The "Not the only ship" Incident

Eleventh Era

The “Not the only ship” incident was one of the most extreme examples of Triad incompetence during the Navthanian war. It was the year (insert year), the Joviets and Gwiffish and joined, and the gruelling task of defeating the NaVI at sea once and for all had begun.

During this time, the Gwiffish, Joviet and Ellenasian navies and merchant fleets were completely occupied, and Anirudhasia was tasked with building convoys to supply Triad forces in what, at sea at least, was almost a world war.

The Anirudhasian, who had previously been reliant on Gwiffish and Fredlandic sailors to bring them supplies, realise they would have to design a new fleet of ships that could be competitive in the modern world. Time was running out before the crucial naval push, and thus the High Dockyard Commander of Anirudhasia, Sisingh Rajputana, ordered ships belonging to the new fleet to be built to be “as fast and cheap as possible” stating “speed and quantity above all costs”. The result was the mass production of small merchant ships, with an above average top speed and room for supplies, but no room for radar and the worst maneuverability of any ship constructed after the beginning of the tenth era. These ships were dubbed the “Lyruce Class” due to the fact they had decent speed but couldn't turn and looked very flimsy.

While the Lyruce Class were been readied to sail, one of the regular Ordinary Summits of the Triad Pact was being held in a remote location in Ellenasia. Traditionally, an Ordinary Summit would include many guest nations but due to the ongoing Navthanian War, only Ellenasia, Gwiffindor, Ketkistan, Anirudhasia, Anjelikland and the Joviet Union were present. The primary concerns of the meeting were:

1. Last minute preparations for the big push at sea.
2. Further streamlining of allied production though technology sharing.
3. Preparing supply chains on land for the roll out of Ketkistan's new long range missile system.

These issues were discussed with several hours to spare. To everyone's surprise however, the remaining time descended into a row between the Ketkistanis and Anirudhasians. The other delegates sat in silence while a full scale shouting match about Ketkistan's refusal to ally with Anirudhasia, and Anirudhasia's secret deals with Ellenasia raged. Triad governments did their best to cover this incident up and mostly succeeded.

The next morning, the first test of Ketkistan's secret missile system was ready. The plan was to launch from an undisclosed location with a trajectory towards the Navthanian capital, Hextstephensgrad, with the intention being to cause mass panic in the enemy government. This plan could not have gone more wrong. The trajectory was horribly miscalculated, and the missile flew northwards towards the Centre Sea. The missile's operators quickly realised it was headed directly for the centre of the Lyruce Class fleet, which was on its maiden voyage.

Ketkistan frantically contacted the fleet's admiral, and told him that his men still had time to move out of the way. This was, in fact, not the case due to the fleet's abysmal maneuverability. The missile hit one of the ships and incinerated it in seconds, this created a wave which was enough to capsize most of the rest of the fleet, which then sank, killing hundreds.

An emergency meeting was held by the Ocean Council, to clean up the oil spill the disaster had caused. At this meeting, Joviet delegate Ivansansavic Grensinachocuv decided it would be a good idea to, in front of the entire Ocean Council, say to the Anirudhasian President “Not the only ship that's sinking, eh Ani?” (Ani being a not exactly racist but not politically correct either name for Anirudhasians) in reference to Anirudhasias failure to ally with Ketkistan. Most the delegates were stunned into silence. The Anirudhasias and Ketkistanis sat and pretended nothing had happened. Letters from Gwiffindor, Ellenasia and Anjelikland demanding an apology sit in a filing cabinet somewhere in Xalkanokkii gathering dust to this day.