Re: [HOE] Raise the Kidd!

["Joshua Simpson" <kamilion69@hotmail.com>]

Thanks to all who have been helping with this little mental masturbation 
(the website was especially helpful, as well as the input from fellow 
squid).  Here's some information shared freely to all who are hacking at 
this idea (much taken from the website or consolidated from posts).

The USS Kidd (I'm assuming that the CSS Kidd is the same ship) was being 
used as a floating museum up until the time of the flooding of Baton Rouge.  
Somehow it sank, though not deeply, as the main mast (or something) was 
still projecting far enough up to catch a paddle boat (shallow bottomed that 
they are) and ground it permanently.  The adventure states that a 40mm AA 
gun in the salvage yard (run by a civil engineer named Tinsdale) is from the 
CSS Kidd (which is what we had been basing our dating of the ship from).

However... the website states that the USS Kidd was in use up until after 
the Gulf War (in fact, had many modifications that made it suited for action 
in the Gulf), being decommed in 1998.  I see no large reason for this to 
have changed in HOE.  What it does mean is that the Kidd had much more 
modern weaponry than WWII era AA guns (check the website, this thing was 
loaded).  The Kidd is approximately 550ft long, 150ft high, and displaces 
around 10k tons.  Going to require some large bags to make this thing float.

Now, ideas I have had on the ship itself.  Most of the electronics and such 
will have been pulled out of the ship before being made into a museum (the 
Navy is a packrat as a whole), any weapons on display sealed and plugged and 
pumped with a stable gas.  A large number of the areas would have had the 
watertight doors sealed to keep out wanderers (which would act to create air 
bubbles within the ship).  The Kidd used a gas turbine engine, again 
probably sealed and locked down (which means in decent condition barring 
breeches in the engine compartments).  I would hypothesize that the Kidd 
sank during the flood when it swept loose of its moorings and hit something 
that ruptured its hull (after all, its sitting in the middle of office 
buildings in the adventure).  In all likely-hood it's keel is resting on 
crumbling pavement 150ft below the surface.

Jeez, this thing has gone on long, and I'm not even sure where I'm going 
with this.  I think I'm just trying to plant solid seeds for more new ideas. 
  I assure you that I eagerly await the (usually) useful sparks you people 
create.

  - Joshua Simpson
    Electronics Technician 3rd Class
    United States Navy

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