Naval History Writing Competition 2023/2024

So What’s the Question?

Taking any ship or class cancelled around the time of the Washington treaty, develop a logical line of reasoning for it not to be cancelled, then discuss how it affects the 1920s & 30s, how that impacts the subsequent treaties, whether it’s refitted and how it affects WWII

Prize/Results

The Top Ten will get discussed in a video, with sections read out – but won’t be published in full to leave the option open to the writers to do so at their discretion
Two entrants will receive copies of Tribals, Battles & Darings (paperback)
The one which the judges consider the best
The one which grabs our hearts the most…

Criteria/Advice

It has to be over 3,000 but not more than 10,001 words in length
It has to span from end of WWI to at some point in WWII(end point is up to author)
It can be any ship which is cancelled or not built because of or for the Washington Treaty…
You can even go down potential routes such as unbuilt Admiral Class battlecruisers being used for aircraft carriers or routes not travelled such as the F3 class design
However, the ships can’t be a secret(it just would not be possible to build a whole ship in secret) and if you are making changes to treaties for these ships you have to discuss how they would affect other powers. But that does not mean you have to give a full history of those changes, it’s just important to acknowledge it to show your thinking

Process

Alex(Dr Clarke) will read through all of them
The final ten will go to the enhanced ship shape team
Drachinifel
GariusTheBrit
Dr Dan
Glynn Stewart
If there is a tie to be decided it will be by Alex

Book

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[paulbestwick]

Dr C. Does that mean that while the rest of us are working on this, you and Drac are going to complete your T-83 paper?

[steveclarke]

Remember, you dont get any marks if you dont write your name on the top of the paper. You have 6 hours now turn your paper over and begin.

[jamescstanley]

As I am new to the study of Navel History, I regret that I do not have enough knowledge (yet) to take part in this competition! As a "Rag and Stick" sailor, I am more drawn to the Trafalgar period than the 20th century, and suffering dyslexia also being an awful speller, I am loathe to parade my shortcomings. As you are a fellow sufferer, I do not fear your reaction, but when displayed with my lack of knowledge I have little to offer to this years competion. May I wish the very best of luck to those who take part, and I look forward to being amazed by the efforts of others.

[CraigHyden]

I may have a 75, 000 word document as part 1 of a trilogy of books. First part is set in the battle of Okinawa...but only passingly mentions many of the vessels that take part in Operation Iceberg.

[michaelcouch]

Alex, I've had a thought that might let you leverage the competition to boost the channel.

There is a lot of interest in AH, and several good (and some bad :-) ) AH books consisting of compilations of stories, so the ground is already broken and theres a known market out there. So the idea is, once you''ve got your top ten selected you approach the authors and say "We're thinking of publishing a book, a collection of AH stories. Would you be willing to let us use your story?" Suddenly you've got a book with 95% of the content already written for you, leaving you only the introduction to write.

The book could either be self published via kindle, or you could ask your existing publisher is he's interested (and the fact that AH is a known market, and that you've got a book practically ready to print might be factors to help sell the idea).

So I mentioned earlier that this could help promote the channel, how? Well you will be writing the forword/introduction, and you can set out the background of how these stories came into being (the competition), how they were judged and by whom, and while you're at it you can give details on/promote the channel. You may be able to get some of the AH fans to thinlk "Hey, that sounds cool" and join, even if its just so they don't miss the chance to take part in the next competition.

[KanJonathan]

Amagi constructed at Kobe, and Kaga at Yokosuka yard instead. Fast forward to June 1942, Kido Butai got one to one point five extra knot(s) cruising speed, might effect Battle of Midway.

[Knot_Sean]

Loved seeing you use shipbucket pictures, I just got into making fantasy like ships based on the websites standards to soon make replicas,

[drakenred]

My personal bias has always been along the lines of everyone gets to resume one per year and build up to the cap, but the cap being raised 25 for England and US, with 20 being active fleet and 5 being inactive reserve before scraping/ used as targets, and round up, the extra being put in inactive reserve. So Japan would be alowed 14 + 4 in reserve. Current production would be alowed to resume on existing hulls, but at a rate that is caped one launch per year, up to their e cap. Everyone is alowed to scrap any ship that is over its ratio, but i think thats england.

[BlackburnM]

Given that NaNoWriMo or National Novel Writing Month in November has a writing goal of 50, 000 words, and how many people do the challenge, its maybe a good idea that you limited it to 10k words, could’ve ended up with 100k+ word story by the end submission date.

[squirepraggerstope]

Hmmm? Is that profile pic of a G3 a hint? .... Not to mention the 9 x 15"/50cal-mkii-armed Nelson class 27kt battleships that'd already struck me in a rare flash of inspiration as a possible alt. hist. subject (with HM the King-Emperor's representatives in Washington arguing successfully in light of accepting the 16" gunned G3 project's cancellation, for a THREE unit class of such ships with their improved armour scheme in consideration of the three extant 16" gunned US Colorados and two Japanese Nagatos. ...Though they'd somehow neglected to also mention the concurrent development of the new British 2, 300lb "enhanced" 15" APC that the 50cal mkii gun was designed to use along with two range dependent propellant charge load options😁)

[mastertwitums]

When arguing this does it necessarily have to be positive for the fleet or can I point put how the development of siad ship would negatively effect the fleet due to its continued service?

[PaulfromChicago]

So I got to ask. When the paperback version came out, did you start belting out Paperback Writer at the top of your lungs?

If not, why not?

[jbepsilon]

So, asking for a friend.. Is it allowed for one person to send in multiple submissions?

[DERP_Squad]

Did Dr Clarke just set a fanfic competition?