A little over and week and a half ago, when I (it’s Fenny writing this), Liandra, and Lizzy were all chatting on Facebook saying that RL had finally calmed down and we should all get back into SL and the blog, Lizzy mentioned that when we do, we need an actual “home base”.

It’s something we didn’t really bother with over the past couple of years of dancing away in clubs and shopping at events. We would have a house, somewhere, but it wasn’t really permanent as we would always eventually give up the house and move on to somewhere else, or leave the house half finished and just keep dancing in clubs.

This is when we decided to actually have some sort of main home, where we could all gather and chill out as we browsed Seraphim, Flickr or the Destination Guide to look for the newest thing we could all land at, thats when the idea of an airship sprung into my mind.

Over the past few years all three of us usually ended up back at New Babbage, which is a vast 12 region steampunk based era city. It’s where Liandra’s RL cousin spent a lot of his time before the decided to quit SL due to health reasons a few months ago. With Lia’s cousin leaving, it left a grassland region to the north of the city laying unoccupied. I decided to rent it.

The IAS Bosely Flotilla, named after Bosely from The Charlies Angel of course, is basically our home. It’s also going to eventually be a showcase piece for new steampunk furniture by various creators that we buy on MP and events, and a place for all three of us to just hang out and chat…and roleplay as well.

The roleplay background of the fleet is still being hammered out, but basically it’s what remains of a former large military-based fleet of airships from just before the timeline of “current” New Babbage (1880…something). Due to poker games and various wheeling and dealing we managed to get our hands on the remains of this military fleet for our own personal use.

Here’s a rundown of the 7 ships from the notecard I hurriedly put together when we realized Linden Lab had listed the place in the Destination Guide far quicker than we thought they would…

IAS Green Finger
Type: Converted Class 2 “Shrike” Cruiser
Manufacturer: Welling’s & Company
Captain: Liza Blackwood

The “little brother” to the “Empire” Dreadnought, the Shrike Cruiser of the Flotilla is now hardly recognizable from its military heritage. Converted into a flying greenhouse, the IAS Green Finger has become that little bit of greenery in a flotilla that mostly lacks it.

IAS Sunderland
Type: Class 3 Construction Platform
Manufacturer: Case, Billings & Dougherty
Captain: Liandra Aries

Every armada and flotilla needs one. The IAS Sunderland is one big floating platform with space under the deck for spare parts and tools. Anything that goes wrong with the flotilla usually ends up fixed on the ship, but for the more difficult jobs, the part is stripped and fixed on the Sunderlands platform. The IAS Nikita (Class 2 Scout) is currently finishing construction on the Sunderlands platform.

IAS NomNom
Type: Converted Class 4 Construction Platform
Manufacturer: Case, Billings & Dougherty
Captain: Liza Blackwood

The “Nom” as the crew calls it, is a bone of contention among the three main captains of the fleet, with the name sounding “stupid and ridiculous” according to Captain Fenella Baily. A converted Class 4 construction platform, the platform has given way to numerous Asian-style mini restaurants, a parking platform, and an eating area.

IAS Penny
Type: Converted Class 2 Warehouse Flotilla (Separated)
Manufacturer: Thompson & Giles Co
Captain: Fenella Baily

A set of airborne warehouses was brought into the fleet due to the lack of space in the IAS Boselys main warehouse.

IAS Endeavor
Type: Class 1 (On old scale) Interdiction Cruiser
Manufacturer: McFadden Manufacturing (Closed in 1814)
Captain: Liandra Aries

A relic of a bygone age of airships. The Endeavor is now approaching her 90th year. She has had a long and storied service history, first seeing action in the 3-day war, the “War Of The Kings”, then the trade embargo wars of the Mediterranean, she also served as a front-line gunship for the Royal Artillery Corp of Great Britain before being sold to Portugal where she served as a second rate command ship. Due to (at that time) her age, she was decommissioned from national military work and sold on to private fleets.

Languishing in a scrapper’s yard somewhere in the middle of Europe, Liandra Aries decided to buy her “As Seen”. Now renamed the IAS Endeavor, she currently serves as the flotilla long-range scout ship until the IAS Nikita is airworthy.

IAS Bosely
Type: Class 1 Empire Class Dreadnought
Manufacturer: Welling’s & Company
Captain: Fenella Baily

The Bosely is the lead of the fleet, and much of the old military parts of the ship still remain. The Empire Class of Dreadnoughts from Welling’s & Company almost bankrupted them when the original order of 4 airships went drastically over budget. Using cutting-edge methodology on airbag and propeller lifting technology, James Wellings devised a way to concentrate lift in a rigid and armored airbag while at the same time providing extra lift with propellers under the deck.

Essentially two Shrike cruisers joined together, the Empire Dreadnought was usually the last thing seen by any other airship if they were fired upon by her 6 Arc Projector Tesla Guns. At close range, a fully fitted Empire Dreadnought could put enough firepower to bare on any other ship, and be practically guaranteed to win. The cost of the manufacturing, the very wide turn circle, and the very slow top speed of the Empire class would ultimately be its undoing. Out of the 18 constructed, most of them ended up being shot out of the sky as other nations decided to throw smaller destroyer, frigate, and cruiser classes at the massive dreadnought knowing that it couldn’t withstand sustained firepower from half a fleet of smaller ships.

The IAS Bosely is the last of the still airborne examples of the Empire Class Dreadnought still in a military configuration, with the few other remaining ones having recently been scrapped. Currently in her “Peacetime” configuration of 8 forward-facing long-range cannons. 8 forward-facing medium-range cannons, 6 forward-facing Class A Tesla Arc Projectors, and 37 short-range cannonades. The twin decks are mostly converted to civilian use and used as the residence of the three fleet captains with one-half of the ship held over to storage and trade.

IAS Angel (non rp ship)
Type: Class 1 Shrike Cruiser
Manufacturer: Welling’s & Company
Captain: Liandra Aries

The Angel was once the flagship of several central European countries over 30 years ago in the run-up to the Second Trade War. A classic example of a Shrike Class Cruiser from Wellings, the Angel in her previous standard refit boasted 2 Tesla Arc Cannons and over 18 conventional cannonade and medium-range cannon artillery emplacements. At the end of the trade war and due to mounting costs to refit her, she was sold to a private fleet who then lost it in a game of poker to Liandra Aries.

Since the purchase, the Angel has been serving as the flotilla’s medium-range strike cruiser. Currently refitted as an information station for visitors from the City and surrounds.

Visit the IAS Bosely Flotilla – https://secondlife.com/destination/the-ias-bosley-flotilla