Sigurd Rittersbach leaned back, regarding the thin sheet of metal meditatively. The crusty old smith slammed it once with a scarred fist, eliciting a thunder-like rumble.

“See, bronze is almost as strong as carbonized iron, Princess, but with a weight and malleability more like copper. Easily moldable and quite a bit lighter. Though it wouldn’t be well-suited to personal armor or weapons anymore...not with improved steel techniques.

“But as an armor for the hulls of ships? It seems you’d be damned hard pressed to find much better. With the risk of subsea attacks from the fish-heads, it’s not just the part of the ship that appears above the water that must be protected…it’s the part below. Particularly since those y’Nobeian sons-of-whores have gills in their necks, and the rest of us don’t! And I hear tell they’re using sea creatures like battering rams now…” He clucked his tongue in disgust at such a 'base' action.

"Anyway," he con tinued, "It's light enough that it can be used to strengthen your whole fleet -- smallest to largest, sloops to dreadnaughts.

Prince Donovan smiled thinly at his friend and former mentor, holding up a hand to still Rittersbach for a moment. “Then if we add the reinforced steel rams on your ships-of-the-line, with shearing spurs just below the water line...well...with the armored hulls, they’ll be hard-pressed to sink our ships from below. That eliminates their strongest attack advantage. In order to fight, they’ll need to be on the surface; but we'll be able to slap back if they do. With a contingent of light and fast-moving sloops in conjunction with your ships-of-the-line, it will be like light and heavy cavalry.”

"Excellent work, this should give us exactly what we need in order to protect our shipping," the Admiral said with a smile. She was very pleased with the progress as she mentally ticked a couple more itemsoff of her checklist. It seemed that almost everything was in place, there were only a couple of items left.

Once the two royals had moved to the other side of the forge, Mercury asked her brother, "Any luck on something for the sails? It has to be pretty pliable as the sails need to be furled and unfurled and also catch the wind," finished the Princess.

Her brother sighed and offered a shrug. "I don't know that there is a perfect solution. I've experimented with various treatment and textiles from Shadow which seem to act as fire retardants. But they are all significantly less effective in Ebony proper. Some actually seem to become slightly *more* flammable here." He frowned and shook his head in irritation.

Then the prince reached into a pocket of his rough, leather jerkin, and pulled out a small bolt of course, slightly shiny cloth. "This is probably our best option. It's a silk and muslin blend. Very pliable and very strong. The junks in Chun Kwai already use a similar blend, but it doesn't seem that anyone else is using it for tall ships. The silk threads give it a decent fire resistance, though that won't do you much good if it's doused in oil or exposed to a real burn. Looks like the best option right now is still good, old fashioned buckets of water."

The burly prince slipped the cloth back in his pocket. "It's a far from perfect solution, but it is an improvement at least. Be aware - it's not an inexpensive option. Still, it should make the textile merchants happy when their markets in silk suddenly take a big jump." He smiled crookedly.