PGT Torres
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| Class overview | |
|---|---|
| Builders: | O’Shea Container Shipping |
| Operators: | Puertego |
| Built: | 1965-1976 |
| In service: | 1977-present |
| General characteristics | |
| Displacement: |
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| Length: | 226.5 m (743 ft) |
| Beam: | 48.78 m (160.0 ft) |
| Draft: | 8.8 m (29 ft) |
| Propulsion: | |
| Speed: | 25.4 kn (29.2 mph; 47.0 km/h) |
| Range: | 4,600 nautical miles (4,815 km) at 25 knots |
| Complement: | Up to 2,100 |
| Electronic warfare & decoys: | ATRASADO ESM system |
| Armament: |
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| Aircraft carried: | Up to 24 aircraft |
| Aviation facilities: | STOBAR style flight deck, single-launch |
The PGT Torres is the flagship of the Puertegan Grand Navy and the country's first and currently only aircraft carrier. It was designed and constructed by O’Shea Container Shipping rapidly off the partial keel 'Estia F2H2', which would have been sold to Faneria as Barefield upon completion, after the contract for the ship was dropped due to an international scandal surrounding the purchase. During the 1960s and 1970s, the Occidental Cold War meant that most other great powers were uninterested in using dockyards capable of building capital ships to fill foreign orders, leading the government of Puertego to jump to offer payment for a heavily altered version of the older Faramount-class carrier, which at that point on construction only required the keel to be shortened before construction continued. O'Shea accepted to avoid the financial loss of cancellation after the government of Burgundie declined to purchase an additional carrier citing budget planning.
Design
The design considerations accounted for in the ship's systems largely centered on minimizing short-term costs. While medium endurance range was unavoidable in order for the carrier to travel from Burgundie to Puertego (the Puertegan government demanded it be shipped under its own power), the final vessel actually featured weaker power systems than the original Faramount class and lost a significantly larger portion of its horsepower in transmission to the screws. Features such as labels, safety stripping, and proper door sealing rings were required by O'Shea, but the Puertegan advisors on the project repeatedly altered the internal corridor layouts, ventilation systems, and fire retardant systems during construction, resulting in construction dragging on for years longer than anticipated.
Service History
Incidents involving the Torres
The Torres has suffered a large number of personnel injuries and fatalities since its commission, leading to it being described as a 'penal ship' by many of its crew:
- In 1977, two men were washed overboard during a tropical storm. In another incident, one sailor fell off the side while drunk and was unrecoverable.
- In 1979, one man was decapitated by a helicopter during a botched landing attempt.
- In 1981, one crewman was killed during anchoring procedures. Additionally, two crewmen were killed by a negligent discharge by a pilot during launch procedures. A third incident at the end of the year crippled two and killed one when one of the air group's fighters slammed into the deck during landing and skidded off the side of the ship; one additional parked aircraft was lost.
- In 1983, a grease fire in the ship's main mess killed four crew and resulted in the medical discharges of seven more, as well as numerous minor injuries.
- In 1984, one crewman was partially sucked into a jet engine and killed.
- In 1985, seventeen crewmen were killed by a monoxide buildup caused by birds nesting in the ventilation systems. One of the flight crew was killed by a snapped arrestor wire in another incident.
- In 1986, four crew and the Puertegan Minister of Defense were killed by a docking line, which snapped while the Torres sat in dock.
- In 1989, a fighter plane slipped off the side of the launch ramp during takeoff. The pilot ejected into the water and was run over, and the bow suffered some damage requiring repairs.
- In 1990, news stories on incidents aboard navy vessels were outlawed by the Puertegan government.
- In 2007, a team of Urcean reporters running a story on aircraft carriers were killed when their transport helicopter hit the edge of the flight deck and tipped over. The ship spent time in a dock in Cartadania undergoing repairs, as the facility originally used to maintain the Torres had been left derilict since 1998 due to budget constraints.