User blog:USSMarauder/Ships in RWBY (not that kind)

For this blog post, I'm going to talk about something that has never been covered before in RWBY. Ships.

(Y'know, boats. Why, what did you think I meant?)

As always, this is mostly non-canon, based off of observations, real life, and some logic.

First off, I dislike calling it 'the Ship', as it's called on the Wiki, so I'm going to refer to as a Pride-class ship. This is based on the reference in V4E12, "No Safe Haven" with Yang holding a photo of a similar ship, with her thumb partially covering the name 'Pride _____'. Names like Pride of Mistral or Pride of Vale wouldn't be that unusual in our world, so I'm going to run with it.

Pride-class ships are small passenger vessels travelling the oceans of Remnant, connecting the four kingdoms and Menagerie. We first encounter them in V4E3 "Of Runaways and Stowaways", as Blake sails home.

Size

Using Sun and Blake for scale, a Pride-class ship is roughly 360 ft in length, not counting the bowsprit or the 'spoiler' at the stern, and roughly 60 ft in width. The superstructure of the main deck is roughly 210 x 34 ft, and the top deck superstructure is roughly 91 x 21 ft.

Top deck

The top deck contains the ship's bridge, which we see in great detail during the ships' battle with the Sea Feilong. It consists of a ships' wheel, throttle and two consoles in the front, with 5 large consoles, one in each corner and the 5th in the centre of the bridge. These consoles allow the bridge crew to monitor ships' systems such as weapons and engines. During a fight, the bridge is manned by three crew members.

Above the bridge is the ship's mast with a crow's nest for a lookout. Due to the threat of marine Grimm, this crow's nest is regularly manned, although during battle it is vacated for the lookout's safety.

There are three doors. Two leading to the promenade deck, one to port and one to starboard, with a third to the aft. As the bridge does not take up the entire top deck, this aft door does not lead directly to the outside. As there are no external stairs leading to the top deck, this aft section must be the ship's internal stairway, leading from the top deck to the bottom of the hold. We never get a view of it, but it there must be a door leading from the stairway to the outside at the aft end of the pilothouse, otherwise passengers and crew would have to walk through the bridge to reach the outside. Aft of the bridge is the ship's funnel.

Main Deck

The main deck has several large windows and two doors per side, surrounded by a promenade deck. A gangway is attached to this deck when the ship is docked. The interior of the second deck is never shown in detail. Most logically, this would be the ship's lounge/bar and dining room with the galley (kitchen) and food storage in the rear, built around the opening of the ship's funnel.

The bow of the ship has two of the ship's weapons. The heavy cannon is deployed from a below deck storage area during battles with the Grimm. Also, the ship's bowsprit can be used as a lance to impale large Grimm.

Lower Deck

This deck has no outside space, and has ten very large double windows on each side. We never see what is below decks, but logically this must be the cabins. It's likely that there is a narrow ring shaped corridor on this deck, with passenger cabins on the exterior and crew cabins on the interior. The windows are about 19.3 ft in width, and if window is centered on the cabins, then the cabins are about 27.7 ft wide.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">To the bow is the storage area for the heavy cannon when it is retracted. As the side canons are below this area, it is likely that the ship's magazine (ammo storage) is located here as well.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Cargo/engineering Deck

<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">The lowest level of the ship is never seen, and is partly below the water line. Towards the bow are two rows of 6 guns, one row per side. These guns are relatively fixed, only able to shoot at right angles to the hull. When not in use the are protected behind a tractable panel.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">In addition to the guns, this lowest deck must house the ship's engine room, the cargo and fuel storage.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Concept Art

<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">The original concept art of the Pride-class ship was changed before final animation. Originally the ship was a paddle wheeler, belching smoke like a steam ship. The final version looks more like a modern screw-propeller. As well, the concept art lacks features like doors.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Weapons.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">As previously mentioned, Pride-class ships carry 6 fixed guns per side, a heavy cannon on the bow, and a bowsprit that can be used as a lance. Pride-class ships do not usually carry a Huntsman, instead relying on ships' weapons to deal with any maritime Grimm.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">These weapons are inadequate to fight a Sea Feilong as the heavy cannon cannot traverse fast enough and there are no anti-air defenses. This suggests that the weapons on the ship were designed to fight something else. So it's likely that there is at least one other species of maritime Grimm

Something slow moving, because the side cannons don't have much freedom of movement. Fighting this Grimm involves manoeuvring the ship, not the guns.

Also, the Heavy cannon wasn't built with rapid movement in mind, but with firepower. The fact that there is a heavy cannon suggests that occasionally Pride-class ships run into something that the side guns can't take down. But this other Grimm isn't that big, as seen by the Captain's comments when facing the Sea Feilong ("By the Gods....We've never seen something this big").

If this other Grimm isn't big, then it must be well armoured, or it hunts in packs with an older Grimm standing off and directing others. Then the side guns are for the smaller members and the heavy cannon is to take out the large ones from longer range.

Crew

Crew members wear a uniform of a striped shirt, gloves, boots, pants and a red bandana worn either around the neck or around the head. The Captain wears a more formal uniform. Only four crew are seen up close: The Captain, first mate, lookout, and third bridgecrew member. When the ship is docked in Menagerie, several others are visible on deck. It is possible that two of these are the previously mentioned lookout and third bridgecrew member, so there are a minimum of six crew.