The Ships Of The Gray Mists

Barge
Barges are very rare on the open Gray Seas, but more common in Pocket Seas.  While they can haul large amounts of cargo they are best suited to calm waters.  Many of the ships that make of the City-Fleets are old barges.

Caravel
Carvels are small ships that are fast and nimble and designed for long times in the open seas.  Carvels are the earliest ships designed to sail the Gray Seas.  They are decked and have small forecastles and sterncastles and two or three masts.

Cog
Cogs are ships with a single square mast and partial decks with just the bow and stern being decked.  These decked compartments are more of platforms than a forecaste or sterncastle.  While seaworthy they are mostly used for intersea trade.

Coracle
Made of hide stretched over a wicker frame, a coracle is one of the simplest ships.  Most coracles are so light that they can be carried on ones back.  Many of the Orcs who live on the Honu use coracles made of shark skin stretched over a bamboo frame.  Coracles are not ocean going vessels, and have a crew of one.

Dhow
The dhow is a moderately sized sailing vessel with a single lateen mast and a full deck. Their hulls are long and thin and are very popular for intra sea transport.  Most Cattie ships are Dhows.  Many have a rear deck house or stern castle.  Dhows general have between 12-30 crew members depending on the size of the ship.

Launch
Launches are small open boats with rounded hulls that are meant for traveling in open seas.  They are typically carries by larger ships and used for fishing, whaling, or landing.  The Shattered Isles makes the best Launches.

Elvin Catamaran
Elvin sailing ships are made from two hulls and made from the same growing bone substance that many elvish structures and armor are made from.  These ships can vary in size from single man craft to colossal frigates.  Extremely fast and with shallow draft Elvin catamarans are extremely popular with pirates and smugglers.  Unfortunately they are few and far between, extremely expensive, and require a skilled Elvin bonecrafter to maintain.

Galley
Galleys are large oared vessels.  They come in a variety of designed, some decked, some undecked, some may have a forecastle or sternccastle.  Many also have a single mast to catch the wind when the weather allows.  Galleys are only as fast as their rowers, and can only row for so long befor they must rest.  Galleys with two banks of rowers are known as biremes and those with three banks or rowers are known as triremes.  Galleys are not suited for travel in the Gray Seas because they flounder easily in bad weather and exhaustion of rowers.

Carrack
Fitted with three or four masts along with forecastles and sterncastles carracks are less ship and more floating fortress.  While not nimble carracks are both heavily armed and armored.  Carracks have multiple decks, massive cargo capacity and can carry hundreds of people.  The majority of ships that sail in the Gray Seas are carracks, albeit usually stripped down armor and armament wise for speed and cargo space.

Galleon
Galleons are very large carracks that have had their forecastle greatly reduced and their hulls elongated.  This gives them unprecedented stability and massive cargo capacity.  While most galleons have about 500 tons of cargo capacity the massive Azorian Galleons have upwards towards 2,000 tons.  Due to their size and complexity galleon construction is extremely expensive, involving the work of hundreds of skilled laborers, this keeping them out of the hands of all but the most powerful trading companies and the navies of the major powers.

Ironclad
Lined with thick iron plates and powered by an internal engine ironclads are extremely slow and clumsy ships.  They are also nearly indestructible.  Very few ironclads exist, and none of them can be found on the Gray Seas. 

The Shattered Isles keeps two on station at the mouth of the Fugue Sound as a show of might and as protection for the capital city and has more ironclads in the works.  Vardoux has one, in disrepair from the years of neglected caused by the revolution.  The United Empire has three under construction.  The Azorian Kingdom thinks that its massive galleons are good enough.

Junk
A junk is a type sailing ship with a flat bottom, high stern and bamboo reinforced sails.  Junks have a unique hull design that allows water to come in and out of the ship, with goods and people protected by watertight compartments making it excellent for use in rough weather.  Junk does not refer to a size of ship or number of masts but a design.  The smallest junks are less than 10 meters in length with a single mast, the largest are over a 120 meters with five masts.  Dowa ships are all based on the junk design.  The rough waters of the Ruby Sea make this almost a necessity.

