Cookbook, 1941 edition:

Pretty simple, right? It looks exactly like how anyone else would have ate crabs at the time. One important thing to note, though, is that there is no spice mix or seasoning used. Each ship was free to decide individually just how often they served crab and how specifically they would prepare it. For the USS Maryland, we actually used a combination of malt vinegar and mayo! It doesn’t taste too bad on an open-face sandwich, but I suspect the men wouldn’t mind the regular salt-pepper-butter combination either.

Now, you’ll see that the Navy is also aware of the steamed crab. However, it wasn’t particularly clear to me whether this was more popular than the boiled crab or the deviled crab. Though, anything found in this book is pretty representative of what foods people are familiar with. After all, you would want your troops to feel as comfortable as possible. Familiar foods are comforting. It reminds people of home and why they’re out here fighting to begin with!

Of course, a single crab won’t feed a Shaw, much less a fighting man of the U.S. Navy. Given the size of the navy pots (I’ll find pictures sometime!) you can bet that they made a lot of crab so each man can eat his fill. From looking at logs by submariners, it seems that the ocean was more plentiful at the time… or maybe the crabs were dumber and easier to catch.

Either way, the Navy did leave out an important distinction: the male and female crabs. The navy most likely took what it got (which were probably male crabs) but with the free market you have much better choices.

He-crabs look like that. She-crabs look like that. Pretty simple, right?

“What’s the difference, Mary?”

Well, the taste is different! At least I can taste a difference. But the biggest bit is that She-crabs carry eggs (roe). While roe is considered a delicacy in East Asian cultures, it is actually a common ingredient found in soups and other rich dishes as well. She-crab soup, a crab-like bisque made from crab meat and crab roe (for that rich orange-ish color!) was a favorite of several of our Presidents and as famous as turtle soup.

He-crabs tend to be bigger. In fact, they can get to much larger sizes than the females. As such, their meat also taste slightly different. Some people say it tastes better. I’m not inclined to disagree, but I like both!

Now, the best part of the crab? Some will tell you it’s the parts where you pry the shell open. Let me tell you. It’s the claw. Trust me, the claw is the best part. Nothing tastes better than having a bunch of freshly steamed or boiled crab claws from freshly caught crabs. It’s great!

Oh, by the way, the best crabs are going to be alive right before you cook them. You shouldn’t be steaming dead crabs. The taste’s off. Always make sure your crabs are alive and kicking (or at least put on ice if you’re meek and timid) before you cook them –

MAAAAAAAAAAARY! HAAAAAAAALP! THE CRABS ARE REBELLING! IT’S IN MY HAIRRRRRRR AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!

…

Sorry, dear reader. Looks like I’ll have to cut this one short. Hope to see you all soon next time!

STEC Archives, Print Document Division
Curator signature: [Unknown]
Format: Textual Record
Object: Excerpt from defunct document collection “Preparedness in the Abyssal War”
Location (if known): STEC Archives
Time (if known): 1988

Note pinned to the document as below.

Okay. First things first. The Mark 52 isn’t even in production YET. Cusk barely got the prototype working as of a week ago. This isn’t quite the same as upgrades on your six inchers where if the fairies come up with a new formulation we can test it and bam, it’s in production in a day.

Secondly. we are NOT going to send out conventional forces on these missions until we have the Mark 52 and the Mark 53 READY and more importantly, our men TRAINED to use them. I understand you’re cooped up and bored but please put your literary talents to the dozens of writing projects we have on hand.

Thirdly. Couple of problems I have with the draft memo.

1. Pick a less threatening Abyssal for the cover please. Use one of the scouts and save the cruiser for the identification guide. I have zero issues with us being transparent but showing a kilometer-long monster is not going to help with morale at all.
2. Don’t sugarcoat things. We have on record one example of a submarine fighting an Abyssal and spoilers: the submarine’s torpedoes couldn’t penetrate the barrier, much less the armored skin. Let’assume that the Mark 53 works as we intend it. That means our SSNs have maybe 25 or so torpedo-tube launched weapons. They’re slower, far more vulnerable, and carries a lot less firepower than anything but the smallest Abyssals. Attacking with utmost vigor is fine. Maximum success is really stretching it.

I’d revise. Also this dossier should not go out until we complete the identification guide.

Jer

I thought I’d start drafting that report you said we were going to submit. How does this look?

THE SUBMARINE FORCE IN THE COMING PACIFIC WAR

Much has been said about the Abyssal Fleet. They are a terrifying opponent. They possess technological marvels. They are unrestricted by the rules of war. Their numbers are limitless and they can appear anywhere.

Not all of these are true. The Abyssals are not invincible. They can be killed. Their numbers are significant, but they are not limitless. They do seem to be able to appear anywhere, but the truth is that they rely on an extremely vulnerable network of underwater “nodes.” Without these nodes they cannot bring in powerful reinforcements. Without these reinforcements they cannot hope to overcome our forces on the open sea. 

In its current phase, our war is a war strictly of distances. We create distance by destroying these nodes wherever possible. This task is rendered difficult due to the presence of one or more Abyssal unit within its immediate vicinity. Our goal is to approach each target with utmost stealth, and attack at a safe distance.

Towards this purpose the Special Test and Evaluation Command has created a unique torpedo with a range of approximately 150 nm specifically designed for this mission. It is scheduled to be deployed within three months. 

Until then, we are to carry out our missions as directed. While our primary target is the destruction of stationary targets, any Abyssal units nearby are targets of opportunity and should be attacked with utmost vigor in order to ensure maximum success. 

Today is Veteran’s Day.

We’ve thought for a while about what we wanted to do this time. Then we thought, well, there is something that we can do that’s fairly unique to us. Veterans are a big part of our history. Without them, our country’s history wouldn’t exist.

Family and team members being veterans aside, a big part of why we create historical content is to honor their service. We hope that through learning about the history of our country, our readers will gain a greater appreciation for all the sacrifices our veterans made.

So, we ended up taking a long time cleaning up the historically-related content and organizing it in a page. I even made a nifty button on the site so people can find it easier! It’s right under the mail call button below. It looks like that!

You can even click on it.

Today’s the day where we celebrate the service of our veterans! Of course, there are 364 other days in the year to do this as well, but today’s extra special. “Thank you for your service” may sound like such a tiny thing to say, but everything you do that could help, helps!

This is Shaw. On behalf of everyone here, thank you for your service.