Mercenary Story Rewrite

[Swordfish941]

Rocco serves as the mechanic while Johnny serves as pilot and navagation. The mercs are their own crew.

[k9870]

Might be way too hard to have just a few mercs....a bridge crew needs three (pilot, navigator, lookout.)
The same person can nav and steer in open ocean but going into a harbor is rediculous to try that. Also the line handling takes several people. maybe a small crew of locals that mans the ship and guards it while the mercs are on missions? Give you a few minor characters to develop and use in the story too.

[Swordfish941]

Can you give me some names for the onboard crew? And what's line handling?

[k9870]

When you dock up you need a crew member on certain points to throw lines onto the cleats on the docks (or bits/bolalrds for bigger boats) to tie up. Also, for anchoring, you need people manning the anchorline. I dont know of names but a crew would probably be locals so the type of names in the area (im unamiliar with south africa.)

[S&Wshooter]

Originally Posted by k9870

When you dock up you need a crew member on certain points to throw lines onto the cleats on the docks (or bits/bolalrds for bigger boats) to tie up. Also, for anchoring, you need people manning the anchorline. I dont know of names but a crew would probably be locals so the type of names in the area (im unamiliar with south africa.)

Maybe the crew could be a bunch of badass Boers who are ex special something-or-others

[Mandolin1]

For the boat, why not an aluminum-hulled 80-foot PT-type boat? You could replace the Alisson engines with desils, or for crazy speed, gas turbine engines. It would be large enough to fit everyone, small enough for 6 people (PT boats went to war with a crew of 13), though you might want to hire 3-4 crew so they can pick you up in a hurry if TSHF. FYI, most PT boats had 2x twin .50 cal mounts and a single 20mm cannon on the aft deck. You could put a single FN MAG/South African equivelent in place of the .50s and a .50cal in place of the 20mm. On the other hand, some PT boats were converted to gunboats and bristled with machine guns and light cannon. You might put a twin .50 mount like on Vietnam PBRs in the front deck.

[k9870]

Maybe have some local mariners be the crew types, doing line handling/ships maintenance. Have an ex navy or ship captain help on the bridge, and a few military types for security/be a ships officer type, liek relaying Johhny's orders among the crew.