The Dispatch Boat Appreciation Thread

Just throwing out a little idea here. We at the forums here spend a lot of time discussing new weapons technology, warships classes, battle tactics, and hypothetical uses of useless big ships.

In this thread I want to discuss the small, humble, yet vitally important little unit known as the Courier Ship or Dispatch Boat. Described as little more than a hull to which the fastest engines, hyper-generators, power plant, computer core, and some living space have been crammed, they relay information and critical documents around the Honorverse galaxy. Since we live on only one world and can drive/fly to pretty much anywhere within a day and communicate to the other side of the world instantaneously, we probably cannot properly appreciate how important a little news courier can be.

So lets discuss the issues and details around these speedy little ships. Ill get the ball rolling with a question I have been pondering for a little while: which is the most efficient method of fitting people on board a courier? Do you design the living spaces, tiny cargo unit, and computer cores to fit in a single hull spaced around the main engineering components that allow it to move so fast, or do you have them as a single unit/pod bolted onto the side like the cabin of an airship. Discuss.

Valen123456 wrote:

which is the most efficient method of fitting people on board a courier? Do you design the living spaces, tiny cargo unit, and computer cores to fit in a single hull spaced around the main engineering components that allow it to move so fast, or do you have them as a single unit/pod bolted onto the side like the cabin of an airship. Discuss.

Given that the Haven Courier captain 'smacked his head on the celling' as the bed in his cabin was tucked in between the impeller nodes.
My guess would be that the whole ship is as small as possible and integrated without any 'bolt on'.
I would expect that this is one of the most standard designs in the galaxy, and shipyards produce them on mass.

Garth 2 wrote:

Valen123456 wrote:

which is the most efficient method of fitting people on board a courier? Do you design the living spaces, tiny cargo unit, and computer cores to fit in a single hull spaced around the main engineering components that allow it to move so fast, or do you have them as a single unit/pod bolted onto the side like the cabin of an airship. Discuss.

Given that the Haven Courier captain 'smacked his head on the celling' as the bed in his cabin was tucked in between the impeller nodes.
My guess would be that the whole ship is as small as possible and integrated without any 'bolt on'.
I would expect that this is one of the most standard designs in the galaxy, and shipyards produce them on mass.

That was an austere military courier boat from a cash-strapped nation used to communicating across large distances without the benefit of any wormholes. Civilian, commercial or diplomatic boats probably come fitted with better creature comforts.

I would guess the main area of give and take is fuel bunkerage. How far do you want/need your courier boat to go on a single fill-up? Haven at one point required a three or six month voyage(I can't remember if that included the return leg) to reach Sol, not to mention constantly going round and round its large territory.

Other nations or operators might not need that kind of capability in their boats.

We know there's some wiggle room amongst courier boats, or the Alignment's slightly enlarged versions would draw unwanted attention.

It is certainly a single hull, not a bolt-on component. A bolt-on component would not work with the requirements of the inertial compensator and the alpha nodes. It has to be a spindle shape.

munroburton wrote:I would guess the main area of give and take is fuel bunkerage. How far do you want/need your courier boat to go on a single fill-up? Haven at one point required a three or six month voyage(I can't remember if that included the return leg) to reach Sol, not to mention constantly going round and round its large territory.

Other nations or operators might not need that kind of capability in their boats.

We know there's some wiggle room amongst courier boats, or the Alignment's slightly enlarged versions would draw unwanted attention.

It incurs to me that dispatch boats are less likely to stick to grav waves than most ships. Normally a merchant ship would trade off the costs of going a little out of their way to stick to a grab wave against the fuel consumption necessary to cut cross country rather than sticking to the wave were it can idle or shut down its reactor.
But a dispatch boat has a much higher priority on minimized transit time so they're unlikely to ever follow a grav wave down a hyper level or detour off a minimum distance route. So that requires more fuel for common routes.
[edit - fixed typo]

Jonathan_S wrote:

munroburton wrote:I would guess the main area of give and take is fuel bunkerage. How far do you want/need your courier boat to go on a single fill-up? Haven at one point required a three or six month voyage(I can't remember if that included the return leg) to reach Sol, not to mention constantly going round and round its large territory.

Other nations or operators might not need that kind of capability in their boats.

We know there's some wiggle room amongst courier boats, or the Alignment's slightly enlarged versions would draw unwanted attention.

It incurs to me that dispatch boats are less likely to stick to grav waves than most ships. Normally a merchant ship would trade off the costs of going a little out of their way to stick to a grab wave against the fuel consumption necessary to cut cross country rather than sticking to the wave were it can idle or shit down its reactor.
But a dispatch boat has a much higher priority on minimized transit time so they're unlikely to ever follow a grav wave down a hyper level or detour off a minimum distance route. So that requires more fuel for common routes.

Bolding mine.

Won't that make a mess when it hits the grav pinch?

jchilds wrote:

Jonathan_S wrote:It incurs to me that dispatch boats are less likely to stick to grav waves than most ships. Normally a merchant ship would trade off the costs of going a little out of their way to stick to a grab wave against the fuel consumption necessary to cut cross country rather than sticking to the wave were it can idle or shit down its reactor.
But a dispatch boat has a much higher priority on minimized transit time so they're unlikely to ever follow a grav wave down a hyper level or detour off a minimum distance route. So that requires more fuel for common routes.

Bolding mine.

Won't that make a mess when it hits the grav pinch?

Now we know the secret of the improved hyper generator. And why the Mesans call it a Streak Drive.

Jonathan_S wrote:But a dispatch boat has a much higher priority on minimized transit time so they're unlikely to ever follow a grav wave down a hyper level or detour off a minimum distance route. So that requires more fuel for common routes.

Grav waves provide more than fuel savings; the "grav sump" for compensators is hundreds of times greater than an impeller wedge, allowing much faster as well as much cheaper travel.

Weird Harold wrote: the "grav sump" for compensators is hundreds of times greater than an impeller wedge, allowing much faster as well as much cheaper travel.

No, it allows much faster acceleration. Top speed is still the same.

Weird Harold wrote:

Jonathan_S wrote:But a dispatch boat has a much higher priority on minimized transit time so they're unlikely to ever follow a grav wave down a hyper level or detour off a minimum distance route. So that requires more fuel for common routes.

Grav waves provide more than fuel savings; the "grav sump" for compensators is hundreds of times greater than an impeller wedge, allowing much faster as well as much cheaper travel.

Yes you can accelerate faster but grav waves don't help with top speed, that's all rad shielding. So you can hit your top speed in about 1/10th the time.
But that shaves only about 7.5 hours from any given trip, for a DB, it just doesn't take that long to hit 0.6c. Not at the accel a dispatch boat can pull.