doing a naval run.. would like to be armorsmith anyone have ideas for putting a forge on a ship without it catching the boat on fire.???
Are you hauling raw materials or is the forge for upkeep of pre-existing equipment?
i would just arrange some sort of persistent extra-dimensional spaces...
there`s one that is a tent that is bigger inside than outside, i forget it`s exact name.
maybe in combo with bottle of infinite air for `ventilation`.
ships sink, and this way,
when you aren`t working you can have the tent rolled up with the rest of your gear,
so you don`t lose your invested time and materials on any items you were working on.
also no worries about catching the ship on fire, etc...
edit: i realize that may be a bit too `high magic` for some games/tastes...
if that`s not in the cards, you just need to fire-proof the working area and have
adequate safe ventilation that doesn`t cause fire hazards elsewhere.
fire-resistance spells permanencied, or simply cast whenever you work is one way.
or just have plenty of mundane fire protection means...
like the source of fire can be ejected out the side of the ship...
you are floating in water so that is a great source of a fire-extinguisher.
if the main fire is out to sea, not much will keep burning realistically.
quenching mundane fires is a pretty easy thing to do with low level spells AFAIK,
you can have some `anybody can use` magic items hanging around the area so anybody can put it out.
If I am remembering what I've read correctly, blue water ships often did have small forges on board, primarily for repairing shipboard equipment and parts. A ship at sea for months at a time needed to be self-sufficient. It would be small, and only lit in good weather, and probably then only used sparingly. Other times, like while at anchor, you could use it more often.
The ship's blacksmith would more than likely be supported by a few ship's boys, ready to extinguish any flame that might spread. It would be risky, but almost necessary.
If you are looking for rules... I would assume a skilled blacksmith would take the precautions, but if you want it to be a possible danger, add it to a random encounter table.
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It all depends on the ship you will be on, but a forge on a ship isn't unheard of or impossible.
For a mundane forge, it would be small, well built to prevent the burning coals from falling out, and easily contained. I haven't seen one on a ship so I can't say how it was installed, but I imagine that thick leather hides, sand, or some other fireproof material would be on the ground around the forge to protect the floor. It would also have to be in a well ventilated area, and the smith would need assistants.
In one game I played we were in a airship ran by a fire elemental heated boiler, so my character would often use the elemental to assist him in smithing and weapon making.
In one game I played we were in a airship ran by a fire elemental heated boiler, so my character would often use the elemental to assist him in smithing and weapon making.
Was its name Calcifer? (Howl's Moving Castle)
Real world sailing ships did indeed have smiths for repairs- you're going to be out at sea for months at a time, there's no hardware store to go to if the rigging breaks. I agree with Talynonyx that anyone skilled in smithy should be able to keep the fire contained. Basic, everyday affair = DC10, maybe 15 for the ship rocking.
There were several attempts, by various nations at various times, to put forges on ships for heating shot. This is a different scenario, as the forge only works if it's lit during combat. But, every attempt ended in disaster. Everything on a ship is wood, hemp, cloth, etc., and it's all heavily tarred. In other words, very flammable.
Strange. I wonder why steam ships don't spontaneously combust then.
If you build a forge to be as fireproof as the forge you'd have at your wooden home back on land, it shouldn't be a big issue. Carrying hot weapons across the ship to a cannon might be a bit out of the question, but just pulling out something heated to the anvil for a few whacks shouldn't be a problem.
I'd say the biggest issue would be the movements of the ship (maybe require minimum ranks in Profession Sailor to craft without a penalty), and having the fuel to stoke the forge fire (since you might be away for a while).
If you can get a coal supply, and made sure you had a large enough "order" for crafting each time you lit the forge so you didn't waste too much fuel, you could probably get a decent long term trip of crafting going.
Here's where having apprentices would come in handy, to do some extra work, or give you a bonus on craft checks to let you make that boosted DC to craft faster.
Ship's Galley's were a very real risk to the ship. They were generally built using brickwork the deck and bulkheads to prevent fires. They were also kept as far as possible from the powder magazine for obvious reasons. For a forge I would say it would depend on you campaign's teck level. If you are at a traditional medieval tech level and only have brick oven style forges, you are probably SOL without some decent magic. If you're tech level is a little higher and you have access to a portable forge (think modified pot belly stove) it would be easier, those were actually used on tall ships. The trick with them is that they have to be made out of a metal that can withstand enough heat for you to melt the metal you want to work with.
Here is a link to a Flickr of the Portable Forge from the HMS Victory
Portable Forge
Strange. I wonder why steam ships don't spontaneously combust then.
They did: The Lexington
Figuring out how to keep a raging fire on a boat that was made of wood coated in tar was took some pretty significant advances in technology and manufacturing techniques. You're not really looking at medieval or even renaissance era tech.
On the up side, a lot of the work involved in armouring doesn't require a forge. If you can pound out sheets and stretch wire on shore you could punch out scales and lamellar. Cold pound to shape plates. Form, weave and rivet chain links.
Hope some of that is helpful.
Strange. I wonder why steam ships don't spontaneously combust then.They did: The Lexington
See, this is where I wish I hadn't removed the "left, right and center" bit of my sentence. I was trying to not be too dickish.
One example doesn't mean that steamships were igniting all over the place. Your very link has this as the reason:
An inquest jury found a fatal flaw in the ship's design to be the primary cause of the fire. The ship's boilers were originally built to burn wood, but were converted to burn coal in 1839. This conversion had not been properly completed.
Well yeah. If you start doing things that it wasn't built for, then you are going to run into problems. If you go to the galley, and stoke the fire there to be hot enough to forge with.. and your ship is also full of extremely flammable cargo (such as bales of cotton).. then it will probably go up in smoke like the Lexington.
If you built the forge to work as a normal forge, with normal heat, such that it doesn't fling flames out all over the place, and maybe keep the flammable cargo away from the forge room and the ventilation area, and you shouldn't see to many problems.
Boat fires starting from oil lamps smashing and igniting somewhere can be a real hazard. Sparks from a forge fire won't ignite an entire ship any more than it would a wood building on land. Not without some external factor.
For a world of D&D, though.. I prefer Quandry's suggestion.
A modified rope trick situation would work wonders here.