|
Captain Harlock
A self-styled criminal mastermind, this mad scientist of Portuguese/Chinese descent is too weak-willed and unwilling to cause harm to be a true criminal. |
The self-styled Captain Harlock (of mixed Portuguese and Chinese descent) has a secret hideaway on Lamma Island, from where he demands his ransom from the China traders of Hong Kong. The Captain is a mad scientist, who has invented a freeze ray capable of turning the waters of the sea to ice thick enough to crush the hull of the wooden trading ships used by the hongs. Unless the hongs pay him a significant sum of money, he is threatening to cripple and sink their ships.
Captain Harlock is driven by greed, but he is basically a coward at heart, and has no desire to be hunted for murder for the rest of his life. Some of the Chinese merchants have already paid protection money to ensure the safety of their fleets, but none of the large Western hongs has acceded to his demands. Harlock has yet to fulfil his threats, and really does not want to. The thought of sailors being drowned as a result of his sinking their ship worries his conscience. So far, the risk that he might harm somebody has outweighed his greed.
The Captain is not a black-hearted villain. If the ambitions of his crew can be thwarted, perhaps by capturing them and returning them to the authorities on Hong Kong Island, he could be persuaded to reform. Although the characters would need to keep his ego suitably boosted, the captain, with his Frost Ship the Rime, could also be a useful ally. Conversely, he could be a great danger in the future if he offered his allegiance to Anarchists, the World Crime League, or the Steam Lords.
|
At first glance the Rime, Captain Harlock's Ship, appears no more than a small steam-powered cargo vessel. In writing up the description of the ship in his journal, it should be noted that Sir Sebastian Thomas (a witness to the boat's flight across the water as it eluded the cutters of the Royal Navy) is unfamiliar with maritime jargon and does not use nautical terminology. I make no apology for using his own words here, though seafaring readers may despair of the simplistic and possibly even erroneous description.
'The two holes in the front of the hull, through which one would expect the anchor chains to descend, were in fact nozzles, used to propel a fine spray at high pressure in front of the vessel. This mist was chillingly cold, and a thick sheet of ice formed wherever it touched. When sprayed on the sea, it caused the very water to freeze. Though made of thick iron pipe, and too heavy for a man to manipulate, a series of capstans, gears and winches allowed the nozzles to be targeted within a thirty degree arc to either side of the prow.When the Captain first developed his ray, he encountered some difficulties because the freezing point of salt water was far lower than that of pure water, and the energy required to supercool saline was much higher than could be generated by the converter. Furthermore, salt water proved corrosive to the valves. On the Rime, Harlock's primary supply of water was the sea, so it proved necessary to desalinate the water before converting it to ice. In a tank located in a compartment adjacent to the boiler room, seawater is heated resulting in evaporation. The resultant steam is used to power the ship's engines, and then condensed once more as pure water for use in the Freeze Ray. The salt residue from evaporation is discarded over the side of the vessel.
At the fore of the Rime's hull, lying under the water and extending below the level of the keel, were two skis. The vessel could push its prow onto the ice created by the Freeze Ray, whereupon the front end would skate across the surface of the ice, breaking the floe as it went but vastly reducing the friction of the water. The stern screws remained in the sea to propel the vessel, and the reduced friction allowed it to travel at speeds in excess of fifty knots. Small bergs of ice remaining in its wake, but melted quickly in the warmth of the South China Sea leaving no evidence for any pursuing vessels to explain the sudden turn of speed.'
[GR]
Fencing 
[PR]
Helmsmanship