Longship
Longships are long narrow vessels with a single mast and often rows of oars.  While they do not have decks many may have platforms or cabins built into the stern and bow.  Longships also have a very shallow draft, allowing them to go up rivers, estuaries and deltas, even allowing the land on beaches.  Longships do surprisingly well on the open seas and on long voyages.  Often they are inscribed with protective runes and have elaborate animal heads carved into the prow.  Solvangers use the longship almost exclusively.  Longships are highly prized by raiders and pirates as well.

Pinnace
The pinnace is a small ship, equipped often with a single mast and oars.  Pinnaces are used as a ship to ship or ship to shore service boat.  Pinnaces are typically decked with a single small cabin.  While sturdy enough for travel on the open seas a penance is rarely seen very far from its dock or ship.  Pinnaces are very popular for pirates and smugglers.  Most of the Gnat Fleet of the Shattered Isles is made of old pinnaces.

Theurgemes
Theurgemes are ships that are powered solely by magical means.  Theurgemes should not be confused with ships that have a weathermancer onboard to help fill sails, or other means of arcane supplement.  Theurgemes are powered in any number of ways, from bound elementals (undines in particular), undead or construct rowers, or bizarre magical devices.  Theurgemes have the advantage of not being bidden by wind or crew exhaustion, or by convention hydrodynamics or ship design, however they are very difficult and expensive to construct.  As such only the wealthiest of individuals have access to Theurgemes.  Due to their unique nature, no two Theurgemes are alike.

Theurgemes are arcane rat rods. Most look like a combination of a Wacky Racer, rocket ship, and a wizard tower. Universally over engineered, and universally individual each is one is representative of the wizard who crafted it. They burn fuel, but as theurgeme engines are strange things they burn strange things like, milk, sugar, coffee, books, fungal alcohol, bones, dinosaur blood, for fuel. Many have a device known as a 'concept booster' that gives a huge boost of speed in exchange for eating a concept from someone. Concepts can be things like hopes, dreams, nightmares, history, secrets, etc. Theurgeme engines are easy to track as they leave strange contrails.

Turtle Ship
Turtle Ships are essentially heavily armored junks.  A shell of plated iron is placed above the deck of an existing junk, essentially adding another deck.  This second deck is often heavily armed, with cannons and baristas.  However due to the added armor and weapons most turtle ships are very slow and top heavy making very poor choices for long sea voyages.  Most Turtle Ships will also include a chemical thrower in the front that spews either a noxious sulfurs smoke for concealment or gouts of fire.  The Dowa Shogunate is the only power to have Turtle Ships in a significant number.

Sea Chariot
Sea Chariots are ships that are pulled by ocean creatures.  At the smallest are dolphin chariots, coracles attached to a team of dolphins, not unlike a dog sled.  The largest is the city-fleet of Inkhorn, who is drawn by a school of singing squid.

Beast Riders
Beast riders are not technical ships, but creatures ridden much like a horse.  Sharks, seahorses, dolphins and whales are common.  Fin-Folk prefer Hippocampi, while the Koa-Toa prefer large Man o’ Wars and other purpose bred jellyfishes.

Outrigger
Outriggers are typically long narrow canoes that have one or more lateral supports fasten to the hull.  These lateral supports allow outriggers to be very long and narrow, yet surprisingly fast and stable even in rough water.  Given their odd shape outriggers have a unique way of rowing that is often difficult for even trained rowers to pick up.  The Orcish people heavily use outriggers.

The Jonah Ships
Jonah Ships are essentially hollow undead whales that have been fitted with oars and retractable sails.  The oars are made from scrimshawed bones from the beast’s insides and the sails made from its own tanned hide.  Crewed exclusively by ghouls from Gant, Jonah Ships are some of the most dangerous ships in the seas.  Because the undead crew had no need to breathe, Jonah Ships are able to go underwater for extended periods of time, however pockets of corpse gas prevent them from diving more than a few meters below the waters.  While their crews use this ability for great stealth Jonah Ships are easily betrayed by the flocks of gulls, sharks, and other opportunist scavengers that follow in their wake. 

Jonah Ships carry no arms, except for their crews.  The ghouls are armed with the bone plate and shard swords hone from the shell of Gant itself.  The Ghouls must be fatted on meat from the great turtle or else they have a chance of turning on the Jonah Ship, devouring it from the inside.  In combat Jonah Ships flail wildly attempting to ram ships.  Any sailor (or ghoul) that manages to fall into the waters is devoured greedily by the undead whale.