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[Skyrunner]

Well, I've had a passion in both DF and a game called the Age of Sail. I just loved the many sailboats (though they were from all ages -- the 19th century clipper sailed along with the BC galleys), and I think I saw somewhere of a "ship" fort. I want to make a similar fort, except with the "swan song" of sailboats-the clipper! 

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Since I can't actually float the "ship", I'll be doing it as the other fort did, and use on pillar. I will actually have two forts next to each other, with one the boat and the other "ports of call". However, I don't have much experience in any community forts/successions, and I believe myself to play softly...... anyways, could anyone offer some help? Perhaps in how to run the community/succession fort? The world is genning as I type (oh, it's done).

[King DZA]

Never been involved in either, meaning that this post will likely be no help whatsoever. Sounds like a neat idea though.

[Skyrunner]

Okay, I started, and 0 days in, I'm in a boatload of trouble. First, I embarked on three biomes with some ocean water on the side. Thats OK. Second: There is some yellow sand... also good. However . . . 2 of 3 biomes have aquifers. The southern biome is a simple, clean bilayer aquifer. The biome with the ocean has .... 5 frikkin' layers of aquifer flashing blue. It also is under the other aquifer. I'm sunk. Of course, I could ignore 80% of the map and go through the biome w/o a aquifer...

[Dsarker]

You should have embarked on a mostly ocean tile, and built the boat on the ocean. What could possibly go wrong?

[Skyrunner]

Well... for one, multilayer aquifers? :O
Still, I think the ocean waves are very pretty. I got attacked by waves soon in, so I moved everything to the dry biome and started digging. Btw, the ocean is almost half of the map

[Kylarus]

Using a bunch of pumps and lots of mining, you can make a "dry dock" on one section of the map. I tried doing it a while ago, but it takes a lot of dorf-power to chop trees, dig channels and build/power pumps to move the water out of it. I'd recommend stages.
Stage 1: Port Beachhead. Small town, mostly agriculture with a defensive wall. Lots of shoreside fishing with a bit of digging and lumberjacking.
Stage 2: Port Drydock: Town is larger now, with a few levels dug. Small militia patrols the area and less reliant of trade for supplies.
Stage 3: Port Shipwright: A ship is in production, enough of it visible to call it a ship in production.
Stage 4: Port Royale: If map size is enough, float the first ship and begin the second dry-dock so we can be a proper fort. Move all migrants from here on out into the ships to act as seadorfs and visitors. Rebuild older buildings into "brick" buildings and expand as possible.

When I did this, I got to Stage 3 before catastrophic gobbo piracy.

[Skyrunner]

Thank you, I was thinking just of that Drydocks should allow for a ship with 2 decks underwater. I'm thinking I could pour all of my excess seawater into an aquifer?

[Kofthefens]

just pouring it back into the ocean should work

[Skyrunner]

Doesn't that defeat the purpose of getting it out? :S
I need pumps to keep the ocean dry until the boat's lower decks are done.

BTW, does anyone know if the huge fish population of a ocean die if it's emptied?

[Kofthefens]

The entire ocean? If you just want to empty a part, you can use pumps to move the water away. If you are trying to empty the whole thing, then you are right about putting into an aquifer.
Do you need to drain the sea? How big a ship are we talking?

[Argonnek]

I think he means just the water in the dry dock, which would spill right back in if the water just goes back to the ocean.

[Skyrunner]

The entire ocean? If you just want to empty a part, you can use pumps to move the water away. If you are trying to empty the whole thing, then you are right about putting into an aquifer.
Do you need to drain the sea? How big a ship are we talking?

It is a three deck ship with 4 masts, and its going to take up a half of one side of a 5x5 embark :S

Maybe smaller than that.


Update: In case anyone is watching. I got two waves of migrants so far, and strangly no caravans to be seen. The pump-that-will-empty-the-sea is running (it's only one pump yet), and I'm building water wheels and more pumps to help.