H.M.S. Thunder Child
(Fictional ironclad from Victorian science fiction story)
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| Thunder Child's ram |
I think H.M.S. Thunder Child would have looked similar to a Devastation type battleship in 1898. But would also have been smaller. Perhaps a cross between H.M.S. Devastation and H.M.S. Cyclops. It would have been one of the earliest steam powered battleships so she would have been built in the early 1870s. It would have still had short stubby muzzle loading guns. (Although muzzle loaders were fazed out in 1889) I would fantasise that Thunder Child did not receive the due attention of breech loaders because she was getting close to decommission.
I wanted the ship to have a certain vulnerability, but make good when the chips were down. She would be an old vessel that was expendable. In the real world none of these early Royal Navy battleships or ironclads were tested in battle so a pastiche story of War of the Worlds seemed like a good opportunity.
From 1815 to 1914 the Royal Navy was not really challenged during the height of Empire - only fictitious Martians did in H.G. Wells War of the Worlds story.
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| Stern |
The pastiche story (The Last Days of Thunder Child) was done from a small piece of work in a writing class in Leigh-on-Sea, UK. It was only about 1,200 words, but it recieved good critism from the rest of the group. I decided to go back a few days and start the ship's journey towards its inevitable confrontation with three Martian tripods in the river Blackwater of Essex UK. As I did so, all sorts of things began to full into place. It became a 54,000 + worded story published by emp3books and is on sale in USA, CANADA, AUSTRALIA and NEW ZEALAND. It can't be sold in the EU until 2017
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